It’s the Devil Fruit that make things tricky.
One Piecehits Netflix this week, and marks the streaming platform’s second big-name anime adaptationfollowing 2021’sCowboy Bebop.
Not so withOne Piece!
Iñaki Godoy as Monkey D. Luffy in Netflix’s ‘One Piece.'.Netflix
The world ofOne Piececontains the mysterious Devil Fruit, no two of which are alike.
Eating one takes away one’s ability to swim, but bestows a unique superpower in turn.
“We had so many meetings about this,” Jobst tells EW.
Luffy fights marines in Netflix’s ‘One Piece.'.Casey Crafford/Netflix
Do all his hairs spread apart when he stretches?
What happens to all the pores?
Do the clothes stretch with him or does he stretch out of the clothes?
Jeff Ward as Buggy the Clown on Netflix’s ‘One Piece.'.Netflix
We tested so many different things.
You think, ‘well, okay, it’s got to obey the laws of physics.’
And then you look at it and you think, ‘well, sometimes.’
In the end, you’ve just got to go with what looks right."
Stretchy powers look fun in comics and cartoons, but are difficult to translate to live-action.
Just look at Disney’sMs.
Marvelseries, whichnotably altered Kamala Khan’s powersfrom changing the size of her body to manipulating energy.
Luffy aspires to be no less than the King of the Pirates.
Befitting his grand ambitions as a champion of the seas, he has names for all his different moves.
It doesn’t take long for Luffy to meet another Devil Fruit user.
This, in turn, makes it very hard for Luffy and friends to defeat or even hurt him.
But Buggy posed an even bigger challenge for Jobst and the other filmmakers.
But then we sat around the table and were very honest with each other.
The key thing was not to restrict the designers with practicalities.
The battle with Buggy involves the clown splitting his limbs up to attack Luffy and friends individually.
We had to find another way of getting limbs coming from high and low and all different directions."
When Nami is hitting the different limbs, we were literally throwing limbs at her.
For all the special effects, Jobst says that what really drew him toOne Piecewas the characters themselves.
“I feel like all of these actors have delivered something committed and heartfelt.”
The first season ofOne Pieceis streaming now on Netflix.
