‘One Piece’: Will Netflix’s Version Ever Have Any Romance? The Answer Revealed
What To Know
- Netflix’s One Piece hasn’t featured any romances so far, like the manga and anime it’s based on.
- Fans have shipped characters like Nami and Zoro, Nami and ViVi, and more over the past two seasons.
- The live-action showrunner has addressed the possibility of romantic subplots.
It’s clear that Monkey D. Luffy’s (Iñaki Godoy) ragtag crew has grown closer by the time One Piece Season 2 starts. Luffy, expert swordsman Roronoa Zoro (Mackenyu), navigator Nami (Emily Rudd), sniper Usopp (Jacob Romero), and chef Sanji (Taz Skylar) have become a found family. (Warning: Spoilers for One Piece Season 2 ahead.)
Their bond only deepens once they enter the Grand Line, relying on each other — including new addition Princess ViVi (Charithra Chandran) — as they encounter threat after threat.
A premise like that could easily inspire a romance or two, but the show has yet to go that route. (The only slight exception being Sanji’s unrequited crush on Nami.) It hasn’t stopped a portion of the One Piece fandom from shipping the characters together, of course. After Nami and Zoro emerged as one of the most popular pairings of Season 1, others started shipping the Nami with ViVi instead, picking up on a possible vibe between them from their first meeting in Season 2.
It all begs the question: Will Netflix’s One Piece ever give the Straw Hats a love story, changing things up from Eiichiro Oda‘s manga and anime of the same name? Swooon dug up the definitive answer and the reason behind it below.
Will the live action One Piece ever have any romance?
It’s true that the Netflix has switched up some things when turning Oda’s source material into a live action show, but its stance on romance remains the same. “One of the mandates from Eiichiro Oda was against romance on the crew,” co-showrunner Steven Maeda told TVLine back when Season 1 dropped. “That is a hard no, as far as the manga and the live-action show are concerned.”
If fans suspected a romantic vibe between Nami and Zoro, for one, Maeda told the outlet that “it was because they just had great chemistry together. But that certainly was not the intent. One of the fun things about watching television is what you read into it and what you bring to the table when you’re watching a show.”
According to Meristation, Oda once addressed the topic during a 2009 Q&A about the manga. “I don’t think there will be any romance among that crew,” he wrote. “Nami probably sees all the good aspects/qualities of those guys, but One Piece is not a romance. Maybe a lot of girl readers ask this kind of question. Boys are not interested at all. One Piece is basically a shonen manga, manga for boys, so romance is not depicted.”
It looks like the only ships that will set sail in One Piece will be literal ones, so viewers will have to rely on fanfiction for any depiction of romance between the characters. Still, we want to know your favorite One Piece pairing — let us know in the comments below!
One Piece, Season 2, Streaming Now, Netflix
