One Piece’s upcoming Netflix adaptation’s showrunner, Matt Owens, promises to stay true to the original characters. Live-action anime adaptation has never been easy. It can be challenging to attempt to translate anime’s dynamic visuals and characters to another medium. Past adaptations, though, have blatantly deviated from the original so much that they ended up being too drastically altered. Major examples of this include Death Note, which overly attempted to change the motivation of the main character, and Dragonball Evolution, which removed the fantasy elements in favor of a gloomy and bland setting.
With One Piece, Netflix will attempt to break away from previous unsuccessful adaptations, starting with the cast. Owens has discussed his intention to stay as true to the characters as possible with Nux Taku. As a result of the ethnic appearances being kept true to Eiichiro Oda’s vision for One Piece, the casting has already garnered praise, and now fans are interested in how their characters will be portrayed on screen. Below is his complete quote:
“The Straw Hats if you want to qualify their relationships in any way, are all siblings. It’s a family. There’s no romance between Straw Hats.”
Lacking Character Romances Makes One Piece Stronger
One Piece’s Straw Hat Pirates are similar to a family, according to Oda, who even went so far as to designate who is the group’s designated mother, father, sibling, etc. The only two female crew members are Nami and Robin, but Sanji is known for being very flirtatious with women in general. Sanji will still be attracted to women in the Netflix adaptation of One Piece, according to Owens, but for understandable reasons he won’t be as obnoxious or lecherous as he was in the manga and anime.
Owens is correct to maintain the Straw Hats’ status as a simple family. While romance has been alluded to and shown in One Piece, it was typically played for laughs or kept to a minimum. Oda simply said that the Straw Hats love adventure more than anything else when asked if any of them were in love with anyone or anything. One Piece has always been primarily about a band of outcasts who come together as a family to search for the greatest treasure in the world, and Owens knows this better than anyone as a fan of the show.
One Piece will not be available on Netflix for some time, but so far Owens’ promises have made it one of the more eagerly anticipated upcoming projects. The majority of the information and news that has been provided so far gives hope that the new series will satisfy both ardent fans and series newcomers, even though there is still some online criticism of minor details or changes. With this One Piece adaptation, Netflix might be able to make up for the failure of Cowboy Bebop in the anime department.
Source: Nux Taku