Anime and manga getting live-action adaptations don’t have the best history, but that didn’t stop Netflix from adapting One Piece, one of the most popular and successful anime and manga franchises of all time. The series received a mostly positive reception from fans and critics alike, with it being mostly faithful to the source material coming in for particular praise from everyone.
This faithfulness extended to respecting what the creator of One Piece, mangaka Eiichiro Oda, thought of the show while it was in production. Keeping the backstories for the Straw Hat Pirates intact without any alterations was a key point for Oda, which Netflix accepted since their backstories shape their current goals and dreams greatly. But there were some things that Eiichiro Oda was not happy with, with one scene in particular standing out.
Which scene from One Piece was Eiichiro Oda unhappy with?
Emma Sullivan, one of the directors of One Piece on Netflix, spoke to Cinema Daily about adapting the show and bringing it to life, and how a certain scene was redone as per Oda’s demand. She said:
“For example, there’s a scene in one of my episodes between young Zoro and Kuina in Shimotsuki Village. They have this fight. Oda-san watched it and he wanted us to redo it because we did it with Kendo masks on. So we went back to South Africa and did it again just to make sure he was happy with it. I think it’s just so important because it’s his life’s work. We have to make sure he’s happy with it.”
Going back all the way to South Africa just to reshoot this scene showed how committed the production crew, directors, and Netflix were to bringing Oda’s specific vision of One Piece to life.
What was the bond like between the One Piece production crew?
One of the many notable things about the manga and anime, and the Netflix adaptation, is that the main characters in One Piece always have each other’s back and foster a sense of true companionship. In the same interview, Emma Sullivan spoke on how everyone involved in making the show shared camaraderie, saying:
“I always like to meet the actors beforehand and, obviously, there’s a lot of rehearsals going on for the action sequences in particular. You know, I also think there is a camaraderie on set as well, from what we see as an audience, we see it’s the actors, you think of the director [pulling the strings], but there are hundreds of people as well as all the crew in the background. Everybody’s pulling together to make these incredible sets and tell this incredible story. We have the story of Straw Hat, but also we are all filmmakers. Our crew worked very closely together on this idea of working together.”
This sense of togetherness and working as a team is undoubtedly very important, as Emma Sullivan illustrated. She also spoke about working together with the fight choreographers and actors to direct her episodes, which were the third and fourth episodes, as well as the production designers to create the Going Merry, the Straw Hats’ ship.
Source: Cinema Daily
