Netflix's live action adaptation of One Piece hit the streaming service today, and I just watched the first episode. Now, there has been a number of live action anime adaptations on Netflix already and pretty much none of them were based on series that were seemingly as adverse to live action as One Piece. Let's be honest, the series is pretty ridiculous and outlandish, not to mention incredibly long and full of events and set pieces that just would not translate to live action well. So this series had everything stacked against it from the get go.
Which is why I'm still scratching my head at how on earth they managed to pull this off.
I'm not sure if non-fans will get into the series, I'd be interested in seeing some feedback from absolute newbies on what they think of this adaptation, especially compared to other live action animes. But just speaking as a long-time fan of One Piece, this had no business being as solid as it is. They went hard on the costuming and the set design, the music is good, the changes they made for the sake of the difference in pacing all seem to work, and the fight choreography is.... well, it's fine. We'll see how they handle the more elaborate fights later on.
So yeah, I don't know if this will have legs or if it'll just be a one and done season before being canceled, but at the very least it comes out swinging.
Some notable changes/differences from the source material for the fans:
Which is why I'm still scratching my head at how on earth they managed to pull this off.
I'm not sure if non-fans will get into the series, I'd be interested in seeing some feedback from absolute newbies on what they think of this adaptation, especially compared to other live action animes. But just speaking as a long-time fan of One Piece, this had no business being as solid as it is. They went hard on the costuming and the set design, the music is good, the changes they made for the sake of the difference in pacing all seem to work, and the fight choreography is.... well, it's fine. We'll see how they handle the more elaborate fights later on.
So yeah, I don't know if this will have legs or if it'll just be a one and done season before being canceled, but at the very least it comes out swinging.
Some notable changes/differences from the source material for the fans:
They change Alvida's overall demenour a bit, she now claims to be the most powerful pirate of the sea instead of the most beautiful, which is honestly a welcome change since 'haha fat woman thinks she's beautiful' was cringe in 1997, much less now.
We straight up see Zoro being recruited by Mr. 7 (former) of Baroque works, which is a hell of a thing to drop in the first episode. We do know they tried to recruit Zoro but I don't think we saw it in the anime. If we get a second season this will pay off so I appreciate them setting it up and showing they mean business.
We see a lot of Garp pretty early on, which is interesting. I wonder if the show will reveal him being Luffy's grandfather earlier than expected? It was a stronger reveal at the end of the Enies Lobby arc, but let's be honest it would be a miracle if the show made it that far so I can't be too upset if they drop that nugget of info early.
During one of Luffy's flashbacks we hear Bink's Sake playing at the local bar, neat!
The end credits map reveal the kingdom Windmill Village is a part of is called Goa, which is not a name that gets dropped in the anime until much later, so the show runners really bent over backwards to get all their facts right, which I appreciate.
We straight up see Zoro being recruited by Mr. 7 (former) of Baroque works, which is a hell of a thing to drop in the first episode. We do know they tried to recruit Zoro but I don't think we saw it in the anime. If we get a second season this will pay off so I appreciate them setting it up and showing they mean business.
We see a lot of Garp pretty early on, which is interesting. I wonder if the show will reveal him being Luffy's grandfather earlier than expected? It was a stronger reveal at the end of the Enies Lobby arc, but let's be honest it would be a miracle if the show made it that far so I can't be too upset if they drop that nugget of info early.
During one of Luffy's flashbacks we hear Bink's Sake playing at the local bar, neat!
The end credits map reveal the kingdom Windmill Village is a part of is called Goa, which is not a name that gets dropped in the anime until much later, so the show runners really bent over backwards to get all their facts right, which I appreciate.