Netflix’s live-action adaption of One Piece continues to spur positive reception despite all the odds against. Historically, live-action adaptions have not done well. A lot of the creative license and liberties dwindle when translated from paper to screen. But the magic of pre-time skip One Piece is not one of them.
The series first started as a manga created by Eiichiro Oda in 1997. A couple of years later in 1999, Toei Animation brought it to life on television as an anime. 103 tankobon volumes and thousands, yes thousands, of episodes later, the series’ newest addition is in the form of a live-action project. Fans and newcomers alike have expressed pleasant surprise with the quality.
TGON’s Michael Murphy recently wrote a review of the first season. Covering aspects from the cast to the production, it’s a review worth your time!
Dividing The Series
*Minor spoilers ahead*
Taking on the adventure of over a thousand episodes can be daunting. Like any task that seems overwhelming, it can help to divide and conquer. That’s the approach a number of One Piece fans use to categorize the span of the anime.
Around 23 arcs and some 500 episodes, there’s a brilliantly written time skip incorporated into the series. In the context of the timeline two years fly by. While the series continued airing without skipping a beat, the characters and the world around them changed in ways unimaginable. Older and wiser, the Straw Hats are drastically different from the one’s introduced in the East Blue saga.
This pivotal moment in the series’ timeline gives way to the terms “pre-time skip One Piece” and “post-time skip One Piece.”
The division inevitably sparks comparison. Both have their merits and shortcomings, and like any opinion, what determines your favorite is subjective. This article aims to highlight where the magic of the first half of One Piece came from and spark healthy discussion. Even if there’s some comparisons, they’re for the purpose of contextualizing either half. It’s far from aiming to be propaganda for pre-time skip one piece.
The Promise Of Adventure
Perhaps the biggest asset the pre-time skip era has over its counterpart is an ending. While pre-time skip One Piece culminated with the battle of Marineford, post-time skip doesn’t have an ending to that extent. It still doesn’t to this day.
Closure and the passage of time is needed to give way to an ending that is seen through a nostalgic lens. TGON previously covered nostalgia and how its been used in sitcoms, but it can have the same application in other mediums like anime. No shame in using a refresher!
The root of the nostalgia in One Piece stems from the sense of adventure. The feeling is amplified even more for fans who grew up with the series. It’s fairly easy for audiences to grasp onto themes of exploring the unknown.
As a first time viewer, regardless of your age, you never knew what characters were going to cross the screen or what mysterious island was next on the map. A large part of that is because the series didn’t lay everything out. Could anyone have predicted the characters would visit a sky island or a mobile island infested with zombies?
The overarching goal of the first half was to reach the New World. But how the Straw Hats came to reach that or the detours they took were never set in stone. It used a fluid pace that had a lot of freedom to explore.
Growth Of Characters
The plethora of islands allowed two things to be put into perspective. How small, yet human, the Straw Hats are in comparison to a world grander than their wildest imaginations. For the most part, each Straw Hat comes to the realization that they’re capable of growth.
It’s easy to achieve in the narrative with each arc limiting the number of character’s serving as emotional anchors to less than three. The audience is given time to see the growth without the burden of the New World plot being so brazen. The Water 7 saga is a special case. Nico Robin, Usopp and Franky are the trio that take the helm of the narrative.
It works because the series gives itself enough time (episodes) to flesh out the narrative. There’s rarely a moment where the plot spends too much time on one character and sidelines the other two.
Post-time Skip Comparison: Loss Of Adventure
As previously mentioned, post-time skip has its own merits. Of course that comes at the cost of sometimes sacrificing the magic of early One Piece.
The number of islands the Straw Hats visit are limited in its future counterpart. Even when the audience has the privilege of setting their eyes on a new island, the whim and mystery fades quickly. This is largely due in part to the amount of time spent on the new setting.
Wano Country is the most recent arc and it’s just finding its conclusion at the time of this article’s posting. Although it’s a unique country in the series with its own history and magic, the audience can lose sight of it at times from the amount of time spent on it. It’s currently at 185 episodes in the span of four years.
Whole Cake Island was the previous arc at 109 episodes. Dressrosa closely follows suit at 118 episodes to its name. The arcs have a lot to them and greatly contribute to the grand narrative but it can get stale after a while.
Venturing Outside The Straw Hats
With the introduction of new islands also comes new characters. As opposed to looking inside of the crew and growing the characters, those outside the Straw Hats often become the emotional anchors. It’s not inherently a problem, but those characters don’t stick around for too much.
This can sometimes lead to members of the Straw Hats being sidelined for large periods of time. Pre-time skip One Piece grew the characters of Nami and Nico Robin wonderfully, but they’re presence is limited in post-time skip and can feel one dimensional. There are glimpses of hope that Oda can redeem the female Straw Hats, but his best work with these characters was before the time skip.
The diverse cast and the lack of character progression with the Straw Hats are two of the nuances with post-time skip One Piece. CBR’s Sophie D’aguiar covers this and a few more of the changes that came with the time skip in their article. Give it a read!
It can’t be stressed enough that they’re not negative aspects on their own. However, changing the dynamics of One Piece with these creative decisions do take away what made pre-time skip one piece so special.
The Legacy Of Pre-Time Skip One Piece’s Magic
A series that’s been cooking for over twenty years is bound to change. Without change, one might not be able to appreciate the magic that was in its time. Still, it’s easy to miss the early stages of One Piece.
Are there any other aspects of One Piece that you missed from before the time-skip? Start the discussion down below!
