When I read the news about One Piece live action, I was in utter disbelief! One Piece is one of those manga/anime entities that will not work well in real life—at least that is what I used to believe!

I saw the Netflix series and was pleasantly surprised at how enjoyable it was! Sure, there were so many changes, but what matters stayed, and they actually made it work! My biggest worry, which is based on numerous failed anime live-action attempts, was that it would look like cosplay galore! I’ve seen a handful (ok, the majority were trailers, maybe snippets, and a couple of weird TV series—I’m looking at you, Skip Beat LA!) and they just failed to entertain me because I was turned off by how tacky—for lack of a better term—the characters’ looks were. They were so gung-ho to make them look *exactly* like their anime/manga counterparts that they failed to adapt them in a more realistic & convincing way! Gah, most of what I’ve seen so far looks so corny that I can’t take it seriously (yes, even the shoujo slice-of-life manga, the most grounded demographic, still came straight out of a cosplay convention)! One Piece’s live-action character designs were still true to the original material without making them look like cosplayers! And that, for me, was an immediate win already!

I was still not completely convinced until I saw snippets and trailers for the series. I was thinking, “maybe it will not stink; maybe this will break the LA curse!” and you know what? Though not 100% level, the adaptation was pretty good! I love *LOVE* the set! I learned that they did practical props most of the time (that den den mushi! 🐌)! The casting was spot on! I loved the cast so much! Iñaki was farther away from what I envisioned as a real-life Luffy, but the boy made a good Luffy! He has Luffy energy, and that was good enough for me.

My major complaint was the Garp plot! Disclaimer: It’s been almost 2 decades since I’ve watched OP’s earlier seasons, so my memories are hazy, but I knew Garp’s major role was after Enies Lobby, so I was surprised that in every episode in LA, he, Koby, and Helpmeppo had scenes! My favorite character is Sanji, and it feels like there is not much of him in this LA! Of course, those changes are very inevitable due to time and medium (that’s hundreds of chapters worth of content packed in an 8-episode series!) but I personally think that they managed to include what’s important, and I appreciate that!

Overall, if you’re a fan, you will enjoy it (unless you’re a purist, then maybe you won’t); it’s very first-timer friendly! So off to Grandline! Watch it legally so we can have a second season!