The words ‘live action’ strike fear into the hearts of even the most hardened anime fans. For as long as I can remember, the Western world has gazed at successes like Death Note, Dragon Ball, Cowboy Bebop, and One Piece with expressions of envy. Surely there must be a way to take these animated gems and Westernise them for big new audiences who have never seen them before? To make lots of money and broaden the horizons of media that were once so much harder to access? But things have changed.
Cast your minds back to the distant past of 2009. It was Barack Obama’s first full year in the Oval Office as we saw the release of District 9 and Demon’s Souls. A pretty good year really, or at least until Dragon Ball: Evolution came out. This diabolical feature film turned the iconic franchise into a fantastical version of Beverly Hills 90210. It had bad acting, looked terrible, and set off the curse we associate with live action adaptations even today. It is still memed on to an astonishing degree, and I can’t quite believe it ever got made at all.
It wouldn’t happen today - it’s too expensive, and how we consume media and invest ourselves in it has changed significantly. We saw this newly adjusted strategy back in 2021 with Netflix’s Cowboy Bebop. A full season of television turned the original series into live action with recognisable names, a meaty budget, and a familiar zany attitude. While there was much to be loved about it, both from its stunning sense of place and excellent cast, the die was cast as soon as viral clips of the show’s weaker moments began circulating online. No matter what it got right or how many people enjoyed it, there was no rising above the ire of frustrated fans. At its worst, Cowboy Bebop felt like a misinformed, hyper-budget fan film.
You’d think this pursuit of live action anime adaptations would have been abandoned as both Death Note and Cowboy Bebop - two of the most acclaimed anime ever produced - failed to make so much as a dent in the zeitgeist. Now along comes One Piece. The ongoing manga from Eiichiro Oda is beloved around the world, while its anime adaptation is several hundred episodes and eighteen movies strong at this point. Netflix is never going to catch up in terms of narrative, but it could still shine if it manages to capture the same spirit and exuberance.
From what we’ve seen thus far, the jury is still out. As the first teaser trailer was dropped, it’s clear that Netflix is heavily marketing this show with a keen awareness of previous mistakes made with Cowboy Bebop and Death Note. There is an obvious reverence for the source material and how there is no intention to replace or eclipse it, but to proudly stand alongside what came before as a worthwhile companion piece instead.
Interviews across the cast, which includes Iñaki Godoy (Luffy), Mackenyu (Zoro), and Emily Rudd (Nami), are so wholesome as they tearfully react to the reveal trailer or go into surprising detail about the roles of their characters and what it means to inhabit them in a new medium. But long-time fans still aren’t convinced, and it’s hard to tell whether this lovable attitude will translate into success when the show finally arrives in August. Deep down, I’m not too sure it will.
This past weekend saw Godoy meet up with original Luffy voice actor Mayumi Tanaka, where it was announced that the anime’s original voice cast would be providing the Japanese dub for the Netflix show. It’s huge news, with Anime Expo being fully embraced by the cast as a final sprint towards the August release date. This will go a long way in bringing veteran fans into the fray, who in turn are also the hardest critics to win over. Netflix couldn’t convince a similar audience when it came to Cowboy Bebop or Death Note, but I can tell there is a faint hope this time around that things will be different, that a new attitude and greater appreciation for the media they’re adapting could bring the faithful along for the ride.
If it doesn’t, it will need one hell of an install base to justify additional seasons of a show that can’t be easy or cheap to make. We know where One Piece needs to go after its first arc, and whether a live action show can do that trajectory justice without neutering it entirely remains to be seen.