One Piece is THE BEST LIVE ACTION ADAPTATION EVER.
But there are a TON OF CHANGES that were made from the original story, like how instead of meeting
Zoro tied up at the marine base he is literally introduced by chopping this dude in half,
stuffing him into a bag, and taking him straight into a bar. Seriously, what is going on!?
And speaking of bars, they also added NEON LIGHTS to many of the bars. Like, what???
I guess the whole world has upgraded because electricity is just a common
thing pretty much everywhere. It even shows up on battleships and in Kaya’s mansion.
But now let’s go back to the very beginning for THE BIGGEST CHANGE in the entire live action.
That’s because Vice-Admiral Garp shows up at Roger’s execution and gives this super serious
speech which is not like his character from the original show AT ALL. But this was just
the start because Garp’s ENTIRE storyline of chasing down Luffy was completely made up for
the live action. Although he did originally train Koby and Helmeppo. And while I enjoyed the added
development for Koby, the extra tension of the marine threat, and some MIND-BLOWINGLY
HILARIOUS Helmeppo scenes that we’ll talk about in just a moment, the overall vibe
of Garp barely resembled the loose-cannon, rule-breaking Vice-admiral from the anime.
And speaking of the LEGENDARY Helmeppo,
he was pretty much just a goofy character from the anime but he had the MOST SHOCKING
scene in the entire live action when he was caught BUTT NAKED playing with Zoro’s sword.
What’s even more impressive though is the ABSOLUTE POWERHOUSE of a battleship that Garp
now rides around on. Honestly, this is much more intimidating than his original ship in the anime.
However, one of the MOST DISAPPOINTING CHANGES for me was that the Live Action
COMPLETELY SKIPPED the very end of Luffy’s backstory. In the anime,
this scene shows Luffy at age 17 ready to set out on his adventure.
And as he leaves he lands a MASSIVE PUNCH that completely knocks out this giant sea monster,
showing us all just how much Luffy has grown. But nope, just completely cut from this version.
But maybe they skipped it for this INSANE REASON because there is no doubt in my mind
that the Live Action versions of the characters are WAY WEAKER than in the
original story. I mean they were literally trapped by Buggy inside a simple wooden box
but Zoro and Luffy were SO WEAK that they couldn’t even break out. Though
later on Luffy can apparently punch through stone, so a bit of a head scratcher there.
One other awesome change is that Nami’s first staff can now collapse into a size
that can be easily carried on her waist. Pretty cool if you ask me.
And speaking of Nami, we see her ACTUALLY DOING burglar stuff in the Live Action
like breaking into a safe! Which sadly we never actually saw much during the anime.
Plus I was COMPLETELY SHOCKED when Nami saw the DEVASTATING DAMAGE Buggy did to
Orange Town. Damn, this had WAY MORE impact than in the manga.
But that’s not the only change in Buggy’s part of the story because
in the Live Action clown is 10 TIMES MORE EVIL than in the anime. Originally
he never kidnapped all the villagers or threatened to torture a little kid.
And the Live Action even gave us a super rare Big Brain Luffy moment,
when he came up with the plan to trap Buggy’s body parts in the crates. If you compare this
exact moment to the manga it was Nami who decided to tie up Buggy’s limbs with some rope.
However, the reward for saving this village was NOTHING COMPARED to what it was in the anime.
That’s because the Mayor of Orange Town offered Live Action Luffy this tiny basket of food,
but in the original, the crew came away with giant sacks stuffed full of goodies.
This brings us to one of the MOST CONTROVERSIAL changes in the Live Action,
which was all the times Nami hinted that she was never going to betray the crew.
And while they did this weird “she’s staying, oh wait she’s not staying” thing during Baratie,
overall I feel that they kinda spoiled the one mind-blowing
twist from the original East Blue story when Nami abandoned the crew at Baratie.
Though it was AMAZING to see these mini earbud transponder snails,
which never showed up in the original story.
And now we come to the SINGLE-MOST CHANGED ARC of the entire story. And that is Syrup Village,
where we meet Usopp for the first time. And man this place is SO DIFFERENT. Because the
Live Action turned this tiny little village in the hills into a super busy shipbuilding island.
And at first I HATED THIS but I finally came around to like it
when the live action added Luffy describing his perfect ship which
just goes to show how important the ship is as part of the crew.
Plus they actually gave Usopp a brand new job working on ships,
which helps explain his ability to fix up the Merry during their future adventures.
But that’s just the start of the WILD CHANGES in Syrup Village because Nami bonding with Kaya
was NEVER part of the original story. Though I will admit the added character development
for Kaya was awesome, and she even gave my man Usopp THE VERY FIRST KISS in the entire story.
Just don’t tell Sanji about that.
But then they dropped the ball on Kaya’s entire story arc by cutting out THE ONE SCENE where she
actually stands up to Kuro. Seriously this was her one moment to show some courage, but nope. Gone.
And speaking of Kuro, they cut out almost his entire crew. Which you know is kinda
important for a pirate captain. And if that wasn’t bad enough they left him with probably
the most cringe characters in the entire show, Sham and Buchi. Plus they cut out this dude,
who was one of my favorite parts of this entire arc in the anime.
We also have to mention the changes to this sheep-head dude’s story. Unlike in the anime,
Merry is not a butler but instead he is Kaya’s financial advisor. Which is honestly a bit sad
because he was one of Kaya’s only friends in her entire house. Then of course he ends up
actually dying unlike in the anime where he survived and gave the crew the ship himself.
But now we have some of the WORST CHANGES in the live action,
which unfortunately all involve Usopp. First, they took away his long nose.
Then they made Usopp do LITERALLY NOTHING during the final fight to
save Kaya. He is supposed to be a coward who overcomes his fear, not JUST A COWARD.
But the WORST PART is that he cannot even fire a cannon. This
is unacceptable! He is supposed to be an expert sharpshooter who
can hit a rock super far away. That is his one thing! And they took it away!
But enough of Usopp, let’s talk about a really dumb change for
Zoro’s backstory. That’s because in the original story, we see Zoro talking to
the master of the dojo before Kuina ever even dies. However, in the Live Action,
they literally never interact until Kuina’s death which makes for this awkward exchange where Zoro
has to ask for Kuina’s sword instead of Koushirou giving it to him on his own.
They also made Kuina’s hair super blue for some weird reason, instead of its normal
black.And Zoro’s famous sword is also slightly changed, as the blade is missing the normal black
part of the blade on the non-cutting side. Instead it is just this uniform shiny metal.
But the change I’ve been complaining about since
the very first promotional image is the way the Merry’s figurehead looks. Uhh,
is supposed to be the perfect friendly little sheep, not the stuff of nightmares.
But another thing that made NO SENSE was how Luffy didn’t even know that he could
blow himself up to block this cannonball. I mean he’s had his devil fruit for over ten
years, and in the anime he was doing way crazier stuff than this with no problem.
Now let’s move onto probably THE MOST AMAZING change in the entire live action,
which is that they turned Sanji’s pervertedness meter all the way down to zero. Seriously,
it’s like he’s a new man who just happens to enjoy filtering with the ladies like
Nami and Nojiko instead of being super over the top weird with girls like in the anime.
And honestly, almost all of the changes at Bartie were FANTASTIC. It looks INCREDIBLE.
And the best part was that this place gave us drunk Usopp. What else could we possibly ask for?
They also changed the reason Luffy was forced to work for Zeff. Originally,
Luffy launched a cannonball which crashed into the floating restaurant,
so he was forced to work to pay off the damage. But in the Live Action he just didn’t have any
money to pay the bill. Which makes sense, but is less cool in my humble opinion.
Plus the decision to COMPLETELY ELIMINATE Don Krieg from ever showing up to Baratie was a
simply amazing choice. Because while I don’t love the fact that Garp felt he needed to call
Mihawk for help, the world’s strongest swordsman’s new introduction showed us
just how badass he truly is without wasting a ton of time by bringing Kreig to Baratie.
And can I just say I LOVE that they introduced the fishmen in this arc. From
this fishman serving as the restaurant's front of house to Arlong showing up like a mob boss
for the entire East Blue it all worked well to expand the scope of the world.
However, Arlong’s fight with Luffy in episode six shows off one of the WORST MISTAKES in
the entire show. That’s because when Arlong sends Luffy flying,
we can clearly see that he is actually hurting from these blows. However,
in reality Luffy’s rubber body should make him immune to damage from regular punches,
kicks, and even bullets, like we saw early in episode one when Alivda smashed him with
her club and shot him. The only thing that should really cause him any damage at this
point are sharp objects like blades or teeth and of course the obvious threat of drowning.
And the original luffy would NEVER get crushed by Arlong in this scene,
because he is way stronger than the fishman, but I guess we can say it’s
because this version of Luffy is weaker than the anime version.
Also can we just point out how much Usopp’s slingshot looks
like a toy. I honestly never got that feeling when seeing it in the anime.
Now if you’ve watched through the Water 7 arc in the anime then you should find this next new scene
HILARIOUS! That’s because when Sanji is talking to Luffy and Usopp on the Merry, he says that a
captain’s decisions are what separates him from the rest of the crew. And then Luffy literally
looks right at Usopp! Which is such a fun easter egg for viewers who know what happens later on.
And earlier I said Syrup village looked way different, but this next set is also WAY DIFFERENT
from its original. In the anime, Coco Village is shown as a tropical paradise which hides the dark
secrets, but in the live action they transformed it into a SUPER rural village full of huts. Which
makes sense since these people are being bed dry, but I still miss the appearance of the anime.
Arlong park also had a SERIOUS MAKEOVER. They basically made it a club with some
random carnival games thrown in there which is a lot different from the original location.
The Live Action also made a really confusing choice during this arc. That’s because originally
the people in Coco Village knew about Nami’s sacrifice to work for Arlong from the very
beginning. Which made them never hate her. But in the live action, they don’t know anything
and there’s this super rough dynamic of Nami literally forcing the villagers to cough up
more cash. And these people who are supposed to love her think she is a traitor. Plus then
she had to spell it out for Nojiko so her own sister wouldn’t hit her with a shovel.
They also cut these two bounty hunter brothers and this Octopus fishman. Which is understandable why
they cut the octopus because honestly it would take a lot of cgi to make his character work.
But he does play a pretty important role in the future, so I wonder if they’ll bring him back.
But now let’s discuss some awesome and also bizarre changes about the world’s greatest
swordsman. In the live action Mihawk actually never came to Baratie looking for Luffy. He
only came to the floating restaurant chasing after Don Kreig, but in this version he weirdly
follows actual orders from the marines which is way out of character for him.
The Live Action Mihawk also makes a direct comment about Luffy’s hat, which is such
cool foreshadowing of his connection to Shank. And he even goes on to compare Luffy to Roger,
which is the same thing that Zeff does when talking to Garp. So there a lot
more obvious connections to Luffy and Roger than WE EVER HAD in the anime.
But the ABSOLUTE WORST CHANGE they made to this awesome character is his boots!
Just look at these things. And I have nothing against cowboy boots,
but honestly it looks like he is ready to ride a bull not fight legendary duels.
And speaking of character designs, they made SO MANY AMAZING improvements on characters’ outfits.
In particular the straw hats, who wear many of the outfits we see on the volume covers on the manga,
instead of sticking with the same clothes for most of the East Blue.
Although some changes were a bit too far out there for me, like Sanji literally wearing
vans while stranded during his flashback. There were also Ben Beckman AND Bellemere,
who both looked much older than they did in the original story.
But THE WORST character design change just has to be Arlong, and that’s because the dude is JUST.
TOO. SMALL. In the anime the fishman towers over Luffy and the crew, which really adds a sense of
intimidation and fear. I mean just look at this guy. He is basically twice as tall as
Genzo. But in the live action, he is just slightly taller, which just doesn’t have the same effect.
Another very odd change was that they made Nami bury her treasure right next to her
mother’s grave. I mean, Nojiko even pointed out how messed up that is. In the anime
Bellemere’s grave was by the ocean and Nami kept her money buried in the tangerine grove.
But there is one other MAJOR change to this arc that I haven’t mentioned yet,
and that is everything involving Buggy the Clown, so if you want to hear my
full thoughts on his added involvement in the story you can watch my full review right here.
Shanks for watching and I’ll see you in the next one.