Oh look, it's pink haired Vivi. Just way less organically written into the story, without any narrative importance to speak of whatsoever, but with even more sexualization and stupid fanservice.
On a super basic and very conceptual level, I can get behind this artwork being heavily inspired by the likes of Red Sonja or other scantly clad female amazonian "warriors" from comics around that time. It's very JRPG coded, think the outfits of the warriors from Dragon Quest, for example.
On it's own, there's nothing all that wrong with that idea. In fact, I think it even has some awesome potential in terms of character writing and portrayal. The boots, for example, despite obviously being anything but realistic or practical with those heels, highlight how light Rebecca is on her feet and how adept she is at running around with them in the arena. It caters to the unrealistic fantasy aspect of One Piece's world building in the same way that Hancock does when she runs around the battlefield with high heels or Sanji performs all his kicks while wearing suits. The way her hair is braided from the very beginning when we first met her is also quite a nice touch. It's nothing special, but it gives of the impression of something more poise, something more controlled and regal hiding underneath this gladiator persona, which is an admitedly good way to hint at her role as Dressrosa's designated "Female character who fools the Strawhats/people on the island before it's revealed that she's a princess who needs constant protection from muscular male characters"-propTM. The cyan cape then rounds things up by adding some much needed color to an otherwise very monotone design, which goes nicely with her pink haired hair.
It's... definitely one of the designs of all time. Way too overly sexualized to be actually sexy or appealing for anything other than maybe prepubscent kids (eww, by the way), but not terrible either. What's actually concerning and what makes this design outright disgusting is the writing behind it.
The problem then arises that Oda doesn't go anywhere with this characterization. On the one hand, she's said to be a skilled and decently powerful gladiator who knows her way around an arena and on the other hand, Oda remembers that she's a female character and thus needs to be sexualized and protected by the male characters around her.
If she's suppsed to be a woman who doesn't want to fight, but does so anyway in order to fight for her life with the Thunder Soldier, then the least Oda could have done was to give her some visible scars, even if they're just some small ones the back of her hands to show the rigorous training she went through with the Thunder Soldier before she became a gladiator. Or at the very least show that her hair is unevenly cut from only narrowly avoiding another gladiator's attack. Or draw her with at least a few defined muscles on her legs to indicate that she focuses on running away from her opponents to get them where she wants. Or have the boots and cape worn down and show signs of wear and tear from all the fights she already partook in. Show that fighting doesn't come all that natural to her, that she had to train and work hard for every single victory!
Speaking of which, while I said that I don't have any problems with her "outfit" per se, this doesn't apply when you consider her character. Rebecca is SIXTEEN! And unless you think she earned the title of "The Undefeated Woman" in less than a year of fighting in the colosseum, I think it's reasonable to assume that she run around in the arena dressed like this for at least one or two years, which is all sorts of messed up, arbitary in-world reasons be damned. Then again, this is from the same author who, before the Timeskip, had people visually compare the beauty of a then 14-year old Shirahoshi with that of Boa Hancock.
Rebecca doesn't even want to fight. It's an decision made for her by the Thunder Soldier, aka. her father. However, you'd be forgiven for forgetting about this fact and her big and muscular father stepping up to protect her from the evil baddy bad guy who harassed her and killed her mother (because Oda finds it inconceivable that women stand up for themselves) so that Rebecca never needs to dirty her hands again because, for no reason, Oda later has her train with her father again during the Egghead Arc. All of that previous writing and character design amounts to nothing but hot air!
She fights because her father told her to, not because she wants to, and is forced to wear an outfit with the primary objective to sexualize her. From start to finish, she's not allowed to be her own character, but nothing more than a barbie doll that Oda uses to hype up Kyros at the best of times or outright objectify and sexualize in the most disgusting ways possible!
F
