During the “Toei 2022 Lineup Presentation”, held on Feb 3, 2022, Toei animation producer Shinji Shimizu revealed that Eiichiro Oda had put forward two requests as executive producer of the One Piece Film: Red, one of them being, female characters given important role in the film.

Shimizu opened up during the event saying he had difficulty creating a scenario where he could highlight the female roles. However, thanks to scriptwriter Tsutomu Kuroiwa (One Piece Film Gold (Movie 13); One Piece: Heart of Gold), they found a solution to the problem.

He said, “Scriptwriter Tsutomu Kuroiwa put it together and put it into shape.”

Regarding the other request, Oda had asked Toei’s producer to find a famous director who was never involved in the One Piece TV series.

As per this, Shimizu contacted Code Geass director Gorou Taniguchi about the project, and since the author and he are acquaintances, Taniguchi got an “OK” from Oda right away.

In fact, since outside directors usually don’t participate in the Toei Animation projects, Shimizu feels a “good chemistry” is in the making. He feels the final product might be something of high quality than the previous films.

Furthermore, the presentation revealed that author Eiichiro Oda will be involved more than ever in Red compared to One Piece Film: Strong World.

One Piece Film Red will release on Aug 6, 2022 in Japan.

According to the teaser, the release schedule may differ in other countries depending on their location.

The anime adaptation of Eiichiro Oda’s One Piece manga premiered in 1999. The 100th manga volume shipped on Sept 3, 2021. Oda published the 1,000th chapter in this year’s combined 5th/6th issue of Weekly Shonen Jump magazine on Jan 4, 2022.

Source: Comic Natalie