TV Review: One Piece

The Pirates Are Coming!

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INTRODUCTION

This is a quick review of the newly released first season of the television series One Piece. To better keep up to date with my thoughts on other movies follow me on Letterboxd.

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THE PLOT

Via Wikipedia: The series follows the adventures of the Straw Hat Pirates, as they explore the dangerous oceans, lands, and beyond in search of the "One Piece" - a fabled treasure that will make their captain, Monkey D. Luffy, "King of the Pirates". But the Navy is on their ship's tail, and they are not the only pirate crew searching for the One Piece. Armed with skills and unbreakable friendship, the Straw Hats are ready for the journey and even more ready to fight for their dreams together.

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QUICK REVIEW

This is first and foremost a film-centric newsletter/website. I want to cover as much about film as I can. But obviously I watch television series’ like everyone else. Hell the first true series came from theatrical weekly screenings of long-running serials back in the silent era like The Perils Of Pauline (1914) or The Vampires (1915). But my enthusiasm for the medium of television is at an all-time low. Either shows are getting cancelled before completion or a series loses steam by the second or third. At the moment I’m only keeping up with ABC’s Abbott Elementary, Peacock’s Bel-Air, or a hosts of anime or documentary series’.

One of those anime is the adaptation of the uber-popular One Piece, which is literally the best selling manga in history and the most popular anime in the world. Back in 2019 I wrote all about the series for Ordinary-Times. So as a massive fan and one who has been frustrated by how niche it is here in the states versus the rest of he world, I had to check out the new live action English-produced adaptation that Netflix released today. And I also felt compelled to go against “my brand” and write a review for the show rather than for another new film (Weekly film reviews will commence next weekend, no disrespect meant to Uncle Denzel’s latest).

I came into this with trepidation. Netflix also did a live action adaptation for the iconic anime Cowboy Bebop two years ago which I didn’t enjoy and neither did most critics - alongside incredibly mediocre audience scores for it. But this time around series creator Eiichiro Oda was involved alongside showrunners Matt Owens and Steven Maeda who are devoted fans adamant they’d stay loyal to the material while navigating the differences in an eight episode live action season versus an anime that has been running for about twenty five years now. And to add more fuel to my curiosity the show has had okay critical reviews and great audience scores.