After three years of being afloat, Pirate adventure manga creator Eiichiro Oda announced on January 30 that a live-action adaptation of "One Piece" is currently anchored in Netflix.
"One Piece" debuted in 1997 and became a great hit. Due to its popularity, it was adapted into anime and premiered after two years of the manga's release. Back in 2017, there were already talks about the possible release of a U.S. made live-action, but later on, it drowned in the hype of other projects.
The all-time leading manga will have its 10-episode adaptation and still currently in the works as revealed by Oda in Netflix's "One Piece" official Twitter account.
In Oda's Twitter post, he admitted that although he announced production three years ago, he said that these things take time. According to him, preparations for the remake have been slowly progressing, thus he can already make the announcement of the world's leading streaming entertainment service, Netflix handling, and supporting the production.
With many animated movies having live-action adaptations, fans are conflicted whether this version will live up to the expectations and standards of the top manga series.
"One Piece" isn't Netflix's first voyage into live-action adaptation for anime, aside from announcing the release of "Cowboy Bebop," they also released a live-action movie of "Death Note." The uniqueness of the characters that Oda portrayed in the manga may pose a challenge for its real-life counterpart.
Moreover, the first season of the adaptation was announced to have ten episodes yet the anime version has already aired 919 episodes. Another challenge that Netflix may encounter with "One Piece" that sets it apart from "Bebop" and "Death Note" is that when Netflix decided to do a remake of the other two, the stories were already finished. "One Piece," however, is still under works, and there are still chapters of the manga to be released by next week.
"One Piece" is a manga about Monkey D. Luffy, and his quest to be king of the pirates. On his journey, he finds himself in the midst of an ocean battling different people until he was able to form his crew called The Straw Hat Pirates. In search of the greatest treasure in the world, Luffy and his crew embark on a dangerous adventure.
Alongside Oda handling the project is Matt Owens, who is one of the executive producers and is also writing the script. In addition, Lost's Steven Maeda, Marty Aldestein of the film "Hanna," and Beck Clements of the Hanna series will be working with Oda and Owens on the production as well.
Tomorrow Studios which is also handling the live-action remake of "Cowboy Bebop" would be handling the production for "One Piece" as well.
On the other hand, although fans of the top manga series are still conflicted and have raised their expectations, many are already very excited about the release of this Netflix adaptation.
Netflix is yet to announce when Luffy and the Straw hat crew would be sailing in our screens and devices.
