The beloved anime series, “One Piece,” has been around on TV since October 20, 1999, making the series 25 years old. However, it’s still going strong and rapidly gaining fans. In the last couple of years, it has amassed a larger following. Old and freshly new fans of the series now have much more content coming on its way to enjoy.
For those unfamiliar, “One Piece” is an anime taking place in another world with completely different geography. It includes pirates, and the World Government and its Marines are constantly battling with the Marines to try and establish law and order, whereas the pirates fight for glory, treasure and freedom.
A notorious pirate named Gol D. Roger, known as the “King of the Pirates,” gained absolute wealth, fame, power and the highest treasure known as the “One Piece” (which is where the series gets its namesake after), is caught and executed. Before he takes his last breath, he calls for pirates all over the world to find his treasure, the “One Piece,” which no one knows the true nature of. He claims that whoever may find it will become the next pirate king, and will secure wealth, fame and power for themselves just as he did. The story then follows Monkey D. Luffy, a young pirate who desires to find the one piece, and become the King of the Pirates himself.
Manga author Eichiro Oda has now gone on hiatus to work on Season 2 of the live action of his series which originally started off as a manga before becoming an anime. Oda personally chooses many of the directive decisions for how his live action adaptation will go, as well as the entire main casting for the series. Because of this, he was able to pour his input into the series deeply, arguably making this live action adaptation perform significantly well in comparison to many other failed live action adaptations of anime, such as the movies “Death Note” and “FullMetal Alchemist.” Both originally started as a manga and anime whose live action adaptations performed quite poorly and are riddled with bad reviews. “One Piece” live action, however, is currently sporting an 85% on Rotten Tomatoes, with many saying that it broke the “live action curse” of poor quality real life adaptations of anime.
“One Piece” Enthusiast and President of the Thespian Honor Society Lex Bach elaborates on this struggle that these adaptations have had.
“There was a curse for several years that there could be no good live action anime, and ‘One Piece’ was the one that broke that curse. And I feel like that’s the good part, that’s the great part about this live action is it broke the curse,” Bach says.
Live action “One Piece” is exclusively available on Netflix with Season 2 following in suite. It stars Iñaki Godoy as Monkey D. Luffy, the pirate captain, Mackenyu Arata as Roronoa Zoro, the first mate and swordsman, Emily Rudd as Nami the navigator, Taz Skylar as Sanji the ship’s cook and Jacob Gibson as Usopp the sniper and inventor.
All of these characters in the anime are the initial members of the “Straw Hat Pirates,” named after Luffy’s straw hat, which he obtained from his friend and fellow pirate “Shanks” (played by Peter Gadiot who also stars in Yellowjackets). Expect to garner some new members to their crew in season 2. Playing the historian and archeologist, Nico Robin will be Lera Abova, known for her role in the movie “Anna.”
Bach has much to look forward to with the casting and pacing of the series, which he goes into grave detail with.
“I’m really excited to see how they introduce Chopper using CGI – I’m excited to see the setup for the eventual Alabasta [arc], because we had Crocodile – and we had Nico Robin, I’m excited to see them in live action form. I’m excited to see a lot of the good fights as the Straw Hats – form closer bonds. I’m excited to see the direction they’re going to take because Netflix did take some creative liberties when adapting the “One Piece” work originally, like Season One, was very different than the original show. Like Arlong, he was way more of a driving force, since he’s in season one of “One Piece,” than like in the original show, Arlong was in the Baratie or in place of like Don Krieg as an antagonist.”
For some what Bach mentioned may seem to be a spoiler at face value, but checking the cast or when watching Netflix’s “One Piece,” fans will notice that the minor villain known as “Don Krieg” gets very little screen time (and without giving too many more details, viewers will find out why). He is instead replaced by the villain known as “Arlong” who appears a bit later after Don, and Arlong is treated as Season One’s main antagonist as aforementioned by Bach.
“I’m excited to see the direction they take with this season, the creative liberties, how they incorporate Chopper to set up for the original Alabasta arc, how they’re going to do Luffy. Because Luffy is very different than in the anime. Like, Luffy is a lot more realistic [in the live action], like his doubts – he’s weaker – he’s more of a human character, instead of how he’s portrayed. So I’m excited to see his development and growth as a character, as he becomes like, stronger, more independent, more of a leader, and how they build on that from what they set up in the first season.” Bach elaborates.
Hopefully this Season 2 of one Piece will do just as well, if not, better than the first, with people anticipating some more cast such as Callum Kerr and Julia Rehwald playing minor antagonist Marine soldiers Smoker and Tashigi respectively, as well as Werner Coetser and Brendan Murray playing Dorry and Brogy the giants respectively. The old man Crocus will be played by Clive Russel, known for his role in “Game of Thrones” as Brynden Tully, with Crocus in “One Piece” being known as a strange old man who’s a Gemini with a blood type of AB.
Going forward on a final note, another reason for Eichiro Oda’s current hiatus is his project with Netflix to revamp the older episodes of “One Piece.” Many watchers express their excitement for this upcoming remake for several different reasons.
“I think like a remake without filler would be like a lot better, because like the filler as it is, is like ruling and agonizing to watch it being like 1000 plus episodes, more than half of them are filler.” says Anthony Schillaci, another avid “One Piece” fan.
Schillaci says this given the fact that the animation remake will cover the first 11 story arcs of “One Piece” and reduce them to 260 episodes. The biggest issue with “One Piece” is a copious amount of filler content in between important storytelling. During the running of the show this was even an issue for some, but in the modern day where the anime is desired to be watched on streaming services by new enjoyers of the show, this wards off several. Not to mention the absolute inconsistency of the artstyle.
“I watched a decent bit of it, I think I’m like 700 episodes in now. So the filler is awful and makes me feel awful about myself,” Schillaci says, sharing this same sentiment that several other viewers have.
Not much is known yet about this remake series, but it will also be exclusive to Netflix just like its live action counterpart. An entirely new artstyle will be presented that will remain consistent throughout the remake due to the shift of this project from Toei Animation to Wit Studio, the studio known for partially animating “Attack on Titan” and “Vinland Saga.”
An issue with “One Piece” early on was a fluctuating budget and popularity, meaning that the artstyle could never be consistent in the long term, as changes were always made to the artstyle to appeal to the newer audience as different styles became more popular than others. The prospect of being able to afford higher-quality animation was most definitely a large playing role, too, with advancements being made frequently over the years that most definitely encouraged that change to keep up with other anime.
It is heavily speculated that a whole new cast will need to be garnered, given that all of the voice actors for the currently running “One Piece” anime have been voicing those characters for a very long time.
The voice actor for the main character Monkey D. Luffy, Mayumi Tanaka, has been voicing Luffy for nearly thirty years and has plans to retire after the conclusion of “One Piece” since she is currently 69 years of age.
It is the hope of all “One Piece” fans that the series will have a wonderful conclusion because of the many episodes created that entail Luffy’s intensive search for the “One Piece” alongside his friends. Many people crack jokes about the “One Piece” being the friends we made along the way, in mockery of how terrible a weak climax to the story would be where the “One Piece” isn’t found or is more so abstract, since it has amounted to so much content and enjoyment in the current year. Eichiro Oda has confirmed, however, that the “One Piece” is a real physical treasure, so dedicated fans are not to worry. However, those who care very deeply for the story of “One Piece” would argue that to them, the “One Piece” is real.
“‘One Piece’ is the greatest piece of fiction of all time,” says Bach. “It is the modern day ‘Odyssey.’ I feel like it’s a modern day epic – I feel like ‘One Piece’ – the sheer scale of it, how the author is able to make each and every single character, despite there being literal thousands, feel important and just like a part of the story, like building and building and building onto something great, I feel like that’s like, where it really shines – there’s flaws in the show. It’s not a perfect, flawless show. Like the pacing leaves something to be desired – But I just, I love it for what it is. It’s not perfect, but it’s perfect for me. I just love ‘One Piece’ so much.”