Allen Divers of Anime News Network comments that the male character designs of the One Piece manga are "often quite varied and unique", while the female ones become "a bit repetitive". They further note that, as the characters are "defined by what they seek", there is little room "for actual development", but they also point out that the series is driven by its battles in which the main characters each take their "turn in the spotlight".[44] Todd Douglass, Jr. of DVD talk simply states that the series' characters have a lot of charm.[45]
In a review of The Desert Princess and the Pirates: Adventures in Alabasta, Carl Kimlinger of ANN describes the visual style of One Piece as "unconventional" with "grotesquely exaggerated expressions, simple eyes, big mouths and bigger teeth", "supremely ugly supporting characters and skinny, gangly-limbed main cast" and comments that "it's all amazingly distinctive, utterly appropriate, and surprisingly cool—in a goofy kind of way." In the same review, Kimlinger notes that "Funimation's English dub is light-years better than the 4Kids debacle", "unusually accurate, professional, and largely enjoyable, which is far, far more than can be said of the previous dub", but notes that Funimation's version of "Crocodile loses his sepulchral charisma" and that "the original's fine dance on the edge of mawkish sentimentality is disrupted often enough by less-than-stellar acting". They also state that "Colleen Clinkenbeard's Luffy is more a generic spunky kid than a personality in his own right, really coming to life only during the action scenes during which she does a fine job of being darned cool."[46]
In another review of The Desert Princess and the Pirates: Adventures in Alabasta, Dustin Somner of Blu-ray.com comments that the Japanese and Funimation voice-acting is "fairly good, but not exceptional" and sometimes "overly zany".[47]
In a review of the second DVD release of 4Kids Entertainment's dub, Douglass notes "the daunting cast of characters, both good and bad", which "vary from cool and collected to rampaging psychopaths" as "one of the appealing factors" of the anime. In the same review, Douglass said that "Some of the voices were pretty irritating ... with a lot of high-pitches and over exaggerated speech."[48]
Brigitte Schönhense of Splashcomics comments that the "brilliant" (German: "genial") flashbacks into the characters' pasts make them so "likeable and lovable" (German: "sympathisch und liebenswert") and that they are the manga's real strength.[49][50]
Mania Entertainment writer Jarred Pine comments that Oda's characters are "whacky" and that his "bizarre" character designs create "wonderful characterizations and personalities". He notes the "well illustrated" facial expressions and says that "it's the whacky characterizations and designs that makes One Piece its own".[51]
In a review of Funimation Entertainment's second DVD release for Mania Entertainment, Bryce Coulter comments that "One Piece's bizarre character designs will keep your attention as they can be very random and often memorable. Not the prettiest, but it will definitely capture your attention."[14]
