Anime: One Piece Celebrates 1,000 Episodes And A Live Action Cast
Between the ‘One Piece’ 1000th episode and an upcoming live-action series, there’s a lot of good news for the Straw Hat Pirates.
One Piece has been running steadily since 1999– 1997 if you’re talking about the manga. It has been one of the most popular series in the genre ever since. It’s even inspired several games, including a One Piece card game.
Over the last twenty-four years, Eiichiro Oda has written over 1,030 chapters, filling a hundred volumes, and translating to 999, soon to be 1,000 episodes of animation. Supposedly the story’s end is within sight, but the Straw Hat Pirates themselves show no sign of stopping any time soon.
One Piece follows Monkey D. Luffy in his adventure to find the legendary “one piece” treasure, become king of the pirates, and collect as many friends as possible.
If the premise seems silly, it is. If the number of episodes seems daunting, I completely agree. But One Piece has enjoyed two decades of popularity for a reason; it’s honestly great.
The One Piece 1000th Episode
One Piece‘s 1000th episode airs this Saturday, November 20th. There’s a fan-anticipated scene from the Wano arc and confirmation of episode 1,000 coming with some sort of big announcement. The episode promises to be a momentous occasion.
With trailers and fan clamoring, this feels more like waiting for a big movie than a twenty-three-minute episode. And a movie is exactly what many people expect the big announcement is going to be.
One Piece Comes to Netflix
This isn’t the only big news to come from the One Piece camp. The Netflix One Piece live-action series has found its cast. This adaptation will star Iñaki Godoy as Monkey D. Luffy, Emily Rudd as Nami, Mackenyu as Roronoa Zoro, Jacob Romero Gibson as Usopp, and Taz Skylar as Sanji.
Obviously missing some key members of the crew, it looks like live-action One Piece will take a page out of the Cowboy Bebop playbook and only cover the first few arcs. Hopefully, it’ll get the rest of the crew at some point down the road.
Series creator Oda has talked openly about his excitement and involvement with the casting. He’ll be acting as an executive producer on the project. He had this to say about the upcoming series:
“We decided on this cast after numerous discussions involving people around the world! These are the people who will be our Straw Hat Pirates! It’ll take a bit more to get the show done, but we’ll continue to do our best to deliver a show that we’re confident will be enjoyed by everyone around the world! Look forward to more updates in the future!”
He even drew art on the shirts the cast is wearing in the video below.
Welcome to Netflix Straw Hats! @InakiGodoy, @mackenyu1116, @emilysteaparty, @itsbookofjacob and Taz Skylar. pic.twitter.com/sLwsJlO37P
— ONE PIECE(ワンピース) Netflix (@onepiecenetflix) November 9, 2021
Live action anime adaptations aren’t always good, but I am cautiously optimistic about this one. The cast and crew seems to genuinely love the story and their characters. And with Oda giving the creative team his thumbs up, this has the potential to stick to the spirit of One Piece.
Also, I want it to do well enough for more episodes because I want to see Jamie Lee Curtis in One Piece almost as much as Jamie Lee Curtis wants to be in One Piece.
How long have you been a fan of One Piece? What do you think the episode 1,000 announcement will be? Who would you cast as the remaining Straw Hats? Let us know in the comments!
Ja Ne, Adventurers!
