The One Piece live-action series on Netflix has proven a treat! After terrible attempts at adapting anime in the past, such as the Dragon Ball Evolution movie and Cowboy Bebop series, I didn’t have high hopes for this series, so boy was I glad it was actually well done. If you’ve also been enjoying the live-action Netflix series, you may be wondering if it’s now worth it to watch the One Piece anime. As someone who’s up to date on the One Piece anime, here are my thoughts.
Is Watching the One Piece Anime Worth It After Seeing Live-Action Show?
I’ll start by saying that I do think it’s worth it, especially if you really enjoyed the One Piece live-action series, to watch the anime. The series is top notch. The characters are all very well designed, the combat and world building is excellent, and you’ll get a lot more details about the characters and world from watching the anime.
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There are a few caveats, though! I’ve personally found the One Piece series, like most anime, to be far better off watched in Japanese with English subtitles. The One Piece anime’s Japanese dub just features far superior voice acting for the characters. I know watching subtitles isn’t for everyone, but in this case it’s genuinely a better experience. Next is the length of One Piece anime. It’s well over a thousand episodes long at the time of writing. That episode count makes One Piece a huge undertaking and not something I’d recommend binging. It is, however, an amazing anime to watch an episode or two a day. They’re short episodes, with each taking 20 minutes or less if you skip the intro and recaps. With such short episodes, it’s easy to watch one with your coffee in the morning or while you’re commuting to work. If you work your way through, watching them slow and steady, you won’t get overwhelmed by the length of the series, and you’ll have a great time! It’s how I completed my watch, and doing it that way made sticking with it easy.
It is, of course, not necessary to watch the anime if you simply enjoy the Netflix One Piece show. However, you’ll miss out on quite a lot of story, funny character moments and other cool details that you’ll only catch in the anime. I doubt Zoro will be benching 400kgs with his feet in the live-action series! As such, I think it’s absolutely worth giving the One Piece anime a shot after watching the Netflix series. Just take it at your own pace and enjoy the ride!
