For those who love anime especially the ones watching anime series in the 90s, we all know who Monkey D. Luffy is and One Piece is not just an anime because this one was released originally as a manga in 1997 and then it got released as an anime cartoon in 1999 with more than 1000 episode, One Piece is still on going. What makes it more interesting is that not only the 90s kids are loving One Piece but also the Gen Zs. Created by Eiichiro Oda, this is one of the longest running anime which actually consists of 1000 plus episodes (Aside from Pokemon, Naruto, Yu Gi Oh!, Doraemon, Shin Chan and Detective Conan).

This year, a year where most of the Anime’s are getting their live action adaptation, they now finally released the much awaited One Piece Live Action. Produced by Netflix, The One Piece is actually following the start of the original manga series and the cartoon series, which means, it is just an adaptation, it is a close look to its real story. Despite the numerous comments from people not liking a live action of books, comics and other written artworks, the One Piece is actually somehow the closes to its real deal.

To those who are not aware of what One Piece is all about, this is a story about a kid in a world of Pirates and Marines. Monkey D. Luffy, is a kid that aspires to become the King of the Pirates. He is not just a simple kid, he grew up surrounded by Pirates and all he wanted growing up was to follow their paths and become one of them, and eventually finding the One Piece to become the king of all the pirates. What was the One Piece? It is a mythical treasure that was owned by Pirate King Gol D. Roger who was executed by the Marines when he was captured. Before he died, his last words were to give the One Piece treasure to whoever can find it and so, from that day, everyone is traveling to the Grand Line to find the treasure.

If you watched the cartoon or read the manga , you will know that they were not even close to the One Piece up to this date, however, they did find so many characters all through out the years and also places towards the Grand line, making the story really long.

The live action is played by awesome characters, such as Inaki Godoy, playing Monkey D. Luffy, Emily Rudd playing Name, Tax Skylar as Santi, Jacob Gibson as Usopp, and one of the apple of the eye of most women turned into One Piece fan because of him, Mackenyu playing Zoro, who have played in anime live action of Rurouni Kenshin and also seen in Overdrive and Knights of the Zodiac. They are best known as the Straw Hat crew, sailing towards the Grand Line in search for the One Piece.

The live action actually made the cartoon into reality, with the help of Sensei Oda, working closely to the Directors and Producers, Steve Maeda, they made it true to its original story. They focused on creating the beginnings of Monkey D. Luffy the his crew and how they met. This is the most important key of the Anime and the Cartoon and they made no changes to it, to make sure it is the best adaptation that you ever get.

Despite of the 1000plus episodes, they managed to squeeze in the beginning to make an 8-episode long series, and surprisingly, the second season of the series has been announced and on the way.

Many critics had actually rated the One Piece one of the best live adaptations from books and comics, and it is now beginning to invade the whole media because of its popularity not only with manga readers, or anime fans but also with people who never watch nor read about it.

As person who loves comparing comics, manga, novels into their live action/ movie adaptations, I must say that One Piece hits the spot on every detail. Thanks to Eiichiro Oda, he managed to make it happen. As a movie reviewer, most of the time, I look into the detail of the movie/TV Series and compare it with the original work, which makes it more easier to me to have my conclusion but in general, if it actually hit the spot, there’s no need to even rate it lower because it already exceeds my expectation.

One thing I loved the most is how they casted different people, who actually matches the personality of the character. And not only that, the actors themselves managed to immerse into the character making it more realistic. Of course, you cannot copy most of the original characters especially on how they look in the cartoon, but the series managed to come up with almost near to its original description without even using too much. They chose actors who had the same aura of the cartoon characters and there we have it, a perfect Straw Hat crew and even the villains are spot on.

I also heard and read about it, that they spent millions of dollars to the production and yes, I could it will cost you more than a dime to even lift a finger and make a pirate world based on a cartoon because it’s not just like Jack Sparrow where everything is more realistic; One Piece is made out of a cartoon with a different visualization of a pirate world and pirates themselves. So millions were actually well spent considering the result of the series.

The cinematography is also a spot on. Every angle of the series is an art. If you have seen books that were made to movies like the Nicholas Sparks books, you’ll notice how they made the cinematography as if you are still reading the books, this is what they did in the One Piece series, they made more likely how the readers will imagine it to be when they are reading the manga. The colors, costumes and other small details of the series were actually been taken care of same as how the big details were taken into consideration.

All in all, you cannot say anything bad about this series other than the fact that 8 episodes is not enough to cover everything. I was looking for more episodes by the time I finished the 8th and was completely disappointed because I wanted to watch more. One thing I want to address to them as a movie critic is that, I won’t mind having 12 seasons if it will pay to show me all the important events of the cartoon and the manga because I am certainly sure that if they continue focusing on the details, then they will be on the right path. This might go a long way.

PS. In most adaptations, nothing is perfect. Nothing has ever been one, I’d say. Coz you can never go near the original creation. But if you have come close, it’s either you still have 20% stones missing. I’ve watched so many adaptations from books, cartoons, comics and manga and I always say this, you can never copy the original as is.

I would definitely give this 90% wonderroanne rating.