‘One Piece’ Anime Censors Eiichiro Oda’s Original Design For Stussy’s Vegapunk Outfit
According to One Piece anime production studio Toei, series creator Eiichiro Oda’s original, skin-heavy design for Stussy’s Vegapunk research outfit is ‘too hot for TV’.
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Tall, gorgeous, and possessing the vampiric abilities to grow bat-wings and suck an enemy’s life force via a bite wound, Stussy is originally introduced in the manga’s 860th chapter and the anime’s 828th episode as a ranking member of the antagonistic World Government’s lead intelligence agency, CP0.
As part of her duties, Stussy is ordered alongside the rest of her unit to hunt down and eliminate Vegapunk, a world-famous scientific researcher whose status-quo-upending work threatens to upend the current world order.
However, shortly after landing on Vegapunk’s hometurf, the unit finds itself coming into conflict with the Straw Hat Pirates, the latter team’s adventures having currently led them to be on the side of the scientist himself.
But as the two sides ready themselves for another round of one-on-one fights, the battlefield is soon upturned by none other than Stussy, who after turning on her teammates reveals that not only has she been a double agent for Vegapunk all along, but that she is also currently under his orders to rescue him from CP0’s clutches.
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Her cover blown following CP0’s eventual defeat at her and the Straw Hats’ hands, Stussy proceeds to team-up with the pirate crew in order to complete her mission.
But before doing so, she and Straw Hat crew members Zoro and Brook, move to follow in their friends’ ‘fashion footsteps’ by donning one of Vegapunk’s light-fitting and hyper-mobile research outfits.
As seen in the manga’s 1074th chapter, this outfit originally saw Stussy wearing a small, leg-and-side-cleavage-exposing leotard, a black leather jacket, a pair of Vegapunk’s signature jet boots, and a pair of pouches that even Rob Liefeld could appreciate.
Unfortunately, this fan-favorite alternate costume did not survive its translation to the small screen.
In the anime’s 1106th episode, rather than the above ‘risqué’ outfit, Stussy instead wears a variant which both expands her leotard to cover her entire chest and gives her a brand new pair of white, skintight leggings.
Further, rather than being a solitary ‘animation error’, Toei has continued to use the censored version of Stussy’s outfit up through the anime’s 1108th (and most recent as of writing) episode, Incomprehensible! The Seraphim’s Rebellion!
Curiously, though Stussy is covered up, the research outfits worn by Nami, Nico Robin, and Vegapunk’s assistant York, were all left untouched.
As of writing, neither Toei, Oda, nor One Piece manga publisher Shueisha have offered public comment on the anime’s decision to censor Stussy.
