‘If you go too dark, you don’t become ‘One Piece’: The director of Netflix’s newest hit breaks down the tricky tonal balance

How do you manage to bring the drama in a show that is as wacky and crazy as One Piece? Finding a way to keep the show’s buoyant spirit whilst also ensuring the stakes are high enough to create tension was a difficult tightrope to walk, but one of the series directors, Mark Jobst, opened up on exactly how they did it.

Adapted from the popular manga by Eiichiro Oda (which was also adapted into an anime) One Piece follows the story of Luffy and his crew, the Straw Hat Pirates, as he sets off to find the mythical titular treasure so he can be crowned the Pirate King. Western media has long suffered when it comes to trying to adapt anime, with Netflix’s prior attempts in Death Note and Cowboy Bebpop falling drastically short, but it looks like One Piece is here to break that cycle.

For Jobst it’s all about getting the tone right, especially when it comes to mixing the positive optimism of its main character – played by the charming Iñaki Godoy – with the darker elements of the piece, and by darker we mean the psychotic Buggy the Clown, played by Jeff Ward. Speaking to Variety, Jobst describes how they went about finding the balance.

“If you go too dark, you don’t become One Piece, If you go too funny and wacky and goofy, you lose the depth that One Piece has. And the more levity you bring, the darker you can actually go. So Nami and Zoro are still undecided about Luffy, this goofy character who seems a bit simplistic in every way — everything is fine and fantastic and amazing, even creatures like Buggy — and they’re not really providing a huge influx of joy and levity. But because we have Luffy to lend the levity, it allowed Buggy to go darker.”

Where Luffy may be all sunshine and smiles, Buggy, the other consumer of a Devil Fruit, most certainly is not (okay, he smiles, but his smiles are less joyful and more terrifying). Of the clown, Jobst stated, “The task with [adapting the character] Buggy was to both honor his clown [attitude], but never forget that he’s really dangerous and he has eaten the Devil Fruit,” he then adds, “Also, he has a history. There’s that big moment where he’s holding the straw hat and he’s saying, ‘Shanks,’ at the hat. He feels betrayed by him and then he turns to Luffy and says, ‘Did he betray you, too?'”

The ability to toe the line on the darkness of the show whilst also retaining its fun appeal has not been lost on critics who have praised the show for its energy. This marks one of the first anime adaptions for Netflix that has been well-received by both critics and audiences alike, receiving a whopping 82 percent on Rotten Tomatoes and an even more impressive 94 percent audience rating.

You can catch One Piece now available on Netflix.