Did You Know? Mackenyu Arata Fought 100 Extras in Epic “One Piece” Battle Scene

One Piece is back for a new season and it’s already at the top of Netflix charts. The anime adaptation has no shortage of epic fight scenes, but one that definitely stood out to audiences was Roronoa Zoro’s 1-vs-100 bout in episode three.

Mackenyu Arata spoke about the action-packed sequence in an interview. There, he revealed that the show actually employed 100 extras to play the Baroque Works agents attempting to take down the green-haired swordsman in Whiskey Peak. According to Mackenyu, he personally insisted for there to be 100 men, certain that the show’s eagle-eyed fans would notice. “I told them it’s gotta be a hundred. They’re gonna count them,” he said.

With the sheer amount of moving parts needed to nail the choreographed throwdown, it took them eight days to finish filming the entire 15-minute scene. To make things more difficult, Mackenyu was only given a day, or six hours to be exact, to learn and practice his every move, all while nursing a broken finger.

"It was a challenge. I've never been so challenged in my life, given little time for a huge sequence," said the actor in an interview with blackfilmandtv. “But thankfully, with my skills, I was able to accomplish. It is super fun to watch. I'm so happy how it turned out. Koji Kawamoto, the stunt coordinator, did a great job. We actually watched it together and we gave each other high fives."

If that one scene is any indication, Netflix is definitely pulling out all the stops for One Piece budget-wise. An article by Forbes estimates each episode to cost around $18 million or over P1 billion, making it the most expensive Netflix show yet. There’s no doubt the streamer is confident in its success for the foreseeable future, with season 3 currently being filmed and projected to release around August of next year.