CrunchyrollA One Piece animator has slammed the series’ sound design team, labeling them “unprofessional” and calling for staff members to be fired.
One Piece Episode 1,127, “Luffy vs. Kizaru! A Fierce Kaleidoscopic Battle,” finally saw Luffy square off against one of the main villains of the Egghead arc. While the latest installment has been praised for its fantastic fight animations, many fans were disappointed by one aspect of the eagerly anticipated duel – the sound design.
It’s not just viewers who have been left with a bad taste in their mouths. Sota Shigetsugu, an animator known for his work on Chainsaw Man, Kaiju No. 8, and One Piece, voiced his anger over Toei Animation’s sound design team.
One Piece animator slams sound design team
On April 28, Shigetsugu called out the anime’s use of outdated sound effects. “I think Toei should fire the One Piece sound team immediately,” the animator wrote on X. “It’s unprofessional work.”
While the animator has since deleted the Tweet, many One Piece fans have also echoed Shigetsugu’s frustrations over the anime’s sound design.
“I agree, I don’t know why Toei is still using dated, several-decade-old sound effects,” wrote one commenter on the One Piece Reddit page. “It’s even worse cause a lot of them come from Dragon Ball.”
The main complaint stems from the anime reusing the same sound effects, which gets worse when they’re used in quick succession. This was particularly apparent in the Zoro vs. Lucci fight, where the same sword clash can be heard over and over again, essentially turning an epic fight into a distracting one.
“[There’s a] disconnect between the quality level of the animation in fights in recent years, versus overusing the same 2 variations (at best) for all sounds, wrote another frustrated fan. “It honestly creates a worse watching experience. You get 10/10 animation and 2/10 sound. Makes one piece cheaper.”
Related
Whether One Piece episode 1,128 will tune up the sound design remains to be seen, but fans may need to wait until the WIT Studio remake drops for a real bump in quality.