Adapting an anime and manga series to live-action is incredibly difficult. Thankfully, the One Piece live-action delivered, breaking the curse of bad adaptations. But what’s the difference between the live-action One Piece and the manga or anime?
Table of Contents
- Are the One Piece Live-Action and the Manga/Anime the Same?
- One Piece Live-Action vs. Manga/Anime: Differences Explained
- One Piece Live-Action: Every Change in the Romance Dawn Arc
- One Piece Live-Action: Every Change in the Orange Town Arc
- One Piece Live-Action: Every Change in the Syrup Village Arc
- One Piece Live-Action: Every Change in the Baratie Arc
- One Piece Live-Action: Every Change in the Arlong Park Arc
Spoiler Warning: There are some One Piece live-action spoilers ahead!
Are the One Piece Live-Action and the Manga/Anime the Same?
No, the live-action and the manga/anime are not exactly the same in One Piece, even though the live-action captured the key events of the East Blue Saga (except the Loguetown Arc) in the manga/anime series.
The One Piece live-action series executed the scenes in both the anime and the manga differently to fit all of them in just eight episodes.
After all, the One Piece anime has over 40 episodes, while the manga has over 90 chapters for the East Blue Saga, in comparison to the live-action, which only had eight episodes.
Obviously, the production staff of the live-action has to change a lot of things and cut some of them without compromising the significant events that make up the East Blue Saga.
This means that some scenes were missing, some of the less significant characters were omitted, and some plot elements had to be adjusted to retell the beginning of Luffy’s adventure as he gathers a solid crew of pirates from one island to another.
Regardless, the production staff as well as the cast behind the One Piece live-action are all fans of the manga series, and they were supervised and overlooked by the man who created the series in the first place, Eiichiro Oda.
On the other hand, the anime adaptation of One Piece is very faithful to the manga series, except it has a lot of fillers (anime-exclusive content).
One difference is that the anime starts off with Luffy’s encounter with Koby, who was still with the Alvida Pirates, as well as Nami’s antics on a cruise ship, which led her to steal some of Alvida’s treasures.
Whereas, in the manga, One Piece Chapter 1 (not the Romance Dawn one-shots) shows us how Shanks inspired Luffy to become a great pirate, which was later shown in Episode 4 of the anime.
One Piece Live-Action vs. Manga/Anime: Differences Explained
To narrow down every change the One Piece live-action made from the manga or anime, we’ve divided it into the story arcs it covered from the East Blue Saga:
One Piece Live-Action: Every Change in the Romance Dawn Arc
- The First Appearance of Luffy, Nami, and Zoro: The anime, manga, and live-action series had different approaches to introducing these three core characters.
- The Reason Zoro Was Captured: In the live-action, Zoro gave himself up for seven days to atone for his sins of assaulting a marine, as ordered by Axe Hand Morgan.
- In the anime and the manga, Zoro was held captive by Helmeppo for one month without food or drink after killing Helmeppo’s pet wolf. He did this to protect Rika from Helmeppo’s cruelty and abuse.
- Nami, Zoro, and Luffy vs. Captain Morgan and His Men: Nami joins the fight in the prison yard against Captain Morgan and his men in the live-action, whereas Nami didn’t make an appearance in the prison yard in the anime, for it was Koby who was there.
- Nami and Luffy steal the Grand Line map from Captain Morgan: In the anime, the Grand Line map was stolen by the Buggy Pirates from Captain Morgan, in contrast to the live-action where Nami and Luffy stole the map from Morgan.
- Vice-Admiral Garp debuts in Episode 1 of the live-action series to build up the narrative of his role of chasing Luffy and his crew, whereas he appeared in the anime in Episode 68, where he took Koby and Helmeppo under his watch.
- Buggy debuts in Episode 1 of the live-action series, where he is shown sitting on a throne with a very intimidating appearance, whereas, in the anime, Buggy has a very comedic personality and only appears in Episode 5.
One Piece Live-Action: Every Change in the Orange Town Arc
- Everything took place in a circus tent, where the Buggy Pirates captured Luffy, Nami, and Zoro to retrieve the Grand Line map. Orange Town had little exposure in the live-action in comparison to the anime. The fight between Luffy and Buggy also took place inside the circus tent.
- Mohji the Beast Tamer didn’t have time to shine; instead, it was Cabaji who stole the spotlight and fought with Zoro while he was pinned on a rotating platform.
- The Orange Town Mayor has a reduced role in the arc, as he is captured by Buggy along with the other citizens of Orange Town and is forced to be his audience.
- Chouchou’s back story was omitted in the live-action.
- The iconic Buggy Balls were missing in the live-action version; instead, Luffy was placed in a huge tank filled with water to torture him.
- Luffy swallowed the Grand Line map to hide it from Buggy, whereas, in the anime, it was Luffy and Nami who stole the map from Buggy.
- Vice-Admiral Garp continues to chase Luffy as he talks to Koby about Luffy prior to Captain Morgan’s punishment.
One Piece Live-Action: Every Change in the Syrup Village Arc
- The Usopp Pirates are non-existent in the live-action; this means Carrot, Onion, and Pepper are absent in the series.
- Jango and the majority of the Black Cat Pirates are omitted in the live-action series, which means hypnotism did not become an issue for Luffy and did not become a powerup for Sham and Buchi.
- Kaya’s illness is caused by Klahadore’s poisoning and not because of her illness due to her parents’ deaths.
- Merry is Kaya’s financial advisor, not her butler. He also died in the live-action series, whereas he survived Klahadore’s attack in the anime.
- Luffy vs. Klahadore (Captain Kuro) took place inside Kaya’s mansion, rather than the uphill battle by the beach. The same happened in Zoro’s fight with Sham and Buchi.
- Nami had a deep talk with Kaya in the live-action, whereas in the anime, they were never close.
- Ussop and Kaya shared a kiss in the live-action, whereas they remained friends in the anime.
- Zoro struggled to climb a well instead of an oil-slick trap made by Usopp.
- Klahadore’s (Captain Kuro's) past was not shown in the live-action series prior to becoming Kaya’s butler.
- There’s no emphasis on Captain Kuro’s Pussyfoot Maneuver (Stealth Walk) in the live-action series.
- It was revealed that Garp’s grandson is Luffy at the end of the Orange Town Arc, rather than in the Post-Ennies Lobby Arc.
One Piece Live-Action: Every Change in the Baratie Arc
- Luffy becomes a chore boy for Zeff after he does not pay their bill, whereas, in the anime, Luffy becomes a chore boy after damaging a huge part of the Baratie.
- MiHawk Dracule deals with Don Krieg and his men rather than Luffy.
- Vice Admiral Garp orders MiHawk to capture Luffy, which is why he appeared in the Baratie.
- MiHawk accepted Zoro’s challenge the night before their duel to death, instead of Zoro simply going against MiHawk after seeing him appear before him.
- There’s no emphasis on Don Krieg’s abilities, as he was omitted early in the live-action series.
- Pearl and Ideaman did not show up in the Baratie; it was only Gin who managed to do his role.
- Zeff lost his leg after eating it due to intense hunger, instead of losing his leg to save Sanji’s life in the anime.
- Zoro’s fellow bounty hunters, Jonny and Yosaku, are also omitted in the live-action series.
- Arlong, along with Chew and Kuroobi, arrive at Baratie, much to Nami’s horror.
- Vice Admiral Garp visits the Baratie to get intel from Zeff after MiHawk lets Luffy go without doing anything.
One Piece Live-Action: Every Change in the Arlong Park Arc
- Moomoo, the humongous sea cow that Luffy and the others encounter prior to landing in Arlong Park, is omitted in the live-action series.
- The octopus fish-man named Hatchan is also absent in the live-action series.
- Nami’s village people are not aware of her true intention to buy Cocoyasi Village from Arlong, contrary to the anime, where they were all aware of it, including Nojiko.
- Nojiko and Genzo did not help save Luffy from drowning in the live-action series. It was only Sanji who made an effort to save Luffy back in Baratie. It should have happened in Arlong Park, where Zoro had to buy time for Sanji, Genzo, and Nojiko to save Luffy.
- Vice Admiral Garp catches up to Luffy and his crew after they take down Arlong. Luffy and Garp had a fight that should not have happened so early in the series.
It is not surprising that the One Piece live-action series had to change so much from the anime or manga.
It is necessary to do it to adjust the pacing, the production, and the flow of the story in order to focus on the important events of the East Blue Saga.
What we wish to see more of in the One Piece live-action is humor, because it has a very serious approach that the characters in One Piece don’t have that much.
The Straw Hat Pirates are easy-going and have a comedic side to them, especially Zoro, that should not have been forgotten in the live-action series.
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