If something distinguishes Japanese comics and animation, it is their impossible imagination, their commitment to conscientiously exploit the elastic limits of media in which gravity and reality do not necessarily matter. Adapting manga and anime to the real image is a challenge that few have managed to solve. After trying (in vain) with ‘Death note’ either Cowboy BebopNetflix is playing it again adapting ‘One Piece’ (Thursday, the 31st), dislocated pirate adventure with a literally elastic hero, flesh and blood.
The challenge is especially important due to the degree of popularity of the brand, an entire entertainment franchise that, for just over a quarter of a century, has generated not only an eternal collection of cartoon stories, but also anime of various formats, light novels and video games. Of his manga volumes, one hundred and six to date, they have sold more than 516 million copies since 1997. The anime series, released by Telecinco in 2003 and K3 in 2006 (and recovered this summer by SX3), surpassed the thousand chapters last 2021. The fifteenth film installment, ‘One Piece Film: Red’, was the highest grossing film in Japan in 2022, ahead of ‘Top Gun: Maverick’. Motion sickness figures.
What does ‘One Piece’ have to generate such passions? Well, basically, it has it all. Inspired by the adventures of ‘Vickie the Viking’, the mangaka Eiichirō Ode created a emotional ode to camaraderie that also contains great physical comedy, virulent action, a whole parade of monsters and charismatic villains and countless legendary places. The kind of universe where she would have liked to plunge into his adolescent self, the same one for which he still draws and writes today. “I have no idea how other people will feel, so I consult with my 15-year-old self to see if something is cool or not,” Oda said in interview with VIZ.
The legacy of ‘Dragon Ball’
The title of the saga refers to the treasure left somewhere by Gold Roger, former King of the Pirates, before his execution. There are many who go to sea in search of it, but few are as enthusiastic as the young man Monkey D. Luffy, turned into a rubber boy after eating one of the demonic fruits that grow in this world, capable of granting supernatural abilities and, at the same time, sink when you come into contact with the sea. Bad business for a (wannabe) pirate.
In addition to quoting ‘Vickie the Viking’, Oda also mentions her passion for the work of Akira Toriyama in ‘Dragon Ball’, evident above all in the character construction of Luffy, a spiritual cousin of Goku. We talk about another wildly positive, spontaneous hero who never stops making friends, or at least trying to, and whose appetite for justice is matched only by his gluttony. Also in his superpowers they can be supersimilar: when Luffy says “gomu gomu no” before launching one of his peculiar attacks, it is inevitable to think of that mythical “kame hame ha” imagined by Toriyama.
The perhaps final attempt
If Oda finally approved, after other offers, a live-action translation of his precious creation, it was partly because of the enthusiasm shown by some ‘showrunners’, Steven Maeda (former writer and producer of ‘Lost’) and matt owens (writer of ‘Agents of SHIELD’ and ‘Luke Cage’), whom he describes as “superfans”. In addition, as an executive producer he had the opportunity to collaborate in depth with the Tomorrow Studios team himself or even suggest additional shoots if he was not clear on something: “After filming was finished, the producers agreed to reshoot numerous scenes because in my opinion they didn’t meet expectations”he explains without problem in the press releases.
Some of Luffy’s lines did not seem good on paper, but they did once enunciated by the energetic Inaki Godoy, young Mexican actor seen in ‘Who killed Sara?’. Godoy puts all the conviction in his composition of the leader of the Straw Hat Gang, whom we know, as in the animated series, already involved in his journey of discovery and in the attempt to find the perfect crew. In the first episode he already ends up recruiting a couple of members: the swordsman roronoa zoro (Mackenyu) and the navigator nami (Emily Rudd), which has been described by co-creator Matt Owens as “a big sister surrounded by a group of little brothers”. Later they add the Accurate but fearful shooter Usopp (jacob romero), who often tells stories to heal himself and others, and the chef sanji (taz skylar), whose dream is to find the All Blue, a legendary ocean where, in principle, fish from the North, South, East and West seas come together.
Will it succeed or fail?
As important as the heroes are enemies always endowed with unique weapons and powers: in the series we will (re) meet Morgan Hand of the Ax (langley kirkwood), monstrous frigate captain of that Navy to which he adds the fearful cabin boy Koby (Morgan Davies), important character in the saga; Buggy the Clown (Jeff Ward), who after eating another demon fruit can dismember his body and then put it back together again, or Dracule Mihawk (Steven Ward), pirate of impossible swordsmanship, one of the Seven Warlords of the Sea.
There are heroic and less heroic characters and leftover plots for endless seasons, but It remains to be seen whether longtime fans will accept this slightly real vision of a joyfully unreal universe.. Or if this incarnation will capture the imagination of those viewers who haven’t read a page of the manga or enjoyed a minute of the anime. Mysteries as big as the whereabouts of One Piece.