And the proof speaks for itself, seeing as “One Piece” is currently being lauded as one of the most successful live-action anime adaptations ever. Considering “ One Piece,” the long-standing 1,000-plus episode anime based on the manga by Eiichiro Oda, there was no room for an adaptation of the same missteps.Īs a producer for hit series like ABC’s “ Lost” and “ CSI: Miami” and showrunner for shows like “ Pan Am” (2011) and “ Helix” (2014), Steven Maeda was more than up for the challenge. “ Death Note” (2017) was whitewashed and faithless to the original, and “ Cowboy Bebop” (2021) was criticized by the original anime director, Shinichirō Watanabe, who felt the whole production was generally off-putting (“It was clearly not ‘Cowboy Bebop,’” he said in an interview with Forbes). And why wouldn’t it be? The track record of the successful anime-to-live-action pipeline is bleak. When Netflix’s “One Piece” live-action remake was announced, it was met with wariness.
