Netflix managers can breathe easy. The Serie One piece, the American live-action adaptation of one of the world’s most popular manga, has attracted fans of the original work since its release on August 31. A relief for the streaming giant, which thus manages to thwart a persistent curse: that of the almost systematic failure that Americans sign when they encounter Japanese comics.
“We feel a real knowledge of the work (in this adaptation),” Matthieu Pinon, author of Manga, so many stories! (Larousse). “The actors are inhabited by their role, the betrayals in relation to the development of the original work are clever, a budget has been established.”
Netflix has not communicated the production cost. But Cosmopolitan reports that they would have spent no less than 138 million dollars to adapt the adventures of Luffy, a young aspiring pirate with an elastic body, who travels by land and sea in search of a lost treasure surrounded by his eclectic crew.
This sum was necessary to deal with such a phenomenon. Published since 1997 by Eiichirō Oda and composed to date of 105 volumes, the comic has sold 490 million copies worldwide, making it the best-selling manga of all time. The adapted animated series, launched in 1999, has more than a thousand episodes.
“The best live action”
With One pieceThe streaming giant has managed to charm critics: “Netflix has found the right formula,” he greets Teleramaadding to the laudatory articles of numerama AND First. But the real feat is having convinced the fans from the beginning.
“I was expecting a disaster and I am pleasantly surprised”; “Slight impression of rediscovering One piece through this live-action”: “The work has been respected, making a good live-action is possible”; “It is simply the best live-action”; on Twitter, connoisseurs rave about this Western adaptation, without hiding his amazement.
Because for more than ten years, all the transpositions of the genre continue and continue. To the movies (Dragon Ball Evolution, ghost in the shell, Knights of the Zodiac) as on platforms (Death Note, bebop cowboy), fans of Japanese manga and animation went from disappointment to disappointment.
“I think the problem arises from the vision of Hollywood producers,” analyzes Matthieu Pinon. “They think that this or that element is mandatory to function with the public and they try to fit circles into squares.”
The specialist focuses on the example of Dragon Ball Evolution, a 2009 production by James Wong, killed by fans and critics upon its release. “Son-Goku (hero of this cult series by Akira Toriyama, editor’s note) became an American high school student, undoubtedly with the aim of promoting identification with the adolescent public,” he laments. “That alone is not possible.”
Same error with Knights of the Zodiac, a film by Thomasz Baginski released last May, adapted from the 80s classic. “The first 45 minutes of the film are a succession of valves, in the tradition of superhero films. The producers said: ‘It’s that works, they are adaptations’ of Marvel comics, with their constant humor that distances the viewer from the themes, so we are going to do the same.” Bad strategy, analyzes Matthieu Pinon.
“Obviously, this approach doesn’t work: Knights of the Zodiac It is a first-class job, everything is very serious. Which gives an outdated adaptation with respect to the original product.”
“Stay faithful”
To avoid falling into the same pitfalls as his predecessors, One piece He did his best to stay as close to the source material as possible. Although the command of the program fell to Matt Owens and Steven Maeda, two Americans, they worked closely with Eiichirō Oda, credited among the executive producers. “The team promised me that (the series) would only be launched when they were fully satisfied with it,” he said last May in a note of intentions. And the manga master did not hesitate to exercise his right to review it:
“Even after filming wrapped, production agreed to reshoot many scenes because I didn’t think they were good enough to be revealed,” he said in a statement.
He also paid attention to the treatment of the characters he created: “We had to really think about what fans like about the protagonists, the dynamics between them, and stay true to these elements,” he explained. New York Times.
Which undoubtedly allowed the series to avoid another trap typical of these American adaptations, which Netflix fell into in 2017 with its version of Death Note (2017). The brilliant sociopath of the original manga became a clumsy teenager and an unwitting murderer, distorting the original work. The illustration, for Matthieu Pinon, of another gap between American and Japanese fiction that makes the transposition from one continent to another difficult:
“American characters tend to be soft. They transmit good values, like Luke Skywalker. On the contrary, mangas allow everything and assume the harshness of the characters.”
Added to this intervention by the original author was the sincere desire to respect the aesthetic DNA of the work. Armed with Oda’s “Color Walks,” her works that bring together her color illustrations, makeup artist Amanda Ross-McDonald and costume designer Diana Cilliers brought the characters to life: “We use them like a bible, we consult them constantly,” confess. specifying that they had always sought to get as close as possible to the drawings without falling into cosplay.
“A rejection of adaptations made in the West”
Redoubled efforts to find fans who are particularly difficult to please. Because, as Matthieu Pinon recognizes, the manga community often acts as a guardian of the temple, especially protector of the object of its passion:
“The first generation of fans, that of Club DorothyHe grew up being mocked for his love of Japanese animation. We were talking about Japanese“They got to work.”
“So when they see the works they defended in front of the general public become remarketed products for them, an understandable reactionary phenomenon occurs,” he continues. “When the product fails, it helps even less.”
The arrival of manga (in France, one in every two comics sold comes from Japan) has allowed the second generation of fans, today’s teenagers, to see themselves less marginalized. “They will say that inevitably the producers in charge of the adaptations know the work less than they do and that it will be poorly done. The reasons are different but, whatever the generation, there is a rejection of the adaptations.” made in the west“.
The French cultural exception (of adaptations)?
And to highlight a French exception, the Nicky Larson by Philippe Lacheau released in 2018: “The original cartoon had that obscene humor that corresponds to his films, the character is ridiculed, there was a desire to make an action film. It was a great adaptation, precisely because it did not seek fit“.
Enough to give a chance to two other future French productions based on cult Japanese shows: a series inspired by Cat eyesand a draft program on The mysterious cities of Goldrevealed by assigned.
The success of One piece American style does not necessarily mean that your career will be long. If the series reached the Top 10 of most viewed content in 93 countries this week on Netflix, it was less popular than The Wizard, Wednesday EITHER Strange things at its launch. Mixed results for a phenomenon of this magnitude.
Source: BFM TV
