 Hello and welcome to the Grand Line Review, your source for everything on peace. And today we have some important news, or I guess we'll call it sort of news, which is an official announcement of the live action one piece being produced for Netflix. Now, this is something we have known was in development for quite some time, although with very little to go on, it's something that has very much been pushed into the background by fans over the last two years or so. But recently, we have received a message from Etcher Ode himself, which reads as follows. I know why I announced the production of this back in 2017, but these things take time. Preparations have been slowly progressing behind the scenes, and it seems that I can finally make the big announcement. Netflix, the world's largest leading streaming entertainment service, will be lending us their tremendous production support. This is so encouraging. How far will the story progress over the 10 episodes of season one? Who will be cast? Please be patient a little longer and stay tuned. So while we still have no timeline on the release of said series, these are some pretty solid details, and it does not end there because with this official announcement, a couple of other details have also emerged, such as a slew of executive producers, one of which is Etcher Ode himself, which is always an encouraging sign. I mean, if his name was not attached to this in a capacity that wasn't just created by, then I would be very, very worried. And as it is, you know, there is still a reason to worry, but we'll get into all of that after this info dump, because also announced as an executive producer is Steven Mayader, who has quite a slew of credits to his name, including being the co-executive producer on Lost from 2005 to 2006, which covered the first two seasons. So I'd say that's a pretty decent sign because that was long before Lost fell from grace. He's also produced series like CSI Miami and Lie to Me, although to be fair, I've never seen either, so I have no opinion on those. At one stage, he was also a writer for the X-Files though, and that's pretty important because not only is Mayader an executive producer on One Piece, but he is also the showrunner and a writer. So this man is going to be the core center of creative control, at least for this initial season. It's very difficult to predict what sort of impact he will have on this development of One Piece though, because Mayader's entire CV, or at least what I'm personally familiar with, consists of properties that act as more of a serial of the week kind of format, and none of them even come close to the tone or style that One Piece presents, although to be fair, very few stories in this world do. With that said, I do find it very encouraging that Mayader seems to be genuinely excited about bringing One Piece into the live action realm. As you can see from his current Twitter profile, so he seems to hold quite a lot of respect for One Piece, so at this stage, I can only feel encouraged by that. Also announced as one of the many executive producers, as well as writer is Matt Owens, who according to IMDb, is much more green than Mayader, and has credits as a writer and story editor on Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Luke Cage, and The Defenders, so a very Marvel centric man here. And once again, it's very hard to judge how his particular skill set will translate into One Piece, and it's difficult for me specifically because I have never watched much of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. or The Defenders, but I did watch Luke Cage and look at least half of season one. If that was an incredibly solid show, so yeah. The thing is, of all of these properties, while they obviously had comic book source material, they had to be adapted into an original story that maybe sort of fit into the Marvel Cinematica at least, television universe. And luckily, One Piece does not have that kind of restriction placed on it. In some ways, it is far more straightforward, as the story is all right there in front of you. So all these guys really need to do is take that and adapt it as best they possibly can, which to me is a recipe for great potential success, like the majority of Game of Thrones was before the producers got beyond the book material. So at least to begin with, I think the only way that this live action One Piece series could be a true disaster is if they take the route of trying to turn it into its own unique existence, rather than just sticking to the tried and true story laid out right in front of their eyes. And to be perfectly honest, I would not put it past these very mainstream media types to make an assessment that One Piece, as presented in its anime manga form, cannot be translated into live action and thus decide to take the route of lifting pieces of the characters and the world into their own unique creation, loosely based on One Piece, which I'll say right here and now would be a complete disaster. And I should also point out that as much as I said Oda's involvement is encouraging, you should always take his presence with a very healthy dose of skepticism, because in the end, his primary purpose is to produce his story in manga form. That is his job. And over the years, One Piece has been transformed into a series of questionable products in other mediums, and he has always been supportive or at the very least, supportively silent on these incarnations, which includes the abysmal way in which the anime has been handled over the last decade, and of course, the notorious four kids dub. Now, in the case of the former, you can make the argument that Oda is satisfied with how Toei, Shueisha, and Fuji TV adapt his story, in which case you really need to start doubting his judgment in regards to all One Piece adaptations. Or you can argue that he just doesn't mind what happens so long as it generates more readers of the manga and more money, which it certainly does. In which case, once again, you need to start questioning his judgment. And as for the four kids dub, look. I think it's impossible for Oda or most native Japanese speakers to really understand just how much of an incredible failure this product was due to the barrier of language. Like, I can't imagine Oda watching a four kids dub scene and necessarily seeing it as anything different from a German dub or any other foreign incarnation. So that's another reason to be wary of Oda's involvement here, because this is, I guess, assumedly an English-speaking adaptation. So once again, the weight of creativity falls onto the two aforementioned gents, Steven Mayeda and Matt Owens. But let's get back into some hopeful discussion by looking at the fact that the first season is slated to have 10 episodes. Now, I personally think that it is very bold to state the first season because it assumes that there will be more. But hey, maybe that's a true sign of how incredibly confident Oda is in this project. But I really like this number. I think that 10 episodes is a solid amount to cover the events of East Blue, although it would be cutting it pretty fine. Live-action adaptation would need to trim down a lot of fat to get to the end of the Arlong Arc by episode 10. And in regards to this, there is a lot you could selectively uninclude, like all the Gaimon stuff, or you could look at trimming Syrup Village down to maybe two episodes of this live-action form by minimizing or removing roles like the Veggie Pirates or placing too much focus on the Black Cat Pirates and just presenting it as a solid Usopp and Kuro story. And that goes for all of the arcs. So it's not impossible at all. I mean, you could even have a structure like episode one that deals entirely with Luffy and Shanks, as well as modern events with Luffy, Kobe, and Alveda. Episode two would then cover Zoro and Shells Town. Episode three handles Nami and Buggy. Episodes four and maybe five are Syrup Village. Then six to seven are Baratier. And then eight to 10 are the Arlong Arc. What I definitely don't see happening at this stage is being able to include the events of Log Town, but that's an easy opening to the next series. Sure, this whole project actually be some sort of success. My point though is that I think it's doable. 10 episodes of a great product is much more preferable to me than trying to spread a budget over 12 to 20 or even more. And money is a very important consideration because One Piece is what I would call significantly more fantastical than Game of Thrones, even in the early days of East Blue. And one of the big issues in regards to that is that the story is always physically moving. Almost every episode is going to present an entirely new location, which won't be revisited. And that is a huge financial undertaking. Not to mention the special effects that will be required to bring even basic abilities to life, like Gloofy being able to stretch, or even the power of beings like Dracula Meahawk. Although thankfully, this East Blue portion of the series won't have problems to deal with like Chopper. But if this is a success, then that will very rapidly become a concern. And it's one of those things where the world really has not proved to us thus far that something made for the Anime Among Us medium can be convincingly adapted into live action. And a lot of people will cite the Netflix Death Note as a great burn to the Anime Among Us community, but the truly laughable thing about Death Note is that it takes place in the real world. That production team did not even have to consider building an entire world from scratch and it just completely tanked anyway because it was just so horrendously implemented. And that film had something like a $40 million budget, which to compare with a successful adaptation, Game of Thrones had a budget of anywhere between $6 to $10 million per episode, depending on what series we're talking about. And that is the very top end of the scale. I don't know if we can expect One Piece to be granted those kind of numbers, especially not right off the bat. However, in contrast to what I just said, when the live action One Piece announcement was first made as part of the 20th anniversary manga celebrations, another name was thrown into the mix, being Marty Adelstein, who very boldly stated in an Oricon article that I am willing to make everything I possess and absolutely make the series of One Piece absolutely successful. The work is now the most expensive work on TV drama history and thinking about the attention around the world, it is worth investigating production costs of this scale. Now Adelstein is the CEO and founder of Tomorrow Studios, which is producing One Piece alongside Netflix. Although reportedly Netflix is handling the production aspect. But these words are also incredibly encouraging and completely contrary to the skepticism that I have presented. But at the same time, all of this is just a statement and we have no actual details of the financing or anything at this stage. But to break it down to basics, what this series needs to work are three things. Firstly, a plethora of driven and talented individuals to bring it to life. And we may have that judging from our pool of executive producers. Secondly, an arse ton of money to craft a world that even comes close to the sheer imagination that Oda pours onto every page of the manga. And it would seem that we may have that as well. And thirdly and most simply, we need a faithful adaptation. Within the manga and even the anime, we have a direct recipe for success. And messing with that recipe would be a disaster because it would force a domino effect of improvised decision making that will very quickly twist One Piece into something completely unrecognizable. Just like the butterfly effect. The tiniest change will lead to radical repercussions and I just don't think that a Hollywood-driven One Piece can survive on the concept of original thought. Just follow the intricately laid plans by Oda and everything will probably be okay. And look in the end, whether this project is fantastic or a complete disaster, I do think it will be a net win for the One Piece community because let's take the worst case scenario. Let's say these 10 episodes are some of the worst television ever produced. It still pushes the One Piece brand out there and sparks people's curiosity about the original title because to present some anecdotal evidence, when Death Note tanked, that was all I saw on the internet for about a week. Discussion and dissection of its failure as well as the success and greatness of the original Death Note and its associated media. Granted though, I do have to admit that there is a chance that One Piece cannot afford to have another Western failure. One Piece has a disastrous history in the Western world that still impacts it to this day. But what this live-action adaptation offers is the chance to turn all of that around and create an entirely new generation of fans. It's an insanely high-risk high-reward proposal but I don't think there's any sense in wanting to dismiss the concept straight away. If passionate people with a dump truck of money want to try and make this happen with the blessing of Oda Nolas, then go for it. And whatever happens, I will be eagerly awaiting the results. And that pretty much does it for this update on the One Piece live-action adaptation project. If you enjoyed this video and the content this channel produced in general, then please do consider donating to the Grand Line or few Patreon because the support of all of your amazing people is what continues to make this channel possible. 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