To say Netflix has had a poor track record with live action anime adaptations would be an understatement. As such, fans of the “One Piece” manga were more than slightly concerned when it was announced that the long-running series would also be getting a Netflix series. But when they announced that Eiichiro Oda himself would be overseeing the project, and every last scene had to get his stamp of approval, viewers became more cautiously optimistic.
Well, the series is here, so it’s time to take a look and see if One Piece breaks the streak by being a genuinely good series and a faithful adaptation.
1. Condensed Yet Faithful
The first episode of the live-action series covers several chapters of the manga (up through Luffy and Zoro’s fight with Captain Axe-Hand Morgan), often simultaneously, and occasionally though flashbacks. And yet it still remains surprisingly faithful. We get the opening with Gold Roger’s execution, famous last words, and dying laugh. We see Luffy burst from the barrel in front of Koby, and we even get the flashback with Shanks and his crew’s first encounter with the mountain bandits.
Although the episode goes through several story points, it manages to do so without feeling rushed or like it’s skipping everything. In fact, it still hits the right beats through the visuals, character moments, and cinematography to feel incredibly accurate to the manga and anime.
For instance, they moved the scene where Zoro receives rice balls from a girl named Rika to before he gets strung up in the Marine base, and have it serve as the inciting incident to his arrest. Yet it still works nicely, as it still showcases the characters involved and carries the story forward.
Visually, it also remains very accurate. Yes, there are night scenes that are a bit darker than the brighter anime versions, but the set designs, character outfits, shot composition, and cinematography capture the visuals of the original quite well. This is especially true during fight scenes, where physics go out the window in order to let characters look badass as they jump about, flip, kick, and capture the movements of their drawn or animated counterparts
This means that so far, the One Piece live action series has done a good job remaining a faithful adaptation even while making adjustments for the medium. I’m impressed.
2. Meet The Pirates
Of course, the characters are the most important part of the series. The Straw Hat crew is a found family of good-hearted misfits, each with their own personal tragedies, who unite under a shared dream. So how well does that work?
Iñaki Godoy stars as Luffy, and he brings some excellent energy and optimism to the role. While his accent was a little distracting at first, I grew used to it very quickly, and the charisma he gives the character works perfectly. He delivers lines like “I’m gonna be king of the pirates” earnestly but without overselling it, and calls out his attack names with glee.
Then we have Morgan Davies as Koby, who may not join Luffy’s crew, but is still an important character and friend to our protagonist. He does a fine job capturing the timid, awkward nature of the character, so it will be interesting to see how the show carries on the development he undergoes in the manga.
Mackenyu takes on the roll of Roronoa Zoro (and I am so glad they didn’t call him “Zolo”), and, well, he’s a complete badass. He manages to balance Zoro’s stoic nature and good heart nicely, and gets some of the most epic fight moments in the episode (even with a sword in his mouth).
Finally, we have Emily Rudd as Nami, whose introductory scene mirrors her manga introduction perfectly. From there, we get to see all the key aspects of her character – her quick thinking, initial hatred of pirates, and thieving skills, delivered seriously but with great timing.
So far, I’m liking this cast. I was worried about a few of them from the trailer, but they’ve all handled the material well so far.
One fun thing of note is that, unlike many adaptations (looking at you, Ghost in the Shell), no one can accuse One Piece of whitewashing any characters, because they made sure each actor matches the ethnicity of their characters, as established by Eiichiro Oda.
Continued below3. The Gum-Gum Fruit
One scene that stood out was the moment Luffy eats the Gum-Gum Fruit, which gives him his rubber powers.
In the manga, Luffy eats it on-panel, but it’s given no focus, because he’s been eating a lot of different foods throughout those scenes, and it wasn’t the focus of attention. That makes it even more of a surprise to everyone when he suddenly stretches, even if he ate the fruit right in front of our eyes. Even readers who know it’s coming may have to go back to spot exactly where and when he started eating it.
In the anime, the moment is given a little more attention, as he eats it on-screen in front of Shanks, who then tries to shake it out of him before he turns to rubber. It’s not treated as a dramatic moment, but still given more focus than the manga.
In the live action show, however, it’s given an entire scene where we see a young Luffy find the box with the Gum-Gum Fruit, bite into it, and eat the entire thing, complete with a dramatic musical score. This still leads to the moment where Shanks grabs his arm as he’s walking away and stretches it for the first time, which is more like the manga than the anime in that sense, even if the buildup is different.
Each scene works in its own way and leads to the same result, but it’s interesting to compare how each one goes about it.
With that said, there’s no way to give a character stretchy powers without it looking at least a little goofy. We’ve seen this with Reed Richards in several different Fantastic Four adaptations, and Ms. Marvel didn’t even try. Fortunately, the goofy appearance of Luffy’s stretchy power is intentional, and part of its charm. He’s a man made of rubber, there’s nothing not ridiculous about it, and the show leans into it with cartoonish sound effects and visuals that lean into the rubberiness.
4. The Villains So Far
We’ve talked about the protagonists, now what about the antagonists? The first episode alone gave us Alvida and Axe-Hand Morgan as enemy pirates and marines, respectively, as well as gave us our first look at Buggy the Clown. (And yes, Garp is there too, but it’s hard to really count him as a villain even if he’s a marine.)
Well, the villains have been cast as well as the heroes so far. Alvida is more focused on her reputation as a fearsome pirate than as the fairest pirate of them all, but her personality remains intact and Ilia Isorelys Paulino delivers her lines with a nice layer of malice.
Langley Kirkwood may not be quite as physically imposing as the manga’s giant of a man that is Axe-Hand Morgan, but he still gets the sense of menace, ruthlessness, and self-righteous fury down nicely, and does a fine job during the fight scene. Similarly, Aidan Scott’s Helmeppo absolutely nails the loathable, scummy brat that the character begins as, so it will be interesting to see his development as we go on.
This trio of characters also serves an important thematic purpose for the show, as it introduces us to villainous pirates and marines alike. This shows the audience how there are evil people on both sides of the law, and creates an important character moment for both Luffy and Koby. While Koby’s dreams of joining the marines is shaken by seeing how those under Morgan’s command behaved, Luffy’s the one who points out how there are good and bad pirates, so there must be good and bad marines as well. The shades of gray within both sides of the world’s conflict remains an important theme throughout the series, so it’s being established nicely here.
And while the only introduction we get to Buggy is at the end, Jeff Ward makes him properly menacing, channeling just a little bit of Heath Ledger’s Joker into the maniacal clown pirate. We’ll see if that gets balanced out with some goofiness later on, but it makes for a fittingly ominous introduction.
5. Easter Eggs Aplenty
If there’s one thing that made it clear that the people behind the show did their research, it’s the sheer number of Easter Eggs throughout this episode.
Continued belowWe get younger versions of major characters in the crowd scene during Gold Rogers’ execution. There are wanted posters of characters we won’t even see until seasons from now (if ever) hung up on the wall. There’s foreshadowing for moments manga readers and anime fans know are a ways off, and there are names aplenty dropped.
All this helps make the world feel full and alive, while setting the seeds for moments that are yet to come far down the line. Some will pay off sooner than later (like Morgan mentioning being the one to defeat the Black Cat Pirates), while others won’t even come into play this season.
You can even hear an instrumental version of “Binks’ Sake”/“Binks’ Brew” playing during the flashback with Shanks – perhaps the most important song in the show, but one that we won’t hear in its full until after the Thriller Bark arc, which is far down the line.
So if nothing else, this series did its homework.
All in all, One Piece is off to a solid start. Will it be able to carry this momentum moving forward? Only time will tell (and by “time,” I mean the next few weeks as I continue to review the series).
