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So how is that One Piece adaptation, anyway?
I was reminded of that the first season (it's been greenlit for more) of the Netflix adaptation of One Piece came out, a good little while ago. How was it? Have you seen it? I've yet to see it - I've heard good things about it but never saw terribly much discussion about it online.
Without having read the original, it's fun and enjoyable. The world is colourful and eclectic, the characters are likeable, and it looks great.
This was my wife's opinion as well. My brother loves the abridged anime (One Pace and One Piece Kai), but it's really hard to get past the first few arcs' pacing. The live action is enjoyable even for people that don't like anime!
They did a fantastic job translating the qualities that make the anime/manga so special to live action. The main actors are all really good; they put their own spin on the characters while remaining true to the original.
Context: I've seen like 800 episodes of the anime, haven't read any of the manga.
I thought it was pretty good! The casting was for the most part really good, and I like the changes they made to the story and the pacing. My only real complaints are that some of the costumes look a bit daft and some of the special attacks I feel don't translate well to live-action.
The story beats work well. The anime tends to draaaaaag it out far longer than it should and overstays its welcome more often than not. The live adaptation does away with that and it makes the entire thing far more palatable.
I agree on the costumes, they look a bit like costumes and not like Time? Style? Period?-accurate clothing. But One Piece being as weird as it is I don't fault them for this, the clothing in the source material is just as oddly put together.
The special moves will probably get better over time as they learn what works and what doesn't. I found some worked exceptionally well in this format and, in true anime fashion, you could see what episode the budget went to in order to make it extra flashy.
All in all, enjoyable but not perfect. Then again, nobody expected anything beyond "atrocious", so people are generally happy with the result.
I've watched a few hundred episodes of the anime and I thought the live action was great, the casting was good and I wish the anime was paced half as well.
It has a pretty low budget feel (especially the sets feel quite plasticky, and I agree with CptBluebear about the costumes) but honestly I think it fits the tone and anyway I'm tired of shows with unaccountably high budgets for no reason.
I was surprised as well by the plasticky feel you mentioned; it’s definitely not low budget at 18 million per episode (for comparison GoT was 15m). Not sure where all the money went.
Wa.....wh......how?!?! Everything looked tacky and plastic and weird and not real . I guess that's what they were going for??
Wow I would never have guessed! Well, whatever they spend it on I'm glad they didn't try to go all gritty on us
The anime is getting remade from East Blue by Wit Studio in case you didn't know. (Attack on Titans, Vinland Saga, Spy Family)
One Pace does a really good job fixing the pacing issues of the anime! It's truly a night and day difference in how I enjoy the anime (especially in more recent arcs): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n1z6umwBs5I
Another voice that liked the live action movie. I have watched like 600 (?) episodes and when I caught up with the manga many years ago, I started reading the Manga, which I absolutely love. Now I am waiting for new chapters every week. And as others said, the story had quite a few changes, but it works in an alternative story kind of way. I look forward to watching more.
As a total One Piece nut (watched anime multiple times, up-to-date on manga, even my tildes name is OP-related) I thought it was really good!
I’d say that the emotional moments hit 5x harder in the anime, and the production design aesthetic didn’t quite nail it, but it definitely caught the spirit of One Piece in a new medium.
It’s the best intro for anyone wondering about One Piece. I had at least a dozen people reach out to me after watching it (because they know I am a super fan), and at least 2-3 decided to watch/read anime/manga because of it. Anytime anyone has asked me about One Piece i always recommend the live action first because it’s only 10 episodes - low commitment.
The Japanese dub is also incredible for any anime watcher because they get all the original voices to dub it. It’s actually a completely different piece of art in a lot of ways.
I'm halfway through it with my mom. It's pretty amazing so far in my opinion, it's done a good job at building the world and making the characters feel real. It's made some changes (Buggy is actually intimidating, who would've guessed?) but they all work well.
I'm still shocked that One Piece is the anime to get a decent live action adaptation.
Best way of watching One Piece.
Cuts out a lot of the cruft, gets rid of some obnoxiousness, still has all the charm/personality of the story.
I think it's great! I watched it multiple times. I often put the music in the background while I'm working.
Probably not the target audience: I've watched one anime series, and everything else I've tried I've bounced off entirety. That said, I found it okay. I bounced off it eventually as well, but while I was watching it, it felt very well-made, especially the more cartoony effects, which felt cartoony and animated enough to make sense, but fit in with the live action effects.
In the end, it wasn't for me, though. I think I got fed up with one too many flashback scenes (possibly the chef's specifically?) and gave up.
So !Netflix One Piece is/was good while Cowboy Bebop was bad (I haven't watched any). Any insight as of why ? (my guess is "it's more faithful", but how do ?)