We are now only days away from the live-action One Piece series finally premiering on Netflix, and it’s safe to say the hype is real. As the show’s release date approaches, Netflix has been going in on promoting their newest anime adaptation with sneak peek photos and cute clips of moments behind the scenes. One such promotional video follows star Iñaki Godoy meeting the man behind the series, One Piece’s creator Eiichiro Oda, who seems just as much a fan of Iñaki as the actor is of him.
Recommended VideosMeeting for the first time in Oda’s workshop, they shared a conversation about One Piece and why it’s the right time for a live-action adaptation. It’s a cool full-circle moment for the actor who is playing protagonist Monkey D. Luffy, the self-pronounced future King of Pirates, to talk with the man responsible for the world he’s been inhabiting on set. Oda brings Godoy to tears when he gives him the biggest praise the One Piece actor could ever receive, that he “can’t imagine anyone else playing” Luffy.
“My biggest worry about the live-action was whether we would be able to find someone like Luffy. 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.'”
Godoy responded by telling Oda he hopes he can play Luffy for a long time, a sentiment the One Piece manga author also expressed. After tearing up a bit (perfectly understandable when the creator of one of the most popular manga and anime series in history tells you that you’re made for the role of the main character), Godoy gave Oda a hand-drawn picture of Luffy with a heartfelt message on the back. In it, the actor thanks Oda for creating both One Piece and Luffy, who he describes as “a friend for the world who teaches about courage, dreams, and family.”
In the clip, Oda also shared his reasons for doing a One Piece live-action now instead of earlier. Aside from thinking Godoy is the perfect person to play Luffy — even telling the actor he’s grateful he was “born to be just like Luffy — he believes film technology needed to improve before the story could be told the way it deserves to be.
“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 in time, the quality of CG and VFX really started to improve, and you could bring anything to life.”
While it remains to be seen if Netflix has actually pulled off a great anime adaptation, they’ve certainly invested in the show’s first season. The first eight episodes have an estimated budget of $144 million, which is certainly a gamble given Netflix’s disastrous attempts at anime adaptations in the past (as much as we want to forget, we all remember Death Note), but early reviews suggest it’s a gamble that could pay off this time around.
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