One Piece Live-Adaptation Drama Announced

MugiMikey

Yeah, the creep factors are a bit high with this one... I saw a picture of it months ago but seeing as this does appear to be the final version, I can't really say I like it all too much.

zorosempai

This post is deleted!

Cinder

@MugiMikey said in One Piece Live-Adaptation Drama Announced:

Yeah, the creep factors are a bit high with this one... I saw a picture of it months ago but seeing as this does appear to be the final version, I can't really say I like it all too much.

Same here!

Merry's gotta scream

MugiMikey

@Cinder Hahahah! Yeah, during her funeral.

Robby

zeltrax225

so I guess we are going for semi-realistic now
oh boy

NightGrinder

It's kinda amazing that you could get such a simple thing wrong.

But at the end of the day, it doesn't really matter. Hopefully the actors and directors are good at their job.

StuckWithInsomniac

I loved how they portrayed merry.

Robby

@NightGrinder said in One Piece Live-Adaptation Drama Announced:

It's kinda amazing that you could get such a simple thing wrong.

They gotta find their own path 100% strict adherence to the manga designs would be a complete disaster in live action. Traditional Merry looks great in cartoon form where everything is flat and you can guaranteed a good face shot with ever drawing, but it'd just be a round ball in live action and be bad at a lot of angles.

Also, the thing will look different from the side, or when its going up and down on the water, something the manga version never really needs to deal with.

Cyan D. Funk

I Have A Mouth And I Must Scream

Cinder

Odaiba Merry. I guess it wouldn't have looked cool in the episodes, huh?

alt text

Robby

Honestly? It looks perfectly good to us that are used to the look, but that looks extremely cartoony and childish and kind of unfinished in live action.

Maybe they went too far in the other direction, but that absolutely would not have worked. It looks extremely out of place against the realistic wood and water. It looks like a toy.

Which is a complaint I've always had about the Sunny but never had about Merry before.

LightningAce

So on WIRED Autocomplete interview with Mark Hamill, a question came up "Is Mark Hamill in One Piece" He responds with "Well so far, the day is young, let's wait & see "

I could totally see him playing Rayleigh maybe or someone.

The Light of Shandora

Like the idea of him having a cameo in One Piece, it doesn't need to be a main character or some important side character, such as Rayleigh, maybe someone like Sengoku could work.
But I do see him on the marines side, not necessarily a Pirate or StrawHat friendly character.

Kitsune Inferno

@LightningAce said in One Piece Live-Adaptation Drama Announced:

So on WIRED Autocomplete interview with Mark Hamill, a question came up "Is Mark Hamill in One Piece" He responds with "Well so far, the day is young, let's wait & see "

I could totally see him playing Rayleigh maybe or someone.

Unless he's being coy, judging by the way he reacted to the question, I don't think he registered it as relating to One Piece so much as literally "am I still in one piece today?", hence his response.

andre

I think they're going to lose people every day as out of context images leak until they put out a trailer. I really don't get the Netflix strategy of waiting just a few months before a show comes out to release a trailer.

Robby

@andre said in One Piece Live-Adaptation Drama Announced:

I think they're going to lose people every day as out of context images leak until they put out a trailer. I really don't get the Netflix strategy of waiting just a few months before a show comes out to release a trailer.

Because Netflix has 78 bazillion shows and they can't show love to any of them as a result.

They really need to drop their method of dropping whole seasons at once and go to weekly for new projects. Give it time for people to pick up on it and develop watercooler conversation. Have a show be a topic for 2 months instead of two days. And then they won't have to cram out so many shows.

zeltrax225

why are we going for the cool and dark and gritty route again?

andre

@zeltrax225 said in One Piece Live-Adaptation Drama Announced:

why are we going for the cool and dark and gritty route again?

This reads as Dark and Gritty to you:

zeltrax225

you see you didn't pick out the part where I mentioned cool
we want less cool, but more fun, that is the essence of one piece because no one really thought it was the cool kid during west blue when it ran against everything else.
also come on, you can't deny that the design looks like someone put in the going merry through a dark fantasy filter. Not even a little?

andre

It doesn't look like it's going for dark and cool at all. It's legitimately goofier than manga/anime Merry. It's also a little less cartoony, but I truly don't think cool, dark, and gritty are fair descriptors to communicate the design distance between them.

Kitsune Inferno

@zeltrax225 said in One Piece Live-Adaptation Drama Announced:

you see you didn't pick out the part where I mentioned cool
we want less cool, but more fun, that is the essence of one piece because no one really thought it was the cool kid during west blue when it ran against everything else.
also come on, you can't deny that the design looks like someone put in the going merry through a dark fantasy filter. Not even a little?

I don't understand most of your argument, but I feel like if you see that Merry and think "dark fantasy" your bar for dark fantasy must be really low.

Kaiolino

Technically, it's still May 31in some parts of the world but it's weird Weekly Shonen Jump would hype up May 31 as the release date of a key visual and a website launch and not go through with it.

andre

It's bizarre. If I'm a mangaka and negotiating with Netflix for a live action show, everything about this pre-release is making me hesitant.

last-exit-to-laughtale

The final version of the Merry is especially odd when you consider that, in 2021, the initial photos of the ship were much closer to the source material:

alt text

It even looks like the neck of the figurehead was a little longer compared to the images of the final product that were released a year later.

I have the feeling this wasn't a matter of trying to make the Merry's design grounded or cool or gritty. If I had to guess, I wouldn't be surprised if at some point between 2021 and 2022 the production team discovered that the structural integrity of the figurehead was in some way compromised (either it couldn't stay upright or it couldn't hold the weight of a person) but they were too far along to redo the whole thing. So the solution was to add a bunch of supports, and then to cover up those supports they coated the whole thing in sculpting plaster to make it look like it's carved; which probably necessitated making it look more detailed. You can even see the original support beams and beakhead underneath the new one in some of the photos, with the new ones having been extended all the way to the forecastle, presumably to give it the additional support.

Still creepy looking though.

FolhaS

Or it was just a normal part of production.

They made a super faithfull figurehead, tried it out, realized it doesnt actually look that good in camera or interacting with real people, so they made a new one.

Its still a smiling sheep.
And although it looks edgy by comparission, to us used to the cartoon look, it still looks silly as shit.
I bet people unfamiliar with OP are gonna take a look at that figurehead and say thats a funny and harmless looking ship. The same feeling we had when we first saw Merry.

zeltrax225

@Kitsune-Inferno nice personal jab
but basically I'm saying that there's no need to go out of the way to make One Piece look cool because that's all shallow theatrics. The whole world-building/this shit is deeper than I thought only comes after Crocodile and the first arc of the grand line. Most of what is cool, or edgy, or dark was mostly an afterburner to the raw emotions and goofiness during the series introduction. So yes, there's no need to go out of the way to make it something that it's not: be it design wise or whatever. We already have a million precedent of adaptions that try to "appeal to the mass" and proceeds to fucked it up.

Even if I give it to you and say that's not dark fantasy like because obviously you are a connoisseur, we have a significant number of people calling it out for being creepy. I guess creepiness and uncanniness was the character defining and design highlight of the Going merry we all know am I right? But if that screams adventure, fun and innocence or whatever you want it to scream to you, that's fine. It isn't that big of an issue, I just wanted to point out design changes is always the first step an adaption takes before proceeding to screw the source over. It might be for the better in this case, I doubt it but we'll see.

Kaiolino

Kitsune Inferno

@zeltrax225 Was that personal? If anything, I was calling it a reach. Nothing about it is dark or gritty, and cool is subjective.

I will give you at the bare minimum that maaaaybe it's a little more elaborate. But that is simply form following function. Figureheads were used as symbols of status and notoriety, so the more elaborate and intimidating, the better for a pirate seeking to make a name for themself.

I don't think the fun factor is lost by making something that's more elaborate and intimidating. It fits more in line with what the figurehead is meant to accomplish. The manga and anime can get away with something simple and inviting because it's a cartoon ultimately being marketed to children. Just because it makes sense in a drawn space doesn't mean it inherently works in live action.

Whether you prefer one or the other is subjective. I do have my own reservations about the live action design, but I'd like to see it in action first. Just because I don't prefer it doesn't mean it's not a reasonable design choice. Dark fantasy aside, to frame what can easily be described as a practical choice as "shallow theatrics" "going out of the way to look cool" is just, in my humble opinion, bad faith concern trolling. Especially when you see the posts above showing that they DID go with a more faithful-to-the-source-material design in the beginning that, more likely than not, did not translate well to the camera.

LightningAce

@Kitsune-Inferno
You could be right there.

LightningAce

@Robby

Well they have been splitting shows up in to 2 parts. They did it with Stranger Things last year, and several other shows.

Others they're just releasing all in 1 go and it seems to work just fine for them. Shows they've licensed from other networks like Riverdale get weekly releases.

Kitsune Inferno

It's weird to me that Netflix is still clinging to the binge model when Apple TV, Prime Video, Disney+, Hulu, and Peacock have re-embraced the weekly model (or n+weekly) and it pays off in spades.

andre

@LightningAce In my opinion, the 2 part strategy is ass. It should either be all at once or a weekly release. As is, they're just removing the hype. Stone Ocean is a great example where the release in parts didn't help the hype.

NightGrinder

@Robby said in One Piece Live-Adaptation Drama Announced:

They gotta find their own path 100% strict adherence to the manga designs would be a complete disaster in live action.

I did not say you should copy manga designs whenever possible.

I meant that it should be a rather simple task to adapt a ship's figurehead in a satisfying way.

Or, at the very least, someone in the room has a pulse and says "hey, how about we dial down the creep factor by 5%?"

But maybe it's just weird promotional material and lack of CG and it will look fine in the show. Who knows. We probably won't see the ship for most of the show anyway, so it kinda doesn't matter.

Robby

Or maybe it looks vastly different in motion, seen from literally any other angle, bobbing on the water.

One Piece SHOULD be a little weird and offputting when you first look at it. That's part of it's look and appeal. We're all used to the style NOW but I remember a ton of people being bothered by the giant smiles and super vibrant colors back in the day. Then you get drawn into the world and the charm of it and that strangeness becomes normal.

I still have very distinct memories of the first time I saw Bon Kurei and went "wow, even for One Piece this is weird." Or "Wow, Kuro doing that hand gesture is really stupid... oh that was because of the claws! That's so cool!" "Oh my god, he has a speedo. And are those popeye arms?"

And nowadays I don't think there's been any designs that have made me flinch at the weirdness in over a decade. You get used to it.

zeltrax225

all of the above were fine because of the medium so yeah, I do get that now that the medium changed, what falls under goofy might need to be reworked which in turn lead to it being surreal/creepy. Now consider the 99 over things that are goofy and needs a rework and tell me that all of them are going to be bingos.

zeltrax225

@Kitsune-Inferno dude you called me out for having low taste in dark fantasy or at the very least took a low shot at me for not understanding the genre enough. Can you just own it. This is despite there being people calling it out for the weird factor. How about maybe you just couldn't fathom this being in a dark fantasy setting because you haven't read enough or have a toddler's understanding of that genre? Now, was that a personal jab? By your logic, I'm just calling you out for reaching.

Also, calm down on calling me a troll.
This is a whole new can of worms we are arguing about here too. If the boat is too cartoony, let us change it because it doesn't translate well on camera. But give it a think and you realize that more than half of what happens in the medium does not translate well into live-action or, in your terms, the camera. With that rationality, then we should expect a lot of changes to be made.

The success of this adaption will largely be dependent on whether they make the right changes or not to fit into TV. Which I'm betting against them actually being able to do well at. How many bingos do you need to hit to turn something so goofy into "what works on camera/live-action, oh by the way also make it so that it commercially appeals to everyone while retaining the original spirit". Do you know what insane amount of creative decisions you have to make in succession to be able to achieve that?

So no, it is not a bad faith trolling as you might suggest. It is me calling out a potential red flag because I, yes, subjectively, do not like the design. And as minor a detail as it might be in the grand scheme of things, it does serve as a clue for which direction the adaption has decided on.

NightGrinder

@Robby said in One Piece Live-Adaptation Drama Announced:

One Piece SHOULD be a little weird and offputting when you first look at it.

Hm, this makes me curious about your expectations for the show. On the one hand you say "they gotta find their own path", but on the other hand you say "One Piece should be weird".

I don't think it NEEDS be weird. If you are going for a new audience, maybe it shouldn't?

andre

@NightGrinder said in One Piece Live-Adaptation Drama Announced:

@Robby said in One Piece Live-Adaptation Drama Announced:

One Piece SHOULD be a little weird and offputting when you first look at it.

Hm, this makes me curious about your expectations for the show. On the one hand you say "they gotta find their own path", but on the other hand you say "One Piece should be weird".

I don't think it NEEDS be weird. If you are going for a new audience, maybe it shouldn't?

Or both things are correct. One Piece is inherently weird and should be weird even in live action AND everything, weird or not, isn't going to perfectly translate to live action. If the core design aesthetic, which incorporates weirdness, can't be translated at all, then they shouldn't adapt it in the first place.

last-exit-to-laughtale

I'm honestly just scratching my head at where people are getting the idea that such a drastic change is because they decided at the tail end of construction that they didn't like how the figurehead looked on camera.

When you're working with massive and elaborate set pieces and scenic props like this - especially ones that are intended to be a major focal point in the story, and especially ones that are attached to the foundational structure of the actual set - you test its photogenicity during the white card phase or, if you really feel the need to see it to-scale first, with prototypes sculpted out of foam. Not when you've nearly finished what's supposed to be the goddamn final product. That'd be like if the director of a musical didn't schedule any dance rehearsal for the choreography and then said "you know what we decided to change the tempo of the songs so adjust the dancing accordingly" right before filming is supposed to start. Or a makeup artist designing a monster by sculpting the latex directly onto an actor's face instead of on a mannequin.

On top of that, if it really was just a matter of the Merry's head not looking photogenic, why wouldn't they have gone with a redesign that changed just the head? Why add all the extra junk that now has to overlay the original beams? And if it was really just a matter of aesthetic, why would said junk be added in such a way that doesn't align with said original beams in a really obvious way in many shots we have seen of it? Changing the whole thing that clashes in places with the underlying structure they've already built speaks to likely bigger issues - like safety concerns or the shelf life of the figurehead as a prop - over getting that far into such a complicated and labor-intensive production and then going "meh I don't like how it looks."

Kaiolino

Can’t wait for the reveal that Oda himself did the concept art for nightmare fuel disgrace to the manga merry.

Kitsune Inferno

@zeltrax225 said in One Piece Live-Adaptation Drama Announced:

@Kitsune-Inferno dude you called me out for having low taste in dark fantasy or at the very least took a low shot at me for not understanding the genre enough. Can you just own it. This is despite there being people calling it out for the weird factor. How about maybe you just couldn't fathom this being in a dark fantasy setting because you haven't read enough or have a toddler's understanding of that genre? Now, was that a personal jab? By your logic, I'm just calling you out for reaching.

Also, calm down on calling me a troll.
This is a whole new can of worms we are arguing about here too. If the boat is too cartoony, let us change it because it doesn't translate well on camera. But give it a think and you realize that more than half of what happens in the medium does not translate well into live-action or, in your terms, the camera. With that rationality, then we should expect a lot of changes to be made.

The success of this adaption will largely be dependent on whether they make the right changes or not to fit into TV. Which I'm betting against them actually being able to do well at. How many bingos do you need to hit to turn something so goofy into "what works on camera/live-action, oh by the way also make it so that it commercially appeals to everyone while retaining the original spirit". Do you know what insane amount of creative decisions you have to make in succession to be able to achieve that?

So no, it is not a bad faith trolling as you might suggest. It is me calling out a potential red flag because I, yes, subjectively, do not like the design. And as minor a detail as it might be in the grand scheme of things, it does serve as a clue for which direction the adaption has decided on.

I said --I feel like if you see that Merry and think "dark fantasy" your bar for dark fantasy must be really low.-- If you assume there is a spectrum of fantasy from I dunno "light fantasy" to "dark fantasy", that Merry would be at worst, somewhere in the middle. I said nothing of your taste level, but I do suppose I took a "potshot" at your understanding of the genre.

I see people throw out words for things that don't fit a cartoony aesthetic as "grimdark" and "edgy" and it's a bad-faith take 99% of the time because it's not even close to "grimdark". Your take reminds me of those takes, so if it looks like a lame take, quacks like a lame take, and sounds like a lame take, then it's probably a lame take. So based on that--and further reinforced by your responses--I don't think you have any idea what you're talking about.

And you're making a strawman's argument. The fact we have set photos depicting a more manga-accurate Going Merry shows that they TRIED to keep things as close to manga-accurate as possible, and likely went in with that mindset. It's not a cheap decision to change an entire prop if it doesn't work, so it's not something to be taken lightly.

We get it. You don't think this is going to succeed. Never mind Oda's involvement. Never mind the pedigree of the cast and crew. Never mind the people close to it saying it's going to be good. It's obvious that nothing will convince you otherwise, so yes, you are concern trolling at this point. WE GET IT.

"Do you know what insane amount of creative decisions you have to make in succession to be able to achieve that?"
Yes.

You're also putting words in people's mouths and acting like what you're saying is novel and needs further elaboration. So let me say what I'm getting at so you can't twist it further.

Tomorrow Studios is taking an animated/graphic fantasy series marketed to children and trying to make a live-action fantasy series (presumably) aimed at a more general audience. The buy in immediately is that this is probably going to be a somewhat more "grown up" version of One Piece. If that didn't clue you in on the direction this adaptation is taking, then keep looking for clues, Sherlock. I'm sure you'll figure it out some day.

Is changing Merry in line with that buy in? Yes. Does that mean it was changed to be "edgy" or "grimdark" or "cool" for sake of being cool? No, because that's a leap.

Is it a sign that the adaptation isn't going to be 1-to-1 to the manga/anime? Yes, but certainly not the first one. It's an... 8 episode adaptation.

If your complaint is that a lot of changes need to be made, I think you're going to be disappointed. And a manga accurate Going Merry figurehead isn't going to change that.

Kitsune Inferno

@last-exit-to-laughtale It's easy to focus on the figurehead because that's the main thing we've seen, but it's possible that the entire ship just didn't work.

It does seem like a ridiculous a notion for a TV production to make late changes, but Hollywood literally does reshoots for everything all the time, sometimes weeks before release, for this very reason.

What possibly happened (which is all speculative of course) is that they filmed, and for whatever reason the ship just didn't work in post. Hell, it's possible there is no updated prop (Have we seen this updated ship physically yet?) and this Merry was digitally fixed in post. Maybe that's why people find it so creepy.

Kaiolino

@Kitsune-Inferno said in One Piece Live-Adaptation Drama Announced:

@last-exit-to-laughtale It's easy to focus on the figurehead because that's the main thing we've seen, but it's possible that the entire ship just didn't work.

It does seem like a ridiculous a notion for a TV production to make late changes, but Hollywood literally does reshoots for everything all the time, sometimes weeks before release, for this very reason.

What possibly happened (which is all speculative of course) is that they filmed, and for whatever reason the ship just didn't work in post. Hell, it's possible there is no updated prop (Have we seen this updated ship physically yet?) and this Merry was digitally fixed in post. Maybe that's why people find it so creepy.

Robby

@NightGrinder said in One Piece Live-Adaptation Drama Announced:

@Robby said in One Piece Live-Adaptation Drama Announced:

One Piece SHOULD be a little weird and offputting when you first look at it.

Hm, this makes me curious about your expectations for the show. On the one hand you say "they gotta find their own path", but on the other hand you say "One Piece should be weird".

I don't think it NEEDS be weird. If you are going for a new audience, maybe it shouldn't?

Both things are true. They can keep the spirit of the manga while adapting to the different medium. The STYLE of jokes and the length of the action scenes needs to change, but the energy and the heart and characterization should still be intact. Like if we get that far, Kuma and Moria don't need to be 20 feet tall, because that will just look ridiculous. But they should shoot for menacing and towering, so like 7 or 8 foot tall compared to our heroes would do the trick.

One Piece is gonna have a rubber man and a swordsman that uses three swords at once and fishguys. It's gonna be a little weird no matter what so they need to lean into that some. But if Usopp doesn't have a foot long Pinnochio nose? That's fine, because that looks stupiid in live action, that's not a betrayal of the character as long as everything else about him is there. Saem for stuff like the height of Zeff's hat or Coby having pink hair or Alvida being 800 pounds. Some things gotta give a little bit for the medium. But Coby should still have glasses and Zeff should still have a crazy mustache and Alvida should still carry a giant mace.

The same way in Marvel films, Hugh Jackman is 6 feet tall and Wolverine is supposed to be 5 foot 2. Or heck, the marvel movies in general. They are only loosely based on the comics at this point. But they take the characters, and story ideas, and the designs that translate well to screen... and doing what makes sense for the medium.

Same for the impending second attempt at live action airbender. Trying to recreate the original llne for line is a disaster. So they gotta do their own thing and make at least some changes.

As long as the feel is there, that'll be the best. Try to translate a cartoon directly to screen and you get Speed Racer, which I lovead but audiences hated, or Battle Angel Alita which was a perfect panel for panel remake... but her giant eyes freaked people out.

100% accuracy is the enemy of adaptation. What paces well or looks good in one format doesn't always work directly in another.

Robby

@last-exit-to-laughtale said in One Piece Live-Adaptation Drama Announced:

That'd be like if the director of a musical didn't schedule any dance rehearsal for the choreography and then said "you know what we decided to change the tempo of the songs so adjust the dancing accordingly" right before filming is supposed to start. Or a makeup artist designing a monster by sculpting the latex directly onto an actor's face instead of on a mannequin.

So the approach of Tom Hooper, the hack that did the Les Misérables and Cats movies to horrific results?

zeltrax225

@Kitsune-Inferno you just rambled on a whole bunch of nothing in the guise of more personal attacks because you'd like to believe you can dish it out but obviously can't take a comeback or counter. Like, you called me three to four things in that whole rant based on me stating what was reasonable, by your own admission. You also seem to be unable to fathom that people can have reasonable takes that you disagree with. Let's just move on because there's no greater waste of time than arguing with hot air.

blue-san

I don't even get what people are nitpicking. We are making an adaptation for "fantasy realism" Merry cant look like a freaking toy in the pirate world in live action.

It looks great. Same for Shanks ship. If you guys are going to get caught up on this set yourself for world of pain and crying watching the live action.

Coookie

@blue-san said in One Piece Live-Adaptation Drama Announced:

It looks great. Same for Shanks ship. If you guys are going to get caught up on this set yourself for world of pain and crying watching the live action.

Nah, I'm getting my popcorn ready to watch the fandom burn it all down, this'll be good.

MugiMikey

I'm getting used to Merry's look the more I see it... It just wasn't what I was expecting. I wouldn't say it's horrible or anything like that, it just put me off a bit at first since I'm so used to the ovular, cute Merry.

Do I think Merry's design is going to ruin the show? No, it's serviceable enough. I really want this show to succeed, but other anime to live action endeavors are making me feel very wary of this, even despite Oda's involvement. The same studio did Cowboy Bebop's live action adaptation and that seems like, at least at face value, it'd be much easier to adapt to live action than One Piece. I don't expect this to be a 1:1 of the original anime or manga, nor do I want it to be because then what would even be the point of this project existing? Regardless, until we see something substantial, I'm still worried about it not being great.

One Piece, as a whole, just doesn't feel live action friendly by design but I'm ready to be proven wrong.

Like I said, I really want this to be good despite having my doubts, but I'll wait and see. Fingers crossed.