At least the sets look like the manga boards. Netflix shared the first trailer for its adaptation of One Piece, the Japanese literary juggernaut, on Sunday. A ship with a ram’s prow, a duelist with triple sabers, sea monsters to make the Leviathan pale… Regular readers of Eiichiro Oda’s work were not disoriented by the first images of the series, which is scheduled for release on 31 August is on the horizon. Better still, the projected images would be reassuring.
Young Mexican actor Iñaki Godoy (Who Killed Sara?) wears the straw hat of Monkey D. Luffy, the apprentice sea dog who dreams of one day becoming king of the pirates. The actor lends his quickdraw and enthusiasm to the heroes of the saga with obvious pleasure, alongside the first members of his crew. Starring: Mackenyu (Roronoa Zoro), Emily Rudd (Nami), Jacob Romero Gibson (Usopp) and Taz Skylar (Sanji). As for the production, it seems to mimic in some shots of the special effects of a dubious finish.
No matter how lanky some footage looks, initial reactions to the trailer are cautiously enthusiastic. Many want a series of good performance, worthy of the manga. “It’s reassuring”, “they really gave everything for this series”, can we read on YouTube. “I’m not going to lie, I had a huge smile during the whole trailer,” wrote another fan. On Twitter, another summed it up: “I expected a lot worse than that.”
This is to say if the One Piece series is expected at the turn. The most widely read manga of all time ahead of Bleach, Naruto, Demon Slayer and even Dragon Ball, the literary cycle that began in 1997 in Japan and is still being published is not lacking in followers. Netflix has understood this well. The appetite of the American giant becomes aware of the more than 500 million copies sold of the manga.
There is, however, reason to remain circumspect. Adapting successful manga into live action remains a perilous business. Recent years have seen a flowering of such mediocre productions. Cowboy Bebop, Death Note or Fullmetal Alchemist have paid the price. Pioneer of sad reputation, the feature film Dragonball Evolution – inflicted in 2009 on fans of the manga – still remains a standard meter in the genre of failure. Betting on the aura of the most popular titles of the genre is not enough. The spirit of the times is authenticity.
Co-created by Matt Owens (Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Luke Cage) and Steve Maeda (Lost, CSI: Miami), the upcoming One Piece is thinking big. Last year, the production split with a video tour of the monumental sets of the filming of the series, built in South Africa. In order to stay true to the spirit of the original work, Netflix even hired Eiichiro Oda – the creator of the manga – as executive producer.
Associated with the project since 2016, the demiurge dropped a few words last May to reassure his followers. “Netflix has committed enormous resources to production. It was announced that the series would launch in 2023, but I was also promised that it would not ship until I was satisfied,” he said. Is the manga god as inspired on the small screen as he is in drawing? To be checked at the end of summer.
