FloppingSeal

Welp, I climbed aboard with all my hopes and dreams andddd the Netflix live adaptation of One Piece is a mixed bag if you're a fan of the series looking for a faithful adaptation of the manga. I wasn't expecting it to be perfect by any means. Even the anime takes significant creative liberty with the source material. I have read the manga week to week since the beginning of the Alabasta arc, which amounts to about twenty years or so. I've read the chapter the moment it drops every week. I have all the volumes. I've participated in online discussion everywhere from ArlongPark forums to reddit for years. I have more merch than any one person should have. Therefore I'm going to be inherently more particular about a series that has been such a big part of my life and anyone should take the following with a grain of salt, especially if you're new to One Piece. It's entirely possible if this is your first time consuming One Piece in any way, you'll have a great time since even a skewed version of One Piece is still great because the story itself is incredible. So, how is it?

I'll start with the positives. The backgrounds are way better than I expected. Most of them, with a few exceptions, look fantastic. It's surreal seeing East Blue come to life. The actors are clearly trying their best and if anyone followed the production updates, they did a lot to prepare for their roles. Some of the live action characters nailed their looks too, especially random characters like Genzo. They also made sure to include and emphasize a lot of the fan favorite moments like the "Help me" scene and "the walk." The biggest positive is still the story. The base characters and plot of One Piece are its biggest strengths and it only gets better from after where this adaptation leaves off.

Unfortunately, for me, there's a lot more noticeable negatives. The CGI is pretty horrid. They were tasked with a tough ask with animating a live action, rubber boy, but it's pretty jarring and could have been better. The acting and/or dialogue is just very off and doesn't quite capture the feel of One Piece. As I said, the actors clearly gave it their all, but it feels very strange having Luffy and Zoro make Marvel-esque quips to each other. I'm not sure if they felt like Western audiences wouldn't like the regular One Piece humor, but that's part of what makes the series special and it's just ruined here. Luffy is also FAR too self-aware. I know the "I'm sensing some tension" line from the trailer was memed a lot in pre-release and there's a lot of that here. There's a lot of Luffy lines that take away from his unique character and turn him more or less into a standard protagonist. Although a lot of characters look great. Some....do not. Arlong looks very bizarre. Again, a tough ask to bring him to life, but he looks sort of ridiculous. Nami's wig is... interesting. Another problem is a lot of parts from the plot are just cut entirely. I know they only have eight episodes and wanted to cover a lot of the series, but there's quite a lot of important-ish moments just missing.

I don't want to rag on the show too much, because unlike many other anime adaptations (cough Death Note, Dragonball, etc.), an effort was clearly made here. It certainly isn't unwatchable or horrible by any means. Some of it is One Piece is just next to impossible to adapt to live action. Some of it is some things were just cut to fit the time or budget allotted. Some of it was probably the studio forcing them to include Marvel type humor and other things that would have mainstream appeal. I can't pretend like the show is garbage, but I also can't pretend like it's perfect. I have literally no idea how this will be received by fans or newcomers to the series. As I mentioned earlier, I can see people who are not existing fans having a really good time with this since they don't know anything else when it comes to the series. It's possible it finds a new audience and does pretty well. It's also possible some existing fans enjoy it even though it's a watered down version just because it's a different medium. I'm not here to knock anyone who enjoyed it. I'm sure people will be mad at the average review who are invested in it.

However, if I'm giving it an honest review, this is really hard to rate. I feel like there's more bad than good, but given the low bar of live action anime adaptations, I'm just going to split the difference and call it 5/10. The effort is there, but a lot about it just doesn't work to capture the magic of the series. My sincerest advice for anyone that watched this or is interested in watching this is to read the manga. You can get a Shonen Jump subscription for dirt cheap and read it all. I've converted many people to read the series and every person gets hooked. The story has some of the best characters, world-building, etc. Of any series out there and I'd highly, highly recommend it. Just know this adaptation may not elicit the same excitement and emotions that the manga does. If you're an existing fan regardless of if you share my opinion, an even more negative one, or loved this adaptation, try to remember we're all nakama and want the best for the series even if we don't see eye to eye exactly on every aspect of the live action version.

I'm honestly conflicted on this one. Every other episode in this season, I have a pretty confident, strong opinion about whether I like it or not. This one, I'm pretty torn. For example, the animation style. I adore the backdrops, but am not sure I like the characters. I enjoy Studio Ghibli and I feel like this may have been somewhat inspired by that type of thing. The characters aren't necessarily designed badly either. It's more the disconcerting way they move with the animation style. Then there's the plot; not much is really going on here, but it is somewhat interesting and unique (up until the end where pretty much the same thing happens as most of these episodes). I like that a jedi manifested in a way other than some combat situation. After some thought, decided I like this one more than I disliked it and can't really pinpoint any specific flaws besides preferential problems. It's a pretty good end to the season, but definitely not the season's highlight.

Not since Andy fell into the pit have televisions pits been this relevant. However, this one's less goofy and more emotional. The protagonist does a pretty good job of inspiring the voiceless masses of background characters to do something about their fate. They also do a lot with not many settings. Most of the episode takes place in the pit. I like the use of the pangolin inspired creature to actually impact the plot in a creative way. This one also continues the trend in this season of being pretty dark given the direction of the plot and even the premise itself. My only complaint would be that there is little to no specific character development. It's entirely focused on a group of nameless people getting inspired to better their situation.