As one of the most successful anime and manga series ever, it was only a matter of time before One Piece got adapted into a live-action series, and creator Eiichiro Oda picked Netflix to do the honors. The series has done well too, with praise from both fans and critics directed toward the performances of the cast, relative faithfulness to the anime/manga, and the adventurous tone of the show.
Also read: Eiichiro Oda Reveals His Biggest Concern About Netflix’s ‘One Piece’ Live-Action Adaptation
However, there are some aspects of One Piece that could prove problematic in a live-action adaptation, having already done so during the manga and anime. Namely, this is Sanji’s flirtatious attitude towards women coming off as creepy and disturbing to many viewers and readers. Sanji’s actor Taz Skylar addressed the issue in an interview.
What did Taz Skylar say about Sanji’s attitude towards women?
In an interview with GamesRadar, Taz Skylar spoke about Sanji’s attitude towards women which forms a key component of the character. He said:
“I think at the root of it, the root of any reaction is why you’re reacting like that. And I think for me, it came down to caring. As in, the background that he has with women in terms of the relationship he had with his mother, the relationship he had with his sister, the way that they interacted with him as opposed to the way that his brothers and his father used to interact with him. That to me, speaks volumes about why he may have a certain relationship with women in general and how we may react to it. In the sense that I don’t have to question at all why he cares so much about women. And that’s what I was hanging on to throughout it. So as opposed to trying to really meter whether it comes off as creepy or whether it comes off as flirty, I would just imbue it with, “I really care about this person.””
During the interview, Skylar also mentioned that he sees Sanji as a romantic, not just with people but also someone who romanticizes things, what he does, and even the world.
Taz Skylar believed that the One Piece adaptation is a translation
One Piece had to adapt the manga and anime into a live-action series, and that adaptation process, or “translation”, as Skylar called it in the interview, required a lot of interpretation. He said:
“I think we had a lot of conversations about how everything’s a translation. Like, I had a lot of images of Sanji on my wall that were from the anime. And everything is a translation, because it can’t be frame-by-frame. But I can interpret everything that he does, everything that I see that he does, and put it into what I deem to be a translation into live action, because essentially, it’s a different language. It’s no longer 2D, it’s 3D, so like innately there is a translation there. And it was the same with the way that he reacts or the way that he interacts with women, there was a translation to be had.”
Skylar also said that while he explained the adaptation or translation process, he wouldn’t judge the result, instead leaving that to viewers of the show.
One Piece is now streaming on Netflix.
Source: GamesRadar
