Entertainment
One Piece Reverse Mountain Will Make The Witcher Fans Jealous
By Jonathan Klotz
| Published
Netflix’s One Piece live-action series defied the jaded expectations of anime fans by, and this is a revolutionary concept, staying true to the anime. The second episode of Season 2, “Good Whale Hunting,” adapts the Reverse Mountain arc from the anime, and you may think that name is an analogy, but no, it’s about climbing a mountain with a ship.
It’s absurd, and it makes no sense outside of the logic of One Piece, but this episode is another example that the streamer learned its lesson from The Witcher adaptation. That series went so far from the source material that Henry Cavill quit in disgust, but now Netflix is willing to show a boat riding a river up a mountain and then sliding down into the mouth of a giant whale.
Anime Accurate In Spirit
In the anime, the Straw Hat Pirates encounter Crocus, the lighthouse keeper, inside of Laboon, the Island Whale, but the series changes this to instead have Luffy remain on the outside while the rest of the crew gets stuck inside. The beats are the same: Crocus using a sedative to keep the whale from bashing his head into the side of the Reverse Mountain, Baroque Works agents Mr. 9 and Miss Wednesday get involved inside the whale’s belly, and Luffy ultimately solves the problem by addressing the whale’s depression. Details are changed, and motivations are tweaked, but the important part, the story, remains true to the One Piece anime.
Compare “Good Whale Hunting” to The Witcher Season 1, which butchered “The Sword of Truth” short story so badly that Geralt and Ciri might as well be completely different characters. One Piece lets Luffy redirect the Going Merry, while riding a current up the side of the mountain, with his bare hands, but The Witcher couldn’t even show the initial emotional bond between its two most important characters. Fans can tell that for all the changes “Good Whale Hunting” made from the anime, they were done with love and care to the core heart of the story, and it’s all due to the very different way both mega-million Netflix shows are being produced behind the scenes.
Netflix Learned Its Live-Action Lesson
The creator of One Piece, Oda, is involved with every aspect of the series: the casting, the writing, and even having a say on the final edits. Matt Owens and Steven Maeda, who helped develop the series, have proven their deep respect for the anime and manga. On the other hand, The Witcher’s showrunner Lauren S. Hissrich didn’t want to adapt the books, and Netflix was supportive, allowing her to tell her own story.
The Witcher Season 2 deviated so heavily from the original stories that again, and this can not be stressed enough, the lead of the show was publicly upset over what should have been a dream project. Liam Hemsworth took over as Geralt as a result, and the show was only streamed by the most die-hard of fans. One Piece Season 2 is setting streaming records.
“Good Whale Hunting” isn’t the best episode of One Piece Season 2, that would be “Whiskey Business” or “Reindeer Shames,” depending on how you like your anime, but the fact that it even exists and is as good as it is is nothing short of a minor miracle. Hopefully, Hollywood will learn the lesson that putting fans in charge of projects and including the original creator will lead to record-breaking success.