One Piece (2023 Series) Review

Every previous attempt to film an anime in live action failed the same way, by apologising for the cartoon and sanding off whatever made it strange. Netflix spent the money instead. The Going Merry is a real ship, Buggy the Clown is an actor in full paint, and the tone stays inside the manga's mix of slapstick and sudden grief.

Oda took a producer credit and by every account sent notes back constantly, which shows in the detail. Iñaki Godoy is the reason it holds, playing Luffy's idiot optimism without once winking at the camera. The first season drew solid reviews and the largest audience Netflix had that autumn. The second, covering Loguetown and the run into the Grand Line, was better received still, with the digital Chopper and Joe Manganiello's Crocodile singled out.

The weaknesses are the predictable ones. Exposition is delivered in flat lumps, the pacing squeezes long arcs into eight hours and then stops mid story, and the stretching effects still look like effects. It remains an adaptation rather than a replacement. Anyone who wants the real thing has a thousand episodes of the anime waiting for them.