The emotional scene where Shanks gives Luffy his omnipresent straw hat in the first chapter of legendary shonen manga One Piece is no doubt seared into readers’ minds. But what if it was used in a goofy, slapstick comedy game à la those masochistic diversions that were all the rage around 2010? Wouldn’t that be something?
Fortunately for all us sickos, artist Tani Yurei did just that. In a video posted to Twitter earlier today, Tani demonstrates their creation set to dramatic music. Watch as happy-go-lucky captain “Red Hair” Shanks, fresh off losing his arm to a massive sea monster, tries to give a distraught Monkey D. Luffy his straw hat as consolation for not allowing the young, wannabe pirate to travel with him.
It almost feels like one of those ads meant to bait you into downloading a crappy mobile game with video of someone failing over and over again. And boy did it work on me.
Absentmindedly ignoring the threat of potential viruses, I clicked Tani’s link to the project file before also grabbing Algodoo, the 2D physics simulation program for which it was built. I was going to put that hat on Luffy’s head, dammit.
Upon first loading the One Piece game, I laughed as Shanks and Luffy were immediately crushed by its Japanese instructions. A quick Google translation of the text revealed the keyboard inputs for rotating Shanks’ ankle, knee, and waist as well as how to position his shoulder and elbow for optimal hat placement.
All that was left was to spend way too much time fussing over the controls, which required some creative finger positioning to lock Shanks’ various joints in place. And while I wasn’t interested in spending time perfectly recreating the manga panel, I made sure Luffy got the hat that’s been his trademark for the past 25 years.
Despite its immense global popularity, fans are still waiting for that one perfect One Piece video game adaptation. This definitely isn’t that game, but it’s a fun way to kill some time.
