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NEWS: Netflix's Live-Action One Piece Series Reveals Cast Members

We've already had Alita and Edge of Tomorrow which were well liked by both fans and critics. How many more live action adaptations have to come out before fans stop nitpicking over just cast announcements? It'd be like complaining about the cast of every comic book movie that comes out just because of Superman IV or Batman and Robin.

Regardless of the success of the show, I don't think they did a good job in presenting this, in fact, they did the worst possible thing.

I'm pretty sure Netflix is awfully aware of how the average fan of these shows sees these adaptations, simply by looking at the previous ones of other Anime series into LA. They haven't had a great reception, and even if we consider Netflix's adaptations to be good, most other ones have been borderline bad at the very least, with some exceptions.

If we accept the above to be the situation, it's pretty clear presenting the title, and then the actors, isn't a very smart move, and will likely cause backlash, as we can clearly see everywhere we look. Sure, some people might be skeptical and wait for things to develop more, not "jumping the gun", giving the show an opportunity, but the rest is very vocal about their opinion on the show.

This being the case, I believe they should first present proof of their commitment to the show, with something the average and the core fan can see, and say "okay, I am fine with this", or better, "I am looking forward to this". The way to achieve this is, obviously, by giving them something that will go easily through their filtered glasses, in this case, both the "anime filter" and the "One Piece" filter glasses, so something like a good shot of the actors with set costumes in a properly composited scene, similar to how theatre stage shows in Japan do. But even better than this, a teaser with properly acted out characters and costumes in their proper environment would be best.

Is this hard to achieve? Of course, it's a really hard thing to do, both because it requires more budget than a picture of the actors in a wanted poster without costumes (or what to appears to be them without costumes), and because this is done at the beginning of the production (with everything this entails).
However, first impressions are KEY, even moreso for an industry that is so damaged and with such a terrible reputation such as the western live-action one.

Honestly, they way they presented things looks like one of those preteen love shows so the girls and guys go crazy over who the actors are and to get merch off of them... but I don't think that's going to work all that well for this... what is this, iCarly? lol

Unless, Netflix doesn't give two ***** about the core audience of the anime nor the anime itself, and they're just using the IP to attract people that don't even know the anime is a thing, which wouldn't even be surprising to me, given the presentation.

I don't remember quite well how Coyboy Bebop was presented at first, but I don't think it was this bad...? maybe...? Or they fixed things with the actors using their costumes, as well as with the teaser...? I honestly didn't have a good opinion of the show at first, with only Ein looking quite fit for the role, and Faye not looking the part at all. Jet... well, looks quite fit, though I don't understand why they had to change him to be from a different ethnicity, makes little sense to me unless it was just for their "equalty agenda" or whatever. Anyway, after the full trailer, it looks quite good. I would've personally made the show a contunation to the Anime, with Spike being in his 40s (because let's be honest, that's what it looks like), and going in a new adventure, but I'm going offtopic now.

Regardless, not great. Opinion is very split, and it clearly leans to the "this won't be a good adaptation" side.

As they say, first impressions are key, moreso if there are bad rumors about "you". They were obviously aware, so them not caring doesn't really put them in a good light.

Peronal opinion: Oh, and I don't know wether this will be good or not, only time will tell, but as I said before... I'm pretty sure it won't be a masterpiece, that's what experience tells me anyway.

Regardless of the success of the show, I don't think they did a good job in presenting this, in fact, they did the worst possible thing.

I'm pretty sure Netflix is awfully aware of how the average fan of these shows sees these adaptations, simply by looking at the previous ones of other Anime series into LA. They haven't had a great reception, and even if we consider Netflix's adaptations to be good, most other ones have been borderline bad at the very least, with some exceptions.

If we accept the above to be the situation, it's pretty clear presenting the title, and then the actors, isn't a very smart move, and will likely cause backlash, as we can clearly see everywhere we look. Sure, some people might be skeptical and wait for things to develop more, not "jumping the gun", giving the show an opportunity, but the rest is very vocal about their opinion on the show.

This being the case, I believe they should first present proof of their commitment to the show, with something the average and the core fan can see, and say "okay, I am fine with this", or better, "I am looking forward to this". The way to achieve this is, obviously, by giving them something that will go easily through their filtered glasses, in this case, both the "anime filter" and the "One Piece" filter glasses, so something like a good shot of the actors with set costumes in a properly composited scene, similar to how theatre stage shows in Japan do. But even better than this, a teaser with properly acted out characters and costumes in their proper environment would be best.

Is this hard to achieve? Of course, it's a really hard thing to do, both because it requires more budget than a picture of the actors in a wanted poster without costumes (or what to appears to be them without costumes), and because this is done at the beginning of the production (with everything this entails).
However, first impressions are KEY, even moreso for an industry that is so damaged and with such a terrible reputation such as the western live-action one.

Honestly, they way they presented things looks like one of those preteen love shows so the girls and guys go crazy over who the actors are and to get merch off of them... but I don't think that's going to work all that well for this... what is this, iCarly? lol

Unless, Netflix doesn't give two ***** about the core audience of the anime nor the anime itself, and they're just using the IP to attract people that don't even know the anime is a thing, which wouldn't even be surprising to me, given the presentation.

,,,

Regardless, not great. Opinion is very split, and it clearly leans to the "this won't be a good adaptation" side.

As they say, first impressions are key, moreso if there are bad rumors about "you". They were obviously aware, so them not caring doesn't really put them in a good light.

Peronal opinion: Oh, and I don't know wether this will be good or not, only time will tell, but as I said before... I'm pretty sure it won't be a masterpiece, that's what experience tells me anyway.

I can understand being skeptical about the existence of a live action version of Ine Piece in general because it's hard to imagine that being pulled off well, but I'm curious on what basis a lot of you are saying the casting looks "horrible" because a lot of these actors seem to be relative unknowns (aside from Zoro's who was apparently Enshi in the live action Kenshin films which is probably a promising sign if anything) and the fact that there seems to have some actual deterrence to Oda's proposed nationalities for the Straw Hats instead of just immediately casting the most bankable white actors they could afford means the showrunners might actually care about what they're doing..

The argument people use is that there is not enough of a fanbase for BL or Baccano. However, by that logic, John Wick, pre MCU marvel, and other series that don't have the biggest fanbases would bomb.

JoelBurger wrote:

fuuma_monou wrote: Hoping it'll turn out all right, but the track record for Western live-action adaptations of anime and manga isn't good. It probably won't, but One Piece is just about the worst possible thing to try to turn into live-action (between the need for constant rubber CG and its ridiculously cartoon world of 15 foot people). So it'll probably still be funny in a train wreck kind of way.

Not with that kind of attitude. Y'all should stop being so miserable all the time.

Yeah ... but no. Hollywood does this to us because they hate us. You know that they hate us right?

earl.m wrote:

Yeah ... but no. Hollywood does this to us because they hate us. You know that they hate us right?

Except this is Netflix and not Hollywood.

Divineking wrote:

I can understand being skeptical about the existence of a live action version of Ine Piece in general because it's hard to imagine that being pulled off well, but I'm curious on what basis a lot of you are saying the casting looks "horrible" because a lot of these actors seem to be relative unknowns (aside from Zoro's who was apparently Enshi in the live action Kenshin films which is probably a promising sign if anything) and the fact that there seems to have some actual deterrence to Oda's proposed nationalities for the Straw Hats instead of just immediately casting the most bankable white actors they could afford means the showrunners might actually care about what they're doing..

People need to stop citing that one SBS post as proof that the Straw Hats are not Japanese. Nationalities are not races. Oda was making a joke about stereotypes like Sanji being from France because he's a good cook. We know Sanji is not French because we've seen his homeland. And it also shows peoples racial bias. What if they cast a black Frenchman as Sanji? Or a white South African as Usopp? Would that be fine in your eyes? It's moot anyway because the actors they chose are not those nationalities anyway. Iñaki Godoy is Mexican. Taz Skylar is British. Emily Rudd and Jacob Romero Gibson are American. The only one they got right is Mackenyu.