There’s understandably some trepidation on the part of the fandom when it comes to the impending release of Netflix’s One Piece, which is entirely fair looking at what happened the last time the streaming service adapted a widely-beloved and massively popular anime for live-action.
The similarities are there for all to see, with Cowboy Bebop riding a huge wave of hype as the first major flesh-and-blood story based on iconic source material, which carried a substantial budget and plenty of eye-popping visual effects. However, things couldn’t have gone much worse than they did, with the John Cho-fronted series getting trashed by critics and audiences alike, causing Netflix to pull the plug and officially cancel the show just 20 days after it premiered.
If it last three whole weeks then One Piece will have emerged victorious, but without casting shade at the competition, director Emma Sullivan explained to ScreenRant how the platform’s latest anime update will avoid the pitfalls that doomed its spiritual predecessor.
“I’ve watched a few of these shows and lots of different anime. I’m a big Studio Ghibli fan, but you can’t make actors do those big actions and faces that we can get in the anime, so it wouldn’t work. And if we tried, it would be really awkward, and I think it would throw everybody out of the story. I think what we had to do is we had to find a grounded approach, and we had to find an emotionally real approach to it. We have to kind of tap into these characters, and feel what makes us relate as an audience to them. I think we can all relate to just following our dreams and the positivity of Luffy, especially now, at all times.”
It remains to be seen whether One Piece sinks or swims, but at the very least it can’t do any worse… right?
