One Piece’s villains have a habit of sticking around, instead of being permanently dispatched, gruesomely or otherwise. Now, one of the showrunners of Netflix’s One Piece series has revealed just why that’s the case and why the show will follow suit.
According to co-showrunner Matt Evans, who spoke on the subject to Deadline, it’s not just so that One Piece creator Eiichiro Oda can bring them back later. Rather, it’s that he views having your dreams crushed as a fate worse than death. So, regardless of what the Straw Hat Pirates themselves might think, the real punishment is living with failure, with your dreams out of reach. Even if those dreams were horribly, horribly evil.
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Evans explains that it also makes actual character deaths more meaningful, saying, “And what it also allows him to do though is, when there is death in One Piece, it’s even more impactful because you’re not dealing with death every single story arc necessarily.”
People do die in the One Piece universe, just not every episode or issue — it’s not One Punch Man. Though now we think about it, we’d pay good money for a crossover. One Piece Man, anyone?
“That is Oda’s perspective as an artist and creator, and it’s something that we have taken on as well”, Evans continued, confirming that the show will be taking the same stance. As for Season 2 of Netflix’s One Piece series? It’s absolutely happening but Evans confirms there are no completed scripts as yet so it could be a while.
One Piece Season 1 is available to stream now on Netflix. Overall, reception to the live-action adaptation of Oda’s beloved manga has been warm, which came as a welcome relief to fans after a spate of bad shows attempting the same thing.
