One Piece Live Action has hit Netflix’s platform for everyone around the globe with a subscription to the platform starting from August 31st, 2023, and with eight episodes ready to be binged, there is one question in the hearts of the fans and new to the series alike, Is this live adaptation worth watching or is just going to be something that we will look back with disappointment?
As a fan of the franchise who started to binge the entire One Piece Live Action series as soon as it hit the platform, I have to say that we will look upon One Piece Live Action years from now and tell everyone that it is the series that has broken the curse of the bad Live Action adaptation. It is everything and more than what we wanted from a decent live adaptation of an anime and manga.
The series, much like the original source, revolves around the protagonist named Monkey D Luffy in the great pirate era, whose dream is to be the King of the Pirates by achieving the titular treasure left by the former King of the Pirates, “Gold Roger.” Thus, our protagonist embarks on the journey of becoming the King of the Pirates, and on his voyage, he finds comrades who have just as amazing dreams as he is.
While it seems like a simple adventure, it has been going on since 1997 in the manga written by the amazing author and illustrator of the series, Eiichiro Oda.
Year and year after getting bad live adaptations of the anime and manga, fans of the series had very bad intuition about this live-action piece, but they weren’t to be blamed as they are still haunted by the various bad to worst adaptations in this industry.
Nevertheless, after years of bad adaptations, we would again like to say that there is finally a decent adaptation that fans and newcomers to the series alike can watch and wait for more, and it is all thanks to the amazing creators of the series, Steven Maeda and Matt Owens, who by the way are the fans of the series since a long time, and also the involvement of the original creator of the series Eiichiro Oda.
So, we are here to bring you a detailed review of the series and try to do it without spoiling much of the contents of the series, but be warned that there will be spoilers. With that being said, we bring you the latest updates on the One Piece Live Action series.
One Piece Live Action Review: The Story
One Piece Live Action’s story, as mentioned earlier, differs not much from the manga and the anime; however, there are indeed major differences in the plot lines of the particular stories through the first arc of the series, which is the voyage to the Grand Line.
But what we have noticed about the plot difference in this live-action series is that the changes that were made in the series were indeed necessary and make much more sense than they ever did in the manga and series.
For instance, knowing the chemistry that Gold Roger and Garp have in the series, it only makes sense that he is presented at the execution of Gold Roger at Logue Town.
In the manga when it was first created, Oda surely did not care to put major necessary figures such as fleet admiral, admirals, or even the five elders, as it would indeed be a big achievement for the world government for capturing the King of the Pirates that had given them a lot of troubles ever since his existence.
But, One Piece Live Action indeed emphasizes this matter with a strong figure such as Garp, who is also emotional about the current situation and portrayed amazingly by the actor Vincent Regan. Well, let us move with the portrayal of the characters, as this article would never end If I kept talking about the necessary changes that were made in the series.
The Portrayal of the Characters
The portrayal of the characters in One Piece Live Action is by far the strongest point of this series that I have noticed throughout binge. The casting for this series is amazing, and given that Oda sensei was involved in the casting of the series, everyone knew that it was going to be something different and would be worth watching for it only.
And boy, do the portrayal of the characters by the actors exceed our expectations or what? There aren’t any characters in the series that would feel out of the line, and honestly, the characters in the One Piece Live Action series, such as Buggy, Helmeppo, and Mihawk, could be said to be the better version than even the anime and the manga.
GUYS HEAR ME OUT BUGGY IS SO BBG I SWEAR JEFF WARD IS SUCH A GOOD ACTOR‼️‼️‼️💯💯 😻😻😻😻🤭🤭🤭 #OnePieceLiveAction #jeffward #Buggy #ONEPIECE @OnePieceAnime pic.twitter.com/Twu7HlX7gg
— ||☆Fish3101🐠 🗯☆|| (@queensha_n) September 1, 2023
Buggy will surely stand out the most of this as the Actor (Jeff Ward) did an outstanding job bringing the character to life. If I put the characters portrayed in the series on a hierarchy, it would follow something like this: Buggy, Mihawk, Helmeppo, Garp, Koby, Arlong, Zeff, and many others.
Are you worried that I haven’t mentioned any of the straw hats in this hierarchy? Well, it would be an injustice of me to be the main cast and the center of the story to be put on a list and judge their portrayal as every single one of them did the best job that we could have asked for.
Surely, there are nitpicks that I would like to highlight, but hey, the rest of the series is just too good to say something bad about the portrayal of the characters. Nevertheless, we would like to keep seeing the main cast and the other cast in the upcoming season of the One Piece Live Action series.
Visuals And Soundtracks
Before I conclude my review of this amazing One Piece Live Action series, let me emphasize one last factor about the series. Never among the fans in the anime industry would ever think to say that the visuals of a particular live adaptation would ever be good. But the times have changed, and the visuals of the One Piece Live Action series could said to be one of the strong points of the series.
It surely isn’t the best that is out there, but it has convinced me enough that it is not the worst and better than most of the live-action adaptations of anime and manga. With the limitations of CGI and the realism that a Live-Action must narrate, it was overall well done, and we could only hope for it to get better and better with time and technology in the future.
Moving onto the soundtracks that are used in the series, I have only two words to describe it, “Holy Peak.” I had saved talking about the soundtracks of the live-action for the last because I am a fan of the soundtrack in a visually striking laid in the 2D panels.
In my opinion, for a particular scene in an anime or any other form of duration media, the soundtrack has the power to enhance the material. It is used to enhance the power of the narrative and give the viewers a sense of what the characters behind the screen are feeling right now.
If you are not going to watch the One Piece Live Action series for the aforementioned reasons, then you can at least watch it for the amazing soundtracks that have been produced by the awesome production house involved in the making of the series.
One Piece Live Action Review And Rating
In conclusion, I would like to say again that there is finally an adaptation of an anime or a manga that we would look back on after a few years and would be proud to say that One Piece Live Action broke the curse of bad live-action adaptations and if there are ever any adaptations in the future of different major series or anything whatsoever, they would be judge in the comparison of the One Piece Live Action series.
https://twitter.com/OP_SPOILERS2023/status/1697732930171257214
As for what I would like to rate the series, which already has an amazing 83% Tomatometer and 95% audience score on the Rottentomatoes website as if this writing, and also an IMDB rating of 8.6/10, I through the Otakukart Network would like to give it a rating of 9/10.
One Piece Live Action will be an amazing watch for newcomers and the fans of the series alike, and I would like to thank the creators Steven Maeda and Matt Owens and also the involvement of Eiichiro Oda in the making of the series for it to be possible.
Also Read: One Piece Live Action Series Season 2: Everything We Know So Far
