Disclaimer: In this editorial I will be talking about the topic of sexual assault and how it is addressed in One Piece. Please do not read any further if this topic makes you uncomfortable, however I believe that the topic raises important issues that should be addressed.

In the SBS (question corner) for One Piece Volume 83, author Eiichiro Oda provided an interesting tidbit about the interaction between two characters. For those of you who do not know what I’m talking about, a fan asked Oda why Doflamingo and Viola referred to each other by their nicknames. To most of our surprise, Oda told us that Doflamingo and Viola were lovers at some point. My initial reaction to this news was extreme shock — really, Oda? Then, when I had time to process the information, well, I still found it disgusting.

However, as One Piece mania Greg pointed out on Twitter, this really shouldn’t be surprising news. Doflamingo kept Viola around for some reason, so why couldn’t it have been “affection”? I mean there are a host of other reasons Oda could have given: he was using her as a bargaining chip in case King Riku tried something, she could have used her powers to spy on people, anything else really. At the end of the day, Oda decided that they were lovers. There are two major problems I have with this decision.

First, I object to those with rationalizations or comments on how Doflamingo has “good taste.” This is twisted logic. The second problem is the way Oda phrased his answer to the question. Given that One Piece is ostensibly a “kids” manga, he didn’t want to come right out and say “Oh yeah, Doflamingo and Violet totally had sex!!!” so he instead said “The adults will get what he meant when he said, “Dressrosa truly is a land of passion!” Let’s examine that answer.

In ordinary circumstances, which these certainly are not, Viola’s personal decision to have sex with Doflamingo are just that: personal. They’re both consenting adults that have spent years together. Perhaps, she thought that Doflamingo, despite his flaws, is a charismatic guy, so who’s to say that something romantic should not occur between the two of them.

But let’s take a step back and look at the actual circumstances. Doflamingo used King Riku — Viola’s father — as a pawn to attack his citizens so that Doflamingo could swoop in like the hero and take over Dressrosa. Viola’s brother-in-law Kyros, in his attempt to free King Riku, had to cut off his leg and was turned into a toy in the attempt to thwart Doflamingo’s coup. Scarlett — Viola’s sister — was then killed by Doflamingo’s henchman Diamante when trying to get food for her daughter. Then that same daughter, Rebecca, was eventually captured and forced to fight to the death in Corrida Coliseum. Doflamingo then spent the next decade using his henchman Sugar to turn any dissenters into toys to use as slave labor, acting as a weapons dealer and general all around prick.

There are only two “reasons” that I can see why Viola would hook up with Doflamingo: (a) it was a survival tactic or (b) she had a form of Stockholm Syndrome.

But you know what? I wish Oda had just kept his mouth shut. Oda said that “Dressrossa truly is a land of passion” in an attempt to make it seem like it’s not something that should make me queasy inside, but it does and it should.

No matter how you look at it, the relationship between Doflamingo and Viola was not consensual. It doesn’t matter whether Viola did it to survive or if Doflamingo “suggested” that she sleep with him. Doflamingo had more power over Viola and so no matter what, you cannot argue that they were standing on equal ground. If Oda is trying to suggest that Viola was attracted to Doflamingo, that just doesn’t fit with her character. I mean, what does it say about Viola if she willingly slept with a man that imprisoned her niece, killed her sister, and forced her father to commit atrocious acts of brutality? I see a lot of One Piece fans trying to rationalize this because they feel as disgusted by it as I do, but the thing is, this is not the first time that Oda has bought up uncomfortable truths about the One Piece world.

Dehumanization and The Celestial Dragons

Let’s go back to Sabaody Archipelago and the first time we truly got to see how corrupt and twisted the World Government really is. Hachi and Camie were forced to hide their Fishman and Mermaid features because it turns out they could fetch a pretty price on the slave market — a market that Doflamingo at one point had a pretty big stake in, until he moved on to more lucrative ventures. It’s through the slave list that we also find out about the other species that exist in the world such as long-arms, long-legs, snake-necks, minks, and dwarves. This point in the story is also when we met the most vile and despicable beings to step foot in the One Piece world: Celestial Dragons.

Cue the entrance of Saint Chalross, an asshole among assholes, who, it seems, is looking for some new slaves. An unfortunate incident occurs when a doctor tries to move a patient in critical condition to the hospital and Charloss shoots him in cold blood. He then takes a liking to the wounded man’s wife and he decides to make her his thirteenth bride. Oh, and let’s not forget he wants to “return” his first five wives because he has grown tired of them.

There’s no sugar-coating what Charloss is doing, but I’m going to anyway, to keep the tone of this editorial at least somewhat family friendly. I’m sure everyone is aware of those viral videos wherein someone explains consent using the concept of asking someone if they’d like tea. Charloss is the guy that doesn’t care if you say no or are unconscious, he’s just going to pour the tea down your throat.

Oda has gone out of his way to make One Piece a light-hearted story about friendship and dreams and the more cartoon-y artwork helps to distract from the more serious moments. This is supported by the fact that Oda goes out of his way to avoid death in the series.

Absalom the Assaulter

So what do you do when you get to dark moments like this? No amount of light-hearted artwork or gags can lighten the tone of such a moment. So if One Piece has such dark moments why does the entanglement between Viola and Doflamingo bother me so much? Isn’t it just more of the same? To answer that question, we need to look at the Thriller Bark arc and a villain called Absalom.

I think it is pretty much a universal opinion among One Piece fans that Absalom is one of the absolute worst characters in the series. His interactions with Sanji just assisted in the latter’s downfall. Why do fans hate him? He is one of the most in-your-face offensive characters in the series to date in how he treats women. He tries to abduct Robin from the Thousand Sunny whilst licking her and he peeps on Nami as she’s showering so he can do the same. It escalates from there. Absalom’s character arc peaks as he tries to abduct and marry Nami against her will, because he thinks he’s in love and that Nami will be totally fine with that.

On the one hand, I can understand why Oda introduced a character like Absalom in Thriller Bark. It’s an arc paying homage to old monster films and one of the iconic ones is The Invisible Man. Absalom as an invisible letch just plays into Oda’s character in that he’s a perv and Oda probably meant for his antics to be amusing, just like Sanji revealing he wanted the invisibility fruit to peep on women or Brook’s continual request to see women’s panties. After all, he is writing the series for 13-year-old boys, right? Either way it’s a disgusting moment in an otherwise light arc.

Hancock the Survivor

I can’t really talk about sexual assault without talking about Boa Hancock. I’m sure, as readers will remember, during Amazon Lily we learned that as a young girl Hancock was abducted from the Kuja ship, branded with a slave mark by a man and sold into slavery, eventually ending up in Mariejoa. When Fisher Tiger escaped his bonds, he went on a rampage freeing all the other captured slaves, including Boa Hancock and her two sisters: Sandersonia and Marigold. Hancock made it back to the Kuja village and became an ice-cold empress lacking any traces of compassion or empathy and continually looking down on others.

However, Luffy’s selfless actions thaw her icy visage, which is when she breaks down and confesses that she is afraid to let anyone close to her because she is afraid they may scorn her. It’s heartbreaking because it is eerily similar to the stigma that assault survivors have to endure when considering whether to come forward about the attack to police or even family members. Hancock does not want to let others get close to her because she’s afraid of how they’ll react if they find out she bears the “Hoof of the Soaring Dragon” — which the Celestial Dragon’s brand as “less than human.” She puts on this icy facade as a means of keeping her distance from people.

Oda only says that all Boa Hancock and her sisters endured during their time at Mariejoa was that they were fed devil fruits and forced to entertain the Celestial Dragons. With Sandersonia and Marigold I can understand that because they were fed Zoan fruits and so maybe they were forced to fight in gladiatorial matches against other similar slaves. But Hancock? She is considered one of the most beautiful women in the world. Do you really think that the Celestial Dragons were content to just look at her? In some ways, Oda handled her story well. Despite everything she has gone through, she is one of the most powerful women in the series and she heads a powerful army of other female fighters. During the Marineford Arc she was one of the few combatants to come out unscathed and one of the few women in the series to posses Conqueror’s Haki.

The letdown was how easily Hancock got over her trauma of men and fell head over heels for Luffy like a giddy school girl. Yes, you could argue that Hancock really hasn’t gotten over her trauma of all men and that Luffy and a few others are exceptions, but it still seems too easy.*

From a plot point perspective, I can see why Oda did this. Luffy needed a way to gain a powerful ally for the future and find a way to sneak into Impel Down. What easier way to do that then gain the trust of an Empress known to hail from an island of man haters, who also happens to be a Warlord? I may not like it but I can at least see why it had to happen from a plot perspective. I can’t say the same for the Doflamingo/Viola relationship.

Behind the Curtain

The problem I have with Doflamingo/Viola dynamic is that it does not add anything to the story. Additionally, Oda tries to spin it as something “positive.” The problem with the is that it seems like this relationship is an unnecessary detail that serves no purpose other than to make the story darker and make Doflamingo seem like even more of an asshole. You know, cause the patricide, warmongering, and general evilness weren’t enough. The problem is that Oda doesn’t see why it would be considered assault.

I’m usually a big fan of the SBS question corner because it’s a fun way to add on extraneous details like names and birthdays or confirm canonical details that he couldn’t address in the manga. But finding out something like this just leaves me feeling disgusted. I know fans like to argue it’s because Oda is in Japan and they’re a conservative society, but claiming ignorance can only carry you so far. If you’re going to present an issue or introduce characters with certain characteristics you have a responsibility to make sure you do your research. Oda is usually pretty good about that, but in this circumstance he has failed.

If you’ve read my previous editorials, you’ll know that I’ve criticized Oda over several storytelling elements including violence against women, LGBT+ portrayal, diversity, and now assault. Some readers believe that I have been unfair to Oda or that I’m just jumping on trendy issues to increase readership, but as I’ve pointed out, that isn’t the case.

I’m critiquing Oda because I feel that One Piece as a story does not need these kind of elements or could even improve upon them and it would not negatively impact the story or fundamentally alter what the manga is all about. I used to be one of those readers that believed that One Piece (and by extension its author) were infallible and beyond reproach. Whenever someone complained about an element of the story, my instant reaction would be to angrily leap to Oda’s defense. However, a few years ago, I came to the realization that One Piece isn’t perfect and that criticizing its flaws doesn’t make me a bad fan or terrible person.

In The Wizard of Oz when Dorothy and her friends discover that the titular Wizard is not quite as magical as he claims to be, and are told to “pay no attention to the man behind the curtain.” Here, the phrase refers to me coming to the realization that, as much as I and other fans want it to be true, Oda is not a god. He is a normal human just like us that is prone to making mistakes and having prejudices, but that doesn’t make him a bad writer. When I call Oda out on his issues, I’m doing so because I love him and I want him to understand why I take issue with a certain scene or approach that he’s taken. Maybe he’d agree and maybe he wouldn’t, but at least I would have made that effort.

The second reason I chose the title phrase has to do with a certain technique Oda himself uses in the manga. Oda has always said that he wants readers of his manga to be happy when they are reading. That’s why he gave Luffy the Gum-Gum fruit and the reason why he uses gags and jokes to cut the tension. Remember that scene back in Sabaody when Luffy punched a Celestial Dragon in the face? Right when everyone’s adrenaline is racing and we’re wondering how shit’s going to hit the fan? Not a moment later, Usopp comes flying in and does an Atomic Butt drop onto Saint Roswald’s face. Or how about this scene back in Alabasta:

It’s a hallmark of Eiichiro Oda’s style that he’ll find ways to insert comedy or humor into a serious situation to defuse some of the tension we as readers may feel. One Piece may not be Game of Thrones, but it’s still a dark series. So, I’m glad that Oda uses these gags kind of like sleight of hand tricks to stop us from dwelling too long on some of those darker aspects. But sometimes there is no sugar coating something, and that’s okay too because it helps make the characters and stories more relatable.

All I’m saying to Oda is this: choose those moments carefully. Don’t just add an element to the story to make it edgy or just because you think it’s a good idea. It could potentially backfire on you.

*Editor’s Note: Boa Hancock’s attraction to Luffy may have stemmed from the fact that not only did he know her secret, but he did not care. He provided compassion in the fact that the one secret that Boa kept from everyone — that she was a slave as a child — was “not a big deal.” He proved to Boa Hancock that her worst fears were not necessarily true: she was worth more than just a sum of her worst experiences. Providing this kind of validation for her self-worth, I think, is more than enough reason to be attracted to Luffy. – Zach