It has long been a cult for manga and anime fans: “One Piece” by Eiichiro Oda. The best-selling manga series of all time is now coming to Netflix as an actor-led adaptation.
Thousands of manga and anime fans in Germany and around the world have been eagerly awaiting this day: The legendary pirate adventure “One Piece” by the Japanese Eiichiro Oda – the best-selling manga series of all time – will be available for the first time this Thursday (August 31). Adaptation with actors at the start. It’s on Netflix.
“The biggest challenge for me was not to disappoint the existing fans of ‘One Piece’,” Oda told a small group of foreign journalists. The most important thing was that the characters in the adaptation come across as they love the fans of his manga series, which started in 1997. “And I think we succeeded.”
Adventure, freedom and a dangerous journey
“One Piece” is an adventure on the high seas in a fictional world. Monkey D. Luffy (played by Iñaki Godoy) is a young adventurer who has always had a desire for freedom. One day he turns his back on his village and embarks on a dangerous journey to find the legendary treasure of the pirate king Gol D. Roger, the One Piece – which should make him the pirate king himself.
On a quest, Luffy’s Straw Hat crew, a group of pirates led by him, explore the vastness of the sea. They have to deal with powerful pirates, but also with the world government, which wants to prevent the discovery of One Piece. Luffy’s crew outperforms marines and outwits rivals lurking everywhere.
Highest-grossing manga series of all time
It’s been 26 years since Oda released his first One Piece manga on July 22, 1997. Since then, more than 1000 individual chapters have appeared. The ongoing series became an international mega-success for Oda. With more than half a billion copies sold worldwide, One Piece has become the best-selling manga series in history. It was also implemented as an anime for television (in Germany by ProSiebenMaxx) and cinema.
And now for the first time as a series with real actors. She has eight episodes. For a long time, Oda had thought that this wasn’t a good idea. “I’d had a lot of different offers for a live-action adaptation and I’d turned them all down for years,” Oda said.
He believed manga wasn’t meant to be made with real actors. But then the production technology continued to develop until he was finally convinced that it was possible with today’s technology. “People of my generation grew up watching and idolizing a lot of Hollywood movies. Most of the hits in Japanese cinemas were Hollywood movies like Indiana Jones, ET and The Terminator. That was my childhood,” recalled the 48 year old.
Hollywood instead of Japan
From the beginning, he said, he had an expectation of an adaptation with real actors that the quality would be “great” “when Hollywood takes over the production”. He firmly believed “that Hollywood, instead of a Japanese studio, will do justice to the world I drew in terms of quality”. And after seeing the final product, he was “very, very happy that my initial expectation that Hollywood would be able to live up to that vision came true,” Oda said.
And yet the Netflix project presented a challenge. “I’d say the biggest concern I’ve had with this whole endeavor is whether the characters, especially the Straw Hats, will be faithful to the characters that people have come to love will stay,” said Oda.
“If the fans don’t accept them as the characters from the manga and the anime, then I think you can do a lot of great things with every other element of the production and the whole thing will still fail. That’s why in making the We paid a lot of attention to how the characters developed during the script and casting,” said Oda. His first-ever role as executive producer has allowed him to “stop things before it was too late when things went the wrong way”.
“I cared about every detail of the series and didn’t want to compromise on either the story or the action,” said Oda. “I wanted to make sure the end product was something that fans could see and really, really, really enjoy.”
Voice actor committed from the anime series
The better the audience knows about “One Piece”, the more clearly they will be able to see how much love the team put into the work. He wasn’t on the set. In the meantime, however, he had thought that the start would have to be postponed. “But fortunately, the production team responded to all my notes and implemented it at a pace that surprised even me. And that’s how we were able to do it,” said Oda, delighted. For the live-action adaptation, Netflix hired the voice actors of the anime series in both Japan and Germany.
In a personal letter to his fans around the world, Oda writes, “After launch, I’m sure some people will point out to me that this character is missing, that scene was omitted, or some detail was completely different in the manga. But I’m sure it’s only well-intentioned. That’s why I’ve decided to be happy about these comments,” the manga artist told his fans.