'One Piece' Creator Gets Special Gift as Netflix Hit Is Renewed

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• The success of Netflix's One Piece has led to mainstream cultural awareness of the long-running Japanese franchise

• The team behind the show honored the original creator of the series with an extraordinary gift

• The creator, Eiichiro Oda, rarely allows himself to be filmed, so the Instagram video of the gifting provides a rare glimpse for fans

The effects, positive and negative, of the streaming industry will probably be debated for decades. But there's no denying that one thing streaming has been able to do is bring a global, mainstream audience to international shows and franchises in an unprecedented way. Netflix has had incredible success with this, with American audiences going wild for shows like Spain's Money Heist, France's Lupin, and, of course, the phenomenon of Squid Game from South Korea.

Now, they've brought one of Japan's most popular franchises into the American mainstream with their live-action adaptation of the long-running manga and anime series One Piece. It's safe to say that Eiichiro Oda's fantastical pirate adventure series is having a moment right now. While the series was undoubtedly successful in its home country and among die-hard anime fans across the globe, with over 1,000 episodes of the animated series to date, the characters' cultural saturation is at an all-time high.

The live-action adaptation debuted at the top of Netflix's TV charts and was swiftly greenlit for a second season. Shortly after the announcement, none other than Academy Award winner Jamie Lee Curtis tossed her (straw) hat into the ring to play the role of Doctor Kureha in the next installment. And it was recently announced that the show's central character, Monkey D. Luffy, will be featured as a balloon in this year's Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.

But while it may seem like we're seeing the characters from One Piece just about everywhere, one person you're not seeing much of is the franchise's creator, Eiichiro Oda. For a man whose series is full of faces plastered on wanted posters, Eiichiro Oda is conscientious to keep his own image out of the public eye.

But the team behind the Netflix series wanted to make sure they paid tribute to the creator who started it all in the pages of Weekly Shonen Jump back in 1997. They had the series' lead, Iñaki Godoy, present Oda with a special gift on behalf of the whole crew, and Oda even allowed himself to be filmed (with his face obscured) for the reveal of the big surprise, which the show posted to their Instagram account.

So, just what was this special gift? A prop transponder snail! The snail with a human-looking mouth functions as a communication device in the maritime world of One Piece, and it's one of the more unique elements of Oda's fantasy world. One he likely never imagined he'd ever encounter face to face.

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