Dragon Ball and One Piece fans at each other's throats over valid critique for both series

Dragon Ball and One Piece are two of the highest-selling and most iconic anime series of all time. However, it doesn't mean that these anime are perfect or have areas where they receive valid criticism, as a recent discussion between both fanbases proved. One of the most valid criticisms that both series can receive is the fact that the faces drawn by authors Akira Toriyama and Eiichiro Oda, respectively, are usually the same.

This is not something that happens exclusively to Dragon Ball and One Piece, and that doesn't stop them from being highly enjoyable series. However, this is an issue that can be a bit frustrating to some readers and viewers. There is also the fact that this criticism can oftentimes be taken to the absolute extreme when it has also been shown time and time again that Oda and Toriyama don't always draw the same faces.

Disclaimer: This article contains spoilers for both series. Any opinion expressed here belongs to the author and the people quoted, not Sportskeeda as a whole.

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Dragon Ball and One Piece fans discuss how the other series has the same faces

A running criticism that both series have received throughout the years is that some of their characters' faces look extremely similar. A very good example is the "Nami face" issue in Eiichiro Oda's manga. This has several female characters, usually someone that Luffy and his crew have to save in the arc, who look very similar to Nami and have very similar bodies to her.

That is a fair criticism since it seems Oda likes to use that template for a lot of different characters but the same can be said for Akira Toriyama.

As the series progressed and became a lot more battle-focused, Toriyama made fairly similar designs, particularly when it came to the Saiyans. However, that could also be the direct result of the Super Saiyan transformations since their hairstyles become very similar in shapes and colors.

"So he's complaining that Family looks alike?" someone said regarding how most of the main Saiyans in the series look similar.

"If the DB characters don’t look identical, then neither do the OP girls. You can’t be looking for fine details in DB but then just do shallow broad strokes with OP. That’s some fanboy/hater s..t" someone else pointed out.

"At least they have genetics to blame idk how to scapegoat the OP face match," another person said.

Goku and Luffy in a crossover (Image via Toei Animation).

It is also worth pointing out that, in the case of Dragon Ball, Toriyama has the element of alien races playing a factor in this equation. A very good example of that is the Namekians. All of these look very similar to Piccolo, who was the first member of that race that audiences met in the series.

While Oda has drawn characters with similar looks without any real explanation, he also has a wide array of designs that don't have anything in common with one another in One Piece.

"This isn’t even slander i’ve been saying this s--t for literal years. The only difference between dragonball characters is what hairstyle they decide to go with," a One Piece fan pointed out about Dragon Ball.

"Every character is literally drawn off model so they can look “the same”. Every character has their own facial features," a Dragon Ball fan argued.

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More opinions regarding this topic

Both Dragon Ball and One Piece also suffer from the fact that both artists have a very defined art style and series that have gone on for too long. This can put a degree of strain on mangaka's creativity, which can often result in some character designs and even story arcs to feel repetitive.

"I always hated these posts bc you can tell they didn't watch dbz. Goku's eyes are way rounder and while the artstyle got more pointy and edgy over the course of the series, goku always kept his round eyes," someone said about Dragon Ball.

"Notice how every discourse of dragon ball having same face syndrome is content made by fans and not actual material from the series," another person mentioned.

"I like how the only ways you can tell the difference other than their hair and eye colour are the top corners of their mouth," someone else said about One Piece.

There is no denying that both Toriyama and Oda are two of the greatest mangaka ever and their series are pop culture icons at this point. However, they are also worthy of criticism from time to time, even if their fans don't like it.

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