Today I watched One Piece live-action and thought about why Sanji did not do dogeza (bow down). Many people online are talking about this topic.
I noticed they made many bold changes from original story. At first I worried about this. But then I realized this is completely different thing from original manga. So I could accept it better. If they copied everything exactly same, I might focus too much on small differences and could not enjoy the story.
Child Luffy’s voice sounded close to anime Luffy voice to me. Everyone has different opinions about this though. I think they really crossed the difficult wall of live-action making. It was very interesting to watch. But I saw many good reviews before watching. This made my expectations very high. I heard Oda gave full support and production team are real One Piece fans. Also they spent 2.8 billion yen for each episode. So I expected something even more amazing.
I understand now that they changed original story in very bold way. If I watch with “minus point thinking” like “this scene is missing” or “this line is not there”, I cannot enjoy it at all. But if I watch with “plus point thinking”, it feels like One Piece with completely new taste. I enjoyed watching it very much this way. New story developments surprised me in good way. Minus point system would make me feel tired.
I noticed especially for Sanji character, many things were different from original. I wanted to see gun scene from original story. But I understand they had to cut many things. If people watch this after knowing original story, they can enjoy it as plus experience. But if new people watch this first, they might think story development is too convenient because drama parts from original are cut.
I really liked Zoro’s subtitle line “worth believing” and “believe my face”. It sounded exactly like original manga style. This made me very excited. I enjoyed much more than my expectation. But I understand why people want gun scene. If they made same content in 10 episodes instead of 8, they could tell story more carefully.
This live-action felt like “what if One Piece started in Hollywood first”. I needed to accept this idea completely. This might be big problem though. They might lose many fans who want exactly same as original story. This choice looks very scary to me as amateur viewer. But I see drama got good evaluation from many people. For goal of making overseas people know more about One Piece, this was probably good decision.
I could accept Luffy and Zoro actors very well. But Sanji still does not feel right to me. Maybe this is because his scenes are still few compared to others. Luffy and Zoro appeared from episode 1, so I got used to them quickly. I like Luffy and Zoro most in original story anyway. So I was very satisfied with these casting choices. I watched first with subtitles, then with dubbing, then with subtitles again for third time. I also thought Garp, Zeff and other old men characters were very good. They had perfect atmosphere.
This live-action Sanji does not show any weak points at all. I cannot read his true feelings. He smiles too much. This is very different from original Sanji character. Even without seeing fight scenes, Luffy and Zoro are originally strong characters in story. So I could accept them easily in my mind. But this Sanji feels like he might not come back from really dangerous situations.
I learned that one episode costs 2.8 billion yen. This number is really amazing. This huge budget is only possible because One Piece has such big name value worldwide. I think most difficult thing for live-action adaptation is difference between media types. Many productions try to put too many popular characters and popular episodes from original story. Then whole work breaks as single story. But this script chose episodes very carefully and rebuilt story structure. This was very smart approach.
Drama and comic have completely different ways to tell story. If they copy manga exactly same way, it becomes really bad work. One Piece original comedy style would make people feel cold in live-action format. Many Japanese TV dramas make this mistake when they adapt manga.
Main characters including Luffy had quite different personalities from original. But this was acceptable for me because it was live-action version. They need to make work that Hollywood audience can accept. They cannot match only Japanese people’s taste. Even Merry ship design looked very strange when first photos were shown. But after watching actual drama, I felt no strange feeling at all.
Now I wonder how Chopper character will look in live-action format. For me, this live-action Sanji’s cool style and mysterious personality matched Oda’s original image quite well. He looked like typical noble person. This makes royal family theory much more believable. He seemed very calm and had high support ability in both mental and battle aspects. Even when he gets angry, he might keep smiling. This creates different kind of scary feeling.
For Sanji character, one eye hidden by hair and spiral eyebrow are very hard to show clearly in live-action format. Well, if season 2 continues, his weak points will definitely appear in story. And his friends will help cover his weak points like in original story.
I noticed “Dying is not way to return favor” line was completely missing. This worries me for future episodes. If they make sequel, this important line might not appear in story development. But I really hope scene where Luffy and Sanji talk and Sanji gets caught in snow avalanche will happen in Drum Island story. “Dying is not way to return favor” was important lesson Sanji learned from his past experience. So this line is really necessary for his character. Sanji’s past should help his current life decisions. This creates very moving story. But this version’s writing makes Sanji look like just person who had hard experience in past. The deeper meaning gets lost.
I also had many interpretation differences with Zoro character. When I watched with subtitles, Sanji often laughed like “hohoho” sound. This was quite funny to me. Some scenes did not make sense without certain elements from original. This became very clear in later episodes. When Zeff got hit by something, I laughed a little at that scene. I discovered later that I was not only person who laughed at that moment.
Overall it was very interesting but many things felt not quite perfect. This is my honest feeling. I think from somewhat high position, but I believe they could have done even better job. Sanji actor seems to have very special way to say his lines. When he said technique names, it sounded quite strange to my ears.
I know that Oda cannot create something better than his original work. All fans and people involved in production know this fact. If respect for original work reaches audience clearly, they can accept changes more easily. Thing that is hard to accept is bad female character design. I really want female characters to be more attractive. Also some laughing voice effects were quite strange and funny in wrong way.
I do not want to criticize too much, but female characters could definitely be much better. Also Beckman scene was very surprising to me. For me personally, English dialogue style felt like real overseas drama style and very fashionable. I really liked this aspect. In ship scene with Shanks and his crew, conversation about food and Lucky Roo was quite different between languages. In Japanese version, Lucky Roo’s answer sounded slow and boring. But in English version, it was very cool “3 hours would be lucky” and this surprised me a lot.
Scene with “Thank you very much for long time care” had good energy that should go with dogeza action. But maybe filming this was impossible for practical reasons. With Zoro’s bow scene as example, dogeza meaning could reach international audience. But finding Asian child actor who can do sword action based on kendo fighting style and can act well in English language is extremely difficult task. Actually Zoro actor seems to have Chinese family background.
As One Piece drama adaptation, I think it was very good overall. But dogeza is specifically Japanese culture, so maybe overseas people cannot understand its deep meaning. True, it is Japanese culture. But dogeza existence is already known worldwide. So it should work in Hollywood productions too. Some people say Baratie restaurant has Western design, so dogeza does not match the setting. But original story has same situation. Original manga story includes dogeza scene too. This scene is already accepted as very moving episode by overseas fans. So live-action version should be able to include it too.
In that very overseas drama atmosphere, showing Asian culture dogeza action between Sanji and Zeff might need difficult cultural explanation. Zoro’s dojo scene clearly shows completely Asian different culture environment. But I do not think cultural difference is real problem. Hollywood movies like “Last Samurai” successfully showed dogeza scenes. So dogeza should definitely work in Hollywood production.
But I found perfect answer online today. Reason why Sanji did not do dogeza can be easily understood by looking at live-action set design. Zeff was standing in front of Baratie restaurant entrance. This is same place where Zoro and Mihawk had their sword fight. And Sanji was standing on Merry ship deck – much higher position. If Sanji did dogeza from that position, from Zeff’s point of view, Sanji would just disappear like he found 100 yen coin on ground and sat down to pick it up.
If Sanji did dogeza and said “Thank you for all care, Owner Zeff”, his voice would bounce off ship floor and Zeff could not hear words clearly. In original manga story, Sanji did dogeza at exact place where live-action Zeff was standing. And original Zeff’s balcony position does not exist in live-action version set. This is clearly set design planning mistake.
Zeff would think: “Is Sanji saying something?” “Sanji disappeared suddenly. What happened to him? Does he have stomach pain? Hope he does not catch cold.”
So Sanji did not do dogeza simply because of realistic ground height difference in live-action version.
But I realized that scene’s real moving point was never dogeza action itself. Real moving point is that Zeff called him “Sanji” instead of usual “little eggplant” nickname. And words he chose were very simple “do not catch cold”. But we can feel much deeper love than normal in these ordinary words. Thinking that men throwing away pride and doing dogeza is moving thing comes from old war movie values. Too many people still have this old-fashioned thinking.
Also very moving point is that Sanji called him “Owner Zeff” instead of his usual “shit old man”. Line “Owner Zeff, thank you very much for care” is probably best line in all of One Piece for me personally. He changed from calling “shit old man” to respectful “Zeff”, but also added professional title “Owner” to make it “Owner Zeff”. Also he did not say casual “I was taken care of” but used very polite Japanese “I was taken care of respectfully”. “Owner Zeff, thank you for care” sounds like polite words that Sanji would never usually say. But he still attached his rough “shit” word style. So this shows these are not just formal business words but Sanji’s completely true heart feelings. Thinking about this scene always makes me want to cry.