'One Piece' Netflix adaptation finally adapts to anime fans' expectations

For a long time, Netflix has been notorious for botching live-action adaptations of anime series. Fans were disappointed after the Death Note and Cowboy Bebop anime were converted to live-action adaptations. Netflix received enough backlash to scrap any future projects related to their adaptations. 

In 2020, Netflix announced it would be part of the One Piece live-action adaptation, but fans were weary because of the past experience.

One Piece manga started in 1997 and is still ongoing, as is the anime series, which consists of a whopping 1073 episodes. How can Netflix squeeze it into a TV series? 

But fans got some hope when the creator of the One Piece manga, Eiichiro Oda, joined as an executive producer of the project. The live-action One Piece pilot season finally premiered on August 31 and consisted of eight episodes. Netflix finally listened to the anime fans and did what they always wanted: stick to the source material.

Since the start, the series has followed the origin stories in manga and anime: Gol D. Roger's execution and his reward, the introduction of Monkey D. Luffy and the formation of his crew, the Straw Hat Pirates, and the origin stories of the team members. 

One unique take on the series is that some of the initial characters shown in the anime were somehow forgotten. Still, this live-action series introduced them and made them play key supporting roles throughout the series. Two of them are Koby, Luffy's first friend, and Garp, Luffy's vice admiral grandfather.

Six of the eight episodes mainly focus on Luffy looking for recruits while he embarks on an adventure to claim Gol D. Roger's reward and become king of the pirates. 

The episode duration is too short to cover multiple arcs of the original manga, but Eiichiro Oda and his team of executive producers tried their best, and it's pretty evident. 

The sequence of antagonists is the same as in the manga: Alvida, Buggy, Morgan, Arlong, and many others. Still, Luffy has many more adventures to come, many more battles to fight, and many more crews to recruit.

Following the source material to the end, along with some minor twists, was the strategy behind producing the live-action One Piece. Even the whole TV series is made in such a way that any new viewers will be easily acquainted with the vast lore of this popular anime. The strategies didn't go in vain, as the series has received an 82% score on Rotten Tomatoes and an 8.6 rating on IMDb so far. 

Netflix finally broke the curse of anime adaptation failures with this series. With this massive success, the production team has the daunting task of adapting the next adventures of the Straw Hat Pirates, as their story is never-ending.

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