In chapter 1027 we can see King’s face was drawn with screentone, a common visual trait for black character in manga.
But this could be another color like red, he’s a Lunarian after all.
Which is kinda odd. In these 1000 chapters Oda always drawn all human character without screentone, despite some of them are black.
The same goes for Fishmen & Minks whom has colorful skin/fur.
Oda has explained this before, applying screentone is pain in the ass (SBS 5). Hence why he stopped using it for character design.
Also, just using black & white will gave him easy design contrast.
So this is my thought on why he’s using it on King:
1. Visual indicator for Lunarian
Whatever King’s color is, fullbody or partially, we the “readers” will identified/associated the Lunarian with screentone.
Which mean this is a set up for more Lunarian in the future chapter.
2. Visual indicator for his power/condition/emotion
Oda never uses screentone for character design (except for Shanks)
But he still used it for some of their power/ability, mainly for visual contrast.
This could be:
– He can turn it on/off like Haki;
– Some kind of condition/side effect Lunarians have;
– Emotion/anger based or something;
Whatever it was, we can see the difference between normal King and black/red King visually.
– Sasuke styled
Regardless, one thing for sure. If Oda broke his easy design pattern after 1000 chapters in the story, there has to be some purpose on why he’s using screentone on King.
*Theory by kapteninsting
