Live Action One Piece (Not actually a film I know but I didn't fancy starting a thread related to reviewing live action TV shows so I hope this is not too off topic)
Netflix may have finally found the route to Laugh Tale with this one.
When this was announced, my jaw dropped in disbelief that they would even try to convert an anime that was nigh on unadaptable to live action, or so I thought, I mean, just Luffy's gum gum powers alone would take a crazy budget just to work with and then we have all the other factors such as the fact that some of the characters are literally hundreds of feet tall, though maybe not in East Blue which is covered here, not to mention the fact that in the anime, some characters have teeth bigger than the tops of their heads, the list of reasons I was having my doubts that this will work were piling up, chief among them was the fact that live action anime adaptations have not been doing so well even when they were adapting more suitable for adaptation shows, I think it's safe to say I was skeptical, and yet... against all odds, Netflix have managed to actually make a good show... with Eiichiro Oda's help of course.
A large reason that this show works is that Eiichiro Oda was not just gonna let Netflix do what they please with his life's work, oh no, so he told them that he'd only let this happen if he was satisfied with the project and he mostly has done a good job with it, it is worth noting that this is not the same as the anime, there are several changes, for better and worse that will certainly alienate people who are not ready for them, a friend of mine told me that it's more like an interpretation than an adaptation and you know what, that's the way to look at it, it's a different flavour of Oda's magnum opus and as long as you can accept that it is a different kettle of fish to the anime/manga, you'll probably be able to really enjoy this one.
First off, the changes, I'll start with the good one's, the most obvious one is that there is very little filler and it is mostly tightly written, a far cry from the anime which takes a long time to get to the point sometimes, I still very much like the anime but it's gonna be tough going back to East Blue in anime form after this, Coby gets far more screentime than he ever did in the anime, this is one of the best changes IMO as it gives him a lot more character development on screen as opposed to off, the result of this is a fantastic scene where rather than the straw hat crew being together when Luffy get's his wanted poster, which is to Luffy a massive achievement, Coby is the one who shows him, this ties in nicely with the first part of the series where Coby is left behind to join the marines and Luffy, despite wanting to be a pirate, tells him to follow that dream regardless, it makes thematic sense and carries more weight than the anime where it was just, "yes I'm a wanted man now LMAO", mind that's still generally Luffy's reaction but with the added emotional weight of Coby and Luffy reuniting, possibly for the last time before Coby goes super saiyan later on, Luffy and Coby both follow opposite dreams but both respect each other's so this makes perfect sense.
Other changes I personally really liked include most of the villans, Buggy is actually kind of funny in this one, despite being a lot edgier, maybe it's because I have a dark sense of humour, there was also the part when his assistant held up that sign telling his hostages to laugh and I couldn't help but assume that the scene is a reference to the first Shrek movie which is great because Shrek is one of my favourite films, Arlong's is also a far more menacing villan than the limited acting style (though I did watch the dub so might be different for the sub) of the anime allowed for, he's now more gangster like which I personally think it is a great fit for the character, Kuro was never all that special a villan in the grand scheme of things but he's a bit better in the adaptation, honestly I think that a lot of the villans are well suited to this somewhat darker and edgier style.
I also want to point out some of the set design, it's just got so much to like about it, it's clear that the designers had a lot of fun with some of them, I particularily liked the Baratie as well as Arlong Park, honourable mention for the set in Kaya's mansion with all the clothes, if only because of the use of colours.
As far as the essential parts of the story go, this is generally faithful to the original and even enhances it in some areas, for instance, Shanks giving the hat to Luffy is now given more detailed acting that really sells the scene, you can see the sadness in Shank's eyes as he is getting ready to leave, also the scene where Luffy gets the Going Merry is really good as well, even being accentuated by a cover of We Are in the background, something that happened a lot in the anime but only happens twice in the live action, making it really special when it does happen.
With that said, it's not all Gol D Roger's treasure, I mentioned the villans that worked but one villan that doesn't is Alvida, she lacks the bombastic nature that defined her character in the first part of the anime while not really giving a replacement style, it would have been a perfect opportunity to take some inspiration from the old Matilda film's Miss Trunchbull but here she just sounds somewhat dissapointed at her opponents for standing up to her as opposed to being an absolute force of nature who will hammer throw anyone who disobeys her off her ship, I'm hesitent to put the camera work and choreography in this paragraph as sometimes it's really good, such as that scene where Zoro jumps from the water and slices that one fishman, but there are other times where they just cut it into several pieces when a character is trying to pull off a combo to give the illusion that they pulled it off when it's more likely that they stumbled midway and then were told to start midway and let the editor patch it together, that or the camera crew didn't let the actors shine in those scenes though the latter would be very daft.
Some of the dialogue changes are kind of daft as well for instance when Luffy shouts to Nami that him and his crew are her friends, he also follows it up with "we are your crew" this would imply that Nami is now the captain which couldn't be further from the truth, Luffy is the captain and the only person to try and contest that is Usopp, as is typical of Usopp.
An issue that I personally don't mind but will likely be a sticking point for many is the CGI, it is clearly CGI, I don't mind this one myself as I vastly prefer CGI that progresses the story or has creative merit to CGI that just looks good, it's worth pointing out regardless.
Another point that I personally don't mind but many will at least point out is the fact that the characters do sometimes look a bit daft with their outfits under the live action limelight, with that said, I think we could use a bit more daft in this sense for live action as it is better than copy and pasting real life like a lot of live action productions do and it is pretty amusing seeing Nezumi act so serious while wearing mouse ears and nobody else bats an eyelid at that.
Overall, this is a lot to unpack and I haven't even scratched the surface really, I guess that's what happens when I try to go into a detailed review of an adaptation of one of my favourite anime shows that also happens to be over a thousand episodes by now, honestly though, I really like this one, I think Oda's involvement did make a huge difference and overall I think this one is worthy of a rock solid.
9/10 ... yeah, never thought I'd say that I'm looking forward to the second season of a live action anime adaptation but here we are.
