Netflix's One Piece Star Studied the Manga Day and Night
On August 31st, the Straw Hat Pirates are set to officially be brought to the "real world" for the first time in Netflix's One Piece. While anime fans wonder if the upcoming series will be able to do justice to the beloved manga from creator Eiichiro Oda, the actors that will be portraying the Straw Hats have been doing their homework. In a recent interview, Inaki Godoy, the actor portraying Luffy, broke down his approach to the character and how it was a necessity that he study the source material.
Alongside Inaki Godoy as Monkey D. Luffy, the Straw Hat Pirates of Netflix's original series will include Emily Rudd as Nami, Taz Skylar as Sanji, Mackenyu as Roronoa Zoro, and Jacob Romero Gibson as Usopp. Acting as Executive Producer, series creator Eiichiro Oda has made it clear that he is looking to do justice to his creation for One Piece fans. All eight episodes of the new series will land later this summer.
One Piece: How To Be Luffy
In diving into the world of the Grand Line, Godoy emphasized to the outlet Decider the need to humanize the characters that were making the leap from the manga and anime to the real world, "You have this world where there's Laos pirates and stretchy pirates, and you need to find a way to make that feel real human. How can I translate this rubber-man into live-action? In those cases, I really used the anime and manga for reference and I literally tried to replicate the way this guy [Luffy] fights."
The young actor playing Monkey D. Luffy also expanded on the idea of needing to study both the manga and the anime to help in perfecting the fighting style of the Straw Hat Pirate Captain, "I can see how this guy fights. Why wouldn't I use that as a reference? When he throws a punch and he takes it back, he puts his hand on his bicep or his shoulder. So, if he does that, I should do that too, right? And when he's about to throw a punch, sometimes he lifts up his leg. I just tried to look for those little details in the original product."
Do you think the Netflix series will do justice to One Piece's original manga and anime? What did you think of the first trailer for the live-action series? Feel free to let us know in the comments or hit me up directly on Twitter @EVComedy to talk all things comics, anime, and the world of the Grand Line.
