Netflix’s Live-Action ‘One Piece’ Is Loyal to a Fault: TV Review
31.08.2023 - 07:49
/ variety.com
Alison Herman TV Critic As a school of adaptation, the live-action take on anime and manga is only slightly less cursed than the live-action series or film based on a video game. Yet remarkably, 2023 is set to be a banner year for both.
In January, HBO premiered “The Last of Us,” the hit drama that takes the same somber, character-driven approach to a zombie apocalypse as the 2013 game. With rave reviews, major ratings and a raft of Emmy nominations, “The Last of Us” successfully bucked a multi-decade trend.
A few months later, “The Super Mario Bros.” movie would repeat the feat at the box office, if not quite with critics. Netflix may have eyed this trend with some interest as the global streaming service has prepared the launch of “One Piece,” a series adapted from the long-running manga written and illustrated by Eiichiro Oda.
Similar undertakings have a checkered history, a fact Netflix itself knows well; in addition to notorious flops from outside studios like “Ghost in the Shell,” starring Scarlett Johansson, and “Dragonball Evolution,” Netflix has bankrolled projects from the widely panned “Death Note” to the swiftly canceled “Cowboy Bebop.” With its deep pockets and worldwide reach, Netflix is ideally positioned to reposition a cultural export like “One Piece” for a new and far-flung audience — but from firsthand experience, it’s aware of how intensely possessive fans, wary stakeholders and the ineffable qualities of animation can make for a challenging ordeal. At least “The Last of Us” now offers a best-case scenario to look toward.
To that end, Netflix has come prepared. Oda has given his public blessing to the season, which co-showrunners Matt Owens and Steven Maeda developed into eight hour-long episodes
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