Every live action anime that I've briefly seen has been nothing short of a disaster, and considering how many times Netflix tried to bring Anime's to life I thought One Piece was about to receive the same fate. But to my surprise I was wrong.
Just 3 episodes in you could tell the care the creators put into this show. The set designs, the action sequences, and even to my surprise the actors bring so much.
Iñaki Godoy as Luffy is to my surprise holding his own in this role. Luffy is such a love or hate character and imagining a live action for him seems like a recipe for disaster. But Godoy somehow is able to maintain the goofiness within the character without making him unbearable, and that deserves some applause. I think Emily Rudd, Mackenyu, Morgan Davies, and Jacob Romero are great as well.
And as someone who's only watched the first 10-15 episodes of One Piece, I love the route they went with Buggy in episode 2 compared to the beginning of the Anime/Manga. Jeff Ward made him extremely terrifying in the show and the way they used the crowd as prisoners, forcing them to clap was slightly terrifying.
I wasn't even sure if they'd do the iconic Shanks moment early on for budget reasons, but they did it and it was actually great. Not to say everything is perfect because at times the show can get a little too cartoony for me, but my low expectations were blown away. I'm glad to see the awful live action anime stereotype take a hit and potentially make room for other people who aspire to bring an anime to life, and even with a very small chance, potentially do it justice like we saw here.
It's only season 1 and there is plenty of room for error, but I'm glad to say I've been proven wrong and I actually have hope for this adaptation.