One Piece Photo Unveils First Look at Sanji’s Mentor in Live-Action

One Piece producers say scripts for season 2 have been written, and that a new crop of episodes could be ready for air in a year.

Warning! One Piece spoilers ahead!

Mortal Kombat co-creator Ed Boon made an unexpected appearance on the popular interview show Hot Ones to talk about Mortal Kombat 1 and the series as a whole. As Boon sweats through increasingly spicy wings, we also get a glimpse at the previously announced Jean-Claude Van Damme skin for Johnny Cage. 

“One Piece” can mean many things, even to One Piece fans: There’s the anime, the manga, and now the new live-action show on Netflix. But it’s also the treasure where the anime (or manga or Netflix show) gets its name — the “One Piece” that pirate Gol D. Roger left behind and that everyone in the world of the manga (or Netflix show or anime) is seeking for themselves.

Beauty is truly in the eye of the beholder, and die-hard fans will find something lovable about nearly any character — no matter how deplorable or slimy they seem.

In a bold new direction for One Piece, the live-action adaptation from Netflix dared to make a major change: Showrunners have cut the resident pervert. Now, Sanji — the beloved cook of the Straw Hats and aficionado of women everywhere — is no longer outwardly a creep to women. He still seems to have a crush on Nami, but he no longer reacts with heart-shaped eyes and bursting bloody noses. Thank goodness.

Downloadable content characters Kaido and Yamato will launch alongside Onigashima Battle Luffy as part of “The Battle of Onigashima Pack” for One Piece: Pirate Warriors 4 in September, publisher Bandai Namco and developer Omega Force have announced.

When you first read Eiichiro Oda’s wonderful manga One Piece, one of the things that sticks out initially is that it’s a visual gold mine — not just in its fantastical locales and outlandish character designs, but in how it relays information to the reader. So much happens at once, whether it’s action or character relationships or steady, constant world-building that in less skilled hands would easily devolve into a cacophony of imagery. So then, when you hear that it’s being adapted into a live-action series, your first question is likely: “Ummm… how?”

One Piece is currently making waves with a new audience on Netflix – but it’s still found time to shout out the pre-manga origins of one of its leading lights.

It’s apparent early on in Netflix’s live actionOne Piece that it isn’t a clean adaptation of Eiichiro Oda’s manga series or the anime. While following many of the same steps, certain details are altered to the extent that One Piece readers will still have a different experience when they watch the new series. And perhaps the greatest change to be found here is in Koby, the sheepish teen who wishes to become a part of the Navy. The live-action series makes it very clear Koby is just as much Luffy’s foil as he is his friend.

Over the years, the full scope of the One Piece story has emerged like a never-ending serpentine sea monster. While not the longest manga ever made, it is, by all reasonable measures, an absurdly long story. Creator Eiichiro Oda started publishing the series in 1997 and it’s still getting new chapters to this day. As it stands now, the manga has over 1,000 chapters, and the anime series similarly has over 1,000 episodes. Now, the Netflix live-action adaptation must face this monster of a story and make it its own.

“Who says pirates have to be scary?”