After less than stellar attempts to adapt popular anime to live action, Netflix has learned to be faithful to the original material. Their attempt to adapt the magna and anime ONE PIECE by Odo Eiichiro is a remarkable success. Purists will be irked at every change made in the adaptation, justly so in some cases, and in others not.
Non-purists, that is, those with no familiarity with the original, or no clear memory, will enjoy a fine viewing experience: for the Netflix version is serviceable, occasionally brilliant, and makes only one or two missteps. Non-purists will not be comparing every line against the original, which is, in this reviewer’s opinion, the greatest work of genius of any medium or genre since Tolkien.
The non-purists will have a better time, since no craftsman, however skilled, can match once-in-a-lifetime genius. A skilled and honest adaptation of a work of inspired genius will always disappoint, because the genius-inspired version is better; but it will always satisfy if, as here, it is skilled and honest.
Read the remainder of this entry »
