One Piece Netflix: A global manga success sets sail, now in real life!
One Piece Netflix:
With over a hundred volumes and more than 500 million books sold, the Japanese manga “One Piece” is one of the most successful comic series in the world. Now Netflix is adapting the adventures of pirate captain Monkey D. Luffy as a live-action remake. The latest chapter in a 26-year success story.
Big grin, even bigger straw hat
A mischievous grin from ear to ear, red vest, short blue trousers and – of course – the wide-brimmed straw hat: This is how fans know and love Monkey D. Luffy, the main character of the global hit “One Piece”.
Since 1997, Luffy has been sailing around the world’s oceans with his crew, the “Straw Hat Gang”. His goal: to become the pirate king and find the legendary “One Piece”, the greatest treasure in the world. The great pirate king Gol D. Roger hid this before he died.
But Luffy is more than just a simple boy with big ambitions: Ever since he ate a devil fruit, he has been able to twist and stretch his entire body like rubber. An advantage when fighting against your opponents, but also a huge disadvantage at sea, because anyone who has eaten the devil fruit can no longer swim.
One Piece” breaks all records as a comic and cartoon
“One Piece” is comic book cult. For 26 years, Luffy and his friends have been up to mischief in comics and novels, on television and on the big screen. The manga by author Eiichiro Oda has more than a hundred anthologies, making it the longest series by a single comic artist in the Guinness Book of Records.
The TV animated series has over a thousand episodes. Now the “One Piece” cosmos on Netflix has reached a new dimension: From August 31, an American-Japanese co-production at the streaming giant will retell the beginnings of the saga – for the first time with real actors.
What makes the series extremely successful?
Pirate stories have fascinated people for centuries. What made the privateers in Robert Louis Stevenson’s “Treasure Island” children’s room heroes and movie stars in “Pirates of the Caribbean” also works in manga: freedom, loose morals and a sailor’s own code of honor.
On the other hand, “One Piece” is and remains true to its genre in its basic features as a fairly conventional shonen manga, a manga for boys and young men. It’s about growing up, friendships and the fight between good and evil. The great manga role models shine through very clearly, above all “Dragon Ball” by Akira Toriyama.
A success like that of “One Piece” is something special, especially on the fast-paced Japanese comic market. Eiichiro Oda was 22 years old when he drew the first chapters of his opus magnum. Over the years, the manga has grown up with its author – and also with its readers – without completely losing its charm.
