Wait, Should I Watch Live Action ONE PIECE?

I know I keep saying it, but as an absolute rule for how I engage all anime in this ongoing column series, I won't read the manga because 95% of anime criticism right now is about relating the work back to the manga and talking about it in terms of adaptation - rather than engaging the things as their own distinct objects / themes / structures etc. Which is where I would rather be.

conzeit

is manga just a no go? that should be your baseline for how it should feel

Laurianne Uy

Watch for Sanji! *waggles eyebrows*

JoeBee

I say watch the Live Action, not necessarily because it rules but I just want to get your take on it.

ArthurCrane

I've been asking myself the same thing. People on my feed are telling me it's good actually. I'm probably gonna save it for later cause I got other stuff on my plate ATM, including things I've been putting off for too long.

I recently watched a bit of each (for the first time) and I like them both a lot so far! I think the anime does most things better but the live-action show does take advantage of its unique affordances (e.g. fleshing out action sequences). However, I suspect you will find, Hulk, that many of the things you value most in a show are present in both versions (e.g. clear motivations for the main characters, character-motivated reasons for them to come together, a shonen hero who's a dumbass). Either way, I'm sure at least a taste of both would make for a fascinating comparison.

I'm up to ep. 2 of the show and it's pretty good. Not a very faithful adaptation in terms of content and scenes (it adapts 90 manga chapters or 45 anime episodes of 20 min into 8 episodes of 60 min, so a lot of events get skipped or changed), but it tries to get the feel of the characters and the tone right. There is just one character who feels like a completely different person to me, the rest feel like their manga selves, some even more interesting. I've read the mangaka intends for the live action show to be a way for his work to reach a wider audience, first because he is aware the size of the backlog is very oppressive, and I've seen some theorize it's also because cartoons have a "kiddy" label that prevents them from reaching a large subset of adults no matter how good they are. I know the later issue doesn't apply to you, but the former does as you said. So you may be the actual target audience for this. So yeah check it out imo. I'd love to see you just watch/read the whole thing (preferrably read, as the anime is only good up to ep 300 or so), but between you rolling d1000s with the anime or you actually watching the main plotlines in the order they were intended to be watched, the later sounds better. I'd like to see you talk about the themes and the character motivations like you usually do, and d1000s don't sound like a way to do that. Plus as a long time OP fan, I'm fascinated to see people who have never consumed the manga/anime get their first experience from the live action. My mother is one of them, she is watching it with me and enjoying it, and she is one of those people who are very averse to cartoons, so I'm loving that the show is giving me a chance to bond with her over my favorite piece of fiction.

Serenax

Like some other comenters here, I too think the manga is the best way to experience One Piece. (much less pacing issues for certain, to start with). A manga is indeed not television, but still a visual medium and in that regard it might be interesting for you to see how narrative works there?

John Erickson

As a one piece fan, I wouldn't go as far as to say the live action rules, but it is better than I would have expected a live action version of one of the most cartoony premises for an adventure story you may ever come across. They make pragmatic and smart adaptation choices, and they make some I find a bit questionable, but in all it balances out to being really fun and making me imagine how they'll do all the things that come later. The cast is great, the fight choreography is excellent, the set design is amazing, and they have the right balance of sincerity and cheese in the writing to nail One Piece's weird vibe. It's the third anime adaptation I've seen that isn't ashamed to be that, and while it's not as good as Speed Racer or Alita Battle Angel, it still works on me and I hope it gets more seasons. I'd say check it out if you're curious, and if you like the general vibe give the manga a read and watch some of the better done scenes on youtube.

i haven’t seen the live action yet but would strongly support you taking in a fan-edit or some other abridged version of the anime regardless of the vote.