The One Piece live action,
we're all putting
our heart and passion into this.
We're gonna need a real pirate ship
worthy of the Straw Hat crew.
Oda-sensei has infinite ideas,
making the manga still
so popular after so many years.
It's such an expansive world
that people are absolutely
diehard for.
Getting a chance to bring
that story to life,
it's absolutely amazing.
Matt the Showrunner,
he’s a superfan.
Who better to make an adaptation than a superfan?
Action!
I've been a massive fan of One Piece
for years and years.
Having a built in fan base is a phenomenal thing,
and that also comes with a lot of responsibility to get it right.
With every aspect of this,
we use the manga created by Oda-sensei.
His designs, that's always our North Star.
The series has been running for 25 years, and we know a lot
about these characters and about the world.
So, it's given us the opportunity
to throw in a lot of Easter eggs for fans.
Let's go! Right!
It's a really tricky balancing act,
trying to figure out
what you're going to put in
and what you're going to leave out.
The hardest part was finding the right story arcs
and emotional arcs for our characters
that would make for a wonderful season of television.
I don't want to be a Marine.
I'm a pirate!
A big challenge was figuring out how to include backstory.
These backstories are all in the manga,
and we made a decision early on
to parcel it out and tie it in to present day story.
We went by Oda-san’s SBS Chapter Notes,
where he answers fan questions at the end of chapters in the manga.
It's full of character backstories and birthdates and heights.
These are so good!
Their favorite foods and things like that.
So we scoured those and thought
that brought a lot of wonderful
emotional grounding with the characters.
What's been really great is
Oda-sensei and his team have been with us
the entire time.
Getting to talk with him
is one of my favorite experiences about this,
and that collaboration
I think has birthed something really special.
Hey, Zoro, whatcha gonna wear?
Something black.
The most challenging thing,
translating the page to the screen,
was bringing the color
and the life into our characters
without it looking like cosplay.
The manga’s black and white,
and so Oda's Color Walk became our Bible.
The Color Walk gave us a very unique opportunity
to see the Straw Hat characters
in different environments, in different costumes.
It gave me the opportunity to introduce texture and tailoring
without in any way compromising
the look of the manga.
Our costume design is absolutely incredible.
We have a lot of nods to things
ultimate fans would know.
One of the things that we thought would make the show
feel more real is if we did as much as we could in camera.
It was a conscious choice to use prosthetics
as much as possible, particularly on the Fish-Men.
With prosthetics, one of the trickiest things was
to try and keep all the designs
as close as possible
to honor Mr. Oda’s work.
And then bring something to screen
that looks like it could live in the real world.
It's trying to find the middle ground between both of the mediums,
and when we do have an idea to tweak or change something,
it's always a conversation with Oda-sensei and his team.
The snail phone being a perfect example,
we did snail phones
that you have in the manga.
And then the prop crew came up with
tiny snail phones that fit in your ear like a Bluetooth.
Props then designed a snail megaphone that amplifies
the voice across the water.
Lower your sails and submit
to my authority!
The attention to detail that everyone has,
and just the talent of our individual departments,
it's incredible.
I think we were really successful in being able
to bring One Piece
into a new medium and show
just how special it is and why so many people
all over the world love this series so much.
To the best crew sailing on the sea,
and to our victory!
It's been a pleasure to be a part of this journey.
It’s such a creative world.
So many interesting characters.
I was truly overwhelmed when I saw it,
and I can't wait for the fans to see it too.
You’re my captain, Luffy.
From now until the end.
The spirit of One Piece
is so strong in this.
It is such a privilege to work on this show.
There's something really wonderful in what Oda-san has created.
Truly, this is his sandbox and we're just playing in it.
Next stop, the Grand Line!