One Piece Was So Good That We All Forgot This Terrible Live-Action Adaptation Released In The Same Year

Summary One Piece's success ended a disappointing trend of live-action anime adaptations on Netflix.

One Piece season 1 was well-received with a high critic score, and season 2 is happening

Knights of the Zodiac served as a reminder of the challenges in adapting anime to live-action.

One Piece season 1 was a hit for Netflix, but its success made us all forget a different live-action adaptation that proved adapting anime remains very difficult. One Piece gladly put an end to a disappointing Netflix live-action anime adaptation trend. With an 85% Rotten Tomatoes critic score and having charmed both long-time One Piece fans and new viewers, One Piece was one of Netflix’s most-watched shows of 2023. It is no surprise that One Piece season 2 is happening, with the series likely continuing for several years.

I’m very excited about the future of One Piece on Netflix. Although it is very difficult to imagine how the series plans to cover more than two decades' worth of stories, One Piece season 1 convinced me that the series has what it takes to tackle all the other arcs that are yet to come. Unfortunately, not every beloved anime property has gotten the “One Piece treatment” when it comes to live-action adaptations.

Related I Thought Nothing Could Be Worse Than Dragonball Evolution Until This 2023 Live-Action Movie Proved Me Wrong Dragonball Evolution was the worst live-action anime adaptation of all time for over a decade, but a 2023 film was sadly just as bad, if not worse.

Knights Of The Zodiac Was Released 4 Months Before One Piece Live-Action

2023 Saw Two Very Different Live-Action Anime Adaptations

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Knights of the Zodiac 2.5 Knights of the Zodiac is a 2023 fantasy movie based on Masami Kurumada’s manga titled Saint Seiya. The film was originally released at the end of April 2023 in Japan before hitting select theaters in the United States in early May. The film centers on Seiya, a street orphan who discovers he is destined to protect a young girl that is a reincarnated goddess. Director Tomasz Baginski Distributor(s) Toei Company , Sony Cast Famke Janssen , Madison Iseman , Sean Bean , Mark Dacascos , Nick Stahl , Diego Tinoco , Caitlin Hutson , Mackenyu Runtime 112 Minutes Budget $60 Million

Knights of the Zodiac and One Piece were released around the same time, and they could not have been more different projects. Apart from the fact that they were both based on highly popular anime properties and starred Mackenyu, there were basically no similarities between One Piece and Knights of the Zodiac. Whereas One Piece proved that live-action remakes can work under the right circumstances, Knights of the Zodiac repeated the mistakes made by Dragonball Evolution and other failed adaptations. As incredible as One Piece was, Knights of the Zodiac is a reminder that adapting anime is still very difficult.

Netflix heavily marketed One Piece and positioned the show as one of its biggest releases of 2023.

Of course, the expectations for Knights of the Zodiac and One Piece were not the same. The live-action series based on Eiichiro Oda’s record-breaking manga was meant to be a big project for Netflix from the start, with each episode having a significant budget to bring the story to life. Netflix heavily marketed One Piece and positioned the show as one of its biggest releases of 2023. Knights of the Zodiac, on the other hand, had a production budget of $60 million, and its theatrical release was not even confirmed until much later.

One Piece & Knights Of The Zodiac Show The Best & Worst Of Live-Action Anime

One Piece Is Now The Benchmark For Anime Adaptations

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One Piece and Knights of the Zodiac are extreme opposites when it comes to Hollywood live-action anime adaptations. After Dragonball Evolution, it seemed like no live-action project based on a popular manga was ever going to work. Apart from adaptations of lesser-known titles such as Speed Racer or Edge of Tomorrow, live-action adaptations continued to disappoint. Even major releases like Ghost in the Shell (2017), Death Note (2017), and Cowboy Bebop failed to live up to their respective source materials.

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That said, One Piece’s success made it clear that even the most fantastical anime can be translated into other media if treated carefully and with a lot of respect. Not only was Oda an executive producer on the Netflix show, but the entire creative team made sure to stay as truthful to the source material as possible. It is difficult to judge Knights of the Zodiac’s creative decisions when so much about the project already seemed worrying even before a trailer was released. The live-action Saint Seiya movie arguably never had a chance.