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 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.”
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.
So I am not the only one shipping Koby and Helmeppo.
This is what you get by not following the 1,000,000,000 episode anime; you’d know already none of these characters fall in love. The exception is Sanji, who falls in love with every girl in the world.
I binged the Netflix series having never watched the anime show and I quickly fell for the whimsy. It made me want to watch the anime; which I started to watch there after. I’m only on the 10th episode and so far, the live action show has gotten to things at a much quicker pace.
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As for shipping characters, that’s just part of the experience of watching any show. It was bound to happen whether it actually happens or not (because at the end of the day, it’s an adaptation, so they may change things as the narrative fits).
I been shipping luffy and nami, and i think most of the anime/manga readers are too,i know there no romance in the show/manga/anime plus zoro is fixated on kuina his childhood friend who died and there a possible season 2 character called tashigi who works alongside smoker (the guy in the post credit)
This look like an article written by a triggered fan, mad that people are shipping a couple he does not like. Let people be and ship whatever they feel to.
One of the things to keep in mind is that Oda went on record in the last year that he doesn’t put romantic relationships into the manga because it’s a shonen manga — one aimed at boys — and he wouldn’t really know how to write a romantic relationship for that audience and he’s not really interested in writing a shoujo manga — one aimed at girls. This is a manga with literally over 1000 chapters and an anime with over 1000 episodes and its fans tend to be overtly hostile to any and all digressions the anime takes from the manga. So I bet that he’s very hesitant to allow liberties to be taken with the story at the present time. I would bet that *if* the show lasts four or five seasons — not too terribly likely, given that the only series the streamer has let go for more than even three seasons are Orange is the New Black, Stranger Things, and IIRC House of Cards, but if any show can, One Piece can, if it’s done well — he’ll be able to be convinced to let the show take gentle liberties on the romance front. I would expect it to be Luffy & Nami — and Luffy & Nami *only,* though.
Although…. although Oda does write better romance stories than a lot of romance authors.😂I mean just look at Senor Pink bruv. At this point I wouldn’t trust Oda’s words too much.
I do think it’s most likely going to be a sibling/best friends things between the Straw Hats though. But if Nami is going to end up with anyone, I’d think Zoro is a more suiting choice compared to Luffy (imo). Luffy is a special person for every crew member, with him basically helping them get out of their past traumas or enlightening them to a life of freedom etc. I wouldn’t want to let LuNa shine more than other Luffy relationships.
Meanwhile, ZoNa sort of fits thematically, with their thing as Lost Guy x Navigator, Principled x Cunning, drinking buddies, bickering pair, parallels to Rayleigh x Shakky, and Ryuma x Flare. Also, most people wouldn’t notice, but these two actually have the most m/f interactions in both anime and manga. Overall I think ZoNa is possible but it’s more likely that they’ll just establish a boy-girl best friends kinda thing, both always by Luffy’s side as the Romance Dawn trio.