Adapting the One Piece manga / anime into a live-action film is a daunting project, we’ve known it since the day Netflix announced it. It has also been almost a year since the streaming platform unveiled filming images, in particular the construction of the Baratie Bar, the famous restaurant boat from Zeff. If the filming of the series is indeed completed, we did not know much about the progress of the production, but it seems that we are approaching the finalization of the project. So much so that Netflix would have already carried out test screenings with a panel of spectators and obviously, the returns would be disastrous. At least that’s what the Twitter account Divinity Seeker, generally known for the reliability of its sources, and which therefore claims that the public who could see the first episodes were all shocked by the poor quality of the adaptation.
No opinion would be positive and all point the finger at “special effects horrible”, sprinkled in more than one story that makes no sense to anyone who hasn’t read the manga”. According to this feedback, Episode 1 would be mostly based on flashbacks to tell Luffy’s past, while the last 15 minutes would introduce the Straw Hat Crew members, namely Zoro, Nami, Usopp, and Sanji. A completely rushed and even failed last quarter, proving that the showrunners have obviously not understood the very essence of the manga / anime which takes several episodes to present each of these heroes. The appearance of the latter would also be disappointing, with a make-up rendering that would not be up to par and which would swear for a live-action production. It must be said that the exercise is complicated, and escaping the Japan Expo cosplay syndrome is even almost inevitable.
It is also said that these negative returns would have pushed Netflix to rewrite many sequences, which means that the production would start on reshoots to catch up with these disastrous returns. With a budget of 100 million dollars, this live-action adaptation of One Piece obviously has no room for error and we know how much the streaming platform needs to convince the public, this one having already well planted with Death Note and Cowboy Bebop, stopped a few weeks after the broadcast of the first season. And when we see that Warner Bros even went to cancel Batgirl for the same reasons, we wonder if Netflix shouldn’t do the same, before we feel like we’ve stepped on Eiichiro Oda’s work. …
