Netflix's 'One Piece' takes its female characters seriously by scaling back the sexy

• Netflix's "One Piece" recreates many outfits from the original anime and manga series.
• In the first season, Emily Rudd's Nami wears more reserved outfits than what fans are used to.

The costume designer for Netflix's new anime-inspired show "One Piece" told Insider that she was keen on keeping the series' innocence intact when creating costumes for the show.

Last month, Netflix released its live-action adaptation of "One Piece," a popular manga that was previously adapted into a long-running anime series with over 1,000 episodes. Scantily clad female characters are a common trend within animes like "One Piece," and the anime version of Nami was no exception.

In the anime, Nami begins the story in more reserved outfits before donning increasingly revealing looks as the adventures continue. However, in the first season of Netflix's live-action show, Nami (Emily Rudd) has yet to have that transformation.

Diana Cilliers, who designed the costumes for the Netflix series, spoke to Insider about her process.

Cilliers told Insider that putting Rudd in more reserved outfits wasn't exactly a conscious decision, but that there was certainly an awareness of the changes made to the character's look.

According to Cilliers, the costume team "tried very hard to keep the balance of the innocence and purity" of "One Piece," while simultaneously not taking anything away from the plot.

Cilliers added that while they initially gave Rudd short skirts in some of her costumes, they wanted to focus on Nami's nurturing personality in the Netflix series. In the first season, despite having doubts about joining Luffy (Iñaki Godoy) and his pirate crew, Nami tries to guide the Straw Hat Pirates.

"Nami was, in a way, the big sister," Cilliers said. "Instead of being in any way elaborate or flaunting herself, she was not that kind of character at all. She was nurturing everyone around her."

"One Piece" is not the first Netflix live-action series to change the outfits of iconic female characters. In the case of "One Piece," fans largely praised how all the costumes were inspired by the source material. This contrasts significantly with the reception the 2021 Netflix adaptation "Cowboy Bebop" received before its premiere for giving Faye Valentine (Daniella Pineda) more reserved clothing.

Both Pineda and the "Cowboy Bebop" costume designer Jane Holland defended the decision, with Holland telling Insider at the time: "I do have to say, as a woman, I felt resistant to the idea of the lead female character being gratuitous or overtly sexualized. It's not about it not being revealing, it's not about any of that, it's actually got all of those elements. But my take on it is that it's designed by a woman and it was made by a lot of women, and it's worn by a woman. So the same elements are there but they have just manifested in a different way."

Netflix's "One Piece" is available now on Netflix.