One Piece has long been on my hate list of animes that I just genuinely couldn’t stand. Nothing and no one could ever convince me to watch it. The sheer amount of episodes is daunting to anyone who dares to look up the number, and it just feels like a chore to try to watch them all and catch up on the story. But after watching the live action not once but twice, I finally decided to sit down and give the anime a try. And am I ever glad I did.
After the second rewatch of the live action, I thought maybe a quick glance at the anime might be a good idea to see how it compares to its live counterpart. The Netflix adaptation was amazing; I loved the characters, the sets were beautiful and it had no problems with being wacky and weird. So that begged the question: was the anime the same way? Thankfully Netflix did have it available to stream, so I popped on an episode just to see what it was like. Then another. And another. And another. I soon found myself pretty much where the live action first season ended and I was so impressed with how accurate it was to the anime. Costumes, the casting, set designs, everything was spot-on. Without even realizing it, I had fallen in love with One Piece.
While waiting for the second season of the live action (which premiers March 10), I busied myself with catching up on nearly 30 years of anime. That’s thirty years of story that I’ve missed and I’m only thirty-four. I would sit down, watch maybe ten episodes a day while I was cleaning or gaming on the side, all while going on this journey with a bunch of weirdos that didn’t like each other at first but much like with my relationship with this show, learned to love each other, flaws and all. At times it did feel like a drag, with one scene alone spanning over the course of several episodes which felt unnecessary and pointless at times. But once I pushed through the drag, the story became so intriguing. These people who came together with a dream of their own, all travelling together while meeting these bizarre characters and finding themselves in crazy situations (some of these people have powers too. Aka Devil Fruit powers) in search of the One Piece. That’s it. That’s the story. A band of misfits sailing the seas in search of treasure and adventure. So why was I such a hater over this?
Long story short, it was the number of episodes that gave me the ick. In my mind I believed that no anime should be over a thousand episodes and span over nearly 30 years (yet I had no issues with Pokemon, surprisingly). I’ve been on the internet since my early 20’s and have read about the show and what it was basically about. Thought it was stupid. Had bad animation or art style. I used any excuse in the book to not give it a chance despite other people praising it to the high heavens. I let my own opinions and uncertainty get in the way of trying something new and from finding something to be passionate about. By allowing myself to look past my hatred and just give it a try, I’ve opened the door to so many more possibilities when it comes to the world of anime. I’m now more open to the idea of trying other shows. I don’t just judge by the plot or the art style anymore. Instead, I take a seat and turn on an episode (or five). If I don’t like it by then, I simply turn it off and move onto the next one. No one’s forcing me to watch it and I won’t force myself to watch something I don’t like. It’s that easy.
It’s been eight and a half months since I started the anime. With a few breaks here and there (because I tend to burn myself out with binging), I’m almost 700 episodes in. And boy, does the live action have a lot to cover. Every arc is a wild ride and I think both sides of the fandom will appreciate how the live action doesn’t spend too much time on any one scene. Something happens, great, it’s over, we move on. There’s none of this six episodes for one scene nonsense that I still don’t fussy even 650+ episodes later. It’s compressed and concise. No fuss, no muss as my mother would say. You get what you get. Nonetheless, it’ll be interesting to see how the live action covers the anime ground in terms of arcs and how it’ll be more condensed due to the sheer amount of episodes to bring to life. It’s a lot but with the way the first season was handled, I believe they can do it. A lot of love and passion clearly went into the first season so it helps that the cast and crew love what they do.
I guess the message I’m trying to convey is that you’ll never know if you’ll like something if you don’t give it a try. I was a self proclaimed One Piece hater and now I’m a lover. Set aside your grievances. Give that food a try. Pick up that hobby you always wanted. Just do it. Give things a chance. The next stop for me might be the manga. Who’s to say?
One Piece, both the anime and live action, are available to stream on Netflix in one spot. So you can fall in love with both at the same time.
Fandom Lair 