The Pitch: Within the fantasy world of One Piece, pirates are a commonplace scourge on the excessive seas. And the younger and keen Monkey D. Luffy (Iñaki Godoy) has a dream — to grow to be king of the pirates. It’s a dream he believes will come true if he can observe down the legendary One Piece, an notorious treasure left behind by the final pirate king.
In fact, a pirate wants not only a pirate ship however a crew, and Luffy’s totally dedicated to the reason for recruitment, first enlisting swordmaster Zoro (Mackenyu) and grasp thief Nami (Emily Rudd) — neither of whom wish to be pirates or be on a pirate crew, however discover themselves drawn in by Luffy’s confidence, particularly after they efficiently steal a map that might cause them to the aforementioned final bounty.
Whereas Luffy’s the good sort of pirate, there are many different pirates (with very excessive bounties on their heads) who will not be so good, and Luffy and his new mates have an actual knack for stumbling throughout them. They’re additionally being hunted by the Marines, the only power of regulation enforcement on this in any other case lawless world, in addition to their respective pasts…
A Pirate’s Life for Them: Individuals have been telling tales about pirates on display screen for practically so long as they’ve been telling tales of any sort on display screen, beginning with D.W. Griffith’s brief movie The Pirate’s Gold in 1908, and persevering with ahead by way of the silent period into sound. Dozens of pirate motion pictures had been made through the twentieth century, together with a number of diversifications of The Black Corsair and Treasure Island (with and with out Muppets).
For the reason that 1995 catastrophe Cutthroat Island (Geena Davis harmless), although, the style’s hit a downturn interest-wise, outdoors of the Pirates of the Caribbean movies… and the One Piece animated collection and film spin-offs. Primarily based on the epic manga collection created by Eiichiro Oda, there have been 15 One Piece motion pictures along with the 20-season/1,073-episode anime collection, and in Netflix’s live-action adaptation, you may really feel the load of that huge media empire on the edges of the body.
To the present’s credit score, although, it’s cautious about simply how a lot info to throw on the viewer. Establishing (with narration by Ian McShane!) that it is a pirate story is a superb place to start out; most individuals have seen at the least one Pirates of the Caribbean film, in any case. The primary episode additionally establishes the legend of the One Piece and that Luffy, following his consumption of a “demon fruit” as a toddler, has stretchy superpowers much like Mr. Improbable or Mr. Unimaginable. All that, plus introducing an honest share of the present’s major characters, is greater than sufficient for a pilot.

One Piece (Netflix)