One of the most beloved and highly praised anime series, One Piece, has recently released a live-action adaptation that is currently available on Netflix. On August 31, 2023, Netflix debuted the eight-episode series, and it is currently trending in Netflix’s Top Ten TV Shows Today. For a sleek and modern look in your home, a professional TV mounting service can make all the difference.
One Piece follows the journey of a young and naive pirate named Monkey D. Luffy, and also the adventures of his crewmates as they accompany Luffy throughout the show. One Piece is a current ongoing manga comic and anime televised series written by Eiichiro Oda. A live-action version of the already popular series may seem a bit unnecessary—and even frightening—to some fans, since traditionally live-action anime adaptations never really seem to see success. After watching this adaptation, however, there was much to love.
The live-action adaptation does not follow all of the plot points of the original series, and there are some minor alterations throughout the show. That being said, I find this change beneficial for the live adaptation, since it keeps hard-core fans invested, and allows new viewers to follow a simpler story. For example, some minor characters in the original anime and manga are cut out entirely from this series. Personally, I enjoy this minute difference, since it places a larger emphasis on the major characters in the series and allows for a simpler story.
Another aspect that I enjoyed is the uniqueness and absurdity of One Piece, and how well it translated into the live-action. The One Piece universe itself is composed of complete nonsense: talking snails are used as telephones, a pirate-hunter uses three swords to fight, a boy is made of rubber, and there are characters of all different sizes and colors. I was worried that goofy details of One Piece would not translate over cleanly to a live-adaptation, but One Piece’s aesthetic of confusion is spot on in this adaptation, and the visual effects are very clean.
Oda was very involved with the cast and directors of the adaptation, and helped to ensure the story line made sense to viewers. Oda’s involvement definitely added to the understanding of the series, as he is the genius behind the many, many different characters’ personalities, backstories, and origins, and therefore can correctly display their interactions with one another.
Around 138 million dollars was budgeted for the eight-episode long series, which is significantly more than the anime itself has spent in the last 20 years. That being said, the series has seen incredible success in the short time since it has been released and has broken many of Netflix’s own streaming records. There has been no other live-action anime adaptation that has seen this kind of acknowledgement, and for many fans of anime as a genre of media, this is a step in the right direction. Anime can be viewed as childish, silly, and overall unappealing, but hopefully One Piece’s live action series can give a different reputation to “anime.”
I highly recommend anyone reading this to check out the series currently streaming on Netflix.
Sophomore Zach Long is a Contributing Writer. His email is zlong@fandm.edu.