“They are siblings, it’s a family”: There Won’t Be Any Romance Between Sanji and Emily Rudd’s Nami in Netflix’s ‘One Piece’ Despite Flirty Moments in Season 1

Netflix’s One Piece live-action graced Netflix towards the end of last month. It follows the adventure of Luffy, played by Iñaki Godoy, and his crew, Straw Hat Pirates. This group of young and determined pirates embark on a journey to seek the legendary treasure, One Piece.

This manga was created by Eiichiro Oda and has been serialized for over two decades since 1997. After more than 1,000 episodes in the anime, fans have witnessed a lot of adventures these characters put themselves in, and a few of them were romantic in nature. However, in Netflix’s adaptation, it has been strictly prohibited by Oda himself to include any sort of romantic interaction between the characters.

Also Read: “I think we did it well”: Eiichiro Oda Did Not Stand for Hate Against One Piece Live Action, Admitted Certain Differences in Series are Important

Is there any romance between Sanji and Nami in Netflix’s One Piece?

There have been quite some scenes that hint at subtle flirting between Sanji and Nami. However, the co-showrunner of Netflix’s One Piece, Steven Maeda, opened up about a strict rule from the Mangaka himself, “One of the mandates from Eiichiro Oda was against romance on the crew.” He additionally told TV Line, “That is a hard no, as far as the manga and the live-action show are concerned.”

Even if fans noticed scenes that might have depicted insane chemistry between two characters, they’re wrong. Neither Nami and Sanji nor Zoro and Nami can ever happen in One Piece Live Action. Since the manga was targeted towards the shōnen genre, it focuses on adventures more than romance.

“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,” Maeda told TV Line.

 He affirmed the fact that the romantic aspect of the story will never blossom. However, he cheekily added that audiences can speculate what they want while watching the series.

Also Read: “That was very intentional”: One Piece Showrunner Confirms Season 1 was Only a Stepping Stone, Shot the Credit Scene After All Episodes were Filmed

Can viewers expect any romantic progression among the Straw hat Pirates in Netflix’s One Piece?

Also Read: Luffy Did Not Eat the Most Powerful Devil Fruit in Netflix’s ‘One Piece’ Live Action- Who Is Blackbeard and Can Luffy Beat Him?

For any sort of TV series or ongoing show, the chemistry between two characters is a huge leverage for drawing in more audience. It leads to several questions among the viewers, like whether they’ll see those characters ending up together.

However, with the live-action of One Piece, it’s simply that no matter how hard fans might want to ship two characters together, it’ll never happen. This is rather clever since fans are craving for something that the series will never present, which will result in them continuing to watch this out of latent curiosity.

However, fans have obviously resorted to their own methods to fuel their delusions. There have always been people who came up with their own version of the stories or created fan fiction. One of the most searched One Piece fanfiction involves Zoro and Sanji together. Since the release of One Piece Live Action, the most popular fanfiction pair has become Luffy and Zoro. Even though Eiichiro Oda prohibited any romance from the actual series, it didn’t stop fans from getting what they were looking for.

Source: TVLine