On the occasion of the release of the live-action series One Piece on Netflix this Thursday, August 31st, Eiichirō Oda spoke in the New York Times about this highly anticipated project.
The month of August ends in the most beautiful way for all One Piece fans. After a long wait, you can finally discover the series in live action on Netflix. An adaptation that Eiichirō Oda, the creator of the adventures of Monkey D. Luffy, initially did not want, a little boy who leaves his village in search of a mythical treasure.
In a recent interview with the New York Times, the author explained why he initially rejected such a project. “Several manga have been adapted into live-action, but the failures are numerous; no one in Japan can cite an example of success. One Piece fans – and viewers unfamiliar with the manga – would accept it – you? Maybe it was time to look for the answer,” he confided, admitting that he was afraid of possible failure.
If he said yes to Netflix, it was mainly because the platform made him an offer that was difficult to refuse. “Netflix agreed not to release the series until I found it satisfactory. “I read the scripts, took notes and acted as a watchdog to make sure the material was adapted correctly,” he explains, before moving on to the difficult cast One Piece was released this Thursday.
This big difference between the series and the manga
“I thought the biggest challenge would be finding someone to play Luffy – I didn’t expect to find someone like Iñaki Godoy. When I created Luffy, I drew the most energetic child I could imagine: a normal child on the outside, but.” “Not normal at all on the inside. “Iñaki was just like the person I had drawn,” enthused Eiichirō Oda, recounting his encounter with the One Piece actor’s main character.
He said he was “very happy with the result” and revealed what he sees as the main difference between his manga and the Netflix series. “The dialogues are more detailed than in the manga or anime series, which focus more on the visual aspect. In a manga, the more dialogue there is, the less space there is to draw, so I left out the words as much as possible. But when people actually talk, the conversations are different. There’s always a lot of dialogue in live-action films.”