One Piece the live-action series is owned by Netflix
Directed by Emma Sullivan
I’m sure all the One Piece fans out there can breathlessly explain the question I’m about to ask, but what did Usopp actually contribute to the crew? As I’ve stated before, I’ve only seen about the first forty or so episodes of the anime and while I remember Usopp being a fun character with a solid origin story, nothing really sticks in my mind after that and since then he’s kind of felt like the Yamcha of the group, to pull a reference from an anime I actually know what I’m talking about. I know this isn’t the case as the series goes along, but I’m interested in seeing what they do with him in this version and if his contribution to the crew will have a more lasting impact on me. Will this be a great introduction to the character or were the writers scrambling to find a reason for him to exist in this? Let’s find out!!
Having escaped from the dastardly Buggy, the Straw Hat crew is on their way to Syrup Island in the hopes of finding a proper ship by which to travel to the Grand Line as well as outrun the Marines who are hot on their trail. Luckily for them, they meet a young ship cleaner on the island named Usopp (Jacob Romero Gibson) who assures them that he can get them in touch with the owner of the ship-building company and can get them a good deal on the boat. As we will learn with everything Usopp says, there’s only a little bit of truth in what he says as the owner in question is not quite the owner yet, but is still a good friend of Usopp’s named Kaya (Celeste Loots). She is being mentored and protected by her butler Klahadore (Alexander Maniatis) who has no patience for Usopp’s tall tales nor the ragamuffins he’s brought around to Kaya’s stately manor, but despite his protestations, Kaya invites them to dinner and to stay the night. After all, it’s her eighteenth birthday and she’s about to inherit her late parents’ company which will set her up for life! It’s not like anyone close to her wants to take that for themselves, am I right? Will the Straw Hat crew be able to convince Kaya to give them the boat of their dreams as Usopp had erroneously promised? What evil machinations are working behind the scenes on the cusp of Kaya’s corporate takeover, and how will the Straw Hat gang be sucked into these wicked schemes? Can Usopp finally show us a skill he has other than looking really good in bandanas and open shirts!?
Where the last two episodes had clear goals to strive for and an energetic spirit, things slow down a bit here as it seems to struggle with everything it’s trying to accomplish. Oh sure, the episode has some great moments in it, particularly the actor playing Usopp who manages to capture such an exaggerated character through sheer charisma and personality, but it’s more of a kitchen-sink approach to storytelling which leaves a lot of good scenes trying to be great and a few less than stellar moments stuffed in to try and keep the plot going. Klahadore is not a particularly subtle character with Villainous Intent written all over his face, and yet we spend more time than we really need to going over his schemes which, by the end of the episode, feel half-baked despite how long he’s clearly been planning it out. The Straw Hat crew is as fun as they’ve been in the previous episodes, but there’s not much of an overarching theme for them in this episode other than the overall arc of Nami and Zoro softening their cold exteriors due to hanging around Luffy. Usopp, who by all rights should be the star of this episode, is done justice by Jacob Romero Gibson’s performance but is let down by the script which leaves him as a second-stringer in his own origin story. If you didn’t already know that he was meant to be a member of the crew, you’d hardly pay him more mind than the sickly Kaya or the goat-faced Merry. Frankly, the best character moments in this are all with the Marines who I’ve only touched on until now so we might as well get caught up. With Coby finally joining up with them, as was his dream when he was saved by Luffy, he’s gotten the attention of Admiral Garp (Vincent Regan) who’s leading a ship to find the Straw Hat crew and get back the map. For the last two episodes, Garp has been acting as a mentor to Coby much like Shanks was to Luffy, and while it’s a little strange where they’re going with these two, I think it could be a fascinating story if they manage to pull it off. We have Coby going from the captive servant of a pirate crew to a cadet in the Marines, and yet the show deliberately portrays the Marines as hardly any better; crews of big shots who cling to their veneer of respectability while letting thugs like Captain Morgan attain undue power over the people they are sworn to protect. What’s different now, however, is that Coby is being recognized for his talents, so while he’s not free from the torment and dubious ethics of his position, he is starting to rise from the lowest rung on the ladder. It’ll be interesting to see if success corrupts him or if he becomes a threat to the very thing he’s idealized. The rest of the episode needed a hook like this instead of spinning its wheels with the plot, and while I’m sure we’re due for a few fun payoffs in the next episode as this is clearly being positioned as a Part One in a two-part story, the lack of action and slow pace means this drags far more than a goofy pirate show should. We’ll see how it all plays out, but a better episode wouldn’t have left us thinking more about what happens next than appreciating what we just saw.
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