One Piece director reveals why "beautiful" Luffy flashbacks were key
The scenes have changed from the manga.
Eagle-eyed fans of One Piece might have noticed a few changes to scenes in Netflix’s new live-action series.
Adapted from the popular 1997 manga series created by Eiichiro Oda, flashbacks to Monkey D Luffy’s childhood appear throughout the show’s first two episodes.
In the first manga instalment of the East Blue saga, the same scenes appear all together, before jumping ahead in time to meet Luffy as a young adult.
Speaking exclusively to RadioTimes.com, director Marc Jobst explained: "Steven [Maeda] and Matt [Owens] were very clever in the way that they put those flashbacks in, because what they do is they give us an understanding of Luffy that we then bring into the adult character."
He continued: "So when we see this beautiful, infectious, inspiring optimism of this character, who just runs around the place in a red vest and blue shorts, somehow we know that it's not just vacant optimism.
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"It's come from hardship and it's been learned. It's the same for all the characters as you go down through the series."
Though the episodes might have shifted away from the original structure, the spirit of the manga remains intact throughout the series.
"The reason why we all took this on board so seriously is to honour the manga and its craziness," Jobst exclusively revealed to RadioTimes.com.
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He continued: "More importantly, it means something to people. So many actors would come into the casting and say, 'This has seen me through some really dark times.'
"As a director, when you hear that, you take that on board and you really want to honour that.
"Every single one of us needs to believe we can be who we want to be, and needs to believe in our dreams. I think that's why this show is so special. That's why we wanted to work so hard to try to get it right."
One Piece is available to stream on Netflix from Thursday 31st August 2023. Sign up for Netflix from £4.99 a month. Netflix is also available on Sky Glass and Virgin Media Stream.
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