Adaptation Talk
There is some sort of cliche that almost all live action sorts of anime adaptations are messes or failures. I am sure there are plenty of good ones in the form of dramas in Japan and we can wonder if that comes from them being manga adaptations instead of being directly connected to anime. But not a lot of things make over here in the west because the more popular shows we know are the ones we see the Japanese adaptations of. Those being like Death Note, Attack on Titan, Fullmetal Alchemist, and other series we see appear and generally those are very different from a different point of view and can be absolute trash.
From that comes the western adaptations which take a lot of what comes from Japan and tries to find some sort of western way to sell it to an audience. Some of those can be good when there is a passion and an understanding of what the source material is and provide a good angle for them to exist in live action. There are the complete mess and misses like Netflix Death Note, Dragon Ball Evolution, Netflix Cowboy Bebop, and others which completely miss the point of the shows they are adapting. Live Action One Piece isn't the only good adaption, but it feels like the only time where Oda was heavily involved in every single decision and a lot of the production crew are One Piece fans so there was a lot of that which made this show good.
8, one hour episodes of some really good stuff.
The East Blue Again, But Slightly Different
Since this first season of One Piece is about the very beginning of the story, which is in East Blue. Luffy starts out as nothing and slowly gains a crew of people who are the first members of the Straw Hats (and Koby) on the Going Merry. Luffy does appear in a barrel on Alvida's ship and meets Koby, which he then takes Koby with him to meet Zoro who is being held prisoner for some reason and Nami is the thief that is hidden in the background. From that there is the supposed crew of Luffy, Nami, and Zoro making a voyage to Syrup village where we meet the chronic liar Ussop and get their ship, then the Baratie where the crew picks up the flirty cook Sanji, and finally to Arlong Park where the straw hats fight the fishman Arlong for Nami's freedom.
None of that story is changed, but what is changed is based on making the show into a live action series where we see real people. So there are some devil fruit powers that are not going to look as good in certain instances or character designs that are never going to be 100% of how the manga and/or anime is going to draw them. What we get are a notice of those limitations and putting everything into the spirit of One Piece. Buggy and his chop chop fruit after a very large part of the series because he has to be, but the buggy balls are completely out for instance. What that is replaced with is a crowd of civilians that are forced to be in Buggy's audience and a destroyed village nearby. That in itself shows why Buggy is to be feared.
That is an example of what slight changes there are because all of them work for this series. More context is also provided in the opening like Luffy doing a Captain Jack Sparrow thing of riding in a sinking boat and then ending up in a barrel. Plus there is more Koby in this series which I really like. When Koby left Luffy in the original manga/anime to become a marine, that's all we see of him. Here: Koby, Helmepo have an arc together where they grow as people before Garp decides to actually train them to become stronger than ever before. Every character has an arc, but Luffy in this adaption has one as he learns what it means to be a captain of a ship with people he has to care about where he leads people who have big dreams too. It's a good time.
Casting and Actual Sets
I love the way this show was cast even though it's done in a way that doesn't make complete sense on family lines? For instance, Inaki Godoy is a mexican actor that played Luffy and his grandfather is played by Vincent Regan, a Welsh actor. So clearly, there are some very complicated sorts of things going on in that way, but I like the choices and how they are all people from different countries and backgrounds from across our world because they fit the personalities of the people they are taking to a high degree. It makes the world of One Piece, which is already large, even bigger because the world of One Piece does make sense, but it's very chaotic and fun. A lot like the cast in this show.I'm glad they chose the right people.
Moving on, the production and sets for this show is incredible. This television series started to go into production around the time One Piece Film: Stampede came out and you can tell. Real sets and ships with each of them probably actually in the ocean. All the Costumes are really good for the marines and the pirates. Somehow this very cartoony anime/manga (because One Piece is one of the most cartoony things possible) was brought into real life in an actual way. The main character is a rubber man that should not work and his casting and the way the show actually puts everything together works. There is nothing cheap looking about this production at all. Love it.
Some Negatives and Conclusions
If there are some things that I felt the show missed.The first one being that this show adapted 100+ chapters in 8, almost one hour episodes. So a lot of things had to be compressed together and it works, but so many little plot points and ideas were left behind or changed. The framing device around the navy worked, but it was at a cost of a lot of things. I also didn't enjoy that One Piece kind of sidelined Ussop in his own story with Kaya at Syrup village. While Ussop was there, Nami was the one who had a bigger heart to heart with Kaya then the person she knew for a very long time. I realize that East Blue is very Nami focused, but that was taken a while a little too much.
The Devil Fruit powers were shown in an alright way because I think Luffy had some of the better stretch effects that I've seen in live action, but the way Buggy's Chop Chop fruit was used feels kind of off honestly. Not enough to ruin any effects because Devil Fruits powers are supposed to feel unusual, so that's fine. Lastly for any major criticisms, Zorro's actor Mackenyu was the one person that was holding the show back. His acting isn't as good as everyone else, so he just stands out. In general, it's good stuff. There are a lot of good reasons why people are reacting so positively around it. Take it from someone who is update on the manga, it's a good time.
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