ICYMI: One Piece Netflix Series is Official, Oda-sensei Executive Producing
Read on: https://t.co/MhucsG0Zwu pic.twitter.com/7zAfArOoRd
— One Piece (@OnePieceAnime) January 30, 2020
Well, not exactly. Not when it’s still impossible for fictional characters to exist in real life. But the best that fans can get is that One Piece will be having a live-action version. The best part? Eiichiro Oda himself will be its Executive Producer.
Oda made the announcement on Thursday, January 30. He floated the idea as early as 2017 and recognized that these things took time.
“Preparations have been slowly progressing behind the scenes, and it seems that I can finally make the big announcement: Netflix, the world’s leading streaming entertainment service, will be lending us their tremendous production support!” he wrote.
Oda-sensei will oversee the live-action #OnePiece series by @stevemaeda and Matt Owens. @NXOnNetflix pic.twitter.com/rFrDOvakLc
— ONE PIECE(ワンピース) Netflix (@onepiecenetflix) January 29, 2020
Instead of details, Oda’s statement gave questions for fans to wait for.
“How far will the story progress over the 10 episodes of Season 1? Who will be cast? Please be patient a little longer and stay tuned,” he further said.
The One Piece live-action will be co-produced by Tomorrow Studios, which is also part of the planned Cowboy Bebop live-action.
One Piece remains to be one of the most known media franchises in Japan and worldwide. It debuted as a manga in 1997 and got an anime in 1999. Since then, it’s touched many hearts throughout the years, still maintaining its stand, spawning films, television specials, games, and others. Its origin, the manga is still ongoing in the Japanese magazine, Shounen Jump, currently at 949 chapters as of writing.
It is a shounen series about the adventures of Monkey D. Luffy and the Straw Hat Pirates. Luffy, inspired by his idol Shanks, is in search of the world’s greatest treasure, One Piece, and wants to proclaim himself as the Pirate King. The series has themes of action and friendship, thus the nakama (Japanese word for comrade/friend) being a huge part of the fandom culture and the series itself.