This story contains spoilers for One Piece.
Netflix’s recent adaptation of the legendary Manga and Anime series One Piece is finally here, and it’s a largely faithful interpretation of most of the East Blue saga, condensing over 44 anime episodes down to just 8 live-action ones, with a few key changes. Some of the huge differences will be obvious to longtime fans, but some of the decisions from showrunner Matt Owens and the rest of the writing team will likely surprise even the longest serving crewmates. Here’s the most important alterations in the translation to live-action and why they’re such a big deal:
Romance Dawn
The inciting incident for the Great Pirate Era, the time period where One Piece is currently set, is no less important in the Netflix adaptation as it also kicks off with the Pirate King Gold Roger’s public execution. A lot of the dialogue is lifted wholesale from previous incarnations, but the biggest changes are the people present for the event.
In the crowd we can see the green cape of the revolutionary Monkey D. Dragon, along with brief shots of future Warlord of the Sea Mihawk; Shanks, who is, at the time, part of Roger’s crew; and a young Captain Smoker. All of these characters have been shown in the crowd before, but there are some important previous attendees missing: Buggy, Crocodile, Donquixote Doflamingo, and Gecko Moria.
The biggest change is the presence of Vice Admiral Garp, who wasn’t at the execution previously but leads the proceedings in Netflix’s One Piece. Despite the alteration, this doesn’t seem to change his character’s trajectory much, as he still ends up overseeing Koby and Helmeppo’s training.
The marine cadets Koby and Helmeppo get far more screen time than in the source material, showing a lot more of their experience working under Garp. In the anime, it’s several hundred episodes before they’re seen again. Though, they make semi-regular appearances in the manga.
Show, don’t tell, is what most screenwriters will recommend. The fight between Zoro and Mr.7 is previously mentioned in the Baroque Works arc of the manga and anime, which would take place a short time after the events in the live-action season, but it isn’t depicted until the Netflix adaptation In the anime and manga, Zoro simply talks about winning the fight when higher-ups in Baroque Works reveal themselves after the crew reaches Arabasta.
Including this fight in the new adaptation works to introduce the audience to two important things: seeding the existence of the network of pirate mercenaries a full season before they’ll become relevant to the story, and as an early showing of Zoro’s skill as a sword fighter. In the source material, the audience doesn’t actually get confirmation of this until he’s freed from Shells Town.
While we’re on the subject of Zoro — here he’s responsible for giving Helmeppo’s his horrible haircut, which solves a long-standing fan argument about why someone would look like that on purpose.
Orange Town
Although the crew are introduced to the clown pirate Buggy in Orange Town, their experience with him is pretty different. Buggy previously hadn’t forced the village to attend a circus performance, and hadn’t entirely leveled the surroundings, but was still a highly credible threat.
Without any buildings standing, this means the dog Chouchou has nothing to guard, so isn’t sitting outside the pet store waiting for his owner. We do still get to see a shot of Chouchou walking toward the camera at the end of the episode, thankfully.
There’s no appearance from the lion Richie, either. This means no fight scene between him and Luffy, though Buggy does lampshade this with a line of dialogue about expecting the circus performance to have a dancing lion. We do still see Luffy locked in a cage by Buggy, though this time it’s because he’s being subjected to a salt-water torture.
Syrup Village
Ussop’s crew, —Ninjin, Piiman, and Tamanegi — don’t show up, and Ussop’s first encounter with Luffy and his crew ends up being entirely different as a result. Previously, Ussop and his crew felt they needed to defend the village from the Straw Hats. But, without Ninjin, Piiman, and Tamenegi, his introduction to Luffy, Nami and Zoro is far less confrontational. At least so far as those two groups are concerned.
The arc is missing a huge amount of Kuro’s crew, who previously plan to storm the village before being ousted by our main characters. The most notable absence is the hypnotist Jango — although there’s a sly reference to him in the bounty poster just left of Buggy’s in Episode 1 of the season. Without Jango, there’s a lot less for Usopp to do in this arc, with no real moment of heroism like when he hits the Black Cat pirates’ hypnotist with his exploding star projectile.
The fights that do occur end up being pretty different as well. Previously, most of the fights took place on a slippery hillside outside of town. Meanwhile, the Netflix adaptation sees all of the action unfold inside Kaya’s mansion after Zoro discovers the body of Kaya’s lawyer, Merry. In the original material, Merry survives and continues to be a source of support for Kaya. Now she’s left to fend for herself.
Baratie
Some of One Piece’s biggest strengths in previous iterations are in how interconnected the events of the world are, but those connections can’t emerge until the groundwork is set. The live-action show makes the story mirror some of its later arcs by aligning the aims of its antagonists rather than just moving the action from one beat to the next. Here, Buggy actually meets Arlong and is manipulated into helping him find the location of the Straw Hats.
Arlong’s early entrance into the show allows him to be a continued threat and larger presence. It also means that when Nami performs her first suspected betrayal, she leaves with Arlong without having to steal the Straw Hats’ ship to get away. Now Luffy, Zoro, Sanji and Ussop join with Buggy to try and track her down with the aligned interest of getting the map to the Grand Line back. This time they just happen to do so on The Going Merry.
In the previous versions, Don Krieg arrives at Baratie and wants to turn the floating restaurant into his new gallion, but is stopped by Luffy and Sanji. In the live-action story, he ends up cut down by Mihawk before he gets the chance.
This is pretty efficient storytelling, as the reason Don Krieg even needs a new ship in the anime and manga is that his fleet was torn apart by Mihawk off-screen. Giving Mihawk this fight and finishing Don Krieg before he makes it to Baratie effectively tells the same story, sets up Mihawk’s skill as a swordsman, and makes room to establish Arlong in a place where Don Krieg would have been earlier than they have in the previous iterations.
Making this change doesn’t come without a cost, though, as it causes a little bit of narrative bump. The Netflix show, like the manga and anime before it, introduces the character Gin: a pirate from Don Krieg’s crew who is starving to death after fleeing the battle with Mihawk. Previously, Gin plays a large part in this arc after Sanji makes him a well needed meal. Gin’s short arc as a character became about questioning his allegiances, whether they should be shared with the man who commands him and he fears over the stranger who kindly saves his life without expectation of repayment. Now, without the appearance of Don Krieg at the Baratie, Gin doesn’t play any larger of a part in the series, and similar beats of his original character arc are given to the cadet Koby instead.
This new retelling also means that since Sanji and Luffy now haven’t battled for the same cause in defending the Baratie, Sanji’s decision to join the Straw Hat crew is more motivated by his desire to leave his old life behind rather than his respect for Luffy and the gang. The change may not seem like much on the surface, but it ultimately results in his connection to the rest of the crew feeling more shallow than before.
We don’t get an appearance from Zoro’s bounty hunter friends Johnny or Yosaku. It’s a devastating, but understandable sacrifice, as these characters are largely comic relief and eventually go on to effectively remove themselves from the story by retiring from bounty hunting and becoming simple village fishermen.
We also skip an appearance from the hermit Gaimon, the man stuck in the treasure chest on the island of rare animals, though he’s visible in a painting in the Baratie.
Arlong Park
Once we reach the Arlong Park episodes there are only a few small changes. Genzo doesn’t wear a pinwheel in his hat in the present day sections of Coco Village, meaning Luffy isn’t inspired to create the Gum Gum Pinwheel special move. Momoo the giant sea cow —the monster that Luffy uses the move against —has been cut from the episode as well, though there’s a drawing of him in the show's first episode.
Zoro and Sanji now team up for a fight against Kuroobi, whereas previously Zoro faced off against the octopus Hatchan and Sanji faced Kuroobi alone. Here, the pair overpower the fishman karate master with a series of named attacks, whereas in the manga and anime, Sanji manages to defeat Kuoobi by breathing air into his gills while they battle underwater.
The villagers in this arc are now unaware that Nami is working for Arlong out of necessity. Now, they believe that she’s acting in her own self interest. This raises tensions, as the villagers are forced to pay regular protection money to the Arlong Pirates. Previously, the villagers only pretended to hate her to allow her the ability to leave them behind and move on with her life.
Previously Nami’s sister Nojiko got her tattoos out of sympathy for the mark that Nami is forced to wear by Arlong, but now like the rest of the village she isn’t aware of the additional context and thinks Nami has betrayed the island, which means she simply has tattoos without their additional meaning.
Loguetown & Reverse Mountain
The scene at the end of the season’s final episode where the Straw Hats all place their foot on a barrel and share their dreams would usually take place after their visit to Loguetown, but the crew don’t make there during the show’s 8 episodes - this is less of an omission and more of a delay, as Alvida and Buggy are teased as teaming up, along with a glimpse of Captain Smoker, all of which takes place in Loguetown.
This means that this season isn’t necessarily a wholly finished adaptation of the East Blue saga of One Piece, but it’s pretty likely that the show will simply add this location to the beginning of next season, if we’re lucky enough to get one.
Did we miss anything? Is there anything you’re excited to see in Season 2? Let us know in the comments below.
