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One Piece Live Action
I watched the One Piece live action Netflix show last night. Actually, I was just going to check in on a few minutes to see what the live action characters were like, and sort of ... ended up watching the whole thing.
(There was a lot of skipping around, though - I basically speed-watched it due to not feeling any particular need to watch a lot of the individual scenes, like all the flashbacks - though the kid versions of the characters were super cute! - and the whole Buggy arc, and eventually I started skipping most of the fights. So essentially I watched 8 episodes in about 3-4 hours.)
But it was genuinely really fun! It's been ages since I read the manga/watched the anime, but I think if you don't know One Piece at all, you'd be able to watch this without being even slightly confused; they really do almost a shot-for-shot staging of the manga at some points, and all the major character arcs are in there and nicely developed. The live action version goes through the end of the Arlong arc, which actually is a great place for a season break and also (coincidentally) was *exactly* how much of the anime the fansubbers had gotten around to when I watched it the first time, give or take a couple episodes, so this ends very close to my stopping point the first time I watched it.
Production values are really excellent (though I do think the fight scenes are kind of lackluster, poorly choreographed or *something*; those were the only times when it started looking like cosplay to me) and the cast are incredibly charming. I really liked that they went with a multiracial cast and a lot of different accents, which fits well with the setting and the original.
Spoiler thoughts follow (most of which are just musings on changes from the manga/anime vs this, so not likely to provide a lot of additional information if you aren't familiar with it).
They had to really cut down the material to get all the way through the Arlong arc in the time they had, but overall I was happy with most of it and didn't feel like much that mattered was missing. The only place where it really feels to me like we lost something was in Nami's arc, which feels rushed even if you don't know there's a lot that got cut; she basically does an antagonist-to-friend speedrun. Though it does actually work *emotionally*, I feel; most of what she did to "prove" herself doesn't actually happen, so it's just Luffy accepting her as his friend because he's already decided she's his friend - but that's more or less the reason in the original too, it was just that she did more along the way to demonstrate that she was trying to work against Arlong and for them.
I actually liked Sanji, and Sanji's introduction to the crew, possibly better in this one?? I don't actually like Sanji in the manga/anime all that much, the lecher thing is hard to take and I just don't really enjoy his food-related schtick all that much; he's easily my least favorite of the OG crew. But he was *immensely* charming in the live-action version; the actor's little vulnerable smiles are the cutest, and I think his more low-key introduction to the crew here worked perfectly - he essentially comes on board because he helps them and cooks for them and they just like him, as opposed to doing anything dramatic to prove himself, and I liked that a lot.
Another thing I really liked about the adaptation is that the Coby and Helmeppo subplot (honestly one of my favorite surprises in the original, I really didn't expect it and loved where they went) is interwoven with the early arcs with the pirates, so you actually do get them all throughout the first season, albeit a bit differently, and they've bonded by the end of season one.
The dialogue delivery was also really good and I feel like they did a seamless job of translating the entire feel and humor of the original into a different language while also writing enough new banter to keep it funny and fresh. I especially liked some of the scenes with the crew and particularly Sanji and Zoro, which wasn't even a character relationship I pinged on much in the original because I didn't like Sanji all that much, but by this point I'd started to really enjoy live-action Sanjji and the live-action version clearly is leaning into the rivalshipping dynamic with them. ("New guy carries the clown head!") And honestly the amount of cursing, smoking, etc really surprised me in a good way - they didn't tone any of it down, they're clearly aiming for a teen-to-college audience and not a kid audience, Sanji still smokes and there are strong hints that we're getting Smoker in the next season (with his entire power set), characters call each other shitheads and there's at least one "fuck."
I was honestly astounded at how much of the Weird Shit they kept in the live-action version, which was ... pretty much all of it, from the snailphones to the absolutely *batshit* designs of some of the background characters (the guy with fluffy ears and whiskers on his Marines uniform ...) and even little things like the distinctive way Kaya's evil butler pushes up his glasses with his gloved hand. Like I said earlier, one of the few things I really didn't like were the fight scenes feeling kind of "staged", and I think a big part of this is that they were actually staging them heavily after the manga/animated version and it just didn't really work in live action; at least some of it came off looking a bit clumsy and silly, especially in the Arlong climactic fight scene and the Zoro-Mihawk fight. I think it might've worked better if they had ditched some of the manga staging and made it more naturalistic.
Seeing live-action version of weird sets like the Baratie and Arlong Park and the Marine headquarters was really pretty amazing, though. I think the Baratie might have been the one I liked best, just because it felt so much like a real place, especially the docks and boardwalks over ocean with people just walking around.
So basically yeah, I loved it a lot and I'm hoping for a second season. I'd love to see live-action versions of Smoker, Tashigi, Vivi, and (if we get that far) the Water 7 characters. My only real kinda-sorta ship for the manga/anime version was Iceberg/Frankie, so I'm curious if they'd still murder me softly in live-action versions; the casting so far has been so excellent that I don't want to get my hopes up too much AND YET this show could probably do them pretty well.
(There was a lot of skipping around, though - I basically speed-watched it due to not feeling any particular need to watch a lot of the individual scenes, like all the flashbacks - though the kid versions of the characters were super cute! - and the whole Buggy arc, and eventually I started skipping most of the fights. So essentially I watched 8 episodes in about 3-4 hours.)
But it was genuinely really fun! It's been ages since I read the manga/watched the anime, but I think if you don't know One Piece at all, you'd be able to watch this without being even slightly confused; they really do almost a shot-for-shot staging of the manga at some points, and all the major character arcs are in there and nicely developed. The live action version goes through the end of the Arlong arc, which actually is a great place for a season break and also (coincidentally) was *exactly* how much of the anime the fansubbers had gotten around to when I watched it the first time, give or take a couple episodes, so this ends very close to my stopping point the first time I watched it.
Production values are really excellent (though I do think the fight scenes are kind of lackluster, poorly choreographed or *something*; those were the only times when it started looking like cosplay to me) and the cast are incredibly charming. I really liked that they went with a multiracial cast and a lot of different accents, which fits well with the setting and the original.
Spoiler thoughts follow (most of which are just musings on changes from the manga/anime vs this, so not likely to provide a lot of additional information if you aren't familiar with it).
They had to really cut down the material to get all the way through the Arlong arc in the time they had, but overall I was happy with most of it and didn't feel like much that mattered was missing. The only place where it really feels to me like we lost something was in Nami's arc, which feels rushed even if you don't know there's a lot that got cut; she basically does an antagonist-to-friend speedrun. Though it does actually work *emotionally*, I feel; most of what she did to "prove" herself doesn't actually happen, so it's just Luffy accepting her as his friend because he's already decided she's his friend - but that's more or less the reason in the original too, it was just that she did more along the way to demonstrate that she was trying to work against Arlong and for them.
I actually liked Sanji, and Sanji's introduction to the crew, possibly better in this one?? I don't actually like Sanji in the manga/anime all that much, the lecher thing is hard to take and I just don't really enjoy his food-related schtick all that much; he's easily my least favorite of the OG crew. But he was *immensely* charming in the live-action version; the actor's little vulnerable smiles are the cutest, and I think his more low-key introduction to the crew here worked perfectly - he essentially comes on board because he helps them and cooks for them and they just like him, as opposed to doing anything dramatic to prove himself, and I liked that a lot.
Another thing I really liked about the adaptation is that the Coby and Helmeppo subplot (honestly one of my favorite surprises in the original, I really didn't expect it and loved where they went) is interwoven with the early arcs with the pirates, so you actually do get them all throughout the first season, albeit a bit differently, and they've bonded by the end of season one.
The dialogue delivery was also really good and I feel like they did a seamless job of translating the entire feel and humor of the original into a different language while also writing enough new banter to keep it funny and fresh. I especially liked some of the scenes with the crew and particularly Sanji and Zoro, which wasn't even a character relationship I pinged on much in the original because I didn't like Sanji all that much, but by this point I'd started to really enjoy live-action Sanjji and the live-action version clearly is leaning into the rivalshipping dynamic with them. ("New guy carries the clown head!") And honestly the amount of cursing, smoking, etc really surprised me in a good way - they didn't tone any of it down, they're clearly aiming for a teen-to-college audience and not a kid audience, Sanji still smokes and there are strong hints that we're getting Smoker in the next season (with his entire power set), characters call each other shitheads and there's at least one "fuck."
I was honestly astounded at how much of the Weird Shit they kept in the live-action version, which was ... pretty much all of it, from the snailphones to the absolutely *batshit* designs of some of the background characters (the guy with fluffy ears and whiskers on his Marines uniform ...) and even little things like the distinctive way Kaya's evil butler pushes up his glasses with his gloved hand. Like I said earlier, one of the few things I really didn't like were the fight scenes feeling kind of "staged", and I think a big part of this is that they were actually staging them heavily after the manga/animated version and it just didn't really work in live action; at least some of it came off looking a bit clumsy and silly, especially in the Arlong climactic fight scene and the Zoro-Mihawk fight. I think it might've worked better if they had ditched some of the manga staging and made it more naturalistic.
Seeing live-action version of weird sets like the Baratie and Arlong Park and the Marine headquarters was really pretty amazing, though. I think the Baratie might have been the one I liked best, just because it felt so much like a real place, especially the docks and boardwalks over ocean with people just walking around.
So basically yeah, I loved it a lot and I'm hoping for a second season. I'd love to see live-action versions of Smoker, Tashigi, Vivi, and (if we get that far) the Water 7 characters. My only real kinda-sorta ship for the manga/anime version was Iceberg/Frankie, so I'm curious if they'd still murder me softly in live-action versions; the casting so far has been so excellent that I don't want to get my hopes up too much AND YET this show could probably do them pretty well.
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I am impressed it works in live action at all!
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Aughhhghghgh oh god, as someone who’s written reams upon reams of One Piece fic + spent years destroying my wrist drawing One Piece fan art and comics I don’t think I could bring myself to watch this, lol, possibly just too emotionally fraught for me a person! (My stuff got SO much traction a decade ago, I still get notifications on the art all the time even though I haven’t had a substantive internet presence in like 7+ years.) Doing a live action redux just feels like such a peak pointless Netflix cash grab when the original is still rolling! And as a friend pointed out it’s an inherently dead venture, it’s not like they could ever even get very far with the story.
But I’m glad to hear it was enjoyable and that they did actually do something fun and worthwhile with translating the visuals into live action, I’m impressed! Though what you say about the action sequences is definitely part of what makes me go “why did anyone feel the was necessary or a good idea,” heh. And glad too about the diversity and trimming down of the worst of the genre tropes, the fans were always so much better about those things than Oda ever will be, I’m pleased to hear that’s the route they took. (Sanji was actually my favorite of the original cast, I drew and wrote so much fix-it for the stupid parts of his character/storylines when I was nineteen, I’m sure I’d be such a sucker for the version of him you describe here.)
The dialogue delivery was also really good and I feel like they did a seamless job of translating the entire feel and humor of the original into a different language while also writing enough new banter to keep it funny and fresh. This also sounds lovely! Obviously something I used to think a lot, since it’s one of those canons where on the one hand I knew the voices and speech patterns and on the other hand couldn’t hear the dialogue in my head as I was writing.
(I will also say that if this show ever did get far enough along, which it won’t, some drastic
trimmingweed-whacking of the ensemble cast would actually be a benefit, because much of the reason I stopped following the canon in like early 2016 was because Oda’s case of runaway ensemble cast is simply terminal. After a certain point if you keep piling on characters who all get their own screen/page time you lose the core emotional thread linking the cast to the audience!)no subject
... but I gotta say, I did love what they did with Sanji in this one. xD In fact I think he's actually the character whose scenes I find myself thinking about and wanting to go back and rewatch; there's just something about his sheer level of charm and sweetness in this version that really does things to me. My reaction was basically "someone give that boy a hug and a found family ASAP," lol. I think there was some bit of interview I saw somewhere that the actor was actually a fan of the character and I do legit think he practiced his mannerisms extensively - they probably all did, but he might be the one I noticed the most with holding his face and mouth in a way that really made me think of the anime character; he's got his lopsided smile and also a way of tilting his head back that is about as pitch perfect for the character as I think it's possible to get with a human being, really kind of amazing ...
I will also say that if this show ever did get far enough along, which it won’t, some drastic
trimmingweed-whacking of the ensemble cast would actually be a benefit, because much of the reason I stopped following the canon in like early 2016 was because Oda’s case of runaway ensemble cast is simply terminal.GOD I KNOW RIGHT? I don't remember exactly when I dropped out (somewhere in the arc with the animal island, IIRC) but character/sideplot creep had definitely set in to the point where I was starting to feel like I just didn't have the headspace for it anymore.
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(I haven't touched base with the manga in about twelve years and have never seen the anime, so I'm coming at it with only a vague memory of anything but the absolute barest plot points. So my sense of what's actually missing won't be very good as we watch the rest of it. ^^;)
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I'm interested to know how you feel as you get farther along! :D
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I have some quibbles with what they cut in the name of expediency -- I agree that Arlong Park went too fast, and in the doing lost an element that was (imho) crucial to the emotional core of the story (in the original, the villagers know that Nami is trying to save them -- but they pretend to not know and pretend to hate her, because they're hoping that she'll give up on them and just run away and be happy. It's really heartbreaking and it works to both make the whole situation more poignant, because it makes it clear the village loves Nami as much as she loves them, and it also says a lot about Nami's character, that she still was sacrificing so much for them even when they'd turned on her.) I also think Usopp's intro shafted him pretty badly (it's really more Kaya's story, and while I liked her getting more character, it leaves you kind of wondering why she didn't just go with them instead of Usopp?)
But I thought they made a lot of other smart choices, such as Sanji's intro and the Baratie. I loved getting more Koby and Koby & Helmeppo. And I thought all the nakama were wonderfully cast. I've never had a favorite among them, I love all of them, and I thought every nakama actor did their char justice, and they're all so cute to boot! I am so pleased that you actually liked this take on Sanji, because I thought he was doing a great interpretation of the character, and it feels like what you liked about this version is how I've always seen the character.
And yeah, loved the diverse cast and accents -- all of them having different accents makes so much sense when they're all living on islands with limited transportation between; even if that wasn't really the intent I love that it worked out like that!
I do feel like the biggest problem with the live action actually being good is that now there are so many characters and places that I'm so curious to see how they'd do them in live action (Water 7 especially)!!
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But I think what really surprised me is just the sense of joy and fun - very reminiscent of early MCU movies now that I think about it, where it can't be the comics it's based on because it's a different medium, but the casting, the writing, all of it really evokes the comics at their best and makes it believable in live action to an extent I wouldn't have thought possible. You can tell it's made by people who really like what they're doing, not just cranked out as a cash grab with endless editorial meddling. (I mean ... it's a cash grab ALSO, obviously. LOL. But it's also genuinely really fun and gets a lot of the lively spirit of the original in spite of how f/x heavy it is.)
I do feel like the biggest problem with the live action actually being good is that now there are so many characters and places that I'm so curious to see how they'd do them in live action (Water 7 especially)!!
I KNOW RIGHT? Water 7 is the one I'm dying for too - I'm hoping the show moves quickly enough that we'll get it by season 3, if they get a season 3 (because I really don't expect it to go much longer than that, if it even goes that long). Anyway, I'm completely thrilled you liked it and I'm genuinely eager for more. I had no idea I'd like it this much!
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ETA: You're right that it reminds me of early MCU, all those grand ambitions and not sure if they could pull it off but were determined to try! I was reminded of new Doctor Who myself, which didn't change medium but did also have that sense of people who loved the original and really wanted to share it with people who didn't know it yet.
Though the biggest factor might've been that Oda-sensei was involved every step of the way -- he wasn't writing it, but he was working with the writers all along and it sounds like he had absolute veto power over the final product? The showrunners and editors of the show have talked about the unusual level of involvement he had, and it made a difference. From what I've gathered, the main reason Oda okay'ed making a live action series at all is because he realized it was the only way for the story to reach people who would never read manga or watch anime. (and Shaolin Soccer convinced him it was possible!) I don't think creator involvement is absolutely necessary for an adaptation to work -- I love Peter Jackson's LotR movies but I don't know if Tolkien himself would've approved them -- but in this case it sounds like Oda acted as a bulwark against Netflix's possible editorial mandates, and that made the difference.
We were calculating Water 7 to be s4 at the earliest (there's all of Arabasta and Skypiea to get through!) and yeah, the odds of it making it that far seem low (especially with the strike meaning nothing is happening!!), but...here's hoping???
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Yes, agreed! I think the sense of fun and play really comes through - and I didn't know about the relative balance of CGI to practical f/x, but that totally makes sense, there is just something about having the actors physically present in the scene that lends an extra sense of reality that you simply can't get with CGI.
I'm still really impressed at all of the incredibly weird stuff that they managed to make work in live action! The manga/anime is just so bizarre, but everything from the character designs to the really odd architecture and interiors managed to capture the look of the original; it's very impressive ...
And I found out later that Oda was involved and that probably makes a huge difference, especially in the way that some of the things they *did* change (like Sanji's introduction) actually feel perfectly in tone with the original but just an AU version; actually it makes me think of Good Omens a bit that way too, where the new stuff in the adaptation felt like it was done with respect and care for the original, which of course makes sense because of the creator being involved in both cases!
We were calculating Water 7 to be s4 at the earliest (there's all of Arabasta and Skypiea to get through!) and yeah, the odds of it making it that far seem low (especially with the strike meaning nothing is happening!!), but...here's hoping???
*muffled weeping* I forgot about Skypiea - actually I forgot Water 7 is as deep into the series as it is (apparently it made a big impression on me!). Crossing my fingers they'll get that far; I think there's nothing after Water 7 that I'm as invested in actually seeing in live action to the point where I'd be seriously disappointed if they didn't make it that far, especially since we got the Koby and Helmeppo plot up front. But I do hope they get a chance to make it to that arc at least ...
(And also HI HOW'S IT GOING ♥, I continue to be the worst at answering comments in a timely way ...)