I mean.. the bar is very fucking low. Dragon Ball Evolution, Cowboy Bebop, Avatar: The Last Airbender (movie), Ghost in the Shell, Death Note (Netflix adaption)... Saying this adaption is the best...
I mean.. the bar is very fucking low. Dragon Ball Evolution, Cowboy Bebop, Avatar: The Last Airbender (movie), Ghost in the Shell, Death Note (Netflix adaption)... Saying this adaption is the best of all time isn't saying much.
I liked live action bebop. Don't care what any of you say. It wasn't meant to be a shot for shot remake of the anime. You all hated it before you even watched it, and complained so much they...
I liked live action bebop. Don't care what any of you say. It wasn't meant to be a shot for shot remake of the anime. You all hated it before you even watched it, and complained so much they killed it.
I can’t speak for anybody else, but I wasn’t looking for a shot for shot clone. In fact I was hoping to see a wholly new set of stories, since that’s fresh for old fans, frees the writers from...
I can’t speak for anybody else, but I wasn’t looking for a shot for shot clone. In fact I was hoping to see a wholly new set of stories, since that’s fresh for old fans, frees the writers from many of the constraints of re-treading ground covered by the original, and invites less direct comparison.
The issue in my opinion is that the live action didn’t very well capture the vibe of the original, which I think was the most critical element of the show. That precise blend of film noir, futurism, and action movie set in a universe that’s been somewhat dystopian for so long that its inhabitants have figured out ways to live despite it, like a tree growing around a fence post.
Some of the actors clearly took the project seriously and gave it their all though, so I can’t fault them. The live action’s issues lie mostly in its direction, cinematography, and writing I believe.
I wrote a similar comment but I ended up not posting it. In this case, you said it better than I did: They didn't capture the feel of the setting. I wanted something that made it look like the...
I wrote a similar comment but I ended up not posting it. In this case, you said it better than I did: They didn't capture the feel of the setting. I wanted something that made it look like the Cowboy Bebop anime had a lovechild with Firefly. Building of tension when needed, but some goofy adventures here and there. There was a mountain of potential! ....that isn't what we got and I'm super disappointed by it.
There were moments where I got a bit of that feeling you describe, but I think it's a tall order to recreate the specific weave of genres and sensabilities that gave the original its identity. I...
There were moments where I got a bit of that feeling you describe, but I think it's a tall order to recreate the specific weave of genres and sensabilities that gave the original its identity.
I went in with my expectations quite neutral, viewing it more as its own standalone thing, and I think that's what allowed me to get the most out of it -- when there were those little moments of "Hey, this feels really close to the mark" it was a nice surprise as opposed to me constantly ticking boxes about how this is different and that's not what I thought it should be etc.
The one thing I would've changed though is the sort of polished gloss of the aesthetic. I get they were probably going for a brighter, cartoon vibe, but the original CB was a bit washed out and grainy/gritty simply due to the analog technology of the time which, while maybe not a 100% conscious stylistic choice, we can probably all agree is part of its aesthetic identity now.
But overall I liked it and, if I'm being honest, it sort of grates on me that people are lauding a One Piece remake of all things while CB got piles of hate before it was even out the door lol. I haven't seen the One Piece remake and I'm sure it's not bad if it is getting a good critical response, but there's no way it didn't have to make many if the same compromises as Bebop that people were so uncharitable about.
I think the big difference between Bebop and One Piece is that the latter is very unapologetically manga/anime, leaning hard into the tropes and aesthetic and being generally cartoonish, even if...
I think the big difference between Bebop and One Piece is that the latter is very unapologetically manga/anime, leaning hard into the tropes and aesthetic and being generally cartoonish, even if it handles mature subject matter at times. That gives it a lot of leeway in a live action adaptation because there’s no way such an adaptation can’t make heavy divergences from the source material.
Bebop on the other hand with a few exceptions (Ed) is one of the least stereotypical anime in existence. It’s regularly recommended as an anime for people who don’t like anime and was built more like a live action show than it was an animated one with super heavy western cinema and TV influence. There’s very little about it that would be impractical to shoot with cameras and actors.
So naturally, expectations for the Bebop were high because it’s practically ready-made for live action and well suited for western cinematic techniques without significant tweaks to the formula… just switch out the episodic adventures for new ones and you’re golden. That’s not quite what it ended up being though, which is where some of the disappointment comes from.
Another thing that the OP adaptation seems to be doing right is keeping the author of the work (Eiichiro Oda) tightly involved in the production loop. Contrast this to the Bebop adaptation where the production team barely spoke with Shinichiro Watanabe at all, despite listing his name in the credits.
You're speaking as if it was a good show that was strangled in the crib. It was just a bad show, and I say that as someone who hoped it would be good and reserved judgement until after watching...
Exemplary
You're speaking as if it was a good show that was strangled in the crib. It was just a bad show, and I say that as someone who hoped it would be good and reserved judgement until after watching it. The casting and acting was very good, the original episode premises they went for fit the CB brief well, the sets and backgrounds looked great throughout.
But the writing and directing were awful. Truly, truly terrible. It was the most tonally inconsistent show I've ever seen. It's like the writer's room split out scenes between everyone, then assembled everyone's very different products together into a full episode. Scenes would go from comedy to black comedy to drama to random gory violence for little to no reason. The directing was all over the place and certainly didn't help these matters, often resulting in it highlighting these inconsistent tone issues.
Normally these would be surmountable problems but one of the main appeals of the original show is that its tone and atmosphere and mood were very specific, consistent, and notable. It was film noir with heart, about flawed characters who were battling themselves as much as anyone else. The show was not like this at all. It felt scattered, and random.
For example, one of the earliest big, red, flashing warning signs was an early episode where after Spike and Jet finish a fight where they kill a lot of people, they look at each other and then have a huge laugh about it, as if it was the funniest thing in the world. That was the most anti-CB moment in the entire show for me and that was the tone it chose to set. The characters of Cowboy Bebop would never react that way, that's not at all the tone or intent of the show. Yes, they killed people, but they did not linger or enjoy or laugh about it. They had a goal in a violent world and then focused on that goal. The few times Spike chose to kill people outright in the original show, it was in rage and the act highlighted that mood (and I specify Spike because he was the only one to do it). This show instead shows that the Bebop crew are violent sadists who enjoy murder for... nothing.
I mean it: nothing. There was no purpose to that moment. I don't know why they chose to end the fight with Spike and Jet sharing a huge laugh about it. It's as if the audience is supposed to laugh along or something as if this was some kind of black comedy but killing a bunch of people in a gunfight and then randomly laughing about it isn't black comedy. This should have been an action scene that showed Spike and Jet are capable and talented fighters, which it did, before introducing this weird tonal whiplash that totally went against the characters and the consistency of the show.
And this isn't even getting into the (frankly, bad) additions of Vicious and Julia's storylines which just seemed like an excuse to ramp up the violence and gore for the sake of having any at all. The original show was violent, sure, but it wasn't one that reveled in executing civilians or wanton murder. The original show was notable because it wasn't that kind of show, it took a more mature and restrained tack to how it handled such things. The most it ever stayed on action scenes was during the martial arts moments where the beauty of movement was celebrated. The gunfights were always curt, to-the-point affairs. So to go between scenes of wanton, cruel violence to humour to trying to figure out why the characters are suddenly making uncharacteristic decisions was just too much to keep up with. It was tonal whiplash all the way through. This is the fault of a combination of bad writing, bad editing, and bad directing.
And unfortunately, more episodes were like this than not. Almost none of them were of consistent quality all the way through, and there were many moments that felt like the writers and directors had either not seen or not appreciated the original show. I don't think any reasonable person would equate shot-for-shot remake with quality but an adaptation has to actually feel like the creative team behind it have experienced and understood the original. Every great adaptation takes something central or key to the original work and represents it in a like way, even if significant changes happen. The Cowboy Bebop show did not feel like a proper adaptation at all.
I've also been avoiding the common complain about Vicious' casting and the Vicious and Julia storyline additions. The casting is whatever but the character of Vicious in the live-action was not at all the character in the show. And to an extent, neither was Julia's. This seems to be the result of the additional storyline they were given. So considering the quality of the original material added for the show and how it ended up changing two key characters for the worse, it does not suggest that the writing behind the show was as good as it should have been.
It sucks because the cast was basically perfect for the main crew. The actors all seemed to have understood, appreciated, and loved the original characters. You could see all the original anime characters represented in behaviour, mannerisms, and ways of speech in the live action. And the settings! Honestly, the backgrounds of the live-action Cowboy Bebop are some of my favourites in any show, even if they are very clearly heavily CG'd. They did such a great job capturing the various backdrops from the anime and represented them convincingly in live-action. They all did such a good job and it was all overshadowed by terrible scripts and directing.
I did not like the show and I was rooting for its success the entire time. The writing, directing, and editing of that show are the true failures and it dragged everything down. I'm not sad it was cancelled. It already did enough damage to the Cowboy Bebop brand and putting it out of its misery was the best thing that could have happened to it. Of course, retooling the show entirely for S2 would have been preferable but that's not how Netflix operates.
But at the end, bad writing is still bad writing, regardless of circumstances. People generally don't care about the production process, and it's not advertised that much either. I mean, I really...
But at the end, bad writing is still bad writing, regardless of circumstances.
People generally don't care about the production process, and it's not advertised that much either. I mean, I really like behind the scenes, but it's generally not central to the promotion of a work and you're going to show only the "ups", not the "down".
This makes me think of this nice French video essay / review from Karim Debache & team of Tsui Hark's 1988 movie Knockoff (starring Jean Claude Vandamme). It's a movie widely considered as an utter crap, but they explain the fascinating circumstances of this movie (the 1997 handover of Hong Kong making its action directors go to Hollywood, the executive meddling of Tsui Hark American work making him fed up with Hollywood, resulting in Knockoff being both a stealth insult and a beta version of his later work). But still while he likes the movie as an historical artifact, he still think it's bad and recommend watching other Tsui Hark movie instead.
Except for the last paragraph (and maybe it's just a figure of style conflagrating the role (writers) and the output (writing)), I feel /u/ThrJorro did a fine job criticizing the work itself and not the people behind it.
Even I knew that some twirling mustache evil executivewere putting some bad mojo powder all over the script, as a Cowboy Bebop fan I don't think I would enjoy the show with what /u/TheJorro described.
You know, I was confused where this was coming from since I didn't think I was blaming anyone or assigning fault beyond a few aspects of the show that I thought failed the rest, until I read...
You know, I was confused where this was coming from since I didn't think I was blaming anyone or assigning fault beyond a few aspects of the show that I thought failed the rest, until I read @PetitPrince comment about my last paragraph.
Oops, there's actually a mistake there. I said "writers, directors, and editing". I actually meant "writing, directing, and editing" but misspoke and didn't notice. That's my mistake and something I didn't notice until it was pointed out, and it does change my message too much from what I intended.
But no, I'm not blaming anyone individually or as a group there. I recognize that a failure of these aspects is not the fault of any one person or group because film and television are done with compromises at every step and nobody sets out to do a bad job. I limited my criticism to only how I received the show and do not think that anyone really set out to make a bad show either through fault or accident.
Those aspects do continue to be where I believe the show was brought down to failure but they are also the things that can be interfered with the most by external factors. I know plenty of criticism out there from the internet is more hostile and personal (e.g. all the criticism about Vicious' actor's looks, or all the meme criticisms about Netflix writers hating the source material) but I purposefully avoided as much personal blame and stuck to how those three aspects ended up coming off. I won't apologize for suggesting it felt like it came from a lack of passion or understanding of the original because that is what the final product ended up communicating to me in how it did not adequately adapt what I felt was the heart of the original show. Maybe it did not originate from the writers, directors, or editors themselves—I really don't know—but it certainly got into the final show somehow and it would be dishonest of me not to point out what I got out of it.
Everything I spoke about are the sentiments I took from the final product. Who the true faults lay with may be of interest to others, including the people who worked on the show and feel the need to absolve themselves of it, but it's not really of interest to me. As a reader, all I really have is the final product and the sentiments it instills in me.
See Henry Cavill and 'The Witcher' (also a Netflix production) for another example of this at the highest level.
I think at lower levels, a lot of the people making these shows are NOT fans, and they get insecure about their jobs when they find out someone's an actual fan who might know more about the subject material than they do.
See Henry Cavill and 'The Witcher' (also a Netflix production) for another example of this at the highest level.
Wait, were you directly involved in this production? If so, I think it would be fascinating to learn who/what caused the vibe to shift. Were the executives familiar with the original? What...
Wait, were you directly involved in this production? If so, I think it would be fascinating to learn who/what caused the vibe to shift. Were the executives familiar with the original? What material were they inspired by when they imagined the finished product?
Unfortunately it doesn't seem that even clout and/or charisma can make a difference in all cases. Look at Henry Cavill's attempts to steer the production of Netflix's The Witcher towards source...
Unfortunately it doesn't seem that even clout and/or charisma can make a difference in all cases. Look at Henry Cavill's attempts to steer the production of Netflix's The Witcher towards source material faithfulness, which ultimately ended fruitlessly.
The thing that bothered me is some of the decisions in the plot. They chose for Jet to not know about Spike's past. Just so they could do the old trope of miscommunication leads to...
The thing that bothered me is some of the decisions in the plot. They chose for Jet to not know about Spike's past. Just so they could do the old trope of miscommunication leads to conflict/division. And it wasn't even done in a good way. It feels like they made that decision just so they'd have some extra material for the next season
I don't think Jet knows his backstory in the anime, at least not at the beginning. I think he suspects he's former syndicate, and as more information comes out he quietly pieces it together...
I don't think Jet knows his backstory in the anime, at least not at the beginning. I think he suspects he's former syndicate, and as more information comes out he quietly pieces it together throughout the series, but he and spike don't have an explicit conversation about Spike's past until the last episode.
You might be right. I interpreted it as he knew and they didn't need to discuss it. But the fact that it never really caused strife among them was something I always appreciated.
You might be right. I interpreted it as he knew and they didn't need to discuss it. But the fact that it never really caused strife among them was something I always appreciated.
Agreed. I think they lost sight of the fact that Jet was a former cop, not a freelance cop. Jet is much more interesting when he's dogged and highly principled but has no real allegiance to law...
Agreed. I think they lost sight of the fact that Jet was a former cop, not a freelance cop. Jet is much more interesting when he's dogged and highly principled but has no real allegiance to law and order. Lawful Neutral, if I understand the D&D lingo correctly.
As someone who actually did enjoy the live-action adaption, I appreciate your perspective, and frankly I think you're right about the tonal mismatch. The adaptation felt more inspired by Kill Bill...
Normally these would be surmountable problems but one of the main appeals of the original show is that its tone and atmosphere and mood were very specific, consistent, and notable. It was film noir with heart, about flawed characters who were battling themselves as much as anyone else. The show was not like this at all. It felt scattered, and random.
As someone who actually did enjoy the live-action adaption, I appreciate your perspective, and frankly I think you're right about the tonal mismatch. The adaptation felt more inspired by Kill Bill than its source materially.
So I just pretended the anime didn't exist and judged the remake on its own. I perceived it as an over-the-top sci-fi series and (other than the Vicious/Julia scenes) generally had a bunch of fun with it.
But of course, I think it's perfectly fair to judge the work in relation to its source, as you have. I mean, the show runners invited the comparison after all -- if they didn't want to be compared to the original, they should have created their own original work instead.
This seems like you saw the length of my comment and immediately wrote this. I don't recognize your description of my sentiments at all. Please read other people comments and acknowledge what...
This seems like you saw the length of my comment and immediately wrote this. I don't recognize your description of my sentiments at all.
Please read other people comments and acknowledge what they're saying before responding. This isn't reddit.
How about this. Sure some choices weren't the best, sure it wasn't perfect. It's OK to enjoy things that aren't perfect. It was a fun ride while it lasted, and the main cast fucking rocked their...
How about this. Sure some choices weren't the best, sure it wasn't perfect. It's OK to enjoy things that aren't perfect. It was a fun ride while it lasted, and the main cast fucking rocked their adaptation.
While overall it wasn't great, I enjoyed it. I can't remember the episodes by heart, but some of the earlier ones really captured the vibe of the bounty hijinks from the original. Plus the main...
While overall it wasn't great, I enjoyed it. I can't remember the episodes by heart, but some of the earlier ones really captured the vibe of the bounty hijinks from the original.
Plus the main three actors be killed it. Devastated for them that their love for the show didn't get rewarded.
I'm with you on this. I haven't finished the live action series yet and there are definitely some parts I don't think were good choices (I really did not like the plotline with Julia and Vicious,...
I'm with you on this. I haven't finished the live action series yet and there are definitely some parts I don't think were good choices (I really did not like the plotline with Julia and Vicious, I'd usually end up scrolling on my phone to just ignore those scenes honestly), but I felt like it captured the overall spirit pretty well. I have yet to finish it since I've been watching it with my dad, and we've both had a lot of fun with it. The first few episodes in particular were a blast for me, the very first fight scene gave me huge nostalgia vibes and had me cheering.
The fact it's Cowboy Bebop automatically skewed reactions and made the show an uphill battle though. The original is a genuine masterpiece, and it's been so long since it aired that it's gained truly mythical status. People were guaranteed to be hyper-critical from the start, comparing each scene and decision to the original. They latch onto the mistakes and bad decisions more than other shows. Even if you're consciously trying to give it a chance, it's hard to be truly objective if you've seen the original. It just makes all the flaws stand out.
Were it some original brand-new show, I think the attitude wouldn't be nearly as bad as it is. It has flaws and some poor choices, but honestly, so does nearly every other show out there. This could have easily passed as a pretty good sci-fi show: not perfect by a long shot, but still fun.
As it is, I don't think it deserves the level of criticism and hate it's gotten. At least it's a good way to introduce the series to people who don't usually watch anime though.
Yeah, to me, a live action Cowboy Bebop was never going to be a good idea but they managed to make something fun. Did they capture the film noire/samurai/western aesthetic of the original? No....
Yeah, to me, a live action Cowboy Bebop was never going to be a good idea but they managed to make something fun. Did they capture the film noire/samurai/western aesthetic of the original? No. They were never going to be able to do that. But they made some interesting choices and I liked it.
If they slap a "known by the state of California to possibly cause cancer" sticker on it that'd already be a step up in terms of impact, so yeah... Honestly it's just easier if you accept these...
If they slap a "known by the state of California to possibly cause cancer" sticker on it that'd already be a step up in terms of impact, so yeah...
Honestly it's just easier if you accept these for what they are, which is just cashing in on a name. What little passion goes into these projects ALWAYS gets ripped apart in the weirdest of ways. You'd think that something like Cowboy Bebop would at least be left mostly alone given it's popularity, approachable/profitable genre, and special effects that are well within range of a higher budget TV show, but no. Can't have that.
These are always bottom of the barrel cash grabs, and one piece is extra baffling given just how difficult it should be to do right in live action? 90% of the cast is going to have stuff going on that's just a massive pain in the ass to do in real life, practical or CGI, and there's 0 way they got the budget for something like that. Maybe it's somehow a good rework of the core themes, but even then I'd be hard pressed to see how it could be any good (although I also don't really care for one piece).
I hear One Piece will have a budget of 10 million dollars per episode. If true, it is never going to get that far into the story before it's canceled. That is simply too damn expensive.
I hear One Piece will have a budget of 10 million dollars per episode. If true, it is never going to get that far into the story before it's canceled. That is simply too damn expensive.
Stranger Things had a much higher budget (apparently $30 million per episode in the 4th season?!?!). It's also ending soon. If One Piece can live up to its name, they're likely to go full steam....
Stranger Things had a much higher budget (apparently $30 million per episode in the 4th season?!?!). It's also ending soon. If One Piece can live up to its name, they're likely to go full steam. So far the marketing suggests that Netflix is backing the adaptation pretty hard since Iñaki Godoy (actor for Luffy) is always positioned in the center of everything lately.
I doubt the whole thing will get adapted but they'll look for a satisfying place to end it. Depending how they do it, the whole thing would have to go 13 seasons. Taz Skylar (actor for Sanji) already said he wants it to continue for as long as the team wants to do it and not longer which I assumed meant somewhere between 3 and 5 seasons.
I didn't know that about Stranger Things. If so, perhaps there's a chance yet for One Piece. However, judging how long the manga is, I doubt we'll get even halfway through the story. Netflix has...
I didn't know that about Stranger Things. If so, perhaps there's a chance yet for One Piece. However, judging how long the manga is, I doubt we'll get even halfway through the story. Netflix has its own way of deciding when to cancel a show (on a cliffhanger), and I simply don't see this series reaching the end even if the manga ended in January 2024.
It's very much only half of a much bigger story. I haven't read the manga myself, but what I heard from my friends it's clear there was a lot of passion put into it, even if the second half of the...
It's very much only half of a much bigger story. I haven't read the manga myself, but what I heard from my friends it's clear there was a lot of passion put into it, even if the second half of the movie is a bit of a mess and the CGI is hit or miss.
Also I understand they changed some details the fans were unhappy with, but I can't remember the specifics.
Edge of tomorrow takes very big liberties with the original concept of the manga. Don't get me wrong, it's entirely to it's benefit, but it's a loose adaptation of the manga. Also as far as I'm...
Edge of tomorrow takes very big liberties with the original concept of the manga. Don't get me wrong, it's entirely to it's benefit, but it's a loose adaptation of the manga.
Also as far as I'm aware there isn't an anime adaptation of all you need is kill
I think the functional difference for this discussion is pretty slim though, so I think the point stands. Haven't seen itchi but oldboy was good Although I love Ito's Uzumaki and I did enjoy the...
I think the functional difference for this discussion is pretty slim though, so I think the point stands.
Haven't seen itchi but oldboy was good
Although I love Ito's Uzumaki and I did enjoy the movie, the Uzumaki movie was nowhere near as good as the manga and a lot of stuff was cut out, something that seems like may happen with the new adaptation as well. It was still a good movie at least.
Side note I remember Uzumaki being so green tinted that I went into color correction to mostly remove it lol
I guess Uzumaki would have been a 30 hour movie or so without cutting out something. I think it managed to capture some of the eerieness of the manga. Too many horror movies are just CGI and...
I guess Uzumaki would have been a 30 hour movie or so without cutting out something. I think it managed to capture some of the eerieness of the manga. Too many horror movies are just CGI and jumpscares.
The director also created another Junji Ito adaptation called Long Dream. Much lower budget (made for TV) but at least they could afford green-tinting! It's a bit too poetic and artsy at times, but I still liked it.
Old Boy (2003) was great. I never saw Itchi even though I want to. And Uzumaki... a lot of media uses that name (e.x., Uzumaki by Junji Ito which is getting an anime adaption this year). Are you...
Old Boy (2003) was great. I never saw Itchi even though I want to. And Uzumaki... a lot of media uses that name (e.x., Uzumaki by Junji Ito which is getting an anime adaption this year). Are you referring to the previous live action film for Uzumaki made in Japan or something else? I'm not familiar, but I haven't seen that one.
Oh right, there's the Naruto stuff too. I was thinking of the Junji Ito live action from 2000. I found it quite eerie. A bit offbeat ending though, but as I understand things, it was made before...
Oh right, there's the Naruto stuff too. I was thinking of the Junji Ito live action from 2000. I found it quite eerie. A bit offbeat ending though, but as I understand things, it was made before the manga series was finished.
I wish people would recognise and distinguish the 2006 Japanese live action adaptation of Death Note. It's better than the anime itself - I'll fight anyone on that.
I wish people would recognise and distinguish the 2006 Japanese live action adaptation of Death Note. It's better than the anime itself - I'll fight anyone on that.
Light is less obnoxious, cartoonishly evil in the live action. Despite the time constraints of being a movie, it managed to integrate all the important moments without feeling rushed. The live...
Light is less obnoxious, cartoonishly evil in the live action.
Despite the time constraints of being a movie, it managed to integrate all the important moments without feeling rushed.
The live action's alternate story is better than the original. The anime fell off after L's death. Near and mello were very uninteresting characters. Light's demise was silly and anticlimactic.
L defeating Light by writing his own name in the death note is a better plot twist and had interesting implications. It also allowed for L Change The World which had its own interesting little story, a bittersweet send-off for L and an "origins" for Near.
Netflix has given access 10 days earlier to some press people to watch the full season 1 (8 episodes) for the One Piece live action which allows them to write reviews already. I'm guessing there's...
Netflix has given access 10 days earlier to some press people to watch the full season 1 (8 episodes) for the One Piece live action which allows them to write reviews already. I'm guessing there's some sort of NDA for what they can and can't talk about. So far the reviewers have high praise for it.
In case you missed it, there was also some music that was released: Wealth Fame Power. The composer hinted that there will be more tracks coming out before the 31st.
Man only 8 episodes is nothing for the content they said they'll cover Hopefully this will be successful and we get a season 2 which will be able to take things more slowly and give each arv the...
Man only 8 episodes is nothing for the content they said they'll cover
Hopefully this will be successful and we get a season 2 which will be able to take things more slowly and give each arv the proper depth and time
It's allegedly covering everything up to the Grand Line. That's 61 episodes. Take out filler and it's ~51 episodes. Each anime episode is ~30min but that includes intro, recap, and "next time" -...
Exemplary
It's allegedly covering everything up to the Grand Line. That's 61 episodes. Take out filler and it's ~51 episodes. Each anime episode is ~30min but that includes intro, recap, and "next time" - without those things there are maybe 15 min of content per episode. 51 x 15 = 12.75 hours of anime content before they reach the Grand Line. Adapting 13 hour anime to 8 hour live action is very doable, especially considering those moments in the anime where half an episode is shots of characters reacting to things.
8 episodes should be fine. One episode for each Strawhat with 3 to spare. Obviously I'd like more but I'm not worried.
Thanks for doing the math! I think it's still a bit too much cutting, it's almost half the runtime. But it's certainly less worrisome than I initially felt it would be. Do we know for sure the...
Thanks for doing the math!
I think it's still a bit too much cutting, it's almost half the runtime. But it's certainly less worrisome than I initially felt it would be.
Do we know for sure the length of the episodes? I haven't seen official word on it. Like, if they are 40 minutes each it really changes the picture.
Also on an unrelated note, I really hope Netflix doesn't just dump them all in one go. Maybe do them in batches of arcs like Arcane did so we can have meaningful discussion of each episode/arc and build up hype from week to week.
Like almost all anime, One Piece tends to draw out big moments. Luffy will get hit and then we spend 45 seconds seeing each individual crew member scream in shock, etc. There's an ongoing fan...
Like almost all anime, One Piece tends to draw out big moments. Luffy will get hit and then we spend 45 seconds seeing each individual crew member scream in shock, etc. There's an ongoing fan project called "One Pace" that trims and cuts a lot of fat and reduces the runtime by a pretty insane degree. After seeing how much can be trimmed from Marineford (MAJOR MAJOR SPOILERS), for example, I'm very comfortable with the 8 hours we're getting.
I've actually watched all of one pace, but from what I remember, not counting full filler episodes, it cuts about 30%, and that's with removing recaps etc Anyhow I'm realizing that the runtime is...
I've actually watched all of one pace, but from what I remember, not counting full filler episodes, it cuts about 30%, and that's with removing recaps etc
Anyhow I'm realizing that the runtime is probably a way smaller issue than other aspects which could good wrong
The problem is that One Piece is starting out in English, and will probably be reversed-dubbed into Japanese. Basically, they're doing the reverse of what usually happens, and this gives it a much...
The problem is that One Piece is starting out in English, and will probably be reversed-dubbed into Japanese. Basically, they're doing the reverse of what usually happens, and this gives it a much bigger audience. Oh, and Netflix is used by a lot of people (causing all the people who are in favor of "sailing the seas" to have a huge WTF moment).
This is a problem because the TRUE best anime-to-live-action adaptation has never been adapted to English, and thus shown to a large English-speaking audience. I will die on the hill that (as of current) Rurouni Kenshin is the best adaptation.
There are a lot of live-action adaptations of series in real-world settings that are probably perfectly fine compared to the ones that are brought up whenever the topic comes up, they just don't...
There are a lot of live-action adaptations of series in real-world settings that are probably perfectly fine compared to the ones that are brought up whenever the topic comes up, they just don't get exported/noticed by the west with a few exceptions like Boys Over Flowers.
I actually had faith in this after seeing the Anime Expo trailer. The cast seems like they actually enjoy One Piece and believe in their version of the series, not like they've been paid by a...
I actually had faith in this after seeing the Anime Expo trailer. The cast seems like they actually enjoy One Piece and believe in their version of the series, not like they've been paid by a bunch of corporate suits to make a Western adaptation because "this anime stuff is very popular."
One Piece is on my watch list and I am reasonably confident it will be good. Just hoping that Netflix don't prematurely cancel it.
Having seen all 8 episodes of Netflix’s upcoming ‘ONE PIECE’, and having minimal exposure to the source materials, I can say that this is THE show fans of live action manga and/or anime adaptations have wanted. THIS is the real deal.
The dynamic camerawork, with slick VFX, a killer cast, and an understanding of STORY (and specifically how to write, direct, and produce big budget episodic media), this will hopefully stand tall to be remembered as… KING OF THE NETFLIX SHOWS!
can i ask in your opinion what makes this different from cowboy bebop?
This has a fundamental understanding of how to use its budget, with some campy VFX, but the camerawork is sublime. It really goes a long way in making it feel as dynamic as a manga. The cast feels as well realised as characters with a 20+ year history, just top TV. All it actually feels episodic.
are you saying that one piece live action is one of the best netflix shows in general?
I am. And I am confident in that statement.
Hello mo I have a genuine questions, do you think the general public audience who have zero knowledge about the one piece manga or anime will like this TV series? And do you think it deserves a second season?
I am a general public with zero knowledge about the manga or anime aside from knowing the main characters name and the general story lmao.
I’m not gonna answer the second part of that but I think it’s fairly obvious what I think about the season as a whole ☺️
Are you able to talk about anything you have seen in any of the eight episodes?
I’ve got two interviews with directors from the show coming this week - I’ve done one of them and waiting to do the other. I specifically spoke about some scenes and shots so you’ll get to see a bit of what I mean.
I mean.. the bar is very fucking low. Dragon Ball Evolution, Cowboy Bebop, Avatar: The Last Airbender (movie), Ghost in the Shell, Death Note (Netflix adaption)... Saying this adaption is the best of all time isn't saying much.
I liked live action bebop. Don't care what any of you say. It wasn't meant to be a shot for shot remake of the anime. You all hated it before you even watched it, and complained so much they killed it.
I can’t speak for anybody else, but I wasn’t looking for a shot for shot clone. In fact I was hoping to see a wholly new set of stories, since that’s fresh for old fans, frees the writers from many of the constraints of re-treading ground covered by the original, and invites less direct comparison.
The issue in my opinion is that the live action didn’t very well capture the vibe of the original, which I think was the most critical element of the show. That precise blend of film noir, futurism, and action movie set in a universe that’s been somewhat dystopian for so long that its inhabitants have figured out ways to live despite it, like a tree growing around a fence post.
Some of the actors clearly took the project seriously and gave it their all though, so I can’t fault them. The live action’s issues lie mostly in its direction, cinematography, and writing I believe.
I wrote a similar comment but I ended up not posting it. In this case, you said it better than I did: They didn't capture the feel of the setting. I wanted something that made it look like the Cowboy Bebop anime had a lovechild with Firefly. Building of tension when needed, but some goofy adventures here and there. There was a mountain of potential! ....that isn't what we got and I'm super disappointed by it.
There were moments where I got a bit of that feeling you describe, but I think it's a tall order to recreate the specific weave of genres and sensabilities that gave the original its identity.
I went in with my expectations quite neutral, viewing it more as its own standalone thing, and I think that's what allowed me to get the most out of it -- when there were those little moments of "Hey, this feels really close to the mark" it was a nice surprise as opposed to me constantly ticking boxes about how this is different and that's not what I thought it should be etc.
The one thing I would've changed though is the sort of polished gloss of the aesthetic. I get they were probably going for a brighter, cartoon vibe, but the original CB was a bit washed out and grainy/gritty simply due to the analog technology of the time which, while maybe not a 100% conscious stylistic choice, we can probably all agree is part of its aesthetic identity now.
But overall I liked it and, if I'm being honest, it sort of grates on me that people are lauding a One Piece remake of all things while CB got piles of hate before it was even out the door lol. I haven't seen the One Piece remake and I'm sure it's not bad if it is getting a good critical response, but there's no way it didn't have to make many if the same compromises as Bebop that people were so uncharitable about.
I think the big difference between Bebop and One Piece is that the latter is very unapologetically manga/anime, leaning hard into the tropes and aesthetic and being generally cartoonish, even if it handles mature subject matter at times. That gives it a lot of leeway in a live action adaptation because there’s no way such an adaptation can’t make heavy divergences from the source material.
Bebop on the other hand with a few exceptions (Ed) is one of the least stereotypical anime in existence. It’s regularly recommended as an anime for people who don’t like anime and was built more like a live action show than it was an animated one with super heavy western cinema and TV influence. There’s very little about it that would be impractical to shoot with cameras and actors.
So naturally, expectations for the Bebop were high because it’s practically ready-made for live action and well suited for western cinematic techniques without significant tweaks to the formula… just switch out the episodic adventures for new ones and you’re golden. That’s not quite what it ended up being though, which is where some of the disappointment comes from.
Another thing that the OP adaptation seems to be doing right is keeping the author of the work (Eiichiro Oda) tightly involved in the production loop. Contrast this to the Bebop adaptation where the production team barely spoke with Shinichiro Watanabe at all, despite listing his name in the credits.
You're speaking as if it was a good show that was strangled in the crib. It was just a bad show, and I say that as someone who hoped it would be good and reserved judgement until after watching it. The casting and acting was very good, the original episode premises they went for fit the CB brief well, the sets and backgrounds looked great throughout.
But the writing and directing were awful. Truly, truly terrible. It was the most tonally inconsistent show I've ever seen. It's like the writer's room split out scenes between everyone, then assembled everyone's very different products together into a full episode. Scenes would go from comedy to black comedy to drama to random gory violence for little to no reason. The directing was all over the place and certainly didn't help these matters, often resulting in it highlighting these inconsistent tone issues.
Normally these would be surmountable problems but one of the main appeals of the original show is that its tone and atmosphere and mood were very specific, consistent, and notable. It was film noir with heart, about flawed characters who were battling themselves as much as anyone else. The show was not like this at all. It felt scattered, and random.
For example, one of the earliest big, red, flashing warning signs was an early episode where after Spike and Jet finish a fight where they kill a lot of people, they look at each other and then have a huge laugh about it, as if it was the funniest thing in the world. That was the most anti-CB moment in the entire show for me and that was the tone it chose to set. The characters of Cowboy Bebop would never react that way, that's not at all the tone or intent of the show. Yes, they killed people, but they did not linger or enjoy or laugh about it. They had a goal in a violent world and then focused on that goal. The few times Spike chose to kill people outright in the original show, it was in rage and the act highlighted that mood (and I specify Spike because he was the only one to do it). This show instead shows that the Bebop crew are violent sadists who enjoy murder for... nothing.
I mean it: nothing. There was no purpose to that moment. I don't know why they chose to end the fight with Spike and Jet sharing a huge laugh about it. It's as if the audience is supposed to laugh along or something as if this was some kind of black comedy but killing a bunch of people in a gunfight and then randomly laughing about it isn't black comedy. This should have been an action scene that showed Spike and Jet are capable and talented fighters, which it did, before introducing this weird tonal whiplash that totally went against the characters and the consistency of the show.
And this isn't even getting into the (frankly, bad) additions of Vicious and Julia's storylines which just seemed like an excuse to ramp up the violence and gore for the sake of having any at all. The original show was violent, sure, but it wasn't one that reveled in executing civilians or wanton murder. The original show was notable because it wasn't that kind of show, it took a more mature and restrained tack to how it handled such things. The most it ever stayed on action scenes was during the martial arts moments where the beauty of movement was celebrated. The gunfights were always curt, to-the-point affairs. So to go between scenes of wanton, cruel violence to humour to trying to figure out why the characters are suddenly making uncharacteristic decisions was just too much to keep up with. It was tonal whiplash all the way through. This is the fault of a combination of bad writing, bad editing, and bad directing.
And unfortunately, more episodes were like this than not. Almost none of them were of consistent quality all the way through, and there were many moments that felt like the writers and directors had either not seen or not appreciated the original show. I don't think any reasonable person would equate shot-for-shot remake with quality but an adaptation has to actually feel like the creative team behind it have experienced and understood the original. Every great adaptation takes something central or key to the original work and represents it in a like way, even if significant changes happen. The Cowboy Bebop show did not feel like a proper adaptation at all.
I've also been avoiding the common complain about Vicious' casting and the Vicious and Julia storyline additions. The casting is whatever but the character of Vicious in the live-action was not at all the character in the show. And to an extent, neither was Julia's. This seems to be the result of the additional storyline they were given. So considering the quality of the original material added for the show and how it ended up changing two key characters for the worse, it does not suggest that the writing behind the show was as good as it should have been.
It sucks because the cast was basically perfect for the main crew. The actors all seemed to have understood, appreciated, and loved the original characters. You could see all the original anime characters represented in behaviour, mannerisms, and ways of speech in the live action. And the settings! Honestly, the backgrounds of the live-action Cowboy Bebop are some of my favourites in any show, even if they are very clearly heavily CG'd. They did such a great job capturing the various backdrops from the anime and represented them convincingly in live-action. They all did such a good job and it was all overshadowed by terrible scripts and directing.
I did not like the show and I was rooting for its success the entire time. The writing, directing, and editing of that show are the true failures and it dragged everything down. I'm not sad it was cancelled. It already did enough damage to the Cowboy Bebop brand and putting it out of its misery was the best thing that could have happened to it. Of course, retooling the show entirely for S2 would have been preferable but that's not how Netflix operates.
But at the end, bad writing is still bad writing, regardless of circumstances.
People generally don't care about the production process, and it's not advertised that much either. I mean, I really like behind the scenes, but it's generally not central to the promotion of a work and you're going to show only the "ups", not the "down".
This makes me think of this nice French video essay / review from Karim Debache & team of Tsui Hark's 1988 movie Knockoff (starring Jean Claude Vandamme). It's a movie widely considered as an utter crap, but they explain the fascinating circumstances of this movie (the 1997 handover of Hong Kong making its action directors go to Hollywood, the executive meddling of Tsui Hark American work making him fed up with Hollywood, resulting in Knockoff being both a stealth insult and a beta version of his later work). But still while he likes the movie as an historical artifact, he still think it's bad and recommend watching other Tsui Hark movie instead.
Except for the last paragraph (and maybe it's just a figure of style conflagrating the role (writers) and the output (writing)), I feel /u/ThrJorro did a fine job criticizing the work itself and not the people behind it.
Even I knew that some twirling mustache evil executivewere putting some bad mojo powder all over the script, as a Cowboy Bebop fan I don't think I would enjoy the show with what /u/TheJorro described.
You know, I was confused where this was coming from since I didn't think I was blaming anyone or assigning fault beyond a few aspects of the show that I thought failed the rest, until I read @PetitPrince comment about my last paragraph.
Oops, there's actually a mistake there. I said "writers, directors, and editing". I actually meant "writing, directing, and editing" but misspoke and didn't notice. That's my mistake and something I didn't notice until it was pointed out, and it does change my message too much from what I intended.
But no, I'm not blaming anyone individually or as a group there. I recognize that a failure of these aspects is not the fault of any one person or group because film and television are done with compromises at every step and nobody sets out to do a bad job. I limited my criticism to only how I received the show and do not think that anyone really set out to make a bad show either through fault or accident.
Those aspects do continue to be where I believe the show was brought down to failure but they are also the things that can be interfered with the most by external factors. I know plenty of criticism out there from the internet is more hostile and personal (e.g. all the criticism about Vicious' actor's looks, or all the meme criticisms about Netflix writers hating the source material) but I purposefully avoided as much personal blame and stuck to how those three aspects ended up coming off. I won't apologize for suggesting it felt like it came from a lack of passion or understanding of the original because that is what the final product ended up communicating to me in how it did not adequately adapt what I felt was the heart of the original show. Maybe it did not originate from the writers, directors, or editors themselves—I really don't know—but it certainly got into the final show somehow and it would be dishonest of me not to point out what I got out of it.
Everything I spoke about are the sentiments I took from the final product. Who the true faults lay with may be of interest to others, including the people who worked on the show and feel the need to absolve themselves of it, but it's not really of interest to me. As a reader, all I really have is the final product and the sentiments it instills in me.
See Henry Cavill and 'The Witcher' (also a Netflix production) for another example of this at the highest level.
Wait, were you directly involved in this production? If so, I think it would be fascinating to learn who/what caused the vibe to shift. Were the executives familiar with the original? What material were they inspired by when they imagined the finished product?
Unfortunately it doesn't seem that even clout and/or charisma can make a difference in all cases. Look at Henry Cavill's attempts to steer the production of Netflix's The Witcher towards source material faithfulness, which ultimately ended fruitlessly.
The thing that bothered me is some of the decisions in the plot. They chose for Jet to not know about Spike's past. Just so they could do the old trope of miscommunication leads to conflict/division. And it wasn't even done in a good way. It feels like they made that decision just so they'd have some extra material for the next season
I don't think Jet knows his backstory in the anime, at least not at the beginning. I think he suspects he's former syndicate, and as more information comes out he quietly pieces it together throughout the series, but he and spike don't have an explicit conversation about Spike's past until the last episode.
You might be right. I interpreted it as he knew and they didn't need to discuss it. But the fact that it never really caused strife among them was something I always appreciated.
Agreed. I think they lost sight of the fact that Jet was a former cop, not a freelance cop. Jet is much more interesting when he's dogged and highly principled but has no real allegiance to law and order. Lawful Neutral, if I understand the D&D lingo correctly.
As someone who actually did enjoy the live-action adaption, I appreciate your perspective, and frankly I think you're right about the tonal mismatch. The adaptation felt more inspired by Kill Bill than its source materially.
So I just pretended the anime didn't exist and judged the remake on its own. I perceived it as an over-the-top sci-fi series and (other than the Vicious/Julia scenes) generally had a bunch of fun with it.
But of course, I think it's perfectly fair to judge the work in relation to its source, as you have. I mean, the show runners invited the comparison after all -- if they didn't want to be compared to the original, they should have created their own original work instead.
Be honest with yourself. You wrote me an essay about how it wasn't perfect to exactly what you expected. You judged it long before it even came out.
This seems like you saw the length of my comment and immediately wrote this. I don't recognize your description of my sentiments at all.
Please read other people comments and acknowledge what they're saying before responding. This isn't reddit.
How about this. Sure some choices weren't the best, sure it wasn't perfect. It's OK to enjoy things that aren't perfect. It was a fun ride while it lasted, and the main cast fucking rocked their adaptation.
While overall it wasn't great, I enjoyed it. I can't remember the episodes by heart, but some of the earlier ones really captured the vibe of the bounty hijinks from the original.
Plus the main three actors be killed it. Devastated for them that their love for the show didn't get rewarded.
I agree about the main cast. Especially the guy who played Jet, he was absolutely spot on.
I'm with you on this. I haven't finished the live action series yet and there are definitely some parts I don't think were good choices (I really did not like the plotline with Julia and Vicious, I'd usually end up scrolling on my phone to just ignore those scenes honestly), but I felt like it captured the overall spirit pretty well. I have yet to finish it since I've been watching it with my dad, and we've both had a lot of fun with it. The first few episodes in particular were a blast for me, the very first fight scene gave me huge nostalgia vibes and had me cheering.
The fact it's Cowboy Bebop automatically skewed reactions and made the show an uphill battle though. The original is a genuine masterpiece, and it's been so long since it aired that it's gained truly mythical status. People were guaranteed to be hyper-critical from the start, comparing each scene and decision to the original. They latch onto the mistakes and bad decisions more than other shows. Even if you're consciously trying to give it a chance, it's hard to be truly objective if you've seen the original. It just makes all the flaws stand out.
Were it some original brand-new show, I think the attitude wouldn't be nearly as bad as it is. It has flaws and some poor choices, but honestly, so does nearly every other show out there. This could have easily passed as a pretty good sci-fi show: not perfect by a long shot, but still fun.
As it is, I don't think it deserves the level of criticism and hate it's gotten. At least it's a good way to introduce the series to people who don't usually watch anime though.
Yeah, to me, a live action Cowboy Bebop was never going to be a good idea but they managed to make something fun. Did they capture the film noire/samurai/western aesthetic of the original? No. They were never going to be able to do that. But they made some interesting choices and I liked it.
I never watched it as it got canceled before so. I have nothing against it even now.
If they slap a "known by the state of California to possibly cause cancer" sticker on it that'd already be a step up in terms of impact, so yeah...
Honestly it's just easier if you accept these for what they are, which is just cashing in on a name. What little passion goes into these projects ALWAYS gets ripped apart in the weirdest of ways. You'd think that something like Cowboy Bebop would at least be left mostly alone given it's popularity, approachable/profitable genre, and special effects that are well within range of a higher budget TV show, but no. Can't have that.
These are always bottom of the barrel cash grabs, and one piece is extra baffling given just how difficult it should be to do right in live action? 90% of the cast is going to have stuff going on that's just a massive pain in the ass to do in real life, practical or CGI, and there's 0 way they got the budget for something like that. Maybe it's somehow a good rework of the core themes, but even then I'd be hard pressed to see how it could be any good (although I also don't really care for one piece).
I hear One Piece will have a budget of 10 million dollars per episode. If true, it is never going to get that far into the story before it's canceled. That is simply too damn expensive.
Stranger Things had a much higher budget (apparently $30 million per episode in the 4th season?!?!). It's also ending soon. If One Piece can live up to its name, they're likely to go full steam. So far the marketing suggests that Netflix is backing the adaptation pretty hard since Iñaki Godoy (actor for Luffy) is always positioned in the center of everything lately.
I doubt the whole thing will get adapted but they'll look for a satisfying place to end it. Depending how they do it, the whole thing would have to go 13 seasons. Taz Skylar (actor for Sanji) already said he wants it to continue for as long as the team wants to do it and not longer which I assumed meant somewhere between 3 and 5 seasons.
I didn't know that about Stranger Things. If so, perhaps there's a chance yet for One Piece. However, judging how long the manga is, I doubt we'll get even halfway through the story. Netflix has its own way of deciding when to cancel a show (on a cliffhanger), and I simply don't see this series reaching the end even if the manga ended in January 2024.
As a non-anime fan, I enjoyed Alita quite a bit. Where would you rate it?
It's very much only half of a much bigger story. I haven't read the manga myself, but what I heard from my friends it's clear there was a lot of passion put into it, even if the second half of the movie is a bit of a mess and the CGI is hit or miss.
Also I understand they changed some details the fans were unhappy with, but I can't remember the specifics.
Alita was pretty solid, and I hope we get a sequel.
Edge of Tomorrow was great. Scott Pilgrim is amazing, but not really anime/manga. It proves it should be possible though.
Edge of tomorrow takes very big liberties with the original concept of the manga. Don't get me wrong, it's entirely to it's benefit, but it's a loose adaptation of the manga.
Also as far as I'm aware there isn't an anime adaptation of all you need is kill
Small correction, the original is a light novel :)
Isn't it always these days lol
Scott Pilgrim is a great movie but it also departs from the comic in a number of places in both plot and tone iirc
How about Old Boy? Itchi the Killer? Uzumaki? Or that old prison splatter flick (whatever it's called)?
You're probably thinking of Riki-Oh aka The Story of Ricky.
Jep that's the one.There's also Female prisoner #701 Scorpion and its numerous sequels, and Mushi-Shi and Cutie Honey.
None of those are anime adaptations?
Right, they're manga adaptations, not anime adaptations. Most anime start out as manga anyways, so I guess I just mixed it a bit together.
I think the functional difference for this discussion is pretty slim though, so I think the point stands.
Haven't seen itchi but oldboy was good
Although I love Ito's Uzumaki and I did enjoy the movie, the Uzumaki movie was nowhere near as good as the manga and a lot of stuff was cut out, something that seems like may happen with the new adaptation as well. It was still a good movie at least.
Side note I remember Uzumaki being so green tinted that I went into color correction to mostly remove it lol
I guess Uzumaki would have been a 30 hour movie or so without cutting out something. I think it managed to capture some of the eerieness of the manga. Too many horror movies are just CGI and jumpscares.
The director also created another Junji Ito adaptation called Long Dream. Much lower budget (made for TV) but at least they could afford green-tinting! It's a bit too poetic and artsy at times, but I still liked it.
Old Boy (2003) was great. I never saw Itchi even though I want to. And Uzumaki... a lot of media uses that name (e.x., Uzumaki by Junji Ito which is getting an anime adaption this year). Are you referring to the previous live action film for Uzumaki made in Japan or something else? I'm not familiar, but I haven't seen that one.
Oh right, there's the Naruto stuff too. I was thinking of the Junji Ito live action from 2000. I found it quite eerie. A bit offbeat ending though, but as I understand things, it was made before the manga series was finished.
The bar is low but there are still good reasons to have high expectations.
This one is a bit more specific on the praise: https://www.animesenpai.net/early-reviewer-praises-one-piece-live-action-this-adaptation-has-heart/.
I wish people would recognise and distinguish the 2006 Japanese live action adaptation of Death Note. It's better than the anime itself - I'll fight anyone on that.
It was neat, but I disagree on it being better than the anime.
Light is less obnoxious, cartoonishly evil in the live action.
Despite the time constraints of being a movie, it managed to integrate all the important moments without feeling rushed.
The live action's alternate story is better than the original. The anime fell off after L's death. Near and mello were very uninteresting characters. Light's demise was silly and anticlimactic.
L defeating Light by writing his own name in the death note is a better plot twist and had interesting implications. It also allowed for L Change The World which had its own interesting little story, a bittersweet send-off for L and an "origins" for Near.
Netflix has given access 10 days earlier to some press people to watch the full season 1 (8 episodes) for the One Piece live action which allows them to write reviews already. I'm guessing there's some sort of NDA for what they can and can't talk about. So far the reviewers have high praise for it.
In case you missed it, there was also some music that was released: Wealth Fame Power. The composer hinted that there will be more tracks coming out before the 31st.
Man only 8 episodes is nothing for the content they said they'll cover
Hopefully this will be successful and we get a season 2 which will be able to take things more slowly and give each arv the proper depth and time
It's allegedly covering everything up to the Grand Line. That's 61 episodes. Take out filler and it's ~51 episodes. Each anime episode is ~30min but that includes intro, recap, and "next time" - without those things there are maybe 15 min of content per episode. 51 x 15 = 12.75 hours of anime content before they reach the Grand Line. Adapting 13 hour anime to 8 hour live action is very doable, especially considering those moments in the anime where half an episode is shots of characters reacting to things.
8 episodes should be fine. One episode for each Strawhat with 3 to spare. Obviously I'd like more but I'm not worried.
Thanks for doing the math!
I think it's still a bit too much cutting, it's almost half the runtime. But it's certainly less worrisome than I initially felt it would be.
Do we know for sure the length of the episodes? I haven't seen official word on it. Like, if they are 40 minutes each it really changes the picture.
Also on an unrelated note, I really hope Netflix doesn't just dump them all in one go. Maybe do them in batches of arcs like Arcane did so we can have meaningful discussion of each episode/arc and build up hype from week to week.
Like almost all anime, One Piece tends to draw out big moments. Luffy will get hit and then we spend 45 seconds seeing each individual crew member scream in shock, etc. There's an ongoing fan project called "One Pace" that trims and cuts a lot of fat and reduces the runtime by a pretty insane degree. After seeing how much can be trimmed from Marineford (MAJOR MAJOR SPOILERS), for example, I'm very comfortable with the 8 hours we're getting.
I've actually watched all of one pace, but from what I remember, not counting full filler episodes, it cuts about 30%, and that's with removing recaps etc
Anyhow I'm realizing that the runtime is probably a way smaller issue than other aspects which could good wrong
Thanks!
Isn't this the show that has like a thousand episodes?
It sure is. This isn't adapting the whole thing in 8 episodes of course.
The problem is that One Piece is starting out in English, and will probably be reversed-dubbed into Japanese. Basically, they're doing the reverse of what usually happens, and this gives it a much bigger audience. Oh, and Netflix is used by a lot of people (causing all the people who are in favor of "sailing the seas" to have a huge WTF moment).
This is a problem because the TRUE best anime-to-live-action adaptation has never been adapted to English, and thus shown to a large English-speaking audience. I will die on the hill that (as of current) Rurouni Kenshin is the best adaptation.
FWIW, the Japanese dub of this show is using the original anime voice actors.
That's pretty sick lol. Kinda like how the live-action Scott Pilgrim characters voice their animated counterparts.
We can be two on that hill !
I wonder what would be (a disastrous) Hollywood take on it.
There are a lot of live-action adaptations of series in real-world settings that are probably perfectly fine compared to the ones that are brought up whenever the topic comes up, they just don't get exported/noticed by the west with a few exceptions like Boys Over Flowers.
I actually had faith in this after seeing the Anime Expo trailer. The cast seems like they actually enjoy One Piece and believe in their version of the series, not like they've been paid by a bunch of corporate suits to make a Western adaptation because "this anime stuff is very popular."
One Piece is on my watch list and I am reasonably confident it will be good. Just hoping that Netflix don't prematurely cancel it.
Here is another review with OP answering some questions: https://twitter.com/mohooosen/status/1694546964921098408.
Edit: