Why Was Chouchou's Story Cut from Netflix's One Piece Adaptation?

Summary

• Chouchou was the major character of the Orange Town Arc.
• However, he did not appear in the live-action series.
• His storyline was cut in favor of other characters.

Even though the manga's creator, Eiichiro Oda, was involved in the production process of the One Piece live-action show, fans of the story about the adventures of the Straw Hat Pirates were still incredibly worried about how well the adaptation would turn out.

After all, Netflix had a notorious reputation, as their live-action projects often turned out to be a total slap in the face to fans and showed utter disrespect for the source materials. Nevertheless, the live-action adaptation of One Piece proved to be an instant hit on Netflix, garnering critical and audience acclaim.

However, the writers took a number of creative liberties that only benefited the story. For example, viewers appreciated the much larger roles that Monkey D. Garp (Vincent Regan) and Koby (Morgan Davies) played in the story. However, the show still missed an opportunity to spotlight a fan-favorite character from the Orange Town Arc — a dog named Chouchou.

The Live Action of One Piece Robbed Us of a Great Character

Although Netflix's One Piece Season 1 brought Orange Town into focus by introducing the clown pirate Buggy (Jeff Ward) to the story, both the town itself and the events within it still underwent a number of changes.

For example, the manga introduced Nami (Emily Rudd) in this particular arc. Also, the live-action adaptation did not show a member of Buggy's crew, the lion Richie, that Luffy (Iñaki Godoy) fought, and there were no flashbacks to when Buggy and Shanks (Peter Gadiot) were friends and members of the same crew.

The city itself, however, has undergone a much more significant change. In both the manga and the anime, most of the inhabitants had left the island to escape the pirates, and the buildings of Orange Town were not razed to the ground. This is the main difference between the series and the original, as the former did not feature the pet food shop guarded by a dog named Chouchou, even though its owner and shopkeeper, Hocker, was dead.

Chouchou was not only a staunch ally of the Straw Hat Pirates in Orange Town, but also one of the most popular characters among fans. Also, in the story, the shop is destroyed by Richie and its owner Mohji, so Luffy takes revenge on them to protect Chouchou's cherished memory.

Why Was Chouchou's Story Cut from the Show?

Actually, Chouchou does appear in the Netflix series for a split second at the end of the episode, running toward the camera. However, he plays no role in the plot of the live-action adaptation, and is just an ordinary local dog rejoicing at the liberation of the town.

According to co-showrunner Steven Maeda, Chouchou was supposed to be given a much more prominent role, but it was decided to abandon that in favor of other storylines:

'I'll tell you a story about [Chouchou] that I have not told anybody else yet! We had a fully broken [Chouchou] story. It was slightly different than the manga story. At the end of the day, we ended up separating it out of this version of the story, and we never actually shot it. We had a scene and an arc with [Chouchou] and Zoro, and it was very different. And ultimately, we decided it was too different.

We would have loved to have the [Chouchou] story in there, but it's more important to have Zoro be with Luffy and Nami when they are encountering Buggy as opposed to being off on a separate side story. I love [Chouchou], and I have three terriers of my own. So, I definitely have a soft spot for the [Chouchou] story.'

One Piece Season 2 is expected to be released in 2025 at the earliest.

Source: Screen Rant.