At the moment, it’s unclear what sort of changes Netflix’s The One Piece will make to the original story, but there’s one character the show would certainly benefit from including: Uta. While One Piece Film Red and episodes 1030 and 1031 established how important Uta is to Luffy, Shanks, and the overarching narrative, Uta’s presence is cheapened by how poorly she’s been inserted into One Piece‘s canon by only having a small cameo in the Wano arc.

With that in mind, it would be great if The One Piece took the time to better incorporate Uta into canon, and it would be easy enough to do.

Why Netflix’s One Piece Reboot Needs To Include Uta

Uta plays a crucial role in who Luffy is, and to Shanks’ legacy

The main reason why The One Piece needs to include Uta comes down to how much of a part she played in Luffy and Shanks’ development. For Shanks, making him a father added a new angle to his character that hadn’t been seen before, and the lengths Shanks went to protect Uta in One Piece Film Red added a level of depth to him that no other story has done before. It would be great to see some of that at least be alluded to, so it would make sense for The One Piece to try and include Uta in some way.

For Luffy, specifically, Uta’s presence is important for how it ties into some of the key aspects of his character. Not only is it heavily implied that Luffy’s old insistence on wanting a musician over anyone else stemmed from his friendship with Uta, but Uta’s desire to create a new era with her singing formed the basis of Luffy’s mysterious dream, so their friendship was a crucial component for Luffy being the way he is in One Piece. Uta’s presence retroactively added a lot of depth to the series, and as such, it would make a lot of sense for The One Piece to include her in some fashion.

How Netflix’s One Piece Reboot Can Make Uta Canon

Wit Studio and Netflix have the opportunity to do the character justice

It’s easy enough to see how important a character Uta is, and it would be easy enough for The One Piece to firmly establish her as canon. As previously discussed, even with how little is known about The One Piece, it can be assumed that it will cover the East Blue saga, and that, of course, would include Luffy’s childhood. As such, The One Piece could simply start at the point when Uta was still around to show how and why she became such an important part of Luffy’s life, and doing so from the very start would do a lot to firmly work her into One Piece‘s canon.

Of course, even if The One Piece does manage to better include Uta, that technically doesn’t change anything about how she’s handled in the main story. The One Piece won’t be seen as the new canon for the franchise, so whatever it does with Uta, if anything at all, it won’t change how her current canon status is poorly conceived at best. Even so, with how vital a character is to Luffy and Shanks’ characters and One Piece‘s narrative, as a whole, The One Piece would more than benefit from better including her in canon, and it would be great to see something like that happen upon the show’s release.