Netflix’s One Piece Show Is Finally Making Up For A 20-Year-Old Mistake That Almost Ruined The Anime

The One Piece show on Netflix has seen unprecedented success for an anime adaptation, making up for the franchise's past mistakes. Springing from Eiichiro Oda's wildly popular manga, the live-action show fits in with the anime that launched in October 1999. This anime and manga have been one of the best examples of shōnen available - Japanese cartoons largely tailored to a younger male audience. However, it wasn't always smooth sailing in the waters of global expansion. One Piece season 1 started to compensate for a mistake that the franchise made early on.

Converting anime to live-action shows historically came with a hefty set of challenges and resulted in myriad flops. It is hard to nail the balance between over-the-top cartoonishness and live-action, real-world storytelling. However, One Piece season 2 is almost guaranteed to be just as much of a knockout as season 1. Netflix's live-action version of One Piece is so promising that it is gradually resolving some of the issues created by the international rollout of the anime near its launch. One Piece is destined for a global audience, but it had teething issues.

Netflix’s One Piece Is A Much Better Introduction To Luffy’s Story Than The 4Kids Dub

One Piece On Netflix Is Introducing A New Audience To Oda's Phenomenon

The success of Netflix's One Piece guarantees a wider audience for the story, whereas the 4Kids dub of the anime wasn't perfect. Netflix shared its 2023 viewing figures, which revealed that the live-action One Piece show developed by Matt Owens and Steven Maeda was its most-watched show between July and December. At the same time, Netflix also shared that its One Piece show had more than doubled the viewers for the anime TV show and movie. 2023's One Piece is clearly a great introduction to Eiichiro Oda's phenomenon, but the anime dub wasn't so triumphant.

One Piece launched in Japan as a manga in Weekly Shōnen Jump and moved to TV as an anime made by Toei Animation. Premiering on Fuji Television, the anime soon amassed a big enough following to travel overseas. The first version of the anime that was shown on American TV was the 4Kids dub. Although there are One Piece anime moments that live-action will struggle to recreate, at least the Netflix show does not censor and distort the original dialogue into occasionally wince-worthy territory. This unfortunate dub didn't help One Piece take off abroad.

One Piece Initially Had A Difficult Trajectory In The United States & Other Markets

One Piece Found It Hard To Expand At First

Feature header with Luffy and the mysterious man and the books

Despite being a sensation in Japan, the anime One Piece didn't take off in the U.S. or other markets at first like the Netflix show did. One Piece season 2 will be different from season 1 in a few ways, but it can be expected to continue its popularity, whereas the anime struggled consistently outside of Japan. The One Piece 4Kids dub was rolled out to Latin America after it debuted in the States, which amplified the anime's issues overseas. Viewers in North and South America both had doubts about the entertainment value of the anime at first.

The One Piece anime is written by Junki Takegami, Hirohiko Kamisaka, and Shōji Yonemura.

Despite this, the legendary tale built up its followers gradually. Those fans who were drawn to the franchise in its early years were often those familiar with anime and its Japanese culture and were watching the subtitled version. The manga continued to expand in popularity as a translated comic as well. While the Netflix One Piece is already inspiring talk of spinoffs, it took the English-language anime until 2010 to really take off. At this time, it was redubbed by Funimation and circulated to a wider range of markets, while Adult Swim and other channels slackened their censorship policy.

Even Eiichiro Oda Knows One Piece Live-Action Is Helping Expand The Story’s Reach

Oda Loves Netflix's One Piece

A Closeup of Iñaki Godoy as Monkey D Luffy in One Piece Season 1. — A Closeup of Iñaki Godoy as Monkey D Luffy in One Piece Season 1

One Piece creator Eiichiro Oda appears to believe that the One Piece live-action show is helping his manga and the anime grow. Importantly, Oda serves as a creative consultant on the Netflix show, devoting lots of time and energy to mapping out its development, aesthetic, and narrative. Oda has appeared happy with the work on the show, calling the attention to detail "insane" (X). Oda also flagged the fandom conversation he was picking up on, interestingly noting that "A lot of people told me ‘One Piece is already so popular worldwide.'"

One Piece season 2 is in production, intending to be released in 2025.

Oda was flagging that some fans had basically inquired as to why there was a point in making the show, considering the success of the anime and manga. Oda summarized the common fan query - "so why even bother putting so much effort into a live-action?" However, the everyday One Piece consumer may not be aware of the show's challenges in the U.S. As Eiichiro Oda stated, "Yes, it may be popular in the animation industry worldwide." Oda signaled the show's industry success, implying that its commercial victory was another realm.

Oda knows that the Netflix series is making up for international markets' past mistakes.

Eiichiro Oda confirmed that his determination to pursue the Netflix One Piece show was about broadening the story's reach and opening up new doors. He said, "If someone told you new unexplored horizons await out there, wouldn’t that make you want to go after them too?!!” Oda knows that the Netflix series is making up for international markets' past mistakes and creating opportunities. With its huge global viewership and high budget, Netflix is finally giving Oda's creative masterpiece the attention it deserves. One Piece is in good hands going forward.

Source: X