Summary
As the show continues to enjoy success on the streamer, Netflix has released a step-by-step guide to watch the live-action One Piece’s Japanese dub. Led by Iñaki Godoy as aspiring King of the Pirates Monkey D. Luffy, the manga adaptation has garnered widespread praise from critics and audiences alike for staying true to its source material and successfully translating its epic scale to live-action, breaking Netflix’s curse of failed adaptations after Death Note and Cowboy Bebop. The show has similarly been performing well in viewership, having broken debut records set by Stranger Things and Wednesday and drawing in an estimated 18.5 million views in its opening weekend.
Just over a week after the show premiered, the official Twitter account for Netflix’s One Piece has shared insight for watching it a specific way.
The post, as seen above, is a step-by-step guide for audiences to watch the live-action manga adaptation with its Japanese-language dub. Many users took to the comments to express their excitement for the dub and state they plan to rewatch the show with this method.
One Piece Continues Important Netflix Anime Trend While Breaking Genre Curse
One of the keys to One Piece’s success has been creator Eiichiro Oda’s close involvement for the show’s production, with any major changes to his source material having to be approved by him before progressing. Interestingly, though, audiences who haven’t already checked out the Japanese dub of the live-action show are sure to have their curiosity piqued by the knowledge that it was performed by almost the entire cast of the One Piece anime, save for Arlong actor Jūrōta Kosugi, who was replaced by Hiroki Tōchi for unknown reasons.
While the show has largely corrected the mistakes of Netflix’s prior forays into the genre, the return of the anime cast does continue an important trend set by their maligned Cowboy Bebop show in bringing back the voices that brought its beloved characters back to life. The Japanese dub for the short-lived space Western did feature most of the original voice actors reprising their roles from the anime, including Spike Spiegel’s Kōichi Yamadera, while also adding new performers for a handful of roles.
Though a seemingly minor detail, Netflix’s decision to bring back the One Piece’s anime performers for the live-action show’s Japanese dub is an important show of faith for longtime fans of the material who fell in love with their portrayals of the Straw Hat Pirates. Given the live-action stars have received just as much praise for bringing these characters to life, namely Emily Rudd as Nami, it will be interesting to see how audiences feel the two compare as they hear the original voices in the adaptation. Additionally, with Tomorrow Studios CEO Marty Adelstein confirming One Piece season 2’s scripts have already been written, the anime cast may get to pull double duty as the first adaptation of Oda’s source material continues running after over 1000 episodes.
Source: One Piece Netflix/Twitter
