@Count:
Ye he has no problem diversifying female designs in arcs with lots of female presence, such as Amazon Lily and Totland. Probably he has a phobia of getting called out for having too many similarly designed women in such close vicinity. So he has to make them different. Which is a shame.
I think he would have a fear of it because I'm sure he gets reader comments about it. But for me as a fan it's not a big deal because I just theoretically go to other series for badass females, though it's not something I specifically look for. I understand why it's a complaint for people though.
It's actually more nuanced then that. He IS open to having female characters get hurt. But only under a few circumstances. One is if the pain can be easily obscured/brief without much visual damage, like when Luffy punched Vivi in Alabasta or kept humorously eliminating Miss Valentine's Day with OHKO attacks. Two is if the females involved are "monstrous"-looking enough, hence Luffy hurting Alvida, Hancock's sisters, and Big Mom. Three is if the perpetrator is a villain, and he typically has them hit pretty girls so that they look more reprehensible that way (Pinkbeard did that in this very chapter. So did Niji with Cosette, Blackbeard with Bonney, Spandam with Robin, Enel with Robin, Crocodile with Robin, or Arlong with Bell-mere and Nami).
Anything that's not those things usually has female characters get battle interruptions, psychological weaknesses, or they fight Nami lol.
That's actually a good reading between the lines. Not much else to say! I must say as an aside though, that if there were a particular time to be hung up on female badassery, I personally would not think it'd be right after the Big Mom arc. Kinda odd. I enjoyed her showcasing a lot there.
That's why i think more creators should put effort into dispelling those preferences and showing that women can be cool/valuable without big boobs 95% of the time, but oh well. Shonen gonna shonen.
I'm a simple dude, you summed it up for me with that last sentence. Shonen gonna shonen. Though I will say that big boobs imply mightiness to a LOT of creators haha. Think Xena, Wonderwoman, etc. In the ideal world yeah vary it up more, because as an author you do have to factor in how the audience can relate, so you can cast a wider net. Though that can be, and is, quite a slippery slope.
@MrPecans:
Well in real life, if you're name isn't Ronda Rousey, I'm not trying to see women get beaten up or anything, but in a battle manga, I wanna see my favorite ladies get into bad-ass scraps. I understand that that's just how Oda is, and I understand who he's selling to, but I also know that if he gave those teenage boys small-breasted fighters, they'd learn to like it. Having at one time been a teenage boy, I can vouch for that. I loved seeing Android 18 fight.
I do get that. In our adventure-battle manga, yeah. Android 18 was a stroke of genius in my opinion. I really was a fan of the Android's designs, menacing yet alluring. A nice change of pace after all the rough aliens of the Namek arc. Again, ideal situation is have (in a series this long, anyway) varying ladies being badass. But again, the timing of all this is just a bit weird to me, since last arc you had Big Mom, Amande, Nami, Carrot, etc.
@Icefae:
You're just a rude boy, aren't you.
This place is straight-up 'afternoon tea gathering' levels of polite now compared to how acerbic it used to be lol.