What’s up Nerds! I knew once this show came out on Netflix I was going to want to write about it and give it the Nerd Light stamp of approval and the time has come!

Disclaimer: Light Spoilers (but if you’ve watched the anime you know all this anyway)

Now for those of you who are not familiar with anime, this One Piece show was a great win for the community. Anime, as a whole, tends to be laced with fantastical elements that allow the audience to sink into the story. What tends to happen is as anime is adapated to live action there’s a lack of technology needed to recreate these elements. This in turn causes a lack of suspended disbelief from the audience. In other words, the cool battle that was animated to perfection looks like garbage in live action because the technology, direction, casting, etc cannot require the audience to continue believing what they see on screen. Think of those old 70’s or 80’s movies that have the weird guy in the dinosaur and gorilla costumes and we(the audience) are just supposed to believe that’s supposed to be Godzilla and King Kong. This is the repeated feeling when anime fans see their favorite show get adapted but loses all of its coolest elements because it just can’t be recreated on screen. But no more! Finally, we get a live action adaptation that does the show it’s recreating justice.

So then the question that needs to be asked is “What makes this adaptation different from the rest?” Well, time to set sail to the Grand Line and unveil what makes One Piece a great adaptation.

Great Source Material

This section is going to be a little more subjective than the rest, but bear with me. The source material the adaptation has to pull from is quite frankly extensive. With over 1000 manga chapters and anime episodes, the developers and producers had a lot to work with. People can choose to not like One Piece but they cannot deny its impact in the anime world. It’s not apart of the Big 3 for no reason. So why is this important? Well think about when you’re in a class and you have to write a report on a book. Can you look up the Spark Notes and write it? Sure, but how much more would you have to say about the story if you actually read and experienced it. It’s a similar situation here, there is so much lore available to use to create the One Piece world. And when you know or can reference your source material, you gain a better understanding of the characters which can allow more freedom in how their personalities can be expressed.

The Environment

The plot and characters are both important to make a live action do great. However I would argue that if the stage in which the plot and characters to perform is lacking it is less likely the audience will be able to be immersed within the story and stay engaged. The environment has a dual role of invoking the more fantastical elements of the Great Sea while at the same time keeping the audience grounded. The newly formed Strawhats are sailing around the East Blue. There’s some debate in the OP community of how big OP’s world is compared to our own, but you can’t help but feel the massiveness of the ocean as we travel with the pirates. There’s a flashback with young Luffy and his pirate role model Shanks, and we get to see a massive sea monster. The sea monster was a nice blend of realistic and fantasy. There is enough realness to tell it was indeed a monster, but just a hint of eerie playfulness to make you remember this is indeed a fictitious world. One of the best sets in the entire show is Baratie where the Strawhats pick up 5th member Sanji. The restaurant embodies pirate haven where you can come, relax and eat good before your next venture. Another testament to the creators intention of using their source material.

To add to the validity of the world is the costume designs. We’ve seen the Strawhats don various outfits in the anime and the live action did not disappoint. Costume designer Diana Cilliers and her team discussed various options for the characters while also making sure the clothes were safe to move around. You can read the interview here. It is also worth noting how much had to go into creating realistic outfits to wear since it is live action, and the crew can’t just wear the same outfit all the time. The cast is portraying pirates so of course the set and costume designers would need to keep in mind movement. There was also care in the designs of the side characters and antagonists. Everyone was recognizable by their outfits further adding to the realness of the OP worlds.

Characters

After you have the plot and the setting you need the characters. It has been said and will continue to be said how the casting for this adaptation was perfect. Each of the Strawhats were taken with lots of consideration in choosing their live action counterpart. You could make comparisons to Robert Downey Jr as being Iron Man or Hugh Jackman being Wolverine. And then there’s Luffy. Iñaki Godoy is Monkey D. Luffy. There is no other person who could ever play this fictional pirate. The entire Strawhat crew (so far) is perfect. You can tell how much care went into casting the right fit for each role. Each actor truly embodies their anime counterpart, even though there may be slight personality changes. Nami for example took a while for me to accept her as Nami. However as we moved to the encounter with Arlong, there was nothing to feel but sympathy and empathy for Nami’s plight. It instantly made sense why she felt standoffish and unnecessarily sarcastic. Why she tried so hard to distance herself from the others. Emily Rudd added so much dimenstion to Nami in her already emotional backstory. The same could be said of Mackenyu, who portrays Roronoa Zoro in his confrontation with Mihawk. As somone who’s seen the anime and knows the outcome, even I found myself rooting for him and his recovery. I stood in solidarity with Jacob Romero, who brought more character to Usopp. He wasn’t just a coward, but a loyal and dependable friend who has the ability to be brave when he needs to be. Although Sanji is my least favorite character design (I think it’s the hair), Taz Skylar does an amazing job giving us the suave that is Sanji. I look forward to seeing even more fight scenes with Sanji’s signature moves.

I’d be remiss to only speak of the perfect casting of our heroes. Because have you seen Buggy the Clown or Arlong of the Arlong Pirates. These two antagonist set a high expectation when it comes to the villains were to encounter in this One Piece unvierse. And it is exicting to see the potential this show can go. Buggy and his crew were chaos and forced fun. The circus was mayhem masking as While Arlong and his pirates were meanacing but loyal to one another. One couldn’t condone Arlong’s actions especially in how he treated Nami, but there was an understanding of how he got to this kind of thinking. Just like in it’s original, the villains are multifaceted giving the audience more to think about even while you’re hoping Luffy takes them out.

There’s so much more I can say about this amazing adaptation, but here is where I’m going to anchor. I hope you all take a chance to watch the show, even if you’re not into anime. This is a great start if you’re wondering what is all the hype around anime and One Piece specifically. Thanks for reading and keep nerding out!