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One Piece is a bestselling manga by Eiichiro Oda that first became serialized in 1997. It continues to this day and has over one hundred volumes. Its anime adaptation began in 1999 and has over 1,100 episodes. Both the manga and the anime have developed cult followings. Fans easily devour this lengthy tale and crave more of it.
The story follows Monkey D. Luffy as he leaves his home to find the “One Piece,” a legendary treasure. Whoever finds this treasure will become king of the pirates, which is something Luffy dreams of becoming. As Luffy travels treacherous waters, he becomes the captain of the Straw Hat pirates, a group of unlikely friends who have dreams of their own.1
When it was revealed that a live-action adaptation of One Piece was in the works in 2017, many fans were skeptical. It was later announced that Netflix had acquired the project, which caused fans to make even more of an uproar.2
Since previous live-action adaptations of anime made by Netflix butchered their source material, fans feared the same would happen to One Piece. But the creators of the live-action version of One Piece took notes on the faults of its predecessors, creating a much better adaptation.
Why Most Anime Adaptations Fail
There are many reasons that previous live-action adaptations of anime series have been unsuccessful. Anime is a particularly hard medium to try and adapt into live-action because of its absurdity. It is known for its exaggerated expressions, unique power systems, and distinctive character designs.
Budgeting issues often cause live-action adaptations of anime to not live up to their source material. Instead of using special effects, many such productions rely heavily on computer-generated imagery (CGI), the use of computer graphics to create a scene. This tool can be used well to bring fantasy elements to life, but when used haphazardly, it can border on the uncanny valley. The uncanny valley is a psychological phenomenon when a robot or creature almost, but not entirely, resembles a human being, leaving an individual with an eerie feeling.3
This phenomenon can be seen in Netflix’s 2021 live-action adaption of the Cowboy Bebop anime. This adaptation attempted to directly recreate action scenes from the anime, which is a concept that fans would theoretically love to see. However, when a real man aims to fight and move in exactly the same way as an anime character, his actions are not likely to perfectly match what is depicted in the anime medium. This mismatch was observed in John Cho’s rendition of Cowboy Bebop’s main character Spike Spiegel, causing many viewers to call it an example of the uncanny valley.4
Another issue that comes up when adapting manga and anime into live-action is casting. When Hollywood takes hold of these stories and attempts to westernize them, they cast characters based on which actors are trending, not who is right for their roles. This was demonstrated in Netflix’s 2017 adaptation of the manga Death Note, in which Nat Wolff, a white, American actor, was cast as Light, a Japanese character whose full name is Light Yagami in the manga. The character’s name was changed to Light Turner in Netflix’s live-action film in an attempt to westernize it.
There tends to be a tonal shift when an anime is brought to life in live-action. While most anime are not for kids, the misconception that animated shows are children’s cartoons is common. This misconception leads filmmakers to think their live-action version of an anime needs to be a more “mature” take on its story, but the goofy, carefree tone of many anime is what fans tend to love most about them. Typically, their anime source material is already making a commentary on a big societal issue. Its author is just doing it with bright colors, big expressions and wacky scenarios.
Authorial Involvement — Eiichiro Oda’s Creative Guardrails
Another reason live-action anime adaptations fail is because the original creator of the anime does not work on its adaptation. Eiichiro Oda was determined to make sure the live-action version of his story would not fail like many projects similar to it. He insisted upon having a say in how the project would go.
Oda has been very open with fans through the process of adapting One Piece. He has given updates on the project through the @onepiecenetflix account on Instagram. In the account’s first post, Oda expressed that he was heavily involved in the project’s casting decisions. He remarked on the adaptation’s actors and said,
“Their face, the size of their mouths and hands, their aura, the way they carry themselves, their voice, their acting skills, their height, the balance amongst the Straw Hat crew, etc…! We decided on this cast after numerous discussions involving people around the world!”5
Oda knows his characters more than any casting director ever could. He used all the details of the One Piece characters to ensure that the right people were picked for their roles. He has also determined the nationalities of each of the Straw Hats, so with a worldwide search, he was able to create a diverse group of actors that accurately fit his characters.
Oda has also had a say in the live-action One Piece project’s scripts and footage because he is one of its executive producers. He was in Japan during much of the process of creating the adaptation. He shared his opinions from a distance and struggled with cultural differences as a western entertainment company brought his work to life. Oda said that
“They’ve promised that we won’t launch it until I’m satisfied.”6
With a satisfied Oda comes satisfied fans. The story they love was adapted with care. The adaptation retained the tone and heart that has kept people coming back to the Straw Hats for decades.
Absurdity Without Embarrassment
The Straw Hat pirates are a crew of odd-looking and bizarre-behaving individuals. Their captain Luffy ate the Gum-Gum fruit. This fruit is one of the “Devil Fruits” that exist in the One Piece universe. Each one gives its consumer a unique ability. The Gum-Gum fruit gave Luffy the ability to stretch his body like rubber. His first mate Roronoa Zoro fights with three swords. Two of their hilts are held in each of his hands and the last is held between his teeth. The other pirates in the crew are Sanji, who fights with his legs in kicks and swirls that match his curly eyebrows, Usopp, who has a long nose like Pinocchio, and Nami, who is threatened by Fish-Men, a humanoid race with features that resemble various aquatic creatures. The live-action team certainly had their work cut out for them when they adapted these characters.
The live-action adaptation of One Piece does not shy away from its source material’s absurdity. The anime’s vibrant color scheme and wacky abilities are seen on screen, but there needed to be some adjustments to some of the characters because some of their physical features would likely not translate well to a live-action format. The live-action Usopp does not have the anime character’s long nose and the live-action Sanji doesn’t have his anime counterpart’s curly brows. But through intensive training and skilled stunt work, the unique fighting styles of the live-action Zoro and Sanji remain accurate to the anime. Luffy’s stretchy skin is adapted using impressive CGI.
The show used practical effects as well as CGI. The Straw Hats’ ship “The Going Merry,” a large pirate ship with a ram masthead, was recreated on the set. The floating restaurant “Baratie” where the crew first meets their cook Sanji was created using practical effects. Many of the show’s towns and interiors were also practical sets, so there was very little use of green screens throughout the entire production.
The show’s version of the Fish-Men were created using prosthetics and makeup. They were brought to life in a way that avoided the uncanny valley. The show’s use of prosthetics instead of CGI to create them limited a lot of the flexibility of the characters’ expressions, but the Fish-Men are not heavily expressive in the part of the One Piece story the show adapted. Creating these details took a lot of time and money. Many productions are not able to go to such lengths. It helps that One Piece had a budget of $144 million for season one,7 meaning its creators could build extravagant set pieces instead of relying solely on CGI.
The cast of the show’s dedication to One Piece shines through their performances and behind the scenes clips. Iñaki Godoy was cast as Luffy. He was a mostly unknown actor who only had one major role in Netflix’s The Imperfects, a show that was quickly cancelled, before filming One Piece. He fully committed to his part as Luffy. All goofy smiles and optimistic attitude, he perfectly encapsulated who Luffy is. He is even learning Japanese in his free time so he can better connect with Oda and One Piece fans.
The cast went above and beyond. They trained hard to be able to perform the show’s intense fight scenes and learned every important detail about their characters to bring them to life. Since they were all fans of the show’s source material, they are dedicated to making its fans happy with their rendition of it. Mackenyu, the actor who played Zoro, initially rejected the offer for the role before he knew what it was for. After learning that it was a chance to play Zoro, who was his favorite character when he watched One Piece growing up,8 he promptly changed his mind.
Netflix’s One Piece fully embraces the manga and anime it was adapted from. While it made some changes to make the story of One Piece palatable to general audiences watching it on Netflix, it kept the heart of the story. Other Netflix anime adaptations tried to recreate their source material too closely or fully Americanize their stories, but One Piece avoided those trends. It didn’t act as if its source material is an embarrassment that needs to be entirely changed. Instead, it accepted the wonderfully campy nature of being an anime in live-action.
From Skepticism To Gateway — Winning Over New Audiences
After the release of One Piece season one, its episodes received high praise from critics and fans alike. On Rotten Tomatoes, a website on which film critics and audiences review TV shows and movies, the first season of the show currently stands at a score of 86% from critics and 95% from audiences.9
One Piece quickly became number one on the Netflix charts in eighty-four countries. It surpassed numbers held by season four of Stranger Things and season one of Wednesday, which are both widely popular Netflix shows that broke previous streaming records on the platform.10
Via Netflix, the show was able to reach a wider audience of people that would probably have never read the One Piece manga or seen the anime. While the One Piece manga was already the best-selling manga of all time, Netflix’s live-action adaptation caused sales of it to increase. The One Piece anime also saw an increase in viewership, especially after Netflix added episodes of it to their streaming service. The live-action One Piece even created a trend on social media in which people recorded their reactions as they watched the One Piece anime for the first time.
New fans fell in love with the story of One Piece after they watched the live-action show, but long-time fans found some slight issues with the adaptation. The first season of it roughly adapted the plot of the first fifty-three episodes of the anime into only eight episodes. Due to this, a lot of the story was left out or rushed, making the live-action show’s pacing feel off at times.
The dedication that is put into building sets and training actors for the production means that it took many years to produce just eight episodes. At the pace that the live-action series is going, it will never be able to even get close to adapting current episodes of the manga and anime.
With season two of Netflix’s One Piece coming out on March 10, 2026 and a third season of it already in the works, more of the expansive story of One Piece will soon be told. Viewers can look forward to many more pirate adventures with the Straw Hats and get excited for more of the anime’s Straw Hats joining the live-action crew, such as the crew’s doctor Tony Tony Chopper.
He is a deer who ate the Human-Human fruit, a devil fruit that transformed him from a normal deer into a half-deer, half-human creature. Tony Tony Chopper is a fascinating character whose abilities will be challenging to adapt into live-action.
A Lesson For Adaptations To Come
The first season of One Piece was able to give filmmakers and fans hope that making a good live-action adaptation of an anime is possible. The show is not perfect, but it is a wonderful example of what can be achieved with current technology. Its creators, cast and crew care deeply for the source material that they are adapting.
Whether or not future live-action adaptations of anime will learn from the success of One Piece remains to be seen. If they do, they will introduce more people to the incredible stories that the anime medium holds. The live-action One Piece show broke the lasting curse that seemed to linger over every live-action anime adaption, making filmmakers and fans optimistic to see what adaptations might come next.
Footnotes
- Oda, Eiichiro. One Piece. Shueisha. 1997-. ↩︎
- Griffin, David. “Netflix Officially Announces One Piece Live-Action Series.” IGN, 29 Jan 2020. ↩︎
- “Uncanny Valley.” Wikipedia, 20 Feb 2026. ↩︎
- Schedeen, Jesse. “Netflix’s Cowboy Bebop Could Have an Identity Crisis.” IGN, 20 Oct 2021. ↩︎
- @onepiecenetflix. “We’ve been working with Netflix and Tomorrow Studios…” Instagram, 9 Nov 2021. ↩︎
- @onepiecenetflix. “I’ve been working with Tomorrow Studies and Netflix…” Instagram, 4 May 2023. ↩︎
- Kelley, Aidan. “Netflix’s ‘One Piece’ Live-Action Series: Budget Breakdown.” COLLIDER, 23 Sep 2023. ↩︎
- @yukikun1997. “I Grew up with One Piece…” Tik Tok, 21 Aug 2023. ↩︎
- “Season 1 — One Piece.” Rotten Tomatoes, 2023. ↩︎
- @JayGame. “Netflix One Piece Live Action is #1 in 84 Countries Surpassing Wednesday & Stranger Things!” YouTube. 2 Sep 2023. ↩︎