One Piece Live Action has been one of the phenomenal shows for Netflix in 2023. The differences between the anime and the live-action helped the series create its identity. The series’ score differs from the anime’s score. But initially, it was not the case. The One Piece Live Action music department fell under Sonya Belousova and Giona Ostinelli.
The duo are excellent at their profession and worked together for The Witcher series. They created the score for the live adaptation with the anime score in mind. Belousova and Ostinelli wanted the show to be as authentic as possible with a little bit of their magic. But Eiichiro Oda discarded the idea of having the same score as the anime and wanted something original for the live adaptation.
Sonya Belousova and Giona Ostinelli On One Piece Score
Sonya Belousova and Giona Ostinelli had been a One Piece fan since childhood. They explained how it was either Dragon Ball or One Piece in the older days in Switzerland and Italy. The original score of One Piece – Bink’s Sake and We Are are as epic as a score can get. Kohei Tanaka and Shiro Hamaguchi are the reason behind such epic scores.
Instead of approaching more of a Japanese traditional approach, Sonya Belousova and Giona Ostinelli opted to go for the Hollywood approach. It was revealed by the duo that the idea of One Piece Live Action having an original score was first proposed by Eiichiro Oda. One Piece is Eiichiro Oda’s baby, so people could hardly argue with this fact.
Moreover, the anime is entirely different than the live adaptation. They needed to create the whole season’s score together since all the episodes were shot together. ‘My Sails Are Set’ proved to be an iconic composition by the duo for the live action. Since the series has been confirmed for a second season, fans will enjoy more of Sonya Belousova and Giona Ostinelli.
Eiichiro Oda Rejected The Idea of Keeping The Anime Score For The Live-Action
Every decision surrounding One Piece Live Action must be passed through Eiichiro Oda. If only he gave his approval, the team would continue with it. The same went for the score of the show. During a meeting with the showrunners (Matt Owens and Steven Maeda), Sonya Belousova and Giona Ostinelli explained that the live-action should not have anime-type direction since Oda did not want it.
Giona Ostinelli said to The Mary Sue, “I remember when discussing with Matt and Steve and Netflix, they were saying that it was very imperative for Oda and for everybody that the score wouldn’t have that, you know, anime type of direction, and would be more grandiose and more epic.”
Sonya Belousova added, “That was one of the very first conversations that we had was the team, because Oda wanted to make sure that the score is as epic and as large scale as it can possibly get.” The show indeed went epic and large, just like the score. Eiichiro Oda’s advanced Observation Haki proved a valuable asset once again since changing the original score paid off.
