One Piece: Netflix users hail ‘greatest’ live-action manga scene adaptation

Jacob Stolworthy
·2 min read
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Netflix users are hailing a scene in One Piece as the “greatest” live-action adaptation of a manga series.

Last week, the streaming service unveiled One Piece, a version of Eiichiro Oda’s long-running Japanese series, created in 1997, featuring real actors. It follows an anime adaptation of the manga that was released in 1999.

In its opening weekend of release, the show, which has been developed by Matt Owens and Steven Maeda, has already outperformed a record set by Netflix heavyweights Stranger Things and Wednesday: it’s reached the number one spot in the platform’s most-watched charts in 84 countries around the world.

The series is behing praised by fans of the manga as well as the anime, which is perhaps dispelling Oda’s initial concern that dedicated lovers of the original would be unimpressed with the adaptation.

Praise of the adaptation, fans have stitched together scenes from the anime with the corresponding scene in the live-action series to see how big moments have been brought to life.

The scene that has stunned viewers the most is a moment that sees Mihawk (Steven John Ward) split a ship in two. One person called it “the greatest thing to touch live-action”.

Others have praised the scene, but are sending up its usage of the outdated sound effect known as the Wilhelm Scream. Sharing a clip of the scene, a fan quipped: “Can't believe Mihawk killed Wilhelm in the Netflix One Piece,” while another wrote: “The One Piece live-action using the wilhelm scream multiple times made me lose my s***.”

The Wilhelm scream is a stock sound effect that has been used in numerous films and TV shows since 1951.

Another viewers called the fight scene between Mihawk and Roronoa Zoro (played by Japanese actor Mackenyu) “perfect”. Other dissenting opinions, however, suggested that producers should have used the opportunity to “elevate” the scene.

You can view the moment side-by-side with its anime counterpart below.

Netflix’s live-action series stars Iñaki Godoy as Monkey D Luffy, a character who goes on an expedition to locate lost treasure alongside a pirate crew that includes Roronoa Zoro (played by Mackenyu), Nami (played by Emily Rudd), Usopp (played by Jacob Romero), and Sanji (played by Taz Skylar).

One Piece is available to stream on Netflix now.