#I just hate that some fans have taken that and twisted it into Luffy just being naive/stupid

[yoihino]

The infantilation of goofy/dumb characters is real and I hate it

[karkaday]

I've watched the one piece live action and as a looong time fan i have some thoughts™

I think it generally went better than i expected. Two of the main selling points of the original show are the world and the characters. So i was really happy to see that the sets were really well made and with a lot of attention to detail. The crew dynamics were also really fun and mostly similar to canon with few differences that do quite well with the flow of the story

Before watching the show i had some concerns after the trailer with Luffy's "i sense some tension among the crew". I feared that their personalities would be too catered towards one-liners and funny quips but I'm happy with the ones the showrunners decided to add

Obviously the main constraints of the show were money and time (8 episodes are really not enough for the East Blue saga). Detailed review under "Keep reading" (WARNING: contains spoilers for the live action and references to manga events that have been handled differently)

However, i really liked the way they handled Shells Town and Orange Town. Getting Nami into the crew together with Zoro allowed for a more streamlined version of events and a better delivery of emotions for the buggy fight (the scene when Nami sees what remains of Orange Town hits hard when you know what happened to the villages in the Conomi Islands). Buggy being more twisted in the live action was an understandable choice to give us more satisfaction at his defeat

I personally am not a big fan of Syrup Village arc in the manga/anime and (maybe because of that) i liked how the live action turned it into a murder mystery inside the mansion. Maybe it's also because i enjoyed both Usopp and Kaya a whole lot more in the live action, giving them more personality other than them being just the cowardly liar and the frail girl. (Obviously Usopp gets more development later in the manga but he was not very likable in the original Syrup Village arc)

Baratie (my favorite set in the whole live action) has the amazing fight between Mihawk and Zoro and i love how they shot that. However, choosing to skip Don Krieg's fight with the strawhats undermined Sanji's conflict about chasing his dream vs staying with his father Zeff to repay his debt towards him. He kinda joins just because Luffy was the first pirate he saw rather than being hit by Luffy's and Zoro's conviction towards their dreams

I get why they removed the fight (too expensive for little payoff in terms of plot advancement) but in the manga it was one of the first moments where the audience (through Zeff and Sanji) sees that Luffy is not just a goofy guy but that his resolve and his determination can deeply move people

Instead we got Arlong invading Baratie and fighting against Luffy bringing forth one of my biggest complaints about the show: Luffy should have been a much better fighter than that. In the manga he was basically just having fun against Morgan and against Buggy but in the live action he struggled against both which didn't sit well with me. And then he gets beaten handily by Arlong at Baratie, again undermining his fighting skills

The actor for Arlong was really compelling wich was a saving grace because he didn't look that scary with the oversized prosthetic for the head (which was really well made) on top of his regular human body. They should have made his body look bigger with either practical effects or cgi. It doesn't matter how beefy a man can get, manga Arlong is gigantic by human standards and very well built on top of that. One piece characters have crazy proportions and the live action should have taken that into account when they decided to actually make the show

Then we get to Cocoyasi village where (to save time?) the showrunners decided that the people, Nojiko and Genzo in particular, didn't know about Nami's deal with Arlong to save the village. The village pretending to hate Nami because they didn't want to put pressure on her was a really touching moment in the manga and I don't think they should have removed it

I really loved Emily Rudd's performance for the "Help me" moment. It was the peak emotional point of the whole saga and she completely nailed it (even if it was undermined by the lack of Nami's realization that her village had been relying on her the whole time like i said in the previous point)

Now i have to talk about the b plot with the marines. I understand why they decided that Coby was the second main character after Luffy. He feels more like a regular human inserted into a wacky world, allowing the audience to resonate better with him than with Luffy. Personally I'm not a fan of Coby as a character, especially pre-timeskip, but it was nice to follow his and Helmeppo's growth even if they have too much screen time while basically doing nothing of actual substance for the plot.

This leads to my biggest complaint about the live action (and most of the one piece fanbase agrees with me). Whoever decided to change Garp's role and personality in the story has done a great disservice to the show. Having him being the one to lead Roger's execution was immediately a red flag for me and they followed through with the later episodes

He didn't feel neither like a legendary character nor like someone who falls asleep while on the job. By this point in the manga we didn't know who he was (Luffy's grandfather and the hero of the marines), hence why he was allowed to be a gag character without feeling weird. In the live action, his goofiness was reduced to him starting to laugh out of nowhere which felt more alienating than endearing

Then his final scene in the live action was used kind of like a plot twist to show that he was just testing Luffy. Some people would say this redeemed his character but to me it was even more annoying. He was testing Luffy to see if he was ready to be a pirate?! Garp?! (Are they planning to change the climax of the whole pre-timeskip show?!) And he sends Mihawk to do so?

I understand why they revealed him to be Luffy's grandfather in the first season but, if they are planning to make other seasons, what are they planning for the original moment of the revelation? Will Garp pop into the story again for the lore dump with the new designs for Coby and Helmeppo? Or will we follow them again?

All in all i'd say a solid 8/10 which is more than what i expected

[tanakariza]

The Netflix Death Note is a Fanfiction

About a week ago, Netflix released the trailer for their live adaptation of Death Note and the internet is exploding with opinions of this trailer. “Oh no, Light is White! Oh no, L is Black! Light looks emo!! This anime is turning into an American drama! This is not Death Note! My favorite anime is getting destroyed!! AAAAAAAHHHHHHH!” Ok, everyone, what don’t you stop typing, calm the fuck down and listen to me.

There seems to be this notion that a story being adapted to a different medium must be exactly like the original source, because the original source is a treasure that must never be tampered with. The movie must be exactly like the book. The anime must be an exact realization of the manga. This anime or cartoon cannot possibly be a live-action film because the visuals wouldn't look the same in real life as they do in the original source. Any small detail different from the source material, even in the slightest, puts the fandom in an uproar.

Well, my friends, in order to help you overcome the horror that is the “ADAPTATION,” I have a proposal to make. Try viewing this Netflix movie not as an adaptation, but rather as a fanfiction, specifically an AU fanfiction.

For those of you who don’t know, in the realm of fanfiction, there is a genre called the AU, or Alternate Universe. In an AU the canon is written into an alternate reality. There are two types of AU fanfiction. The first is where, in a certain instance, something different happens, leading the story to go in a completely different direction from that point on. My friend Queen_Mab wrote a Gravity Falls AU called Ad Astra where, at the end of the episode “Not What He Seems” after Mabel lets go of the lever, Dipper rushes toward it and closes the portal. However, since Mabel was right next to the portal, she ends up falling into it when it closes and is transported to another dimension where she meets a long lost family member. In the story from then on, Mabel and the family member find their way home while the Mystery Shack crew try to open the portal again. There are also a number of Fullmetal Alchemist fanfics where Ed was not able to recover Al’s soul and has therefore completely lost him. And there are also a number of Your Lie in April fanfics where Kaori doesn’t die at the end (that is not a spoiler, they hint at it throughout the anime).

The other kind of AU fanfiction, which is the one we’ll focus on here, is either a complete retelling of the story in a different setting or the characters from canon in a different setting, making references to canon without completely retelling the story. Make No Mistake by dickyang and vageege is a One Piece AU that takes place at an American college. Luffy lives in a large mansion and is invites Nami, Usopp, Sanji, Zoro, and Chopper, who are all students at Sabaody University, to live with him in this house. Robin and Franky are professors of archeology and engineering at Sabaody University and Brook is the student’s landlord. The characters are a little different from canon to make more sense in this setting. Chopper is a human is a human instead of a reindeer and Brook is not a skeleton, but a very old man. This is only one example of this kind of AU. There are other fanfics from many different fandoms that are set in college, high school, and in coffee shops. There are others in which the primary cast from canon play in a touring band together. I personally like to think of any adaptation as a fanfiction of some kind. The Marvel Cinematic Universe is a fanfiction of the Marvel Comics with many things added in and taken out here and there. The American live-action Ghost in the Shell is an AU fanfiction telling a slightly different story than its predecessor, the Ghost in the Shell anime movie. This American live action Death Note is an American AU fanfiction set in Seattle, Washington.

Since the American population is much more racially diverse than Japan, all of the characters can be any race the writers choose. It is possible for Light to be white and L be black. It is also possible for Light to be black and L to be white. Any character in this movie could be Latina, Polynesian, Middle Eastern, or Asian. They do not have to be Asian.

I’ve also heard complaints about the names and to that, I’d say that Japanese names are very uncommon in America. Therefore, it makes sense to change them to American names. Light Yagami’s name is changed to Light Turner and Misa Amane’s name is changed to Mia Sutton. It makes sense. “But, Riza, this is still another example of America americanizing everything it touches!” Well, let me ask you this: What if Netflix decided to set the story in Japan for the sake of being true to the anime? If this were the case, we’d face similar problems we’re having with Ghost in the Shell. There aren’t enough American Asian actors who can fill up a film cast, and there certainly isn't American Asian actor who can attract a crowd the way Scarlett Johansson can. This leaves the casting crew with no choice but to cast non-Japanese actors to play Japanese people, including the main character. And the public falsely accuses them for the whitewashing they didn’t intend on. For reasons like this, I think that if you're an American film maker adapting a Japanese anime for a Mass American audience, the best approach is to write it as an American AU fanfiction.

Another criticism I’ve seen is that Light’s character is not like the Light in the anime. In the anime, Light was cool and handsome and thought of himself as superior to those around him, which was how his god complex came into formation. From what we’ve seen of the live-action trailer, Light seems a lot more insecure and reserved. Emo is a word I’ve seen used to describe him. Anime Light is Mr. Cool and Netflix Light is someone that Mr. Cool would pick on.

Now, remember the point I’m making here. This is not a Death Note adaptation but rather a Death Note AU fanfiction. And in AU fanfiction, writers have the freedom to make a character different from their original counterpart, because it’s not canon. The Reverse Falls AU is a very popular AU in the Gravity Falls fandom where Dipper and Mabel (the canon’s protagonists) are the villains and Gideon and Pacifica (the canon side-villains) are the heroes. In many realizations of this AU, Bill Cypher (the canon main antagonist) is Dipper’s sidekick and has a crush on him. In some of these fics, Dipper uses said crush as a source for abuse, making Dipper cunning and evil and Bill innocent and shy. Of course, there are many fans who don’t like these fics because of their different takes on these characters. What fans who like these fics appreciate is their different and creative ways of interpreting these characters. Maybe we can try viewing Netflix’s version of Light a different and creative way of interpreting the character.

Because Light’s personality is different in this version, the story is likely to go in a slightly different direction as well. And you know what, that’s OK. This is fanfiction. It can be whatever the writer wants. And judging the predictions I am making from this trailer, I think the story work. My predictions are that Light will be the high school student picked on by the jocks and has developed hatred toward those people for that reason. He finds the Death Note, learns what it can do, and uses it to eliminate his bullies so he can live a life of ease. Then, he thinks that maybe he can do the same to other bullies so that those bullies’ targets can live a better life along with him. Then he will branch out to criminals and this is where the police will come in if they haven’t made their appearance already. Frankly, I think this is an interesting take on the story. In this version, Light’s god complex would come from hatred built up over time rather than from just having the power to kill people.

Now, am I not saying it’s wrong to criticize adaptations. What is wrong is hating an adaptation for the soul reason of not staying true to the original source. I’ve read the Planet of the Apes novel by Pierre Boule, which the 1968 film was adapted from. The twist at the end of the film is completely different from the one in the novel, sending a completely different message to the audience. They each sent different messages to their audience while keeping the premise the same. That is something I think is amazing. I’m sure I would have appreciated the original 2003 Fullmetal Alchemist anime for their very unique takes on the alchemy of that universe. The only reason why I gave it a 4-out-of-10 on MyAnimeList, is because it had so many plot holes that made the plot make no sense and the ending came out of nowhere (and The Conquerer of Shambala made up for that ending either). In any case, what I’m hoping is to offer you a different way of thinking about adaptations so that you can look at them, not as reiterations of their source, but as something inspired by their source. Let me know what you think.

#adaptationsarefanfiction

[starrynight32]

My two cents

Okay, I just want to get my thoughts out there. My biggest issue with Pudding’s latest development is that it seems to almost come out of nowhere. Let me explain, see, up til 862, how many people have shown disgust or any negative feelings toward Pudding because of her third eye? None. Not even when she was showing it in front of Big Mom when she was explaining what happened with Reiju. If Big Mom really thought her third eye was creepy, why didn’t she say something like, ‘I thought I told you to cover that up, it’s creepy’ or something like that. No one in Whole Cake Island has ever shown any negative feelings toward Pudding, so it’s kind of hard to buy the idea that everyone thinks she’s disgusting. Now you might say that she altered their memories when she got her powers so she could avoid such negativity, but that still doesn’t explain Big Mom’s attitude towards her. So far Pudding has been described as ‘one of Big Mom’s favorites’ and the ‘precious bride’.

I know what Oda’s going for, and I appreciate it, but I find the handling of her character to be... clunky at best. And the way she so easily burst into tears in the last chapter... I don’t know. I’d expected a reaction more along the lines of utter shock and disbelief. It also doesn’t help that we just went through this with Viola back in Dressrosa, an antagonist who’s easily moved by just the right words. I get the idea Oda went with, I just kinda wish he’d handled it differently.

Listen, how much more compelling would it have been if everyone on Whole Cake had already known Pudding had a third eye? The only ones who didn’t know were the Vinsmokes, because Big Mom had everyone keep that information from them as not to risk Judge calling off the marriage and escaping before Big Mom has the chance to kill them and take their technology. What if up til now we saw people on the sidelines silently judging Pudding and ridiculing her for her third eye, but never saying out loud because she’s Big Mom’s daughter? What if we knew from the beginning this was something she’s struggling with? 

And we know our Strawhats, they’re not the kind of people to discriminate against others just for their looks. What if they were first people to ever show any kindness and friendship towards Pudding despite knowing about her third eye? What if since then up til now we saw her have this internal conflict of choosing between her new friends, and her blood family who she’s been struggling to gain acceptance from? What if the whole arc had been building up towards her making that decision? And then, 862 is the moment when she finally breaks down and chooses the people who really care about her and say she’s beautiful despite the whole world calling her ugly?

The reason I was disappointed with 862 was because I saw it coming, and I like the twists and turns One Piece has given me before. But you know, just because she didn’t shoot Sanji in 862, doesn’t mean she’s the sweet girl we were introduced to. Remember, she’s the one who shot Reiju and bragged to her about how they were going to kill her entire family. And if you go back and look at the memory Pudding edited, she was smiling when she pointed that gun at Reiju. This is a person who finds joy in hurting others, even if it was rooted in some serious psychological scarring. I wonder if next chapter she’s going to pick up the gun, trying to convince herself she has to shoot Sanji. What if she ends up shooting the gun... and hitting the wrong target? There’s been some serious death flags in the previous chapters, so a part of me hopes I’m wrong.

I’m not saying that Pudding is a bad character for being human, or that I hate her for it. I’m just saying she’s decent when she could’ve been great. The reason why I was hoping for her to be evil was because we’ve never had a really cool villainess before in the story. We’ve had antagonists, which is not the same as villains. Big Mom is the only great female villain in the story so far. Please don’t mention Hancock or Smoothie. Hancock was a cold hearted bitch in her introduction, and still is to anyone who isn’t Luffy, but that doesn’t make her a villain on the level of Maleficent, people (original, not the reboot). And Smoothie hasn’t even done anything important outside of juicing a giraffe so far. I really hope we see her show why she’s one of the Sweet Commanders soon, I want to see her fight and show off her strength. Brulee got taken down pretty easily, and the other female Charlotte family members haven’t gotten anything outside of a mention and little appearances here and there.

In One Piece, we’ve seen male characters with all kinds of personality and roles, and I wanted that for the female characters too. Being evil doesn’t mean they’re a flat character or not complex. Look at Doflamingo, his backstory with his childhood was crazy and even got you to sympathize with him a little bit, and he was still an awesome, irredeemably evil villain. I was hoping it would be the same for Pudding. Then again, Whole Cake isn’t over yet, and I want to see where Oda takes her character. I trust that he’s thought this out well, so I’ll sit back and see how everything plays out. I’m open for discussion, but please know I’m not trying to spread any hate or start a fan war or something.