"Devastatingly bad": One Piece animator criticizes the series' sound design

Modified Mar 07, 2024 07:00 GMT

One Piece animator grills the Sound Design department for subpar standards (Image via Toei Animation)

One Piece has certainly improved its animation quality rather drastically over time. The Wano Country arc showed off some of the most impressive animation sequences, giving fans some of the most memorable moments in the series. However, one animator by the name of Sota Shigetsugu has recently voiced some production-related issues.

This animator criticized the SFX (sound effects) department and spoke about his discontentment with their work. He even labeled their efforts as “devastinginly bad” highlighting just how much the SFX department was lacking.

Some of the recent episodes featuring Monkey D. Luffy in his Gear 5 form had seemingly underwhelming SFX, which has impacted the viewing experience of fans.

One Piece animator Sota Shigetsugu voices his concerns over suboptimal SFX work

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One Piece animator Sota Shigetsugu has done some stellar work for the anime adaptation. Shigetsugu worked on some of the most important episodes. The improved efforts in the animation department was clear as daylight since the overall viewing experience drastically improved during some of the recent story arcs.

However, SFX plays a crucial role in delivering a great viewing experience. While this may not be as noticeable as good animation, the lack of good SFX can be observed at times. Sota Shigetsugu took to X and expressed his thoughts on the sound design.

He stated that the sound design was far from good and it was quite noticeable. He also added that the sheer difference in the quality of animation and the quality of sound design made it worse. As per a translation by X user @Hatchofly_, the animator wrote in his post:

"The sound in One Piece is devastatingly bad, so I hope something is done about it as soon as possible... This episode was really sad because of the difference between the overwhelming animation and the terrible sound."

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Having top-tier animation and pairing that with bad sound design heavily downplays the animation efforts put in by the team. This further leads to the overall viewing experience being negatively impacted.

This is also why the One Piece animator hoped that the SFX team would do something about the bad sound design that was prevalent in some of the recent episodes. The sound design at the time of writing seems a tad bit outdated.

Fans were also of the opinion that the SFX used in some of the recent episodes feels like they have been recycled by Toei Animation from the early days of the Dragon Ball series.

Fans echo the sentiments of the animator who pointed out the subpar SFX standards (Screengrab via X)

The outdated sounds seemingly distracted the fanbase so much that some netizens claimed they watched video clips from the Wano Country arc on mute.

With a studio like Toei Animaiton and a massive budget that this anime boasts, fans and animators alike have all the right to expect better quality from the series.

Furthermore, One Piece is arguably the biggest shonen anime series and brings in massive revenue for the animation studio. The sound design certainly needs to improve since the early 90s sounds used for attacks and various types of movements does not work well with the advanced animation quality seen today.

Stay tuned for more anime and manga news as 2024 progresses.