Brief Story Line
Monkey D. Luffy (Iñaki Godoy - The Imperfects TV series etc) had been dreaming of becoming a pirate since he was a child and wanted to find the treasure left by the infamous pirate Gold Roger referred to as One Piece. During his quest, Luffy met and befriended with various people, from the cabin boy of a pirate ship named Koby (Morgan Davies - Evil Dead Rise etc), the master swordsman Roronoa Zoro (Mackenyu - Knights of the Zodiac, The Master Plan etc), the thief Nami (Emily Rudd - Moonshot, Fear Street Part Three: 1666 etc), Usopp (Jacob Romero Gibson) who always talk big and the cook Sanji (Taz Skylar).
However, he would find that it was a difficult and dangerous mission, especially since he was being chased by the Marines led by the Vice-Admiral Garp (Vincent Regan - 300, Lockout etc). He also encountered other pirates who were looking for the One Piece and tried to capture him, such as Buggy the Clown (Jeff Ward - Brand New Cherry Flavor Mini Series etc).
So what would happen to Luffy? You could find out in this series.
End of Brief Story Line
OK, after watching the whole first season, I could understand why the series was highly regarded by both the critics and the audience. I found it to be really entertaining and was immediately hooked since the first episode. For me who had never watched the anime series before (or read the manga), this live-action adaptation seemed to be able to catch the essence and made me adore the characters.
Actually my wife and I had the experience of seeing the movie One Piece: Stampede (the movie to celebrate its 20th anniversary) few years ago. But like I mentioned in my post, since we never watch the series before, we were clueless and had difficulty in enjoying that film. Perhaps if this Netflix live-adaptation series had been shown before then, I would be properly entertained by it. Anyway, I think this series was amazing in term of introduction to the lead characters with a bit of flashback to their younger years and showed us why they became who they were. It made me like them more, especially as they had nice chemistry among them.
Another part that I liked was the action sequence which was pretty awesome, supported by decent enough special effects. Taz Skylar was quite convincing portraying someone with good fighting skills, while I definitely had no doubt about Mackenyu with his prior experience. From what I read, fans really like this one because of the way the series followed closely to the source materials (including the similarities of the cast appearance and looks with the anime/manga). The name Eiichiro Oda (writer and illustrator of the manga) was shown in the closing credits and he was the creative consultant which explained the way the series' success to please the fans.
One thing that I admired was not only the series seemed to satisfy the fans, but it also managed to win the hearts of the general audience (myself included). The series did not feel like something that I had to read the manga or watch the anime first to better understand or appreciate as it was entertaining enough by itself. However, I do feel that the exaggerations that were usually seen in anime were not realy shown here (it might not be well received by people not accustomed to such behaviors).
I also felt the cast did a wonderful job here as they were able to portray their characters nicely. Iñaki Godoy seemed quite perfect as Luffy and I also like Vincent Regan as the Vice-Admiral. Aside from the names I mentioned above, there were few recurring cast as well, like Aidan Scott as Helmeppo (son of Captain Morgan), Peter Gadiot (Queen of the South TV series etc) as Shanks, McKinley Belcher III (Eraser: Reborn etc) as the pirate Arlong, Steven Ward as one of my favorite characters Mihawk and several others playing the characters from the manga.
Overall this was a very entertaining series for me with its interesting premise and likable characters. The story telling was wonderful as it was able to combine the exciting adventure, the drama, the friendship of the main characters and the action. The first season only consisted of 8 episodes between 50 minutes to a little over 1 hour. I would really love to watch subsequent adventures of the Straw Hat Pirates. However, I do have some worries since till now the series is still ongoing (with > 1000 episodes already) and I doubt Netflix would be willing to go for so many seasons in future to show them all. I just wish there would be proper conclusion to this series later. So, if you still have doubts about the series, you can set it aside as I am quite sure you would like this even if you have not read or watched it before.
Mike's movie moments rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
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