The success of One Piece Live Action has exposed the colossal and colorful world of One Piece to a new section of people. Some of them might not even be familiar with the scale at which the story expands. Compared to what we have seen in the live-action so far, the goofiness is off the charts in the manga. In his unique way, Eiichiro Oda has incorporated many elements in the story which are not as common in Shonen anime and manga.
One such aspect is the representation of the LGBTQ+ community in One Piece. Fans who are familiar with the manga know how some of the important characters in the story identify as gender fluid, transexual, or gender queer. However, this is something which might catch the One Piece Live Action fans off guard, fueling an unpleasant uproar.
Eiichiro Oda has been pretty inclusive while incorporating LGBTQ+ characters in One Piece. From Bon Chan to Okiku, we have a wide variety of characters who identify as gender fluid or trans. Oda fumbled a little during Momoiro Island as he unintentionally reinforced harmful stereotypes against the trans community.
It was pretty surprising as Oda has handled Bon Chan and Ivankov pretty well. Both the characters are empowering and in positions of leadership. But the shortcomings of Momoiro Island might have been a result of trying to insert comedy. Since then, the representation of queer characters has improved a lot in One Piece.
Okiku’s gender identity and expression were dealt with a lot of care. The inclusivity should be celebrated by the fandom, but it’s not always the case as seen with Yamato. Some fans kept referring to Yamato as ‘she/her’ despite his clear preference for ‘he/him’. As the One Piece Live-Action moves forward with the story, it can fuel similar discourse in the community.
As the story progresses in One Piece, many characters appear who do not conform to gender norms. Seeing such characters not being dismissed as mere comic relief is quite refreshing. But there’s always the loud minority that isn’t as welcoming to characters who defy their idea of gender identity. Fans on reddit expressed their concern about a potential unpleasant uproar regarding queer characters in One Piece.
It’s great to see that most One Piece fans who have followed the story for years are willing to shut down those who question their favorite characters. Although fans are willing to keep the insensitive and disrespectful folks in check, there’s a bigger challenge for the team at Netflix. They need to ensure that they don’t wind up mishandling the queer characters. There’s lots of room for improvement that can be done to ensure that the end result portrays the characters in good light.
As we are still only in Loguetown, this issue is still far ahead in the future. This gives the team at Netflix enough time to figure out a way that’s not only respectful but can also enhance the impact of Bon Chan and other characters. It’ll be interesting to see how they tackle this challenge and what the general reception would be like. But for now, all we can do is wait and hope for the best.
One Piece Live Action is available to stream on Netflix.
