One Piece’s Nami and Zoro Will Never Get Together, No Matter How Hard You ‘Ship Them — Here’s Why
If at any point during your bingeing and re-bingeing of Netflix’s live-action One Piece you start to get the warm and fuzzies between two characters, know this: Not only was that “not intended,” but it’s also never going to happen.
One Piece Cast Photos: Live-Action vs. Animation
“One of the mandates from [manga creator] Eiichiro Oda was against romance on the crew,” co-showrunner Steven Maeda tells TVLine. “That is a hard no, as far as the manga and the live-action show are concerned.”
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If fans are seeing sparks between anyone aboard the Going Merry, particularly between Nami (Emily Rudd) and Zoro (Mackenyu), “it was because they just had great chemistry together,” Maeda says. “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.”
Let’s be honest, if One Piece were any other Netflix original series, Koby and Helmeppo probably would be a thing by now. (Don’t give us that look, you know they would.) But Maeda insists there’s merely a “bromance” between those two Marines, whose stories are both being expanded from the original manga.
“I wanted Koby to have a relationship that grew and changed as they went along, becoming unlikely allies after being hardened enemies at the beginning.”
But hey, since when have TV viewers let a little thing like “mandates” stop them from wanting two characters together?
Which One Piece duo(s) are you hypothetically, hopelessly ‘shipping? This is a safe space, so go ahead and drop those names in a comment below.
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