The Ultimate Guide: How Netflix Can Successfully Adapt the Entire One Piece Anime in Record-Breaking Seasons
Netflix's adaptation of One Piece may require approximately 14 seasons to cover the entirety of the beloved anime However, fans shouldn't set their hopes too high, as it is unlikely that Netflix will be able to faithfully adapt the entire story
WARNING: This article contains SPOILERS for One Piece season 1.
Summary
Netflix's live-action One Piece show faced the arduous task of translating the vast manga series into television format. Despite its first season only touching upon a fraction of the story, it became evident that adapting the entirety of the narrative would require numerous seasons, potentially reaching a staggering 14 or more seasons to do justice to over 1,000 manga chapters.
Netflix may struggle to adapt all of the One Piece chapters, potentially resulting in a premature ending or a condensed storyline, similar to Game of Thrones. The magnitude of seasons required to cover Eiichiro Oda's manga illustrates the challenges of bringing the Straw Hats' journey to the screen. While the live-action adaptation of One Piece season 1 successfully broke the curse of previous anime adaptations, it only covered the East Blue Saga, representing a small fraction of the source material.
One Piece's debut chapter was released in 1997, the same year that the anime adaptation of One Piece first aired. In the conclusion of Season 1 of One Piece, the Loguetown portion of the East Blue saga was omitted, as the Straw Hat Pirates eagerly set their sights on the Grand Line. Netflix's version of One Piece cleverly offered a promising setup for the next season, although attempting to encompass the entire storyline would be nearly impracticable.
Netflix's One Piece Would Need Around 14 Seasons To Adapt The Whole Story
Netflix's adaptation of One Piece season 1 covered approximately 90 chapters of the manga. Currently, the original One Piece manga consists of 1090 chapters and is still ongoing. This means that the live-action show would need to cover over 1000 manga chapters to complete the entire story. If each season of Netflix's One Piece covers 90 chapters, it would require 11 more seasons to catch up with the current storyline in the manga. However, it is uncertain how many more chapters Eiichiro Oda will need to finish the story, even though the manga is entering its final arc.
Considering that the One Piece manga may conclude with around 1500 chapters, it would take approximately 14 seasons for Netflix's One Piece to adapt the entire story. It is uncommon for high-budget, large-scale shows to run for such a prolonged period. For instance, Game of Thrones took eight years to tell its eight-season narrative. It is also worth noting that only four years have passed in the manga since the beginning of Luffy's story, meaning the age of the One Piece characters has not significantly changed. In this scenario, the cast of the live-action show would be 15 years older by the end of the show.
Don't Expect Netflix To Adapt One Piece In Full
Netflix's live-action adaptation of One Piece faces the challenge of covering all the chapters in the series. While shows like sitcoms or TV procedurals can go on for many seasons, high-budget productions like Game of Thrones eventually become too costly. Despite its immense popularity as the world's most-watched show for multiple years, even Game of Thrones ended with only eight seasons. Similarly, The Walking Dead had a dedicated viewership and spawned spinoffs, yet the main series concluded after 11 seasons. Therefore, successfully adapting the entire One Piece story is extremely challenging.
If a scenario like "One Piece season 15" doesn't materialize, the live-action show will have two options. The first option is to continue adapting approximately 100 chapters per season until the show is either canceled or concluded. However, this approach would mean leaving out other story arcs, resulting in a different and earlier version of Luffy's journey compared to the source material. The second option is to condense as much as possible from the manga into the limited seasons of Netflix's One Piece, similar to how the final seasons of Game of Thrones played out. While the first season of One Piece was well-received, the ongoing storytelling approach for the remainder of the series is still uncertain.
