Maybe it’s because Disney has seen big box office success by adapting their animated films into live-action films, but there’s been a precarious trend of adapting animated works into live action with mostly mid to terrible results. 

Netflix’s live-action adaptation of “One Piece” seemed to have a chance to stand above the rest, thanks to the involvement of series creator Eiichiro Oda. The dedication and enthusiasm of its cast, such as how Taz Skylar has embraced the fighting style of his character, Sanji, also was a promising sign. 

Then we got the trailer. 

I don’t know how I feel about this. If it was a series of stills, I would probably love it as a “One Piece” fan — except for the lack of Usopp’s signature long nose. But in motion, it feels awkward, like the filmmakers are trying too hard to force the aesthetics of the cartoon onto the show, rather than adapt it to better fit live action. 

This production has grabbed headlines for how it wants to faithfully follow the anime, hence Oda’s involvement as executive producer, which in no doubt is a reaction to the backlash against the many botched Hollywood anime adaptations that feel like they weren’t produced by fans of the source material — or if the filmmakers even watched it. “Dragonball Evolution” is one of the best examples of one of those bad adaptations. 

Recently, we have adaptations that have the opposite problem; they are too faithful to the original. Disney’s live action remake of “The Lion King” came under fire for its frame-by-frame recreations of certain scenes from the original and as a whole these remakes don’t bring a lot of original ideas to the table. They feel like lazy cash grabs, capitalizing off of name recognition. “The Little Mermaid” (2023) for me is a notable exception, as it did several things better than its source material, especially how it fleshed out the romance between its two leads.

It’s possible that “Once Piece” live action will be great and that this trailer isn’t a great representation of what the show will be — it does have a lot of creatives from Netflix’s Marvel shows, like “Daredevil” and “Luke Cage,” which are excellent adaptations despite having clear technical limitations. I’m also a firm believer that aesthetics and special effects don’t necessarily make or break a show — I’ve enjoyed “Doctor Who” thoroughly and some of its earlier seasons have the least convincing special effects, but are bolstered by superior scripts.

I will give “One Piece” live action a chance, though I admit that this show probably has an expiration date after the East Blue Saga. I’m not expecting it to catch up to the anime and I’m not sure if many arcs — like Skypeia, Impel Down, Thriller Bark and Fish-Man Island — can work in live action.

In the meantime, I am slowly working on watching the anime. I’m currently on the show’s Punk Hazard Arc and am slowly approaching Episode 600.