Netflix’s One Piece Review: The live action adaptation does justice to the beloved Japanese saga

Netflix’s One Piece was released on 31st August and it is winning hearts. Is it worth a watch? Read the full article to find out! 

Shows and movies produced by Netflix are surely top tier but while it has wonderfully adapted to a number of American Comics, it still struggles to create the hype among the anime watchers with its anime live-action adaptations. Speaking of the most talked-about adaptations, we have Death Note and Cowboy Bebop which didn’t resonate well with the audience. The reason could be tweaking the canon storylines, poor CGI, bad cast etc. But the case with Netflix’s One Piece is different. It is a rare case when a live-action adaptation of a Japanese anime amazes us and the recently released Netflix’s One Piece just did that. 

What’s One Piece about? 

The story of One Piece is set in the world of myths, monsters and of course, Pirates which follows the adventures of a young pirate named Monkey D. Luffy and his crew. He dreams of finding the treasure of One Piece and becoming the king of the pirates even in the situation where the circumstances didn’t seem to be in his favor. He goes on a journey and finds friends to join him and obstacles to tackle but in all these circumstances he stays resilient and cannot see anything apart from his dream. 

What’s so good about this adaptation? 

One Piece by Eiichiro Oda is one of the longest running manga of all time and it just gets more interesting over time with its interesting arcs, thought provoking philosophies, unique fight sequences and intriguing characters. The fictional world of One Piece has featured different species, locations, conflicts and cultures. One Piece sounds like that one story that feels impossible to adapt into a live-action. There is a whole new world that you need to create for the story and it’s a challenge to imagine and adapt to a world that is so different from ours. The storyline of the show mostly follows the manga which wasn’t the case with adaptations like Death Note. It takes us through all the arcs that happened in the manga while Luffy was meeting his crew members. Some of the arcs are missing or have been tweaked but it just makes it better or atleast doesn’t feel unnecessary, forced or rushed. 

This adaptation shows efforts in sticking to the original world building

Doing a live-action of a story that features a completely different world is surely not an easy thing to do for a production and we have often seen live-action find an easy way out with tweaking the stories or with poor CGI effects but this adaptation of One Piece did show its efforts in sticking to the original world building even with the minute details like the Snail phones. In One Piece, Snails are used as tools for communication and surveillance and what makes them interesting is the fact that they are living and breathing creatures. In the live-action, we saw vice-grand admiral of the Navy, Garp use the snail telephone to make a call. One of my personal favorite details can be the Bounty poster rips by the pirates. While it may feel like an unnecessary or skippable detail to someone who hasn’t watched the anime or maybe it is. But with these details the adaptation shows its willingness to embrace the weirdness of the story. With these details, Netflix’s One Piece attempts to embrace the weirdness of the world that Eiichiro Oda created. 

Did we mention how well-choreographed the fight scenes are? 

Some of us watch anime just for its thrilling fight scenes and physics defying combat and it’s relatively easier to create those fight scenes when it’s animated and you’re not restrained by realism. Luffy uses the power of stretchability and I had my doubts if the live-action would be able to recreate it without making it look gaudy? And yeah it does! It does it without dimming the flashiness of the powers of any of the characters like how Zoro uses three swords while fighting or how Buggy dismantles his body doesn’t feel forced. The sword fights and combats are just top-notch. 

Intriguing Characters 

If you have watched the anime or have read the manga, you know where we are going with this. We all know how the show features well written characters and arcs. Unlike many shonen shows that revolve around the lead character, One Piece has given depth to each of its characters even the villains. Villains that you’re going to come across within these 8 episodes include Captain Alvida, Buggy the Clown, Mihawk, Arlong etc. and they have all been written well. Some of it can be accredited to the amazing performances by the actors. Maybe that’s the reason why we have watched over a 1000 episodes and still don’t feel bored by it. Someone who wants to understand the hype of the anime but doesn’t have the time to watch so many episodes, Netflix’s One Piece is a must watch for you.

Check out the Trailer:

Also Read: ‘My Hero Academia’ Arrives on Cartoon Network making its debut on Indian television screens

Follow is for more @discultured