The character designs for the One Piece Fan Letter anime short were reportedly created using the Nintendo Mii avatar creator. The latest issue of the Newtype magazine in Japan includes an interview with the production staff where they discuss the creation of the characters. [Thanks, ryokutya2089!]
According to leaker ryokutya2089, One Piece Fan Letter Animation Director Keisuke Mori said in a recent interview that the concept for the character designs were handled by Director and Co-writer Megumi Ishitani. Mori added that, when he asked for a simple depiction of the characters, Ishitani handed their designs in the form of Mii avatar characters that she had created.
Ishitani explained that she likes the Mii creator method because it is easy to overdesign a character by accident in an illustration, while the limitations of the Mii character creator allowed her to narrow down the individual characteristics of each character and made easier to see what makes them unique. Mori concluded by saying that this method made easier to visualize the characters, and from there they used the Mii characters as a template and made the designs into the style of One Piece characters.
The One Piece Fan Letter anime is an short loosely based on the One Piece novel Straw Hat Stories. It was released in October 20, 2024 to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the anime series and is available on Netflix.
In other recent One Piece news, Japanese voice actor Kazuki Yao announced that he will retire from voicing Franky, and his successor will be announced during Jump Festa 2025.
The One Piece anime is streaming on Crunchyroll and Netflix, while the manga is handled by Viz Media outside Japan. The live-action One Piece adaptation is available on Netflix.
Published: Dec 10, 2024 12:00 pm