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The long-awaited One Piece Live Action series has finally made its debut on Netflix, much to the hype and anticipation of fans worldwide. The series has garnered a lot of praise and adoration from fans thus far and seems to have broken the persisting curse of anime live-action adaptations being sub-standard.
However, one complaint that fans have about the live-action series is that it decided to remove Zoro's biggest fight in Arlong Park. The remaining members of the Straw Hat Pirates all got their own individual fight in the series, whereas Zoro's battle with Hachi was omitted from the show.
Disclaimer: This article contains spoilers for the One Piece Live Action
The One Piece Live Action has removed Zoro's battle with Hachi in Arlong Park from the story
The release of One Piece Live Action seems to have set the anime world ablaze, with the series trending all over the internet. It has been showered with adoration and praise by fans, with some even calling it the best anime live-action adaptation in history.
The cast has successfully brought to life characters from One Piece that fans have grown to know and love. Specifically, Mackenyu Maeda's portrayal of the bounty hunter and master swordsman Roronoa Zoro has mesmerized the whole fandom, with a lot of them saying that Maeda was born to play this role.
The introduction of Zoro in the One Piece Live Action sees him literally slice in half the members of the Baroque Works, Mr 7. This over-the-top intro really cements into the audience's brain that he is a ruthless bounty hunter. Throughout the series, Zoro is seen facing even more powerful enemies such as Captain Morgan and Buggy.
However, Zoro's biggest challenge comes in the form Dracule Mihawk, one of the Seven Warlods of the Sea. Just like in the anime, Zoro fights him but is unable to land a single blow. Eventually, he gets wounded by Mihawk's Kogatana, who then uses his black sword Yoru to destroy two of Zoro's katanas.
Defeated, Zoro allows Mihawk to slash him across the chest, gravely injuring and knocking him unconscious. Thus far, the One Piece Live action closely follows the story, but then it goes ahead and removes Zoro's next big opponent.
The live-action series then shows Zoro in Arlong Park fighting against Arlong's fish-man pirates. Alongside him are other members of the Straw Hats, all of whom are given their individual fights. Luffy is seen fighting Arlong, Usopp battles Chew and Sanji fights Kuroobi.
The live-action series depicts Kuroobi being somewhat teamed up on by Sanji and Zoro. However, when Kuroobi insults Nami, Sanji promptly knocks out the fish-man with his signature moves, while Zoro stands and watches. Thus, it can be said that this was more of a Sanji-driven fight rather than a 2 vs 1.
The Arlong Park arc in the One Piece anime sees Zoro fight an octopus fish-man named Hachi. Unfortunately for fans, this character has been completely removed from the live-action series, depriving Zoro of a fight against a formidable opponent. This fight would have added a step to Zoro's journey to become a master swordsman.
It's understandable why the creators chose to eliminate Hachi's character from the live-action series altogether, as bringing to life an eight-handed octopus wielding a sword in each hand would have posed significant challenges for the VFX team.
In general, the portrayal of Arlong and his crew in the live-action has received the most significant amount of criticism. Fans feel Arlong's design in the show doesn't look as menacing as the anime counterpart. On top of that, the remaining fish-men have also been called creepy and unnerving to look at by the fans.
Thus, the directional choice to remove Hachi's character was a sensible one as it helped shorten the production's time and budget, while also giving fans something less to complain about.
Overall, the One Piece Live Action has done well following the source material, with changes only being made to the story for the sake of the narrative being most tight-knit and well-paced.
