One Piece animator hits back at fans blaming him for turning the anime into Dragon Ball

Henry Thurlow responds to haters on Twitter (Image via Eiichiro Oda/Shueisha, One Piece, Toei Animation)
Henry Thurlow responds to haters on Twitter (Image via Eiichiro Oda/Shueisha, One Piece, Toei Animation)

One of the One Piece animators, Henry Thurlow, slammed some of the fans on Twitter for the hurtful messages sent to him regarding the animation. The fanbase is a little divided over the aura that was used to show the clashing of Kaido and Luffy's Haki.

Fans believe the animation was quite similar to Dragon Ball and blamed the aforementioned animator for "ruining the show." It isn't uncommon for shonen anime and manga fans to be quite vocal when it comes to criticizing someone's work. In this case, however, Henry Thurlow received a ton of backlash and some invalidated his efforts as well.

The animator not only addressed the situation and how he was unaffected by it, but he also clarified a little about the creative control that any animator has for a series.

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One Piece: Henry Thurlow responds to haters on Twitter

A ton of fans seem to be quite happy with the quality of animation in some of the recent episodes of One Piece. However, many fans believe that the current animation is quite similar to Dragon Ball because of the colored aura used to represent the clash between Kaido and Luffy's Haki. The community seems quite divided on this topic, but those unhappy with the animation seem to share the same view on the colored auras.

The animator took to Twitter to explain that there was no point in messaging and blaming him for ruining One Piece. He went on to explain that he does not have the level of control when it comes to animating. Fans need to understand that a project like One Piece will invariably have a huge team, and the animators will not be allowed to call the shots. Henry Thurlow went on to explain in another tweet that even the episode directors do not have this level of creative control.

The lead directors and producers will be responsible for a model sheet that serves as a guideline for the animators. Therefore, he and his team of animators must follow them while animating the episode. Many One Piece fans were able to understand where the animator was coming from and urged the haters to simply read the manga.

Another set of fans seemed to enjoy the aura and its colors, but this tweet didn’t stop some viewers from blaming Henry Thurlow in the comments. In a response, some of the fans responded to this opinion by asking this fan to watch Dragon Ball instead.

That being said, another fan had an interesting take, saying that fans are allowed to critique the people responsible for the show. This fan believed that they had the right to criticize things they weren’t happy with. But they seemed to condemn harassment. A good reason why animators take part in discussions on forums and social media platforms is to receive the fans’ honest feedback.


Final thoughts on the current situation

Thurlow’s tweet should give One Piece fans an idea about how much creative control animators have. Given the amount of effort they put into every single episode, we urge the fans to voice their opinions in an orderly manner without harassing the artist. It will be interesting to see if future episodes of the series will be affected by fans’ response.

Stay tuned for more manga and anime updates as 2022 progresses.

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Edited by Shreya Das
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