One Piece is a live action fantasy adventure series based on the popular Japanese Manga of the same name written by Eiichiro Oda. It was produced by Kaji Production, Tomorrow Studios, and Shueisha, and it premiered on August 31, 2023 on Netflix.
It stars Iñaki Godoy (Monkey D. Luffy), Emily Rudd (Nami), Mackenyu (Roronoa Zoro), Jacob Romero Gibson (Usopp), Taz Skylar (Sanji), Vincent Regan (Monkey D. Garp), Jeff Ward (Buggy the Clown), and Morgan Davies (Koby), with Ian McShane voicing the narrator.
SPOILER ALERT!!!
You've been warned!
You've been warned!
The story focuses on the adventures of a young priate boy in a straw hat who dreams to sail the sea and become the Pirate King. To achieve this task, he must gather a reliable crew and sail the treacherous Grand Line and find Gold Roger’s mysterious treasure, the One Piece.
I’ve been a huge fan of the anime and have been watching and following the story for well over a decade now, so this live action show is quite of a big deal for me. But I didn’t want to have my expectation too high considering the bad history of live action adaptations of iconic anime shows.
I watched the live action Once Piece immediately as soon as it was released, and I’m just gonna say it right away, the show wasn’t that bad, and I truly enjoyed the experience watching it. But of course, it’s still far from a perfect live action adaptation. I understand that a live action cannot contain each and every detail and moment from the anime and manga, and that it will be impossible to recreate one hundred percent from its source material. So yeah, there were castings that I think were good, but there were also portrayals that I think didn’t hit the mark. There were good moments in the show, but there were also some parts that I think they shouldn’t have changed or removed.
First, the tone of the live action show. One Piece anime, even though has tons of serious and emotional moments, is still very lighthearted and comical, but the live action seemed to be more serious in nature. The humor was watered down and the goofiness that made what One Piece is today wasn’t exactly there. Though I can understand that the live action was just going with a different approach since a live action means closer to realism as compared to anime.
The overall story have been altered in some ways with some characters being absent in the show and some events happened earlier or didn’t happen at all, but the core part of the story seemed to still be intact, with the flow of the story still the same as its source. But considering how massive the anime and manga are right now with over a thousand episodes and chapters, respectively, it would be interesting to see how much they would be changing or how they would keep the story as close to the source.
Most of the casting were perfect. They managed to give us many actors that fits closely with how their characters look from the anime, such as Mackenyu as Zoro, Regan as Garp, Alexander Maniatis as Captain Kuro, and Skylar as Sanji.
When it comes to character portrayals, I am satisfied with them for most cases, but again there are those that I think they should have done more similarly as the anime.
One is Garp, he was too serious in the live action, his character was supposed to be carefree like an old man Luffy, even if he was doing his Marine Vice Admiral duties, and even if it was involving his very own grandson Luffy.
Next is Makino (Kathleen Stephens), Makino was a lively mother/older sister figure in Luffy’s life, and can often be seen joyfully working at the bar and guiding our little Straw Hat Pirate, but in the show, she seemed too much of a debbie downer, she just didn’t seem to happy with what she was doing, like she just want to clock out and go home and not care about the bar.
Then we have Zoro, the pirate hunter is supposed to be very proud with his unique Santoryu, or Three Swords Style, and would eagerly showcase his style when fighting, but in the show, we would only see him use Santoryu for about three fights, with most of the time he would rely on using Nitoryu, Two Swords Style, and leaving Wado Ichimonji as just a waist decoration. Even majority of his fight against Mihawk (Steven Ward) was him using only two sword.
When it comes to certain moments and events in the show, there are also parts that I think the live action missed. The live action had altered moments from the anime that are crucial to the story’s plots, character personalities, and character developments.
First was Luffy and Zoro double teaming Marine Captain Ax Hand Morgan (Langley Kirkwood). Luffy fought Morgan with ease in the anime by himself. Yes, it was Zoro who made the finishing blow but by that time Morgan was already beaten by Luffy and Helmeppo had interfered. So back to the live action, Luffy had to team up with Zoro because "it’s not only the ax, Morgan’s whole body is his weapon”. For visual purpose, it was a cool fight, but here’s why I think it affected their characters, Luffy shouldn’t struggle against Morgan the way he did in the live action nor struggle against the foot soldiers. Fighting against Morgan on a 1vs1 was to demonstrate to the Marines how serious he truly is about his dream of being the Pirate King and that he was not just all talk, and shouldn’t be underestimated nor overlooked. It was to show that even a very feared and brutal Marine captain like Morgan was no match against this kid with a straw hat. And also, Luffy and Zoro wouldn’t 2v1 Morgan, especially Zoro who always pushes his limit to show and be the strongest, at least not right away. Luffy always understands and respects that Zoro would want to fight his own duels and wouldn’t want anyone to interfere, and vice versa. Should have left Zoro and Nami dealing with the barrage of Marine soldiers, while Luffy deals with Morgan by himself, as to show how much of a capable captain he is in combat that the crew can confidently rely on.
Next is Zoro identifying himself as a pirate hunter. Zoro did’t really care about the title “Pirate Hunter” because he doesn’t really care about the bounty hunter profession, nor care about what society calls him. His eyes had always been set to the “World Greatest Swordsman”, and he only did bounty hunting so he could pay for his food and drinks.
Next is Zoro’s missing sword duels. First was with Cabaji (Sven Ruygrok). At that point, we had seen Zoro fight a duel against Mr. 7 (Ben Kgosimore), but they still should have kept the fight against Cabaji, since it was the first real 1vs1 sword fight of Zoro that was shown to us in the anime, and that it showed that while Luffy takes care of the leader or strongest of the opposing group, Zoro is usually the one who handles the second strongest. Then we have the fight with Hachi. They should have kept this in the live action or at least introduced another strong lieutenant of Arlong (McKinley Belcher) that could have sword battle against Zoro, instead of having him and Sanji share a fight against Kuroobi (Jandre le Roux). It would have been better if all four of them had their own separate fights like in the anime and manga.
Then yeah, there’s a part during Usopp’s fight against Chew (Len-Barry Simons) in the anime that they should have kept in the live action. It was when Usopp played dead and contemplated if he should just stay playing dead like a coward until it was safe to move or be a brave man and finish the fight against a physically stronger fishman. Keeping this would have included Usopp’s personal struggle and resolve of him being a coward, at least for a moment, and of him chasing after his dream of being a brave man of the sea.
Then let’s talk about the Red-Haired Pirates. Shank’s speech about putting your life on the line when you draw a pistol was such a badass line that should have kept in the live action. And Benn Beckman (Laudo Liechbenberg) one shotting the rest of the mountain bandits crew, excluding Higuma (Tamer Burjaq), was an important scene for the story to show how far above the league the Red-Haired Pirates were.
Another thing that I think they should have kept in the live action was Koby’s, as well as Helmeppo’s (Aidan Scott), story and training arc. They made Koby outright somewhat important in the Marines when in the source materials, they had to work sweat and blood, and even doing extra hours of training on their own will, for them to even get the proper attention from Garp. They even had to work as chore boys first before they could even step foot on a Marine ship. When in the live action Koby immediately became Garp’s prodigy and even became a commanding officer right away. Helmeppo’s personal struggle and resolve, and his overall character development with him trying to keep up physically, his relationship with Koby, and him realizing his dream, definitely wasn’t delivered as astoundingly as the anime did. And the Diary of Koby-Meppo mini arc was one of my favorite side stories in the anime that gave us a beautiful story of relentless hardwork, building friendship, and character developments, so it did bummed me out with how much they altered it in the show.
Then let’s talk about Garp again, Garp is one of if not the most powerful Marines, he has been sailing for decades at that point and definitely had fought and beaten tons of powerful individuals, both at land and sea, also the Hero of the Marines who was able to corner The Pirate King Gold Rogers on several occasions, and yet a serious Vice Admiral Garp, who was very determined to catch and stop his grandson from being a pirate, would lose on a ship chase against a very inexperience Luffy, that just started days ago, and the Going Merry on East Blue of all seas? I just don’t know about that. And then to my next concern about Garp. Garp enlisting help from the Shichibukai Dracule Mihawk. Garp would not ask for Mihawk’s help, just to capture Luffy. If he wanted it, he would have just persisted on chasing after Luffy, and not rely on a pirate to do the task. I could see that it was just a reason to introduce Mihawk without having the reason to have Don Krieg (Milton Schorr) on Baratie.
Okay, another thing that kinda irked me, was during Gold Roger’s execution, not a single person mentioned the “One Piece”. It’s basically the driving force of the pirates and what started the Golden Age of Piracy, yet it wasn’t mentioned during one of the most crucial events. I was expecting that Roger would have blurted it out, if no one from the crowd would.
Though I would commend them for some of the changes that made the show better. One is Nami joining the fight against the Morgan’s soldiers, then another was Buggy chaining up civilians to force them to be the audience of his twisted show which made Buggy even more unhinged in the show. Merry’s death was also a good addition to the story, at least with it, naming the Straw Hat Pirates’ ship after him made much more sense and somewhat emotionally heavier. And I think having a fishman work in Baratie was a nice addition as well, as it gave Arlong a reason to tell and highlight how humans and the World Government are treating their kind, which is a crucial part of the plot about the conflict between humans and fishmen.
I would also like to say that the delivery of the fight scenes were amazing. Even though I had some concerns such as Zoro not really utilizing Santoryu or Luffy struggling against Morgan, I can still see and can also appreciate how enjoyable the fight sequences were. The show had some astounding fight choreography.
And I would also praise the make up, costume, and special effects in the show. Those things managed to give us what a live action adaptation is about, that even if it was different and altered, this was still One Piece, with spot on costume designs, amazing make-ups, and CGI and practical effects that gave more life to the show.
And oh, hearing familiar music played in the background such as We Are! and Bink’s Sake just gave joy and nostalgia to my heart.
Overall, I enjoyed it. It was fun to watch for the most part, it’s definitely not a perfect adaptation, but the live action managed to deliver a beautiful story about dreams, freedom, and friendship, and that is basically the core parts of One Piece.
Is the live action better than the the anime or manga? Definitely not, like I mentioned there are alteration that they should have kept and there are moments that they failed to capture the same impact and gravity as it did in the anime, but still the live action can be it’s own show at the end of the day, which leads me to the next question.
Will I recommend it? Yes, and I would say that the show would work for you better if you do not follow the manga or the anime. It is a good way to enter the massive One Piece fandom, especially if you are overwhelmed by how wide and long the anime and manga already are. At the same time, you may not have the same expectations that manga readers and anime watchers would have, so it would truly be a new journey to uncharted seas for you. But if you would still want the full One Piece experience, watch or read the anime and manga as well. And if you are already deep in the OP fandom and want to check the live action as well, I would say go for it. Like I said, it was still an enjoyable experience for me and I’m excited to see more of it and see how they would manage to give us and continue to the next arcs.
And lastly, I'm also just happy that they still managed to give the dog Chouchou an easter egg cameo.
Rating 7.5/10
No comments:
Post a Comment