What The Fish-Men From One Piece Look Like In Real Life
From top to bottom, there's little Netflix's "One Piece" series does wrong. The production collaborated directly with creator Eiichiro Oda to ensure a quality live-action adaptation, showrunner Matt Owens is the self-proclaimed biggest "One Piece" fan, and, not to mention, the casting was incredibly spot-on. While the series thrives in almost every category, the prosthetics department is the unsung hero of Netflix's latest hit.
"One Piece" has countless ridiculous characters, for lack of a better term. Humans, mermaids, cyborgs, and many more unique-looking individuals inhabit the pages of Oda's world. Understandably, it's not difficult to adapt those into an anime, as the medium lends itself to different art styles, but a live-action series is much more complicated. Despite only dipping its toes into what "One Piece" has to offer, the Netflix series proved nothing is off the table with its adaptation, and the prosthetics department deserves all the credit.
The "One Piece" prosthetics department truly flexed its muscles when designing and adapting the fish-men of the Arlong Pirates. Although there are slight design differences from the manga, Arlong (McKinley Belcher III), Kuroobi (Jandre le Roux), and Chu (Len-Barry Simons) all look incredible in live-action, despite the challenges that come from bringing the fish-men to life. While they may look a bit goofy at first glance, you'll truly understand why the prosthetic department deserves all the praise when you see what the actors look like underneath.
Arlong
Although you couldn't tell from his fish-man prosthetics, the actor behind the live-action Arlong is McKinley Belcher III, bringing the captain of the Arlong Pirates and one of Luffy's (Iñaki Godoy) strongest early adversaries to Netflix's "One Piece."
Without the prosthetics, Belcher will likely look very familiar to viewers, particularly Netflix binge-watchers. He appeared as Bryce in "Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt," but fans will surely recognize him as Agent Trevor Evans from "Ozark." Belcher also played Marcus in "Power," while starring in miniseries like "The Good Lord Bird" as Broadnax, "Show Me a Hero" as Dwayne Meeks, and "We Own This City" as Detective Momodu "G Money" Gondo. He's also appeared in a few short-lived series, playing Samuel Diggs in "Mercy Street" and Anthony Carter in "The Passage."
Despite having a talent like Belcher in the role, adapting Arlong to live-action proved challenging for the "One Piece" prosthetic designers, particularly regarding his iconic nose. In an interview with TV Guide, Jaco Snyman, Prosthetics Head of Department for "One Piece," said, "We couldn't make his nose exactly the same as it is in the manga and the anime, because it's like a long sawtooth-shaped nose. If you directly translate it, it's just really silly. And we have to make the prosthetic fit onto a human with human proportions. So we went back to what he was based on, which is the sawtooth shark, and we based his facial anatomy on a sawtooth shark's nose."
Kuroobi
A few of Arlong's pirate crew join him in Netflix's "One Piece," including Kuroobi, an officer in the Arlong Pirates, played by Jandre le Roux. Much like the man who plays his fictional captain, le Roux is no newcomer to Netflix, starring in the series "Ludik" for the streaming service. He also appeared in "Warrior" Season 3, playing Shaw, the bodyguard and right-hand man of Douglas Strickland (Adam Rayner). Le Roux has also appeared in a few big-budget blockbusters, including "Transformers: The Last Knight" and the Alicia Vikander-led "Tomb Raider" reboot. With many foreign shows under his belt, it seems that le Roux has just begun breaking into larger productions, with "One Piece" bringing his work to a worldwide audience.
Unlike Arlong, the "One Piece" prosthetics department had a very straightforward job adapting Kuroobi to live-action. In the interview with TV Guide, Jaco Snyman said, "With Kuroobi, from early on, we tried to incorporate the triangle into his anatomy. And we really just tried to stay as close to the original characters as possible." Outside of Kuroobi's Dorito-like physique and the shark-like fins on his arms, there isn't much difficulty in adapting the humanoid fish for live-action. However, even then, the prosthetics department showcased their skills by bringing his unusual face to live-action.
Chu
Unlike the actors for Arlong and Kuroobi, Len-Barry Simons, who brings Arlong Pirates officer Chu to Netflix's "One Piece," doesn't have very many acting credits. Outside of the Netflix series, he had a role in the South African soap opera "Arendsvlei," playing Francois, and two TV movies, "Somerkersfees" and "Lycra & Petticoats." However, despite his young career and limited screentime in "One Piece," Simons needed plenty of prosthetics to bring Chu to life, with the department transforming the actor into the big-lipped fish-man.
In the interview with TV Guide, Jaco Snyman talked in-depth about adapting Chu for live-action, whose name the production changed from the manga and anime's Chew. Surprisingly, the blue fish-man proved to be among the more challenging characters to nail down. "We did some tests with Chew initially to see how big we could get his lips because it's supposed to be like a spitting fish," he said. "The actual fish doesn't have big lips, but the character has such iconic big lips that we had to see how big we can make his lips with prosthetics without going into VFX." Once the department landed on a look, they began designing the full-face prosthetics that would go on Simons, running into another problem. "The other thing is, Arlong and his fish gang, they all have different skin tones," Snyman said. "Chew's is like a light blue, but it doesn't necessarily translate that well on camera. So we had to do a couple of skin color tests as well."
One Piece's prosthetics prove that live-action anime adaptations can work
A lot went right for "One Piece" to succeed on Netflix, but fans must admit that the prosthetics department worked overtime to help bring Eiichiro Oda's world to life. Despite the many differences between Netflix's "One Piece" and the manga, the series managed to do justice to Oda's work, and the top-tier prosthetics helped accomplish that massive feat.
While the fish-men undoubtedly required the most prosthetics, more characters than audiences may have realized needed a few touchups to solidify their "One Piece" looks. In the TV Guide interview, Jaco Snyman revealed that Merry (Brett Williams), one of the two major characters who don't survive Netflix's adaptation, had a very subtle prosthetic on his upper lip, making him look more like a ram. Many of Zoro's (Mackenyu) cuts, including his severe injury from Mihawk (Steven Ward), also required more subtle touches from the prosthetics team, so they put in the work to ensure "One Piece" lived up to the hype.
The prosthetic department on "One Piece" also allowed the adaptation to come to life in live-action without losing any of the charms from the manga and anime. Sure, characters like Arlong, Kuroobi, and Chu seem jarring at first, but what can you expect from real-life fish-men? "One Piece" doesn't take long to introduce audiences to its almost camp-like charm, using prosthetics to recreate the magic of the source material.
Future characters that could shine with prosthetics
Season 1 was just the beginning for the "One Piece" prosthetics team, and with an official Season 2 renewal, many more characters will make their way to Netflix, so the team will have their work cut out for them.
Of course, with Season 2, all eyes turn to the introduction of Tony Tony Chopper, the Straw Hat Pirates' loveable doctor. Although many expect the tiny deer to be entirely CGI, Netflix could go a more practical route, with growing fan support for the series to lean into prosthetics, akin to Netflix's "Sweet Tooth," to bring Chopper to live-action. Other characters, like Foxy, Nico Robin, or Dr. Kureha, could require more minor prosthetics to bring out their iconic facial features, primarily with their noses. With Season 2 likely exploring more of Baroque Works, Mr. 1 and Mr. 2 are two agents that will likely need prosthetics, with the former needing blades added to his body — much like Kuroobi's fins in Season 1 — while the latter may need minor touchups to bring out his flamboyant facial features.
Assuming "One Piece" continues past Season 2, more and more characters will likely require prosthetics. Many Shandia warriors in Skypiea will need angel-like wings on their backs, while the big bad, Enel, will need low-hanging earlobes. In Water 7, characters like Admiral Aokiji and Monkey D. Dragon could use minor enhancements, while Franky would likely require plenty of prosthetics to bring to life.