How Luffy Is Reflected in His Ship in the ‘One Piece’ Live-Action Series

It doesn’t matter which gateway you take into the One Piece world: Manga, anime or Netflix live-action series. One thing you’re bound to notice across all media is that protagonist Monkey D. Luffy (Iñaki Godoy) is a force to be reckoned with. With a relentless optimism, adventurous spirit and a slight naiveté in dangerous situations, Luffy greatly elevates the overall tone of the story, and as production designer Richard Bridgland told Collider’s Mike Thomas, he knew he needed to encapsulate that.

you are watching: How Luffy Is Reflected in His Ship in the ‘One Piece’ Live-Action Series

One way to do it was to reflect Luffy’s personality on the figurehead of his ship, the Going Merry. Bridgland revealed that he realized the ships’ figureheads of the manga translated the spirit of each captain, so it was the perfect opportunity to work on the ram’s head:

“[T]his was actually the hardest and most important thing to get right in the whole show because that figurehead kind of encapsulated Luffy’s character. He’s indomitable, you know, he’s courageous. He also laughs a lot, and he laughs in the face of danger. So, there was this ram’s head that is in the manga, but I wanted to turn it into a real ram’s head, but it had to be a laughing ram because that’s the spirit of Luffy; it’s a ram because he’s indomitable and courageous, but it’s laughing. And then the thing that I wanted that would sort of carry it over from the manga was I gave it the same eyes as appeared in the manga.”

‘One Piece’ Fans Should Keep An Eye Out For Pirate Ships’ “Personalities”

Bridgland also singled out the duck figurehead of Alvida’s (Ilia Isorelýs Paulino) ship, and called it “fantastic” and “unique” because “it’s got all the elegance and beauty that she really believes she has, and actually, in a way, she really does have because of the way she carries herself.” In the manga and anime series, Alvida’s ship has a distinct duck figurehead with huge hearts in place of its eyes and a really long neck. The ship is also overwhelmingly pink – a color that’s not usual for ships and much less pirate ships, so it will be fun to see how it translated to the live-action format.

We already know how the Going Merry looks, though, so when the series premieres it will be just a matter of seeing the figurehead from every possible angle and realizing that, as Bridgland underscored, it does indeed reflect Luffy’s personality.

Netflix premieres One Piece this Thursday, August 31. You can watch the latest trailer (and keep your eyes peeled for the ram’s head on the Going Merry) below: