More often than not, people base their choice of pairing on non-canon material. A lot of times anime directors/writers offer an interpretation of the plot and characters that conflicts with the manga or the author's vision, and when the anime starts including the intake of the author himself, the line between canon and filler gets blurry
To prevent such things from happening, here we offer official statements and sources to determine what material is reliable enough to be the basis for the analysis of LuNa and NaLu
As usual, the manga, and whatever the author writes, will be considered the true canon instead of the anime adaptation (with a couple of exceptions), and the novels (unless the author confirms any particular book to be canon to the story)
One Piece:
* During an interview in Saudi Arabia (2019), Shinji Shimizu (Managing Director of Toei Animation) stated: "Oda is a mangaka who thinks manga and anime are different stuffs"So, any anime-only shipping fuel (one of the difference between the manga and the anime adaptation, will not be factored in this blog). Still, it's worth noting that official statements confirmed Oda got involved in the episodes concerning the past of Luffy's brother with the revolutionaries during the Dressrosa arc.
However, as of January 2021, there's no confirmation of Oda getting involved in the adaptation of any other episode, not even the ones meant to promote the movie he wrote...
* Oda confirmed he wrote the story for One Piece Film: Strong World, here. Here's an interesting detail, the movie offers closure to the story of a canon character, a former rival of Gold Roger: Shiki the Golden Lion, who was first mentioned in chapter 530, and debuted in chapter 0
Plus more details from the interview for the Japanese Magainze SWITCH
* Oda returned only as Executive Producer for One Piece Film: Z, while Osamu Suzuki is credited as the writer Oda played a significant role in its development. A translated summary of an interview revealed that "Oda corrected the script hundreds of times." At those moments he'd complain "Luffy won't say such a thing." Summary and translation by Sandman from Arlong Park Forums
* Something similar happened with One Piece Film: Gold, with one small difference. Oda is credited as Executive Producer, yet he helped the director (Hiroaki Miyamoto), and the writer (Tsutomu Kuroiwa) in producing the story for the movie.
Tsutomu Kuroiwa made a reference to Oda's involvement: "The days I’ve spent discussing the movie with Oda and Miyamoto were some of my best. At times, we worked on the movie during takoyaki parties and barbecues, and it was as if I’d hopped onto a ship and ventured on a great voyage."
Hiroaki Miyamoto stated: "The numerous meetings I had with Kuroiwa and Oda were tough, but thanks to those we’ll be able to show you the Straw Hat crew at their coolest yet."
By that time, we find out that Oda made a 30-page long storyboard for the last 10 minutes of the movie...
https://twitter.com/AshitanoGin/status/793215809011212288
https://twitter.com/AshitanoGin/status/793390093444743168
In another interview, Miyamoto confirmed that they had to had to rework the climax following Oda's correction. Oda's storyboard featured a parallel between Luffy and Tesoro's past self (there are more details about this bit of the story in the "Volume 777")
* When it comes to One Piece: Stampede, things are quite different. Oda is neither credited as writer or even as Executive Producer. Instead he's just the Creative Supervisor for this movie. A columnist from Jump described how this change affected the movie: "You'll know this isn't part of the Film series just by watching it. There's something missing. An extra layer of shine an polish that only Oda can add (And this isn't a bad thing). As a perfectionist, Oda's water-tight stories can sometimes sacrifice entertainment value for character development"
Still, the role of Creative Supervisor allowed Oda to approve and/or reject ideas from the writers and the director of the movie
Note: While Oda played a significant role in the Film series, and wrote a spoilerish post-credit scene for Stampede, he played no part in the anime-only material promoting the movies. So, mini arcs such as Little East blue, Z's ambition, and Cidre Guild are not legitimate sources for any analyses in this blog
Fairy Tail:
There isn't much information available to confirm Mashima getting involved in the anime adaptation of Fairy Tail aside from...
* ...a reference to the anime arc, The Key of the Starry Sky, in the manga chapter 282
* The first Fairy Tail movie, Fairy Tail: Phoenix Priestess; while Masashi Sogo is credited as the writer, an official source from Japan confirmed Hiro Mashima worked in the movie as the "Story Planner" (the japanese term suggests he was the guy with the ideas for the movie)
Similar to Oda's "Strong World," having a manga chapter leading up to the movie (Chapter 0), Mashima even made a special manga chapter leading up to "Phoenix Priestess," entitled "Sunrise"
* For the 2nd movie, Fairy Tail: Dragon Cry, Mashima was requested to write it. However, according to a couple of interviews...
https://warlordgab.tumblr.com/post/170163005721/
https://thefairystales.tumblr.com/post/160333722057/
...he decided send a nearly 200-pages long manga storyboard for the movie with the lines included. There was so much content that not every detail made it to the movie. But, the point is, most of the movie was Mashima's work.
* The manga sequel, Fairy Tail: 100 Years Quest, chapter 6 turned a plot-point of the 2nd movie (the 4th generation of Dragon Slayers) canon to the manga, while chapter 37 shows that Natsu and his companions interacting with the central figure of the 1st movie (Éclair) is also canon to the manga
Rurmors:
- Back in 2007, there were rumors about Eiichiro Oda writing the filler arc commonly known as the Ice Hunter arc. However, no official source could confirm this claim
- Starting 2021, people were claiming Oda was overseeing the anime adaptation of Oden's flashback to make it a canon expantion of the manga. Such statements were based on mistranslations, and misinformation. No official source could confirm them
- In 2019, there were rumors about Hiro Mashima writing Acnologia's backstory for the final arc of the anime. However, no official source could confirm these claims
The Elephants in the room:
There are two official statements detractors of LuNa and NaLu love to throw:
* In the SBS Volume 34, Oda was asked "Doesn't anyone on Luffy's crew fall in love? Will there never be a tale of on-board romance? (Sanji is an exception in this case)" And his answer was: "But they do... They're all in love... WITH ADVENTURE."
Oda's response couple with his old comments of One Piece not conveying romance because it's a story aimed to a young male demographic, makes anti-shippers (as well as some hypocritical and shallow shippers) spread the claim of "romance" being forbidden for One Piece story or for the crew.
And yet they forget about Oda being the same guy who claimed he didn't like supposedly dead characters coming back to life, and still had Pell and Sabo coming back. The same guy who claimed 'romance isn't conveyed' when he had Sr. Pink and Russian romantic story to make a minor villain more deep and memorable. Not to mention the implications brough by the romantic background from One Piece Film: Gold. So, don't even bother making such claims here
* The 2016 comment about writing Natsu and Lucy "with a sense like more than friends, less than lovers" gets used by haters and detractors, despite the fact Mashima in more recent interviews had stated "I feel that the Natsu and Lucy ship is more suitable." And during a New York Comic Con, when asked what he feels is “right” in this regard Mashima held up his drawing of Natsu and Lucy as his response.
Long before making such a huge statment, it was revealed that Mashima even gave his blessing to the director of Fairy Tail: Phoenix Priestess to, in his own words, "develop [NaLu] a little in the movie. I tried to express Natsu’s feelings for Lucy, which go a little beyond friendship, through his gaze and movement."
Nedless to say, the manga sequel, Fairy Tail: 100 Years Quest, doesn't shy away from this question, as it had Natsu burning guys for flirting with Lucy (off-screen), getting fatherly over the potential daughter he could have with Lucy, and even Lucy having to come to terms with the future of their relationship if things were to go further. All properly contextualized through the revelation of none of them having experience with romantic love. So, don't bother going all ZN/Chris/Noel here...
Summary:
List of primary sources for One Piece pairing analyses:
- One Piece manga
- One Piece Film series (Strong World, Z, and Gold)
- Volume 0
- Volume 777
- Oda's original drafts/ideas/quotes (on a case-by-case basis)
- Usopp's Gallery (on a case-by-case basis)
List of primary sources for Fairy Tail pairing analyses:
- Fairy Tail manga (omakes and special chapters included)
- The Key of the Starry Sky arc (on a case-by-case basis)
- Fairy Tail movies (Phoenix Priestess, and Dragon Cry)
- Fairy Tail: 100 Years Quest
- Mashima's twitter (on a case-by-case basis)
