Hi, Worstgen!
Come around to share a cup of disgusting horchata while we share those details, references, inspirations... that may have been missed in the designs from our beloved story. I'm quite into design and I enjoy analyzing the concepts, shapes, rhetorics... of the characters conceived by Oda, and I thought it would be interesting to open this thread and share my observations. Some are obvious, some aren't, and of course they're all my assumptions behind Oda's work; but I hope you will enjoy reading them and discussing their plausibility. I won't post them all right now and I will keep updating the thread, and of course you're all free to share your own findings. That said, let's start with the first bunch!
Shanks appearance is probably based on an illustration of a pirate by Howard Pyle. Here in the spoiler you can check the similarities:
Jozu's anatomy is designed after the shapes of a rhombus following his diamond theme.
Kanjuro's mane is shaped after the hair of a paint brush like the one he uses.
Buffalo is the tallest member of the Donquixote Pirates and ate the spin fruit in reference to the mills that Don Quijote de la Mancha mistook for giants in the novel from Miguel de Cervantes that inspired Doflamingo and his crew. Buffalo's hair also looks like the blades of a mill. In spoiler, an illustration of Don Quijote facing the "giants":
Ashura Doji's hair is shaped after the mount Atama he lives in.
When he was still alive, Brook used round dark glasses that hid his eyes and reminded of the sockets of a skull.
It is ironic that Mont-d'Or's fruit is the Buku Buku because books symbolize wisedom and intelligence yet the Scarecrow from "Wizard of Oz" (the likely inspiration behind this Charlotte) was looking for a brain to solve his stupidity.
Kaido's hair has a characteristic appearance reminiscent of the haraegushi ("lightning wand"), a ritual wand decorated with shide papers that are compared to lightning bolts because of their zig-zag shape and usually hang from a shimenawa rope that represents the storm cloud; precisely, Kaido's belt is one of these. All of it could be stressing Kaido's celestial idiosyncrasy, from his dragon form to the word "sky" written on his sake bottle. Here you can see what a haraegushi (also called onusa) looks like:
The sheath of Smoothie's sword has an spiral relief to remind of a juizer, since she uses her weapon to squeeze people out.
Sopper Gaban's hair locks are long, thin and slightly curve as they are meant to rhyme with the blades of his axes.
Similarly, Bartolomeo's pair of hair locks are obviously intended to rhyme with his fangs.
If we combine Bobbin's mask with his eyes, nose, pointy ears and wide smile, we will notice the figure of an owl: bright round eyes, a nose like a beak, smile-like wings and ears like horns. In Japan, hypnotic powers are attributed to this animal, hence the character's ability.
So that's it for now. I hope you enjoyed it, and don't forget to share your opinions!
Come around to share a cup of disgusting horchata while we share those details, references, inspirations... that may have been missed in the designs from our beloved story. I'm quite into design and I enjoy analyzing the concepts, shapes, rhetorics... of the characters conceived by Oda, and I thought it would be interesting to open this thread and share my observations. Some are obvious, some aren't, and of course they're all my assumptions behind Oda's work; but I hope you will enjoy reading them and discussing their plausibility. I won't post them all right now and I will keep updating the thread, and of course you're all free to share your own findings. That said, let's start with the first bunch!
Shanks appearance is probably based on an illustration of a pirate by Howard Pyle. Here in the spoiler you can check the similarities:
Jozu's anatomy is designed after the shapes of a rhombus following his diamond theme.
Kanjuro's mane is shaped after the hair of a paint brush like the one he uses.
Buffalo is the tallest member of the Donquixote Pirates and ate the spin fruit in reference to the mills that Don Quijote de la Mancha mistook for giants in the novel from Miguel de Cervantes that inspired Doflamingo and his crew. Buffalo's hair also looks like the blades of a mill. In spoiler, an illustration of Don Quijote facing the "giants":
Ashura Doji's hair is shaped after the mount Atama he lives in.
When he was still alive, Brook used round dark glasses that hid his eyes and reminded of the sockets of a skull.
It is ironic that Mont-d'Or's fruit is the Buku Buku because books symbolize wisedom and intelligence yet the Scarecrow from "Wizard of Oz" (the likely inspiration behind this Charlotte) was looking for a brain to solve his stupidity.
Kaido's hair has a characteristic appearance reminiscent of the haraegushi ("lightning wand"), a ritual wand decorated with shide papers that are compared to lightning bolts because of their zig-zag shape and usually hang from a shimenawa rope that represents the storm cloud; precisely, Kaido's belt is one of these. All of it could be stressing Kaido's celestial idiosyncrasy, from his dragon form to the word "sky" written on his sake bottle. Here you can see what a haraegushi (also called onusa) looks like:
The sheath of Smoothie's sword has an spiral relief to remind of a juizer, since she uses her weapon to squeeze people out.
Sopper Gaban's hair locks are long, thin and slightly curve as they are meant to rhyme with the blades of his axes.
Similarly, Bartolomeo's pair of hair locks are obviously intended to rhyme with his fangs.
If we combine Bobbin's mask with his eyes, nose, pointy ears and wide smile, we will notice the figure of an owl: bright round eyes, a nose like a beak, smile-like wings and ears like horns. In Japan, hypnotic powers are attributed to this animal, hence the character's ability.
So that's it for now. I hope you enjoyed it, and don't forget to share your opinions!
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Thanks for sharing:cheers:
