Netflix's One Piece S01E01 Review: We Are!

One Piece, Season 1, Episode 1: Romance Dawn

So yeah, I wasn't really sure how I was going to do reviews for this thing. Do I just watch everything in one go and review everything as a single big long review? Or do I just play it out slowly and review it episode-by-episode, as I usually do with TV material? I mean... no sense to truncate all that I have to say, right? The Netflix One Piece reviews will take a while to come out, since my watching schedule is kind of slipshot right now. At the time of writing the show's been out for a week and I've only watched one and a half episodes... but I guess I don't have to really force myself to binge-watch everything in one go and I can just talk about the Netflix adaptation on my own pace. 

And... anime adaptations, and comic-book adaptations in general, face an interesting conundrum. Take too much liberties in adapting the source material and they end up becoming in-name-only lip service adaptations, only borrowing the basic concept without getting any of the actual characterization and the vibe of the original source material. Such is the fate of Netflix's Death Note, and for a particularly terrible adaptation of manga/anime, look no further than the abomination that is Dragon Ball Evolution. Even some of the more well-regarded comic book adaptations fall into this as well, with a lot of Marvel and DC movies and shows feeling ashamed that they had to use names like 'Green Arrow'. 

On the other hand, a mega-faithful adaptation wouldn't be successful on the live-action either, because some dialogue just flows a bit differently delivered by an actor as opposed to a comic-book character. Some jokes (particularly more cartoony, physical ones) just won't work without coming off as dorky, and you have to keep the 'dorky' parts to other parts of the show. Trying to do a one-to-one translation of the first couple hundred chapters of One Piece would inevitably be a disaster, especially if you're trying to market it to the international market, many of whom didn't even hear of One Piece before. 

And while it's certainly a celebration for fans, this acquisition of new eyeballs is an equally large part of why this show is made. A (relatively) high-budget Netflix TV show with actors and sets will grab some people the way that a manga or an anime never will. And, of course, to some people eight episodes in a season is a much less huge commitment compared to reading several volumes of a manga.

And what made me believe in the dream that is this show is when my family and friends who had previously showed zero interest in this series or even anime in general started asking me 'hey, isn't One Piece that stretchy pirate anime you like?' and saying that the trailer looks weird and interesting in all the best ways. And... while the absolute earliest trailers was a bit iffy, ultimately when the final trailer came around I think I was very much optimistic that this was going to be a non-terrible affair at the very least. 

And the first episode... it's an interesting, tall order because One Piece's earliest couple of storylines has always been very scattershot and episodic, not the best thing to adapt into the first episode of a miniseries. You get the 'Romance Dawn' storyline with Shanks; you've got the storyline with Koby and Alvida; then you go into Zoro and Morgan; into the Buggy mini-arc; and so on and so forth. And the live-action adaptation does the frankly rather great job of condensing all of it by turning the Romance Dawn stuff with Shanks 22 years ago into piecemeal flashbacks, which isn't even something that I'd considered as something they would do.

We start off, of course, with the big, iconic Loguetown scene, and it looks very impressive. Gold Roger's execution, and the dramatic speech of the iconic King of the Pirates as he boasts -- even at the point of execution -- that he has hidden all of his treasure. Wealth, fame and power will go to anyone who goes to find his treasure... in One Piece. Thus starts off the Great Pirate Era, leading to so many pirates setting off to sea to chase treasure and dreams.

And right on from this episode we have changed a fair amount of things. The retcons/revelations that other characters are there in Gold Roger's execution is shown immediately, with early-bird cameos of Shanks, Mihawk, Buggy and even Dragon being shown. And the biggest change, of course, is Garp showing up at Gold Roger's execution, being the mouthpiece for the Marines's point of view -- that Roger's execution is going to be the end of piracy and the victory for the Marines. This really is a great addition for the themes of the story in general -- not just as an earlier introduction to Garp and his eventual relationship with Roger; but also to really set up the Marines-vs-Pirates world. In a way, I'm also a fan of showing that not all Marines are instantly corrupt officers, making it a bit more believable to the audience that Koby would desire to be a pirate so. 

And... let me get this out of the way, but some of the characters are given some accents, and... they're... interesting? Garp's gotten a Scottish accent, and while it did catch me off-guard initially, I don't think it's a particularly big deal.

Anyway, we fast-forward to the present day and our first introduction to Monkey D. Luffy is interestingly in an all-original scene where he basically does his whole 'I'm going to be the King of the Pirates' speech... to a News Coo. His boat leaks and he gets into the barrel, leading him smack dab into a surprisingly well-choreographed and realistic (other than the over-the-top pink ship) raiding party of Alvida attacking some random ship. Again, I wouldn't say that it's a textbook example of the adaptation of historical pirates, but it definitely adds a certain je sais ne quoi especially with the live-action props and actors. 

Alvida herself has never been a character anyone was clamouring to 'get right', but she looks like Alvida and she acts like Alvida... just a more brutal version of one. We get to see her swing and board the ship she's raiding and start bashing people around with an iron mace, drawing blood and stuff... and at one point she straight-up executes a guy. It's not as visceral as a show like Game of Thrones would make it be, but we do see the very not-pretty aftermath of Alvida's execution of the guy. Alvida's personality about how she's very confident that she's the most beautiful and the best pirate, and she's convinced that "Pirate Hunter" Roronoa Zoro is hunting for her. 

And, again, a very good job at incorporating the bounty posters into the show -- for both Roger and Alvida, and Buggy later on at the end of the episode, the posters actually fly onto the page in front of the characters, who annoyedly swat them away. That... is a bit cheesy, but a great way to incorporate such an important part of the manga without actually going through an awkward jump-cut. 

I'm also a huge fan of combining so many parts of early One Piece so they get interconnected to each other -- so Alvida's aware of Zoro's existence; Zoro's hunting a member of Baroque Works and trying to cash in his bounty to Morgan's base; Garp seemingly being built up as a recurring presence in this first season... it's all pretty nice and good, and the benefits of an adaptation like this. 

And then we get the very important meeting between Luffy and Koby (amazing casting for Koby, by the way) in the bowels of the ship, where they talk about dreams and whatnot... something that's key to the entire themes of One Piece, and something that I felt that the earnestness of Luffy's actor Iñaki Godoy really managed to sell. More than any wacky nonsense or superheroic beating up of villains, it's this part of Luffy that really needs to get right. Luffy's talk about how not all pirates are scum leads to our first flashback to Windmill Village, 10 years ago, which will be interspaced throughout some of these early episodes. 

And in this flashback, we get to see little wee bab Luffy running around with Shanks and his crew members (we get Benn Beckman, Lucky Roo and Yasopp rather prominently shown) and it's a scene that's handled very well. I've never been the biggest fan of the child-Luffy scenes, if we're being totally honest, but it's amazing to see it done so well. 

We cut back to the present day where Luffy and Koby plan an escape, and Luffy basically tells Koby to stand up for himself and take no shits from the clearly-delusional and self-aggrandizing Alvida. Alvida and Luffy's fight lasts pretty quickly (and I am very happy that in this more anime-esque fight Alvida ends up getting her manga-accurate kanabo; where the more 'realistic' raiding scene she has a more practical iron mace) and mostly serves as a showcase of Luffy's Gum-Gum Pistol.

The CGI for Luffy's rubbery abilities are... it's only really weird if you pause it, or in scenes where it's slo-mo'd, which this shot of Luffy Gum-Gum Pistol-ing Alvida has been circulated and screenshotted to death. But later on near the end of the episode we get to see Luffy shoot out rubber punches and stretch in the background during the big melee between him and the Marines in Morgan's base, and those look far more believable and blend into the flow of the action scene much better. 

And then we get a Netflix-original scene, adapting a scene that's only briefly alluded to in the manga and in the SBS... and this is where I really feel like the people behind the Netflix show really know what they're doing. They could've just had Zoro cut up some random brand-new pirate they imagined up for the show, or even used a more disposable character (Wicked Dick from the anime fillers, or maybe one of the Arlong/Buggy/Krieg pirates) but no. They actually adapted a scene that canonically, in the manga, takes place at around this point where Mr. 7 of Baroque Works tries to recruit Roronoa Zoro into their ranks. Hell, they even took Mr. 7's design from Oda's random doodle in one of the SBS-es... that's some commitment!

And what a badass introduction to Zoro. The action scene is much appreciated, of course, but Zoro took the time to light up candles to make the whole scene feel like something from a samurai movie. It also really ramps up Zoro's feared reputation as the Pirate Hunter... something that wasn't quite as prominent in the source material. Again, this introduction to Zoro really does help to ramp up his badassery before we properly meet him in Shells Town, and, surprisingly enough, seeds up for a potential Alabasta arc which would probably be season 2 or 3 or something. 

It's at this point that we get another flashback, this time dealing with Luffy and Shanks getting an argument about Luffy's readiness to become a pirate, as well as Shanks's own way of life and how he is very much willing to brush off the insults of the mountain bandit Higuma. Luffy is confused why Shanks doesn't go hog-wild and beat up the bandits, and... again, I really enjoy that this very interesting storyline -- which would end up building up the all-befriending person that Monkey D. Luffy is in the present day -- is retained. 

This cuts to the present day of Luffy and Koby rowing away on a boat as Luffy explains the power of his Gum-Gum Fruit, and to Devil Fruits in general. Koby also ends up sharing his dream to Luffy to become part of the Marines, and they really do manage to sell Koby's indecisiveness very well, and the general odd friendship between Luffy and Koby. The two of them head to Shells Town, with the intention of getting a map to the Grand Line... which seems to be the plot device that unites a lot of our characters. 

It's at this point that we finally get to meet Nami, and just like the anime, they make Nami get a much earlier appearance in the series compared to her manga counterpart. Nami is introduced pretending to faint to trick two members of Buggy's pirates to jump onto her boat and rob her, when she instead robs their larger ship. 

All the characters converge in Shells Island, a town with a lot of Marines and giant posters (not a statue) of "Axe-Hand" Captain Morgan. We also get a bunch of bounty posters pasted alongside a lot of great World Government propaganda posters, with surprising cameos by Bellamy, Foxy, Cavendish and Jango's posters. I love this. I also love that Shells Town and Morgan's map to the Grand Line ends up being the thing that brings in Luffy, Koby, Zoro and Nami -- Luffy and Nami are there to get the map, Zoro wants to turn in the bounty for Mr. 7 (or half of him, anyway) and Koby wants to enlist with the Marines... and later on, we learn that even members of Buggy's Pirates are also hanging out there, leading to the next episode!

And this is where the Shells Town arc is vastly abridged and remixed, with Zoro and Helmeppo (who has strong Joffrey Baratheon/Viserys Targaryen vibes) get into an altercation over Helmeppo knocking over Rika, the little girl with the chocolate onigiri. Luffy directly witnessing this confrontation makes it far more believable for him to jump into a 'yep, he's a good guy!' and how dead-set he is on Zoro joining his crew. Helmeppo's redesign (he basically has his post-timeskip look here, doesn't he?) really does work for the format, where he's just as punchable as his manga counterpart and feels as entitled and snotty as ever. There are actually a lot of great scenes and lines, like Helmeppo mocking Zoro and boasting that he only needs 'one sword', while Zoro gets to show off some great action scenes, brutalizing the entire Marine contingent in the bar without even drawing a sword. 

In the midst of all of this, we get Nami seemingly flirting with random Marines, but she just goes 'too tall' with one of them before flirting with someone around her height, and takes advantage of Zoro beating up the other Marines to steal that guy's uniform. Again, a great little change that helps to make this arc a bit more exciting and a bit more intertwined. 

Zoro is brought before "Axe-Hand" Morgan, who is toned down from being basically an egomaniacal despot to just a corrupt Marine Captain... he's a bit less over-the-top, but it's also clear that he's not the shining exemplar of justice that Koby built up the Marines to be. Koby even points this out, being confused that his idealized Marines turned out to be... well, not as squeaky-clean as he thought they would be, and we get a very well-done conversation between Luffy and Koby at night, with Luffy enforcing another key point of One Piece -- there are good and bad people regardless of whether they are Pirates or Marines. "You'll be one of the good ones."

In the conversation with Zoro, Morgan backhands Helmeppo for mouthing off, before basically threatening Zoro to submit to a 7-day tied-up in the yard as punishment for assaulting the Marines. Essentially threatened with not being able to continue his job as a bounty hunter if he refuses, Zoro acquiesces... and we get another douchebaggy scene from Helmeppo, who taunts Zoro by waving his precious Wado Ichimonji in front of him. 

I also do like that Luffy understands just how unwilling Koby is to go around and actually steal from the Marines, so he tasks Koby with setting up his escape ship while he goes into Morgan's base to steal the map. Somehow. He's stealthy. Nami is actually stealthy, going in with her disguised uniform, also to steal the map. Luffy pops up in the courtyard and unties the knots, insisting that Zoro is a good guy, and that if he has a 'dream' that he's chasing, he shouldn't let himself be tied up there for no real good reason. 

Luffy and Nami end up bumping into each other, and even with Morgan, in a fun little infiltration scene. All of this is extended a fair bit, basically to give Nami a bigger role -- I don't actually remember if Nami starts off the series with that collapsible rod, but she does beat up a couple of Marines in the records room on her own before participating in the big melee at the end. Her having more interactions with Luffy's childishness and nonsense are definitely much appreciated, particularly considering her East-Blue-arc storyline of eventually learning to trust the exasperating Luffy and realize that not all pirates are all that bad. 

The scene does go by rather quickly, but I absolutely appreciate the set work put into Morgan's office. This is where the giant statue is, we've got giant over-the-top artworks of Morgan posing heroically, and a bunch of axes embedded to the wall, before the safe on the floor is revealed. It's a small thing and the actual final action scene of this episode takes place in the courtyard, but I definitely really appreciate this office. 

Meanwhile, Netflix's nudity quota goes to... Helmeppo of all people, who's posing with Yubashiri in front of mirrors, holding it like a punk while being buck-ass nude. Zoro walks in to reclaim his sword, sending Helmeppo whimpering and holding a Marine-themed teddy bear in front of his penis, before Zoro promises to do 'something worse' than death to him.

...which, as we learn later, is inflicting Helmeppo with his pre-timeskip haircut, which is a glorious way to incorporate that hideous haircut in a way that makes a bit more sense. 

Anyway, Luffy and Nami abscond with the safe but only gets as far as the courtyard of the marine base before they are ambushed by Marines, and we get a pretty fun action scene. Zoro walks past them and I do really like the brief moment where he's about to go 'this isn't my problem'... before sighing and joining into the fight in a spectacular fashion. We get the power trio standing side-by-side, as Axe-Hand Morgan waltzes into the fray. 

Again, setting Morgan up as someone that needs Luffy and Zoro to two-team (Nami spends most of this subsequent fight handling the goons) is pretty fun and makes for a more interesting climax. Morgan even does a badass boast which will presumably get a payoff in the next couple of episodes, where he boasts that he was the Marine that took down the great Kuro of the Thousand Plans -- a connection that I didn't even realize was in the manga until a reread! We get the ridiculousness of a guy with a gigantic axe replacing his right hand fight against a dual-wielding samurai and a rubber boy, and I do like that the initial sequence of this fight involves Luffy basically screwing up Zoro's fights before they basically learn to work together. 

I'm not going to list every single movement in the fight, but suffice to say that it's impressive enough to feel like the ending fight to an action-packed episode, which culminates in Zoro putting on his bandana, biting a third sword in his mouth, and surprising everyone with the fact that a live-action three-sword style is possible. 

Man, Mackenyu's mouth must hurt from holding that prop sword. 

And... it's mostly just twirling and swirling around, though I appreciate they at least give the effort of showcasing that Zoro's actually doing some techniques with his three-sword style instead of just that one charge-and-blast that they did to Captain Morgan right after he grips the sword in his mouth. There's a couple of jokes that the trailers kind of beat to death, which is Luffy questioning where Zoro's third sword goes, as well as Luffy insisting that all great fighters name their attack (Gum-Gum Whip!) and Zoro being incredulous about it. 

...which is something I am a bit pissed about, if we're being honest, but if all of this leads to Zoro embracing the weeb and ending his fight with Dracule Mihawk with Santoryu Ougi Sanzensekai, I'll be cheering for it. 

Knocking Morgan out, they steal the safe and run to their boat... only to be stopped by Helmeppo and his brand-new haircut. Helmeppo gets knocked down by Koby, which is a nice little touch, before the three "not-a-crew" proto-Straw-Hat-Pirates sail off to the sea. 

The post-script of the episode shows off Garp's impressive, gigantic dog-headed ship finding out about the map in Grand Line being stolen, featuring a cameo from a Den-Den Mushi! Which looks surprisingly good! Also, Cabaji from Buggy's Pirates (impeccable outfit for Cabaji, by the way) reporting to the lunatic clown Buggy, worth 15 million Berries, about the theft in Shells Town... 

And, yeah. It's... it's really a huge journey to get through this episode. And obviously there are going to be a lot of changes, a lot of scenes cut or re-ordered, but I am honestly a huge fan of most of the changes they make in the spirit of making this translate better to the live-action format. But honestly, even so, I am also a huge fan of them streamlining the Shells Town arc in general and making the events that lead up to it as well as Luffy, Zoro and Nami's goals and motivations to be there to be a bit more concrete. And... and I'm honestly rather impressed. It's not the best-thing-ever, but it's pretty damn good and I'm so, so surprised that it worked. 

One Piece Easter Egg Corner:

Note: there are a lot of Easter Eggs in this series, and this list will slowly be populated as I find out/read up about more of them. 

• In the opening narration, Mohmoo (Arlong's Sea Cow, probably cut from this adaptation) and one of the recurring zebra-striped giant Sea King (who shows up when the crew accidentally stumbles into the Grand Line; and again in the New Fishman Pirates arc) show up as part of the giant map. 
• The map in the opening narration and credits itself basically show off the entirety of the map, showcasing not just the islands in the East Blue Saga but also islands like Sixis Island, first mentioned in the Ace light novels. 
• Particularly of note are the islands in the Grand Line, which aren't named but are visually identical to how they look -- Alabasta and the Boin Archipelago (the giant venus-flytrap islands that Usopp spent the timeskip in) are easy to see thanks to their distinctive outline. The skull-face of Jaya could just be made out under one of the letters.
• 
  Opening up the credits scene is a name-drop of Commander-in-Chief Kong, who commissioned this particular map. I actually missed this one, but a drawing of Kong is part of the artwork bordering around that title.
• We'll visit a lot of the locations in the East Blue maps, but of note are Goemon's Island of Rare Animals (which is 100% cut from this Netflix adaptation), Mirror Ball Island (from Jango/Fullbody's cover story), Goat Island (which was cut out of the Alvida arc), Cozia Island (which is a very obscure location invaded by the Germa Kingdom),  Kumate Island (the bear-shaped island briefly seen in Buggy's cover story), and even the nest with the giant bird from Buggy's cover story. 
  
• Also, the names of the islands where a lot of towns are located -- Polestar Island (Loguetown), Organ Islands (Orange Island), Gecko Islands (Syrup Village), Conomi Islands (Cocoyasi Village) and 'backstory' islands like Oykot Kingdom and Shimotsuki Village aer all shown. 
• They don't get zoom-ins like Shanks and Mihawk, but Dragon and Smoker also show up in Gold Roger's execution.
• Mihawk's distinctive raft-boat can be seen among the ships docked in Roger's execution. 
• One of the pirates rushing to find the One Piece has a shirt with the Criminal logo, which is a recurring brand that's later revealed to be owned by Papugg the starfish.
• People who paused the News Coo newspaper online have spotted that it mentions a war that continues on Broc Coli Island -- I don't even remember this, but the Vinsmoke siblings were first introduced in the manga putting down the long-running civil war plaguing that kingdom. 
• Luffy hides in a barrel called 'Gyoru's Fishing Company'. Gyoru is a very minor character in Foosha/Windmill Village who is named in the SBS.
• Luffy mentions to Koby that he wants to infiltrate the marine base by flying on a gigantic bird. This is actually how Luffy got to Orange Town in the manga. 
• As mentioned above, Bellamy, Foxy, Jango and Cavendish all appear in the Bounty Posters in Shells Town.
• A piano version of Bink's Sake can be heard playing in the background of the bar scene in Windmill Village.
• While the most prominent characters from Shanks' crew are obviously the ones that had lines in the manga (Shanks, Benn Beckman, Lucky Roo and Yasopp), the background characters actually correspond to the clothing and outfits of the finalized design of the Red-Haired Pirate members Limejuice, Hongo, Bonk Punch, Howling Gab (minus fangs), and Building Snake. 
• The background unnamed pirates in Alvida's crew also correspond to the members of their crew that were given anime-only names and voices, namely Heppoko, Peppoko and Poppoko. The two pirates that get scammed by Nami are visually based on the Tightrope Walking Funan Brothers from Buggy's crew, which get a bit more lines in the anime as well.
• Zoro uses matches from a brand called 'Beast of Baldimore', which is what Franky is referred to during the timeskip era when he causes some disasters in Baldimore. 
• Mr. 7's design -- at least his head and the giant 7 tattooed on his face -- is taken wholesale from the SBS doodle that Oda drew for him. 
• Zoro offhandedly mocks that Baroque Works should send 'Mr. 1' after him. In the manga he would fight Mr. 1 during the Alabasta arc. 
• Nami's outfit in the episode is a reference to Oda's prototype design for her, shown in concept arts... though she's missing the cyborg arm and the giant axe from protoype Nami. 
• People argue a lot on what the pages of sketches are on Nami's map before she flips it over -- people are divided on whether it's Water Seven or Fishman Island on the left side, but the one on the right is clearly a sketch of Wano.
• The words Mikio Itoo can be barely made out in the barrels of alcohol in the bar on Shells Town, a reference to a real-life person who Oda snuck into his manga a couple of times.  
• Nami blurts out that she's a transfer from the 77th Marine Branch, which is actually a branch from the manga, headed by Pudding-Pudding -- the minor Marine that was killed by Arlong.
• Identified by the credits, the Marine that Nami setals the uniform from is Ukkari -- in the manga, he is the Marine that was nearly executed by Morgan for damaging his statue.
• The shape of Morgan's safe's handle is shaped like the World Government logo.