One Piece “deserves” the live-action treatment, according to Eiichiro Oda

❘ Updated: 2023-08-31T03:54:12

Netflix's One Piece Luffy from anime and live-action

Crunchyroll / Instagram @inakigo

One Piece live-action series is all set for its premiere on Netflix, and mangaka Eiichiro Oda has a lot to say about the series.

One Piece live-action will officially premiere on Netflix tomorrow, marking the end of the seven-year-long journey of the production team, including the series’ creator, Eiichiro Oda. The mangaka has been a central part of the production as the executive director since the very beginning.

Knowing that it may be the last chance for the franchise to go global, Eiichiro Oda is sparing no effort in supporting Netflix with all this.

Recently, Oda and Luffy actor Iñaki Godoy met up in Oda’s workshop, where he addressed several questions regarding the adaptation and specifically Luffy’s casting.

Godoy is perfect for Luffy in live-action One Piece

Oda shared that his biggest worry about the show was casting, specifically for the main role: “My biggest worry about the live-action was whether we would be able to find someone like Luffy,” Oda said. “But I was watching various audition tape, and when I saw you, I kind of started laughing… You’re just like the character I draw in the manga. I intuitively thought, ‘That’s Luffy.'”

Oda continued that he “can’t imagine anyone else playing this role,” and that “I’m so grateful that you were born to be just like Luffy.”

Generally, the anime community isn’t enthusiastic about live-action adaptations, and One Piece fans aren’t any different. Manga and anime aren’t intended for live-action adaptations, so he rejected several past offers. But with modern technology, he believed it was worth a shot.

“Back then, 26 years ago when I started One Piece, it wasn’t possible to adapt a manga like this into live-action. But, at a certain point, the quality of CG and VFX really started to improve, and you could bring anything to life. After seeing many such things, I decided to take the plunge, figuring that if we find a reliable team, we could pull this off and adapt it into live-action.”

Netflix will premiere One Piece live-action on 31 August. Here’s the official trailer.

In the meantime, check out our other coverage below: