It’s time.
I’ve been meaning to talk about this thing since we saw the first trailer (ok, let’s be honest, the announcement of this being greenlit), but i mostly held off because i didn’t want to speculate much but just actually watch the show and then judge it accordingly to what it actually is and NOT what it might or might not turn out to be, as much pontificating on widely distributed promotional material is the bread and butter of this job here, especially when you have to appease the “content God”.
And since we’re being more upfront than usual, yes, i was preparing me own buckets of tar and feathers, even as the trailers close to release did make one wonder if maybe this time we don’t have a huge manga-to-live action stinker, i mean, it comes from the same production studio that gave us the rightfully despised Cowboy Bebop live action shitwreck, let us not forget that.
The trust was not there, at least not for me, despite Oda being vocally supportive and letting it more than know this was not just a random gig he lazily supervised in terms of actual involvement, but that he indeed wanted this to happen for a long time and was excited about this thing, he really wanted for it to work.
I mean, after Franky’s timeskip design…and him helping rehabilitating colleagues (let alone his sensei Nobuhiro “Maybe A CP Ringmaster” Watsuki) of his that in a better world would not have returned with a new serialization on Jump.
Leaving THAT hornets’ nest aside, he was never gonna advocate against it, or something stupid like that, but i did question why he was so hyped about something everyone almost immediatly catalogued as a write-off thing that they’d bring up years later as a “that was weird” kind of story.
So at the very end of August the One Piece live action Netflix series was made available on the plaftorm, composed of eight 45 to 60 minutes long episodes composing the first season, which covers from the very beginning at Shells Town (with Foosha Village visited via flashbacks of young Luffy with Shanks and his crew) up to the conclusion of the Arlong Park arc.
I saw it, and i was pleasantly surprised, i genuinely expected to either hate or just kinda tolerate this live action adaptation of my favourite shonen manga series ever… but i felt bamboozled upon realizing halfway through the series, that i wasn’t seeing this out of a professional obligation i’ve embarked upon, i was genuinely digging… the live action Netflix One Piece series.
As of why, it’s because this adaptation did what previously was thought impossible for these big budget live action adaptation of animated material…. actually CARE about the source material, respect it instead of treating everything non-american (or not Hollywood coded) as something that has to be “fixed” of anything that makes the property appealing and popular to begin with if it treatens to “scare the normies” or whatever stupid preconception of this ilk.
Which is extra baffling as the same studio from the awful Cowboy Bebop’s Netflix live action shitfest is involved, as “Netflix’s One Piece” actually it’s the perfect polar opposite, made by people that love and care for the series, in earnest, casted accordingly so you have actors that fit the role and you can just tell were genuinely enthusiastic about the opportunity to play the many goofy, odd and wonderful weird characters that One Piece offers, and committ to the source material to better represent in live action form.
Instead of showing barely masked contempt for it every chance, through either bastardization or keeping in some elements only so a character can do snarky quip about them for more than half of the episode lenghts, if that doesn’t continue in the following crap writers that hate anime think would be better, regardless of how dissonant, annoying or random it feels to even general audiences. Let alone people that know what the original material was.
If this was written like “Netflix’s Cowboy Bepop”, Garp would show up with his dog hoodie on top of what it’s otherwise a sober Navy style uniform, and you’d bet either it would be played for laughs or the quirky character would make fun of the dog hoodie for the rest of the entire series, not giving it a single rest since because of insincere ironic detachment that belies a false sense of superiority.
Instead no, that scene is played straight because One Piece IS like that, goofy, weird, absurd, but sure as hell it’s proud of its world where elderly goverment official can bombard ships with cannonballs but just skip the need for a cannon, the bare hands will fuckin do, or its emotional moments that can work in spite of goofy designs or ridiculous villains and situations.
In terms of sticking to source material, this adaptation does change a non insignificant amount of things (for example Garp is involved directly as soon as after the Shells Town events), it features some slightly different characterization and original scenes (Bagy is played more as a Joaquin Phoenix style Joker, while still being a small fry), many minor (and sometimes not that minor) characters are excised, but instead of feeling like “betrayal” of the source material, it’s more like a pleasant take that honestly would fit in, and regardless, it’s a welcome variation/take of events, a different direction at times but not a bad one, at all.
It’s its own thing, which i often ask of these adaptations, i mean, it’s never gonna be exactly the same, so might as well invent some new material, you can and to a certain extent you must take some liberties, but it has to feel like it could fit, it has to capture the spirit and/or tone of the original work it rework for a different format and medium.
And this adaptation DOES manages to capture the spirit of the manga/anime series, with decent-to-good writing (which does take many liberties also due to the format chosen), with the side-effect of making one appreciate early One Piece even more and how already “developed” it started out.
Though you have to understand that this is through and through a Netflix adaptation/version of a manga/anime series, which means here that they went with 8 long (almost feature lenght) episodes that feel like mini-movies and basically compact a lot of narration, and sometimes it feels TOO compressed, even for the format/platform in question and the kind of pacing it promotes/encourages.
I understand they pretty much went ahead and press the “hyper digest” button on the narrative because the Netflix audience has been trained that way, but in some istances it feels like they could have relented a bit, while some of the choices do make more sense in the context of this first season being 8 episodes long, they can’t afford to have the Luffy-Koby friendship reemerge after years, so many plot points are revealed or connected together almost immediatly, like Garp’s relationship to Luffy, to make a couple of examples.
AGAIN, kinda necessary when your first season is 8 episodes, but still, in some cases maybe it would have been better to rein in the story editing and supercompression, like Don Krieg is technically in the series… but also really isn’t, sure, it’s one of the many jokes/references for the older fans, like, Don Krieg it’s a minor villain, who cares about him really when we have Arlong.
I mean, i’m not ragging too much on this because this is nothing new, another example is the Shaman King new anime series for the platform/service, and how it pretty much summed up a volume every episode, or close to that, and while i eventually dropped out of watching the One Piece anime seriesbecause of the pacing issues it had…. i still am not too fond of this modern insane tendency of wanting to experience a long running series but avoid the logical kind of time commitment that would require, and the compromise monsters it breeds, even if it’s true not everyone is willing or able to start reading such a long-running series.
But then again, nobody forces you and you can actually take your fuckin time as you wish, IF you actually wish to START reading/watching One Piece. If you don’t, don’t.
I mean, Oda is gonna make bank anyway, do whatever you like, for real.
On a less contentious side, the casting – as already hinted at – it’s quite good, surprisingly good,, honestly i have absolutely no qualms, everyone its perfect (Mackenyu as Zoro it’s arguably the “most perfect-est”), though it’s kinda funny that live-action Shanks gives off huge Ryan Gosling vibes, and at this moment in time i can’t help but think he’s more than Kenough.
Heck, there’s even Vincent Regan of 300, Troy and Clash Of The Titans fame as Garp, which of course has his own “telephone slug” device, rendered in a creepy-ish realistic fashion, but still with the likeness of their owner/speakers!
Sure, there is still some kinda questionable choice of dialogues here and there,the script it’s not incredible or anything, but overall the show quickly and fully embraces One Piece’s style and profound goofiness that doesn’t bar emotional or cool moments from landing, how the extreme weirdness can coexist with these tearjearking backstories (which in retrospective are surprisingly down to earth, at least in the East Blue saga/arc).
It embraces itself, never being ashamed of what it is, though it still has all the irks and quirks of making a live action show about a very over the top, weird and goofy shonen manga, as in the CG for the various effects and Devil Fruits, and various non-human characters like the fishmen being a mix of obvious prostethic and CG that’s both ridiculous but also kinda creepy. Or goofy. Or both.
It helps that this first season just covers up to Arlong Park, kinda hard to imagine Chopper in this style and context, to say nothing of Morgan’s metallic jaw, just clearly lots of designs that “betray” the show being adaptated from a comic book, which isn’t bad per se but are just so obvious in a live action context. They were always gonna be, after all.
Speaking of which, the CG is not bad… at times, it’s mostly what you’d expect but also a bit better, sometimes good. Kinda inconsistent in terms of quality, but even if that was better to a significant degree, it would still look kinda uncanny again, due to the rendition of cartoon style fights, designs, powers and such with real life actors and sets.
Regardless, you get used to it and it can be forgiven since the mise en scene it’s surprisingly good, and they didn’t cheapen out, like we could see from the trailer they actually went and shot it with real ships and real ports for the sets (which also hide some neat little references for fans to spot), which are gorgeous, love them.
What IS disappointing is the musical score, kinda lukewarm at best, yes, it’s a tall order to live up to the compositions Maiyumi Tanaka did for the anime serie, but come on, did the title theme had to sound like a legally distinct riff of the one from the Pirates Of The Caribbean movies?
It’s not a good start, that doesn’t mean the score it’s bad, it’s not, but it’s also kinda unremarkable as well, you know? It’s perfectly serviceable for a pirate themed adventure series, but it had to be more given the series it adapts. I mean, it not surprising there are symphonic versions of the anime series opening themes scattered here and there, i would be surprised if there weren’t, but overall, the original musical score it’s ok, just doesn’t live up to the high standards set by the anime series.
“Live Action One Piece” is by far the best of these Netflix live-action adaptation of manga/animes thanks to the fact the show itself it’s actually decent (even good, it could be argued) and – i can’t believe i’m saying this – it’s fun, it’s got heart put into it as well as effort in production, the real sets with ships shot for real and not just 100 % CG-ed into existence alone helps tremendously in making it all feel alive, but there’s also the fact it’s tremendously sincere and not cynical to feel edgy in order to spite or “improve” the source material.
It’s silly, it’s emotional, it’s shonen manga as it gets, and that why people love the series.
I was flabbergasted by the fact i did genuinely want to see how they portrayed many iconic scenes, what they added or changed in order to compress arcs into a couple of 45 to 60 minutes episodes, because what they invented actually feel like something that could have happened in the real series, it’s not random or dissonant, and even odder it’s a bonus for long time fans of the series that get to see the classic scenes and confrontations but also something new they did for this iteration.
Also, it’s a good gateway “item” for people that otherwise wouldn’t have touched the anime/manga… to do so, and it’s actually working, which it’s insane as it what the people behind previous bad-to-questionable Netflix live action adaptations of anime/manga said, lying through their teeth at worst, being delusional at best, because no one is gonna be interested in the source material if you bring them shit on a platter. It’s just gonna kill all interest it might have been there.
The curse it’s broken, and even if the superfast pacing and compression of the arc does the narrative no favors, honestly i’m looking forward to see them adapt more of the arcs (and of course it ends on the “barrel oath” scene but also teasing a certain chasing fellow), that alone it’s more than a glowing recommendation for a Netflix live action adaptation of an anime series.
Putting it another way: THE ONE PIECE IS REAL!
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