It is almost impossible to imagine anime without One Piece. The iconic series has become the top-selling manga of all-time, and its anime has become a treasure the world over. Creator Eiichiro Oda has solidified his place as a master storyteller with the shonen, but there is still uncharted territory to explore with One Piece.
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Namely, the land of live-action has let to be mapped out, but that will change soon enough. One Piece is developing a live-action TV series in Hollywood, and one of the anime’s voice actors is opening up about the venture.
Recently, ComicBook.com got the chance to speak with Patrick Seitz, the English dub voice of Franky, at Anime Expo. It was there the One Piece star got real about the franchise’s live-action ambitions while keeping optimism high.
“I feel like across the board, not even talking about One Piece necessarily, it’s always so tough to take something animated and go the live action route. You really fall in love with something in the first format you see it in, especially with One Piece where the fantastic is such a selling point for it,” Seitz started.
“I’m not saying it can’t be done live action, but … you either go 110% or you don’t do it. I feel like doing live-action One Piece is going to be that same challenge of you going 110% because how else could you possibly bring that to a living format?”
Continuing, Seitz said a big budget would be needed to get all of the anime’s fantasy elements down, but he will be out supporting the project from start to finish.
“A movie would have a $300 million budget for live action … With it being One Piece, obviously if they do a live action, I’ll be out there front and center buying my ticket and waving my banner, but I don’t think there’s any topping the form that it already embodies with the [anime], with the manga.”
So far, Seitz and the rest of the fandom have plenty of time to adjust to the franchise’s live-action goals. The show is very much in development but making strides at a sure (if not slow) pace. Recently, writer Matt Owens was brought on to pen the live-action series, and Marvel fans will know his work from Luke Cage as well as Agents of SHIELD.
So, how do you feel about the anime’s live-action dreams? Let me know in the comments or hit me up on Twitter @MeganPetersCB to talk all things comics and anime!
Eiichiro Oda’s One Piece first began serialization in Shueisha’s Weekly Shonen Jump in 1997. It has since been collected into over 80 volumes, and has been a critical and commercial success worldwide with many of the volumes breaking printing records in Japan. The manga has even set a Guinness World Record for the most copies published for the same comic book by a single author, and is the best-selling manga series worldwide with over 430 million copies sold. The series still ranked number one in manga sales in 2018, which surprised fans of major new entries.
