One Piece (2023 TV series)

One Piece (2023 TV series)
One Piece (stylized in all caps) is a fantasy adventure television series developed by Matt Owens and Steven Maeda for Netflix. The series is a live action adaptation of the manga series of the same name by Eiichiro Oda, who served as a major creative consultant on the show. It is produced by Kaji Productions and Shueisha (who also publishes the manga). The series stars an ensemble cast including Iñaki Godoy, Emily Rudd, Mackenyu, Jacob Romero Gibson, and Taz Skylar as the members of the Straw Hat Pirates, centered around Godoy's Captain Monkey D. Luffy.
The series premiered on August 31, 2023, and received positive reviews from both critics and fans who praised the performances, writing, visual effects, and general fidelity to the source material. Several outlets have called it one of the best live-action adaptations of a manga or anime series, considering it a major improvement over Netflix's previous attempts such as the negatively received Death Note and Cowboy Bebop. Two weeks after its premiere, Netflix renewed the series for a second season, which is in active development.
Premise
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 Marines are on their ship's tail, and they are not the only crew searching for the One Piece. Armed with skills and an unbreakable friendship, the Straw Hats are ready for the journey and even more ready to fight for their dreams together.
Cast and characters
Main
Iñaki Godoy as Monkey D. Luffy, an enthusiastic prospective pirate both cursed and gifted with powerful rubber-like abilities from accidentally eating a mysterious Devil Fruit, the Gum-Gum Fruit. His goal is to travel out of the East Blue with a crew of his own, find the One Piece, and become the King of the Pirates.
Colton Osorio as young Monkey D. Luffy
Emily Rudd as Nami, an enigmatic thief who hides her past behind an aggressive indifference in search of a map to the Grand Line, where the One Piece is strongly rumored to be. She's taken it upon herself to navigate and map out the entire world.
Lily Fisher as young Nami
Mackenyu as Roronoa Zoro, an accomplished master swordsman and bounty hunter, who uses the art of "Three Swords Style". He aims to become the world's greatest swordsman.
Maximilian Lee Piazza as young Roronoa Zoro
Jacob Romero Gibson as Usopp, who is boisterous, yet loyal to a fault, to his friends and allies; Usopp specializes in marksmanship, cunning and invention. He intends to be a brave, famous warrior of the sea, recognized by his infamous pirate father, Yasopp.
Kevin Saula as young Usopp
Taz Skylar as Sanji, an abrasive, woman-loving, yet charming master chef who is a practitioner of martial arts primarily using his legs taught to him by his mentor and head chef Zeff. His purpose is to find the All Blue, a mythical sea that connects the four seas together and provide quality meals to all.
Christian Convery as young Sanji
Vincent Regan as Monkey D. Garp, a prolific Vice Admiral in the Marines and Luffy's estranged grandfather, who becomes Koby's mentor
Jeff Ward as Buggy the Clown, the clown-themed captain of the Buggy Pirates whose Devil Fruit he ate, the Chop-Chop Fruit, gives him the ability to split his own body into pieces and control them as he sees fit
Morgan Davies as Koby, a cabin boy of the Alvida Pirates who dreams of and eventually joins the Marines
Recurring
Aidan Scott as Helmeppo, the son of Captain Morgan who uses his father's status as a Marine Captain to bully others into doing his bidding. He later becomes a marine cadet after the defeat of his father.
Peter Gadiot as Shanks, the captain of the Red-Haired Pirates who was Luffy's childhood hero and inspiration to start his own crew
Ilia Isorelýs Paulino as Alvida, the ruthless leader of the Alvida Pirates who fights with a large spiked iron club
Langley Kirkwood as Axe Hand Morgan, a corrupt self-obsessed Marine Captain who imprisoned Zoro, and the abusive father of Helmeppo
Tamer Burjaq as Higuma, a sinister bandit who tried to kill Luffy in his youth
Kathleen Stephens as Makino, a bartender from Windmill Village, Luffy's home town
Armand Aucamp as Bogard, a Marine officer and Garp's right-hand man
Sven Ruygrok as Cabaji, an acrobat who is an officer of the Buggy Pirates
Stevel Marc as Yasopp, an officer of the Red Hair Pirates and Usopp's father
Ntlanhla Morgan Kutu as Lucky Roux, an officer of the Red Hair Pirates
Laudo Liebenberg as Benn Beckmann, an officer of the Red Hair Pirates
McKinley Belcher III as Arlong, a strong, ruthless fish-man who is the leader of the Arlong Pirates and ruler of Arlong Park
Celeste Loots as Kaya, an orphaned heiress and Usopp's close friend
Alexander Maniatis as Kuro, alias "Klahadore", the captain of the Black Cat Pirates posing as Kaya's butler
Bianca Oosthuizen as Sham, an officer of the Black Cat Pirates and Buchi's partner
Albert Pretorius as Buchi, an officer of the Black Cat Pirates and Sham's partner
Jandre le Roux as Kuroobi, a fish-man who is an officer of the Arlong Pirates
Brett Williams as Merry, an attorney and legal guardian of Kaya's assets
Craig Fairbrass as Chef Zeff, a former pirate and the current head chef and owner of Baratie, a floating restaurant, and Sanji's father figure
Steven Ward as Mihawk, a pirate regarded as the world's greatest swordsman and one of the Seven Warlords of the Sea
Len-Barry Simons as Chu, a fish-man who is an officer of the Arlong Pirates
Chioma Umeala as Nojiko, Nami's adoptive older sister
Kylie Ashfield as young Nojiko
Grant Ross as Genzo, the sheriff of the Coco Village
Rory Acton-Burnell as Nezumi, a corrupt Marine Captain who covers up for Arlong's misdeeds
Guest
Michael Dorman as Gold Roger, the former King of the Pirates
Ben Kgosimore as Mr. 7, a swordsman sent to meet Zoro by a criminal organization named Baroque Works
Nicole Fortuin as Ririka, a bartender in Shells Town
Chanté Grainger as Banchina, Usopp's mother
Audrey Cymone as Shimotsuki Kuina, Zoro's childhood friend and skilled swordswoman
Nathan Castle as Shimotsuki Koushirou, a master swordsman who was the teacher of Roronoa Zoro
Milton Schorr as Don Krieg, a pirate fleet's captain who wears an armor filled with hidden weapons
Litha Bam as Gin, a combat commander of Don Krieg's crew, who was fed by Sanji
Genna Galloway as Bellemere, a former Marine who adopted Nami and Nojiko
Brashaad Mayweather as Patty, a cook of the Baratie
Additionally, Ian McShane voices the narrator in the first episode.
Episodes
Production
Development
In July 2017, Weekly Shōnen Jump editor-in-chief Hiroyuki Nakano announced that Tomorrow Studios (a partnership between Marty Adelstein and ITV Studios) and Shueisha would commence production of an American live-action television adaptation of Eiichiro Oda's One Piece manga series as part of the series' 20th anniversary celebrations. Oda would serve as executive producer for the series alongside Tomorrow Studios CEO Adelstein and Becky Clements. The series would reportedly begin with the East Blue saga. Adelstein also said the production cost could set new records.
In January 2020, Oda revealed that Netflix had ordered a first season initially consisting of ten episodes. In May 2020, producer Marty Adelstein revealed during an interview with Syfy Wire that the series was originally set to begin filming in Cape Town at Cape Town Film Studios sometime around August but had been delayed to around September due to the COVID-19 pandemic. He also revealed that, during the same interview, all ten scripts had been written for the series and they were set to begin casting sometime in June. However, executive producer and writer Matt Owens stated in September 2020 that casting had not yet commenced.
In March 2021, production started up again with showrunner Steven Maeda revealing that the series codename is Project Roger. In September 2021, the series revealed its first look at the logo for the series. That same month, it was reported that Marc Jobst will direct the pilot episode of the series; he was approached to direct the pilot by Netflix executives due to their positive relationship after Jobst helmed episodes for Netflix series such as Daredevil, Luke Cage, and The Witcher. Jobst agreed to work on One Piece due to the script's optimistic tone. In February 2022, it was announced that Arisu Kashiwagi will be the creative director and designer for the show's brand identity, where she will be creating and designing logo and title sequence etc. In March 2022, alongside the release of additional casting announcements, it was said that head writer and executive producer Matt Owens would serve as co-showrunner alongside Maeda. In June 2022, Emma Sullivan was revealed to have directed episodes of the series.
On September 7, 2023, Tomorrow Studios CEO Marty Adelstein revealed that the scripts for the second season are ready but filming could not begin until the SAG-AFTRA strike is resolved. Tomorrow Studios president Becky Clements stated that once they can begin filming, they expect the season would premiere approximately 12–18 months later. Netflix did not formally announce that the series was renewed for a second season until September 14. In an interview with Deadline Hollywood, Clements commented that they've had "thorough conversations" on the second season with Netflix, Shueisha and Oda and "less extensive conversations" on seasons three to six. Adelstein and Clements commented that with over 1,080 manga chapters, there is at least twelve seasons of material so just six seasons would only cover half the total manga chapters.
Changes from the manga
In a July 2023 open letter, Oda stated that there were numerous scenes he felt "weren't good enough to put out into the world", so the film crew re-shot them. Oda also felt some of Luffy's lines did not feel like the character on paper; however, he changed his opinion after seeing Godoy's performance of them. In an interview with The New York Times, Oda highlighted that the live action show has more dialogue than the manga as the latter needs more space for illustrations. When asked if he was worried about the One Piece adaptation given that other similar adaptations have been unsuccessful, Oda said, "thankfully, Netflix agreed that they wouldn't go out with the show until I agreed it was satisfactory. I read the scripts, gave notes and acted as a guard dog to ensure the material was being adapted in the correct way". Costume designer Diana Cilliers was directly influenced by Oda's Color Walk compendiums when creating the show's designs. She made small changes to the original designs to either "spice up scenes with variation" or adjust due to safety concerns when filming the live action.
The adaptation made several structural changes with Oda's approval, such as focusing on Garp and revealing his connection to Luffy much earlier as well as moving Arlong's introduction up and swapping him with Don Krieg's storyline. Maeda commented that they wanted to make Arlong the season's "big bad" and by introducing him at the Baratie they were able to "ramp up towards the last two episodes". He also stated that they wanted Garp as "a more present character" along with the immediate Marine pursuit of the Straw Hats crew "to keep the stakes up and let it feel like it wasn't just a fun adventure where we were meeting different antagonists and different villains and pirates, but there was an actual kind of organized presence and fearsome presence that was behind Luffy and pursuing". Polygon highlighted that increased focus on the Marines means "Koby goes from being a side character to a supporting one immediately" and "changes the framing" of the Marines. Polygon also commented on the changes to the characterization of Sanji – "the new version of Sanji no longer bothers women. It's not that Sanji isn't interested in women; he's just a lot more respectful about it".
Casting
In November 2021, the main cast portraying the Straw Hat Pirates was revealed via a series of wanted posters: Iñaki Godoy as Monkey D. Luffy, Mackenyu as Roronoa Zoro, Emily Rudd as Nami, Jacob Romero Gibson as Usopp, and Taz Skylar as Sanji.
In March 2022, Netflix added Morgan Davies as Koby, Ilia Isorelýs Paulino as Alvida, Aidan Scott as Helmeppo, Jeff Ward as Buggy, McKinley Belcher III as Arlong, Vincent Regan as Garp and Peter Gadiot as Shanks to the cast in recurring roles. June 2022 saw the addition of Langley Kirkwood as Captain Morgan, Celeste Loots as Kaya, Alexander Maniatis as Klahadore, Craig Fairbrass as Zeff, Steven Ward as Dracule Mihawk, and Chioma Umeala as Nojiko. In August 2022, Bianca Oosthuizen, Chanté Grainger, and Grant Ross joined the cast of the series, playing Sham, Banchina, and Genzo respectively. In February 2023, it was revealed that Stevel Marc had been cast as Yasopp. In March 2023, it was revealed that Jandre le Roux had been cast as Kuroobi.
In July 2023, it was revealed that the original Japanese voice actors from the One Piece anime will voice the characters for the Japanese dub. All the characters are dubbed by the original Japanese voice cast, with the exception of Arlong being voiced by Hiroki Tōchi, replacing Jūrōta Kosugi from the anime for unspecified reasons.
The character Tony Tony Chopper is set to appear in the second season in a video where Oda makes comments in wake of the season renewal announcement.
Filming
Maeda officially announced that principal photography had begun on January 31, 2022, and finished filming on August 22, 2022. In May 2022, director Marc Jobst updated that he had finished filming the first two episodes of the show. Part of the filming took place in Cape Town, South Africa, at Cape Town Film Studios. Nicole Hirsch Whitaker, the show's cinematographer, said that she had her crew six weeks before production began. The entirety of the sequence involving Luffy fighting Alvida had to be reshot as it was originally done in the daytime. Whitaker was unable to attend the reshoot due to scheduling conflicts and it was done without her.
Music
Sonya Belousova and Giona Ostinelli were hired to compose the score for the series. Matt Patches of Polygon highlighted that "unlike most television composers who might be handed picture-locked episodes to pepper with bits of underscore, showrunners Matt Owens and Steven Maeda tasked Belousova and Ostinelli with composing a world's worth of sounds that could be in constant conversation depending on which eccentric characters or pirate-y locations were in play at any given moment". The first song from the series' soundtrack, "Wealth Fame Power", was made available on music streaming platforms on August 18, 2023. Belousova stated that as Luffy's theme, "Wealth Fame Power" connects him with Gold Roger's legacy. The song has "ascending motion" as Luffy is at the start of his journey so in Roger's scene, they reversed the theme to be in "descending motion" as Rogers is "about to be executed" "we are ending one storyline, but we are immediately beginning another storyline". The second song, "My Sails Are Set", featuring Norwegian singer Aurora, was released on August 25. The song "My Sails Are Set" externalizes Nami's journey and acts that "the culmination of an entire season's worth of musical ideas"; Belousova commented that "usually songs function as needle drops it's very rare for songs to have actually any sort of musical connection to the rest of the score".
Marketing
On June 17, 2023, the series' premiere date and official teaser trailer were revealed by the main cast in-person during the fourth edition of Tudum at Ibirapuera Park in São Paulo, Brazil. The entire presentation was broadcast live from the Ibirapuera Auditorium on several Netflix official YouTube channels. The three-day event was held between June 16 and 18 and contained a One Piece-themed interactive activation, which featured a life-size replica of the Going Merry at the Bienal pavillion located inside the park. On June 29, 2023, a promotional website for the series was launched. Billed as the "Straw Hat Grand Fleet", the website features behind-the-scenes content as well as a section for creating custom wanted posters. On July 21, 2023, Netflix released the official trailer and a personalized letter from Oda.
On August 10, 2023, Netflix announced dates and locations for global fan celebrations ahead of the series premiere. Marketed as "Straw Hats Unite Across The Globe", the schedule of events included screenings of the first episode on August 24 in Santa Monica, California at the Santa Monica Pier. Other cities and dates where in-person fan celebrations were held included Paris, on August 29; Jakarta, Tokyo, Milan and Manila, on August 30; and Mexico City, Rio de Janeiro and Bangkok, on August 31. Germany was also set to hold a fan event on the premiere day, albeit virtually. Among the attractions announced for the global celebrations was a life-size replica of the Going Merry displayed at Copacabana Beach from August 31 to September 10. On August 30, 2023, Netflix released the final trailer for the series.
Reception
Ratings
In its debut weekend, the show's concurrent viewership on Netflix reached number one in 86 countries, surpassing the Netflix debut records previously set by Stranger Things and Wednesday. It topped the weekly global Netflix chart from August 28 to September 3, ranking among the top 10 in 93 countries and at number one in 46 countries, with 140 million hours watched by 18.5 million viewers. One Piece topped the Netflix chart for a second week during September 410, with its viewership increasing to 145.7 million hours watched by 19.3 million viewers. It thus amassed 285.7 million hours watched by 37.8 million viewers in less than two weeks of its release. Nielsen reported that on the "streaming charts for the week of August 28 to September 3", One Piece was #1 in the "originals" category and #2 overall "with 1.3B minutes viewed" which "equates to 21.85 million hours of viewing in the U.S.". The Hollywood Reporter highlighted that Nielsen and Netflix calculate viewing time with different methods so Nielsen's report is "a little under 16 percent of the worldwide total Netflix reported in its own top 10 rankings" in the same period. Variety commented that, per Nielsen, One Piece "brought in a more diverse audience than its competitors, with a 25% Hispanic and 19% African American audience".
Netflix co-CEO Greg Peters stated that the show's debut met "a very high bar" and that, despite "haters looking for a reason to hate you" for it, to "be able to deliver it and have it be massively popular and a success around the world is amazing to see". It was the second new Netflix show in 2023 to debut with more than 100 million hours viewed in its first week, following The Night Agent in March. Deadline Hollywood, however, noted its debut viewership fell short of Wednesday and Queen Charlotte, which drew roughly 43 million and 24 million views, respectively, in their first weeks. On TikTok, the #OnePieceNetflix hashtag drew over 4 billion search impressions during the show's first two weeks.
Critical response
Review aggregator Metacritic reported that One Piece holds a weighted average score of 67 out of 100, based on 22 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". On Rotten Tomatoes, 85% of 60 critics gave the series a positive review, with an average rating of 7.7/10. Its critics' consensus states: "One Piece captures the essence of its beloved source material with a charmingly big-hearted adaptation that should entertain longtime fans as well as patient newcomers." It also received a 95% audience approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on over 10,000 reviews.
Brian Truitt of USA Today gave the series 3/4 stars, writing, "In this energetic cross between Pirates of the Caribbean and Scott Pilgrim, with a dash of Doctor Who-style camp, a young crew of buccaneers goes searching for lost treasure and helps people along the way in a bighearted, swashbuckling answer to Stranger Things." Lauren Milici of GamesRadar+ wrote that the series "breaks the live-action curse," adding that the directorial choices "make it more than clear that the show was created by fans, by people who genuinely wanted to see something they love brought to (a new) life." Jesse Hassenger of The Guardian gave One Piece 3/5 stars and wrote that "the overall imagination of One Piece competes with this particular iteration's budget, which appears to be lavish but perhaps still not quite enough". The Hollywood Reporter'''s Angie Han wrote, "By putting its faith in its characters' youthful joie de vivre, One Piece delivers enough fun to thrill the inner child in tweens and grown-ups alike." Coleman Spilde of The Daily Beast felt the show "consistently surprises" although the "writing sometimes struggles to find a steady middle ground between the tweenage and adult demographics it's trying to appeal to". Spilde stated that as a good adaptation, One Piece is "captivating even to viewers who know nothing about the source material".
Kayleigh Dray, for The A.V. Club, viewed the show as an accessible adaptation with "major Saturday morning cartoons vibes". Dray also highlighted the amount of source material lore packed in – "even a cursory glance makes it abundantly clear that a lot of love and care has gone into all of its lush world building". Paste's Elijah Gonzalez thought the adaptation made the "wise decision" to handle a small amount of the source material by sticking with "the 'East Blue' arc, which spans the first 100 chapters of the manga and around 60 episodes of the anime". Gonzalez opined that this iteration "even occasionally feels more cohesive than the original" as it can introduce later aspects earlier "to create compelling overarching drama" and "aid certain backstories". Angelica Jade Bastién of Vulture wrote that the show "proves its willingness to hold on to what makes the original property so fantastic". Bastién also thought the changes in the adaptation, such as revealing the connection between Garp and Luffy much earlier, worked "damn well". Charles Pulliam-Moore, for The Verge, stated that the production design was key to One Piece feeling "like a living, breathing place with history that you can step into" and highlighted that "Netflix constructed a number of massive, painstakingly-detailed sets perfect to transform into iconic places from Oda's world". He felt that it is always "a bit of a gamble" when the show recreates "visuals from the anime"; however, "many of those gambles work out well". In contrast, Mike Hale of The New York Times felt One Piece was a "bland and generic" adaptation as "most of the verve and personality of the anime are gone, replaced by busyness, elaborate but uninteresting production design and a sign of the times an increased piety regarding the story's themes of knowing and believing in yourself".
Hassenger viewed "the actors' performance styles" as clashing with "some of the actors gleefully embody live-action cartoons, while others work in a mildly snarky YA register" – "multiple supporting characters goggle and mug like they're in a Terry Gilliam knockoff". Robert Lloyd, for the Los Angeles Times, felt with Luffy that the show fails "critically if not quite fatally" as the "character comes across as little short of insane". Lloyd commented that Luffy is "meant to be the spirit of the tale, but turns tiresome in human form, where he's surely supposed to be delightful" and viewed the other characters joining him as "arbitrary and improbable". However, Bastién felt Godoy did "a tightrope walk of a role" as Luffy and observed that "there just aren't characters like him in white-colonial media men whose kindness is essential to their being and for whom friendship is tantamount". She opined that the "core cast works splendidly" but the supporting characters were more "lacking". David Opie of Empire'' stated "Rudd embodies the heart of the show with an emotive take on Nami" and "Mackenyu nails Roronoa Zoro's stoicism just as well as his intricate swordplay". Opie felt "no one shines as bright as Iñaki Godoy". Spilde viewed Godoy, Rudd, and Mackenyu as having "stellar chemistry" but that "the frenetic energy of the show falters when it becomes too contracted, spending more time on friendship than fighting". The show's choreographed fight sequences were praised by multiple critics.
See also
List of One Piece media
References
External links
2020s American comedy-drama television series
2023 American television series debuts
American action adventure television series
American fantasy comedy television series
Coming-of-age television shows
English-language Netflix original programming
One Piece mass media
Television shows based on manga
Television shows filmed in South Africa
Television series about pirates
Television series by ITV Studios
Television series set in fictional countries
Television series set on fictional islands