Eiichiro Oda and his brainchild One Piece have been famous since 1997. Understandably, he has been very protective of his manga. The live-action adaptation will premiere on August 31st. But reaching here was not an easy feat. The show’s makers Matt Owens and Steven Maeda even confessed in an interview with Games Radar just a few days ago that they were terrified. They say, “I don’t think I’ve ever been more nervous for anything in my entire life.” The weight of the expectation of Oda and the fandom certainly proved tough.

And that explains why the Japanese manga writer had meticulously put forth two important demands for the rights to begin this Netflix show production. 

Eiichiro Oda wanted his retain his show’s integrity 

The 48-year-old creator wanted to keep a close eye on all the developments. The writer of the movie Matt Owens also revealed two main demands that the Japanese had. He wanted the characters’ stories to remain as it was in the original manga. In the report by CBR, Owens recently said, “The Straw Hats’ backstories, because they’re so pivotal to who they are as people, what their dreams and motivations are, and how Luffy digs into that as he meets them and helps them rediscover those dreams.” This would help keep the integrity intact. 

The other demand he put forth was about the devil fruits. With the trailer revealing four devil fruits in the movie, Oda wanted their power sets to remain intact. He had put in a lot of hard work in intricately crafting each fruit’s power. Owen added that “a lot of imagination went into what different people can do and what the rules are with that.”

Although Oda seems adamant about these demands, he wholeheartedly accepted certain changes earlier and put the fans’ outrage to rest. 

The wise advice for One Piece fans

The trailer revealed certain deviations from the anime. And this naturally led to an angry group of fans, but Oda took to social media and reassured the fans of the changes. He said that live-adaptation recreation of a story meant that certain changes were necessary. It would have to evolve in order to keep the movie realistic. 

He penned a colorful and graphic note about how he approved of the changes made and that he loved the production team. He adorably told the fans to wait and have tea in the meaning.  

What do you think about the two demands put forth by Oda? Comment below and let us know.