One Piece Season 1 (2023) Review

This show has been a worldwide phenomenon the last few weeks and I have now watched the live action version of One Piece. I have never watched the animated version of the show so I am going in blind and here is my review for it. The premise of the show sees a group of pirates come together in order to attempt to look for a long lost treasure. 

Main Character

Inaki Godoy plays Monkey D Luffy and he is a great lead character here. He is a lot of fun and he is so energetic that you can't help yourself but become interested in him. Sometimes it can be a bit much but overall I really liked Luffy and felt like this was a genuine performance. There is some development here for sure and this is a fun lead performance. 

Supporting Characters

The best character on this show is Zoro played by Mackenyu. He is an awesome character and is easily the best part of the action sequences, his sword play is ridiculously entertaining and his deadpan comedy really worked for me. 

Emily Rudd plays Nami and she is a good character too, she is a focal point of the show and her character gets time to shine. There are flashbacks about her that explains the more mysterious parts of her character and along with Luffy & Zoro are a great trio of characters. 

Garp played by Vincent Regan is a great antagonist, he is the vice admiral of the marines and is trying to eradicate piracy, in particular Luffy. He is a nuanced character and there is more to him then some moustache twiddling bad guy. 

There are so many other great performances that I will just say that everybody is great and I had a fun time seeing them all do their thing and clearly care about their characters. 

Story

The story is great, it especially does a fantastic job in building up the main characters and building this whole universe up. It has the pirates story and the marines story and I thought both were great and linked to each other very well. It is also great at having individual stories in the episodes while having a larger narrative. The finale really delivers and sets up a bright future for live action One Piece. 

Script

This show delivers with some dramatic moments and some genuinely funny moments. The chemistry and delivery is pretty spot on by all the performers. However, this show does get a little too cheesy and ridiculous for me. The show thrives on being over the top but there are a few moments where it took me out of the show. 

Style

This show looks amazing. It is full of colour and brightness and I love some of the designs here, whether that be costumes, locations or weapons and it all nailed it. The pacing of the show is fantastic and each episode did a great job in introducing and developing multiple characters on this show. 

Overall

Overall, One Piece is a fantastic show, It looks amazing and I was surprised by how much I enjoyed it. I recommend that everybody watches it, especially those who are fans of fantasy shows as this is one of the better ones of the last few years. 

Rating - 9/10