Against All Odds, The Live-Action One Piece Cast Is Perfect
This piece was written during the 2023 WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. Without the labor of the writers and actors currently on strike, the series being discussed here wouldn't exist. This article contains spoilers for "One Piece."
We've seen so many live-action adaptations of stories that have been previously told in animation in just the past decade, from Disney classics to beloved anime. And it's easy for creatives to feel the need to try and "fix" or change elements of the characterization for live-action. Sometimes these changes are for the better, like correcting caricatures from insensitive times, but sometimes they feel arbitrary and make the characters unrecognizable. Somehow, the live-action "One Piece" show has the perfect balance of changing just enough to make these cartoon characters work in real life while staying true to the 2D characters audiences have loved for over 25 years.
"One Piece" is not the best live-action manga adaptation because, contrary to popular belief, there have been great ones in the past (like "Alice in Borderland," or even American ones like "Speed Racer"). Still, we've had a string of bad adaptations recently, which is why it is surprising to see "One Piece" managing to be a fantastic adaptation of Eiichiro Oda's masterpiece. The reason for the show's success is mostly that it captures the goofiness of the main characters and the relentless optimism of the story, and it also has a perfect main cast.
Sure, we've seen other manga adaptations with some good casting choices, like how John Cho was great as Spike and Mustafa Shakir had some great moments as Jet, but the rest of the cast of "Cowboy Bebop" left a lot to be desired, and it fundamentally changed who the characters were in some circumstances. In this regard, Japanese adaptations, despite their own inherent problems (horrible wigs, bad VFX) tend to have better casting choices for these adaptations.
This is why "One Piece" stands out by finding the right balance between adaptation and recreation.
Changes and adaptations
Like many a great cinematic ensemble, "One Piece" did global open casting, which meant the talent pool was bigger and gave more opportunity to people who would normally not be cast in a high-profile title like this — international actors and relatively less-known actors — which resulted in the actors looking exactly like their animated counterparts. Likewise, having the manga's author himself approve of each casting choice added to the faithfulness of the show.
Just look at Iñaki Godoy and the way he acts in interviews and behind-the-scenes material. The guy doesn't just look like Luffy, he embodies him — even Eiichiro Oda thinks so — his optimism, and his enthusiasm. This applies to the rest of the cast, who look and act as if they leapt from the pages, whether it's Emily Rudd delivering Nami's big moment of vulnerability or Mackenyu bringing Zoro's fighting to life. And yet, what is most thrilling in the show is seeing the changes, both obvious and more subtle.
Zoro is not as goofy as in the manga, but broodier. However, when he does joke around, it hits harder because it feels earned. Zoro is still the first one to be a fully-fledged crewmember and to believe in Luffy, but it still takes him a while to show it, and Mackenyu perfectly captures that.
For Sanji, his perviness is dialed down significantly (for the better), but Taz Skylar still translates the character's love-struck nature and very unsuccessful flirty side. Even Usopp changes quite a bit. Because of the shortened runtime, we see him cowardly run away less than in the manga, and he comes across as a more genuine guy with sensible fears but also big courage. Likewise, Jacob Romero Gibson gets the honor of being the first and only crewmember to kiss someone in the show.
It's about chemistry
A lot of actors refute the idea of inherent chemistry because it dismisses their craft. And yet, it is undeniable that certain ensemble cast pairings simply work from the get-go more than others, and they make their shows or movies better because of that. The "Lord of the Rings" movies work because of their ensemble, "Star Wars" wouldn't be what it is without Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher, and Harrison Ford (and indeed, we saw what happened to the franchise when the cast had less chemistry). It is way too early to even consider the live-action "One Piece" to be on par with those titles, but when it comes to the cast, they deserve to be considered as one of the all-time casting choices for a genre show — like the cast of "Lost," or "Firefly," or "Game of Thrones."
The live-action "One Piece" changes some big things from the source material, as the tone is very different and much darker, and the story makes some fundamental shifts. Despite this, just like when the manga and anime dramatically change scope and tone with tone and even explore different genres, all three versions of the story remain essentially "One Piece" because of the characters. If nothing else, the live-action show does a great job of making you fall in love with the characters, and that is triumph enough.