So, this is a really, really, really interesting post for me to make, but I decided to do it. Recently on Netflix, they released the first season for the live action One Piece show. This is something that people have been talking about for a long time and a lot of them, like me, were really nervous because a lot of amazing anime's have gotten really, really terrible live action adaptations before like Dragonball Evolution, Fullmetal Alchemist, Attack On Titan and so on. But, what's interesting about this one is that Eiichiro Oda himself was heavily involved with this himself and helped the people behind the scenes make it and a lot of people were getting really excited to see this when the trailers were coming out and were hopeful this would finally be the anime adaptation that would actually be good. And, to everyone's surprise, it was. After so many failed attempts to adapt anime into live action, they finally succeeded in making a good adaptation and I'm so glad about that, especially since it's a franchise I already love. That's not to say it's perfect, not at all, but I'm still fairly satisfied with the series regardless. Also, this will have spoilers for the whole first season as well as the anime and manga, so, that's your warning if you don't want anything spoiled. So, as a huge One Piece fan, there was a lot of expectations going into this and a lot of fear as well to see if they could actually handle this well. The series covered almost all of the East Blue Saga and had 8 episodes in total, so I'm gonna do this review by going episode by episode and talking about my opinion about each one. Okay, so, the first episode has a lot thrown into it because it combines the first few chapters of the manga together. It starts off with showing Gold Roger's execution and then showing Luffy setting out to sea. They do it kinda like the anime where they show Luffy going out to sea, running into Alvida and meets Koby first, then shows his backstory afterwards where he sees Shanks and eats the Gum-Gum Fruit. It then cuts from that to a scene with Zoro killing Mr. 7 and then Luffy, Koby, Zoro and Nami are all in Shells Town and we see Zoro get arrested. So, right off the bat, even in just halfway through the episode, the first thing that's weird in this series is the pacing. That's something that was gonna be pretty obvious before starting the series. Seeing as this was only gonna be 8 episodes long, it was obvious that this was gonna feel really rushed in terms of the pacing and everything else like that. I also feel like the editing in this and the rest of the series is another thing that's a little off because it's done in a way that makes the series feel pretty disjointed in a few instances. Anyway, as for the rest of the first episode, I enjoyed seeing Luffy meeting Zoro and Nami like him trying to get Zoro to join him but Zoro being annoyed the whole time and Nami being the same but they still agree to work together. Though, yeah, it is a little weird that Nami is there considering they don't meet until Orange Town in the manga. Anyway, this all then leads to the three of them teaming up against Morgan and his officers and this is another scene that's done kinda weirdly in the series because Morgan doesn't actually do anything wrong and just fights them. In the manga, we see him do a whole bunch of terrible things like having that statue of himself be made and ordering his men to kill themselves, whereas here, he doesn't really do anything that bad and so it doesn't feel as satisfying when he's beaten. Speaking of the fight those, that's something I appreciated from the series because the action scenes are done in a way where they're insanely weird and silly and over the top, but they're kinda done in a way where the creators acknowledge it and just have fun with it and so I appreciate that it's something that's weird in live action but is still honouring the source material since it makes sense why given it's based on the manga. Anyway, I also liked how Koby says goodbye to Luffy here and decided to pursue his dream of joining the Marines and Luffy, Zoro and Nami leave. So, just going off of the first episode alone, there's a lot to admire and a lot to complain about. I already mentioned the negatives, so I'll go over the positives. For starters, it is a lot of fun as a live action translation of One Piece. Like I said, it really does feel like the creators really care about the One Piece franchise and really want to honour it and I really admire how in just this first episode alone, they have a lot of things right like how the world looks and everything like that. This really does feel like the One Piece world brought to life. I've always stood by the fact that One Piece has the best worldbuilding of any anime and manga in existence and this really does a great job bringing it to live action. The other thing that's really impressive about the series is the casting. I mean, there's definitely some actors who don't fit their characters that well, but the majority of them do and the two that I think are the best in the whole series are Inaki Godoy as Luffy and Mackenyu as Zoro. They're both absolutely phenomenal and really feel like Luffy and Zoro. They're both really big One Piece fans and you can tell when you watch that they have a lot of passion for this series and these characters. Inaki perfectly capturing Luffy's positive and fun-loving personality and Mackenyu being super cool and feeling like Zoro the whole time and capturing his personality as well. But others like Emily Rudd as Nami, Morgan Davies as Koby and Aidan Scott as Helmeppo do a great job too. Anyway, the second episode gets pretty dark too when we see Buggy and the whole episode is about him in Orange Town. The live action depiction of Buggy is honestly a lot darker than his manga counterpart because this version of Buggy is super messed up. In the manga, he's mostly a joke character and is there as a comedic villain. Here, he's treated almost like he's the Joker because we see that he's destroyed Orange Town, kidnapped the citizens, forced them to take part in his circus and threatens them all the time. So, yeah, this part is pretty creepy. But, with that said, it's still done well and Jeff Ward does an amazing job as Buggy and the effects on him with the Chop-Chop Fruit are well done too. I also enjoyed the actual fight between him and Luffy and, again, their interactions just shows more of why Inaki is perfect as Luffy because the way he reacts to different things in the fight are pretty spot on to how Luffy himself would react in these situations. I also liked how we see the end of Luffy's backstory here where we see Shanks giving him the Straw Hat as a kid. Though, this is kinda what I meant when I said the editing made the show feel disjointed at points because the flashback is split up in different parts throughout the first two episodes and it was pretty weird. Anyway, this episode also places a lot more time spent with Garp as well since he's introduced in the first episode and here instead of seeing him for the first time during Water 7 like in the manga and Garp is a character in this show that I'm kinda mixed on because Vincent Regan does a pretty good job as the character for the most part, but, what I really didn't like was how much screen time he has. I had heard this from a YouTuber before starting that they thought Garp and the Marines had too much screen time here and I agree. While I kinda get what they were going for with giving them so much screen time for the series, I still feel like it goes on too long at points and it sometimes felt a bit tedious to get through those scenes. I'm also not a fan of how Garp is handled at different points, but we'll get to that later. Anyway, this then leads to Episode 3 where we see Luffy, Zoro and Nami go to Syrup Village and see Usopp, Kaya and Kaya's servants. This is another part that shows great acting in the series because Jacob Romero does a great job as Usopp with capturing his cowardice and friendship with the others. The rest of the episode is still fun though when we see Luffy talk about being a pirate to Kaya, him and Zoro talking to Usopp and we even get a really fun Easter Egg with Zoro showing his terrible sense of direction as he gets lost walking through Kaya's mansion. Also, as a lot of people have mentioned already, I love how these two episodes are directed and shot because it's filmed like a horror movie when Kuro reveals himself and goes after them all. Speaking of, I thought Alexander Maniatis did a great job as him and was another character that felt like he was lifted right from the page, and I especially like how we don't spend a whole lot of time in Syrup Village. This part was probably one of the weaker elements of the manga, especially since it does go on a bit too long, but since they kinda go through it quicker, it helps. This might be the only element I think things going really quick helps because they manage to finish this part quickly and then we see them getting the Going Merry and Usopp joins. I will admit, I didn't like that Usopp and Kaya kiss. I like their relationship in the manga more where it's implied that they like each other, but it's never actually stated and I think their relationship works better there. Still though, them getting the ship and finishing the fourth episode like that and Luffy and the others seeing Garp for the first time was fun too. This then leads to Episode 5 where the crew arrives at Baratie and this part here shows off something that's really cool about this show and that's the production design. Throughout the series, a lot of the things we see are actual sets and things that were actually made. This is sorta what I meant when I mentioned how this show felt like the creators really cared about this franchise and wanted to make it look as good as possible. Anyway, we then finally meet Sanji here and this is another great casting. Taz Skylar is really good as Sanji and has some really cool moments, and how they do the whole Baratie thing is really cool with how they spend a lot of time there and we get to see Sanji and Zeff's past and that was nice to see. I also liked how Sanji's past was something we saw all at once instead of at random places and not all at once like some of the others. There's also a lot of other cool things that happen during their time there and I think my favourite is when Mihawk arrives. I will admit, something that I thought was weird about that was the fact that Mihawk is the one who fights Don Krieg here and so he doesn't appear at Baratie which is a weird change considering Luffy fighting him in the manga was the most important fight in that segment. But they made up for it with the rest of Mihawk's scenes. For one, Steven John Ward is absolutely perfect as Mihawk. They made him look perfect and the way he spoke and acted seemed absolutely perfect as well. But the fight between him and Zoro was cool too. This is sorta what I meant when I mentioned the action scenes because the fight looks really ridiculous and over the top, especially when Zoro does his last move, but, again, it's done in a way where it looks like they embraced how weird it was and just went for it is and so I appreciate that they did that while respecting the source material as well. This also still has that problem I mentioned earlier where they keep cutting back to Garp and the others and it can get kinda annoying going back to them. Another thing that I'm kinda mixed on is that Arlong actually comes to Baratie and fights Luffy there instead of like in the manga where Nami steals the Going Merry and goes to Cocoyasi Village herself. This then leads to the last two episodes where Luffy, Zoro, Sanji and Usopp go after them and this leads to the whole Arlong Park incident and there's a lot to talk about with these last two episodes. For one, I do kinda like how Buggy sorta goes with them because that did lead to some funny moments, but even some other moments like Luffy and the others discovering Nami's past was a sad moment too. That being said, there are some things in this that I wasn't a fan of, for one, again, we have more Garp and Marines moments that don't really add much like when they go to Baratie and Garp talks to Zeff. I also didn't really like how the Fishmen, especially Arlong himself, were pretty small. I mean, these guys are supposed to be huge in the story, but they're fairly small by comparison here. But, probably the number 1 thing in this series I really didn't like was the fact that Cocoyasi Village didn't know what Nami was doing, whereas in the manga, they did. I don't know why they made this change since it really doesn't add anything and so that was weird to see. Still though, the last episode was pretty cool with Luffy and the others fighting Arlong and the other Fishmen. Before that though, I loved the Easter Egg when Arlong was talking to Nezumi about Jimbei, that was really cool. Anyway, the fight with the Straw Hats vs. the Fishmen was pretty cool and I thought the final fight with Luffy and Arlong was cool too and the final Gum-Gum: Battle Axe was, again, done in a way that looked kinda weird but I didn't mind since that was another moment I just accepted since it was still cool to look at. Then, the last few moments of the final episode were nice. I liked seeing Luffy get his first bounty poster.
And the other characters in the series seeing the poster and then the Straw Hats leaving, revealing the Straw Hat Jolly Roger and the five of them declaring their dreams was a nice way to end the series. Then, at the end of the last episode, there was an end credit scene that showed the reveal of Smoker, so that was cool to see. So, yeah, overall, I was fairly satisfied with this show. Like I said, as a huge One Piece fan already, I was decently entertained by the series and it was really refreshing to finally have a live action anime adaptation that was actually good. Unlike other ones, this one actually felt like real effort and love was put into the making of this series and I love that. I already mentioned how it wasn't perfect and that I had a lot of problems with it like some weird editing and pacing, some changes that didn't really add anything to the story and spending too much time on different aspects that didn't feel like it needed to be that long. As I said before though, I think a big help to the series was the performances, which is even more impressive considering I can only imagine trying to act in a set up like this given the fact that it's live action, must have been really hard, but they do a really great job for the most part. Again, I feel like Inaki Godoy and Mackenyu were the best parts of the series as Luffy and Zoro. I loved their performances and they really felt like the characters. The only difference with Luffy that I noticed is that he seemed a bit smarter in this one. Not by much, but considering I still feel like Luffy is the dumbest anime protagonist ever, there were some moments where he seemed a bit smarter than the manga version. But yeah, the two of them were really fantastic as them and the rest of the cast does a great job too, especially the stand out ones I mentioned throughout the review. I'm just glad I gave this a shot and am really happy with everyone involved making this as good as it could be and this actually made me excited to see more. Speaking of, recently, it was announced that there will be more because Oda himself has stated that the series has been renewed for a Season 2 and he admitted that Chopper will be in it. So that makes me really curious because I'm wondering if they'll cover the entire Alabasta incident in the next season. If they do, that'll be a lot to cover since they have to go to Reverse Mountain, go to Whiskey Peak, go to Little Garden, go to Drum Island and then go to Alabasta. That'll be a lot to cover, especially if the next season is only 8 episodes long like this was. Not to mention they have a lot of characters to introduce like Chopper, Robin, Vivi, Ace, Crocodile and everyone else and so they could take a lot of this out like they did in this first season, but that's still a lot to do. So, I'm very curious to see more after seeing this. Another thing that's cool about this series is that a friend of mine who doesn't read manga or watch anime decided to watch this and he loved it and now he's started the manga and he's loving it so far. So yeah, I would say you should check this out if you haven't yet and if you're a One Piece fan like me. So guys, that's my review of the live action One Piece: Season 1. Thank you all for reading and please comment down below to tell me what you think.
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