One Piece’s best live-action arc isn’t as good as the manga, but it’s for a great reason
One Piece’s live-action series on Netflix is better than almost anyone could have hoped, but the Baratie Arc, introducing Sanji and the swordsmanship of the terrifying Dracule Mihawk, is a particular standout. It’s got it all: great-looking food, plenty of fighting, and huge, silly characters with tons of heart. But these fun few episodes don’t hold a candle to the 27-chapter Baratie Arc in Eiichiro Oda’s original manga.
And that’s exactly what makes the Baratie Arc in Netflix’s One Piece so great. It’s a perfect example of the challenge showrunners Matt Owens and Steven Maeda faced in adapting Oda’s sprawling epic to a more conventional eight episodes. And it can go a long way to explaining how a live-action One Piece can do well on its own terms.
The Baratie Arc is so named because it’s when Luffy and his ever-growing Straw Hat crew arrive at the seafaring restaurant Baratie, run by the notorious ex-pirate and Grand Line adventurer “Red Shoes” Zeff along with the young but ambitious chef Sanji, who eventually joins Luffy’s crew. But outside of those major beats, most of what happens between their arrival and Sanji becoming a Straw Hat is pretty different between the manga and the live-action series.
In the manga, the majority of the arc revolves around the Straw Hats and the fighting cooks of Baratie facing off against the dreaded pirate Don Krieg, who was once the commander of 50 ships and 5,000 men before almost all of them were lost on the Grand Line, the most dangerous stretch of ocean in the world.
Long story short, Sanji saves a sailor named Gin’s life by giving him some free food, but before long, Gin’s captain, the dreaded Don Krieg, shows up starving and demands food of his own. And once he’s been fed, he
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