It’s been a decade since any real cannon fire was exchanged between the Big Three fandoms of Bleach, One Piece, and Naruto, but the fog of war still hangs over which shonen titan truly reigns supreme. Fans will debate anything—whose protagonist has the most aura, which power system goes crazier, and which series sold the most volumes—the same way NBA uncs will debate which player was the GOAT until the heat death of the universe. But one battleground that rarely gets enough play is which series has the most sauce in the fashion department. To settle that debate once and for all, I called up an expert.
Alexander-Julian Gibbson might be a new name to some readers, but if you’re an anime fan with even a passing interest in fashion, you’ve almost definitely seen his work. Gibbson is a professional stylist and fashion creative director who has been published in legacy media pubs like Vogue. He’s also the epicenter behind that one internet-breaking moment where fans lost their minds trying to decode whether Michael B. Jordan’s already very-anime Creed III rollout—specifically Jonathan Majors’ Essence photoshoot—was paying homage to One Piece villain Donquixote Doflamingo. (It was.)
Gibbson would turn heads again with the One Piece live-action cast, who he serves as their fashion director and stylist. This time around was during Iñaki Godoy and Charithra Chandran’s Teen Vogue shoot, whose spread was packed with Easter eggs pulled from manga chapters more than 1,100 beyond territory the Netflix series grazed, hindsight nods and all.
@alexanderjulian.info It’s a great time to be a One Piece fan! 🏴☠️ OnePiece AnimeFashion OnePieceLiveAction BlackCosplayer OnePieceEdits
Gibbson doesn’t dish to clients whenever he slips an anime Easter egg into their shoots. That’s not his style. The Nigerian style-editor’s ethos is simple: you create from the sum of your experiences. And while he’s traveled the world and absorbed influences from everywhere, he’s also watched “a shit ton of anime”—including Magi, whose unique silhouettes opened his third eye.
Gibbson lets his encyclopedic anime ball knowledge actively inform his eye. However, the references he puts together aren’t cosplay-level literal recreations. They’re discreet. When he puts an artist in a fit, the editor on that project isn’t seeing some out-of-pocket anime thing. They’re seeing something that looks runway-ready.
“In my head I’m like, ‘Yeah, we’ve seen it on the runway, but I also saw it on episode blah blah blah,’” Gibbson said.
Which brings us to the question I’ve been sitting on for years but never had the bona fides to answer with any real authority: which of the Big Three actually has the best fashion? And for posterity, yes—I’m counting manga color spreads and even the filler‑episode fits in the criteria.
To give you an idea of what we’re working with, here are color spreads from Naruto:
Masashi Kishimoto/Shonen Jump
One Piece:
Eiichiro Oda/Shonen Jump
And Bleach:
Tite Kubo/Shonen Jump
“Overall, I have to say One Piece. But I have to acknowledge that a lot of the covers and colorspreads for Bleach goes crazy,” Gibbson said. “But if we’re talking overall—a complete overall—I think One Piece wins.”
While Naruto has no drip, especially when compared to the rest of the big three, Gibbson had to give props to Naruto’s flowing cape sage mode outfit.
“I’m so sad because I feel like we only saw that outfit literally once, just the one time,” he said. “I think that was so crazy, to be very honest. That’s one thing that always blows my mind.”
@alexanderjulian.info from #OnePieceCosplay to One Piece Stylist 🤧🏴☠️ #OnePiece #AnimeFashion #OnePieceLiveAction #BlackCosplayer #OnePieceEdits
Aside from any implicit bias that obviously stems from Gibbson being the freaking stylist for Netflix’s One Piece, one reason he chose Oda’s magnum opus over the others is that he’s always loved how it differentiated itself by integrating fashion into every component of the show to a level of freedom other anime don’t. Whenever the Straw Hats visit a new island, their outfits don’t go Scooby-Doo, wearing the same jawns each episode. When they touch down on an island like Egghead, they’ll switch up their style to match its vibe by rocking futuristic Y2K threads and moonboots.
“I always love when a show or manga changes their outfits. It’s such a small thing, but it shows that there’s effort because if you’re changing your outfits, that means you have to consider what their outfits are whenever you do that,” he said. “The fact that there’s consideration in places when you also have to write a story, you also have to make sure that things are matching up across chapters. It means that this means something to you as a mangaka.”
Regarding the drip king of the big three, Gibbson states they’re not a king at all. It’s the queen, Nico Robin. When I asked him, as a fellow Miss All Sunday enjoyer, whether he preferred her One Piece fits pre-timeskip or post-timeskip, his objectively correct answer earned a virtual dap.
“Absolutely pre-time,” he said. “I don’t know what [Oda] was on, but he was going crazy with her outfits pre-time skip. Every single one was an absolute banger, and also all felt so intentional. That was a crazy run, from like Alabasta to Thriller Bark. Nuts. Crazy fits, every single one.”
However, if he had to pick a king, it would be Doflamingo Donquixote (with manga color spreads doing a lot of heavy lifting), and Ichigo Kurosaki as the most stylish characters in the big three.
Though if he were to crown a series that slimes out the big three, Gibbson would put Sailor Moon and Yu Yu Hakusho over them. On the fashion front, Gibbson points out that Sailor Moon’s character designs for heroes and villains alike are 1:1 inspired by runway trends of their era. Meanwhile, Yu Yu Hakusho is a shonen series whose ‘90s streetwear sensibilities Gibbson simply calls “super stylish.” I couldn’t help noting the irony in Gibbsons choices, given that creators Naoko Takeuchi and Yoshihiro Togashi are married.
“There’s something going on in that household,” Gibbson said.
京都北野天満宮で上演中の
「花宵の大茶会」
観に来てくださったゲストの皆様にも好評でとても嬉しい！
今回なんと武内直子さんと
冨樫義博さんご夫婦で体験してくださって一同大感動でしたレジェンドお二人に
見ていただけるなんてねぇ。頑張って良かったー
嬉しすぎました、報われたわー。 pic.twitter.com/XERb0BSZCX— 蜷川実花 (@ninagawamika) March 21, 2026
If there’s one thing about fashion in anime he wishes it did better—faux pas or just impractical nonsense that makes his teeth itch—it would be the fanservice styling. While Gibbson loves an attractive woman as much as anyone else, many of the outfits anime and manga put their heroines in boggle his mind.
“I would love to not have Erza [from Fairy Tail], who’s a literal warrior, wearing a bikini,” Gibbson said. “That doesn’t make sense.”