The Mostly Unknown Cast of One Piece Is A Blessing And A Curse

This past week, Netflix released their highly anticipated live-action adaptation of Eiichiro Oda’s One Piece. Overall, the reception towards it has been fairly positive, though it’s by no means a perfect show. That being said, to say that the series is just fine is a glowing compliment, given not only Netflix’s track record of live-action adaptations and the sheer scale and insanity required to adapt One Piece, but also because there was so much unknown about the show itself. Netflix kept a lot of the production under wraps to the point where most of the cast were relatively unknowns before release. For such a major franchise, you would expect at least one major star to be attached to the series, but for many of the actors involved in One Piece, this is the biggest project they’ve been cast in. 

In an age where most studios believe that a production needs a major celebrity in order to be commercially viable, I appreciate that at least on the surface, One Piece attempted to assemble its cast based on who is best for the role rather than who would be the most popular choice. With the exception of one actor, I had never heard of any members of the cast. However, that decision is ultimately a blessing and a curse for the series. Having a production of this scale allows for many doors to open for these actors, but it also may show how some of the cast isn’t exactly ready for prime time yet.

Trying to step in the shoes of some of the most iconic characters in all of anime is difficult. The reality is that a fan is going to have expectations no matter how Netflix decided to approach One Piece. Unless you are going into the series completely blind, which I’m sure is true for many people who are watching Netflix’s adaptation, no matter what you do, you’re going to have some kind of expectations. It’s literally impossible not to. There are public perceptions of how these characters are supposed to be, and deviating from that is a great way to earn negative reactions. You can assemble a cast, dress them up like their counterparts and have them do the same things as those characters, but that doesn’t mean an actor can convincingly embody them unless they really nail the essence of who they’re meant to be playing.

Back in college, I majored in theatre, and one of the most important things I learned when embodying a character was to make that character your own. That may sound simple, but it’s a lot more complex than you may think. You bring your own life experiences to a role and your past, present, and future can and will color your perception of the character and how they act. The best way I can explain it is if you think of a character as a mold where you pour your own interpretations into it. If you try to fill that mold with another actor’s performance and try to replicate it, you won’t give a good performance simply because you don’t know how that actor filled their mold. You see the result, but you don’t understand the method and practice that went into creating it. The best performances are ones that bring their authentic selves to the role, yet actively try to embody the ideals of the characters.

I think the actor that best represents this mentality is Taz Skylar, who plays Sanji. Sanji as a character is difficult to portray. He’s a cool-headed guy, but can quickly become incredibly passionate about protecting his friends and their dreams. He’s also girl crazy to the point where his lecherous antics can be grating and his bitter rivalry with Zoro is mostly played for comedy and doesn’t really evolve in any meaningful way.

In lesser hands, one of those traits would have been emphasized over the rest, giving a very lopsided performance that could have been grating. But Skylar does a remarkable job at trying to make Sanji seem like an actual human being and not just a caricature. He makes all of those elements a part of Sanji, but doesn’t overplay any of them. He turns him into an actual three-dimensional person, something that’s hard to do this early in the show’s run. And because he did such a good job, I’m paying attention to whatever Taz Skylar does next. It was a risk casting someone as unknown as him, but I’d like to think it paid off.

And Skylar isn’t the only person who is now on my radar because of their performance in One Piece. Jeff Ward’s turn as Buggy the Clown captured exactly what makes the character so lovably pathetic. And despite only being around for a few scenes, Steven Ward commanded everyone’s attention whenever he was onscreen as Hawkeye Mihawk. Plus, because a major celebrity wasn’t cast in the role, I feel like I’m paying attention to the role more. Have you ever seen a movie where a famous actor makes a surprise cameo and you can only see them as themselves and not as the character they’re portraying? That’s distracting, but I can’t be distracted by roles played by actors that I don’t know.

What can distract me though is how specific performances don’t necessarily click. I know I said that an actor should bring their own interpretation to the role and be authentic to themselves, but there’s a limit. You need to be true to yourself, but you also need to be true to the character, and I feel that some of the cast in One Piece is miscast. For smaller roles, it ultimately doesn’t really matter. If the character doesn’t impact the central plot, then you can have weaker performances as long as it doesn’t hamper the main story. For example,  I don’t think anyone will really care about how Grant Ross’ portrayal of Genzo lacked that stern fatherly charm that endeared him to readers in the manga. He only has a handful of lines after all in this season and his existence only serves to enhance Nami’s story. No, the issue comes when the character is much more significant, and the biggest gripe I have with the cast of One Piece is with Zoro’s actor, Mackenyu.

Mackenyu’s take on Zoro doesn’t work for me. Although his character is meant to be an aloof-yet-determined badass, he instead comes across as another snarky loner who takes an entire season just to discover that he actually likes the people he’s sailing with. While the quality of the writing is undoubtedly an element here that impacted my perception of the character, a lot of this falls on Mackenyu’s capabilities as an actor. While he has been in plenty of films in Japan, the quality of those performances has varied wildly and his English language roles have been sorely lacking. As one of the few people who saw Knights of the Zodiac earlier this year, I can safely say that as of right now, he’s pretty wooden and can’t really express emotions in a convincing way. He needs more time in the oven before he can really be notable, so casting him in a major role really does dampen my enthusiasm for scenes that he’s in.

Since many of the actors here haven’t been in too many roles before One Piece, that lack of expertise is arguably present in most of the supporting cast as well, like Koby’s actor Morgan Davies or Helmeppo’s actor Aidan Scott. One Piece is a lot of their big breaks and because of that, some of them just simply don’t have enough experience to properly deliver a stellar performance. Practice makes perfect after all, and having a cast of mostly unknown actors who haven’t had their big break yet means they haven’t had as many opportunities to hone their craft.

But I think that overall, One Piece benefits from having a relatively unknown cast. The series has allowed for these actors to gain mainstream attention, and even if some of the performances aren’t exactly stellar, they have plenty of room to grow and hopefully can find themselves in more projects to help enhance their craft. After all, a similar situation happened for Stranger Things. Basically all of the child actors within the series had very few roles before that series, and now they’re fairly well known and have been cast in projects that allow them to better show off their capabilities.

Yes, if you’re familiar with the manga, some of these characters that had wonderful performances behind them drop off the face of the Earth for several arcs, so it could be a while until we see Buggy or Mihawk again in any notable capacity, but I think the show can only improve by keeping itself to relatively unknown actors so they have a platform to present themselves to the audience. And for performances that aren’t exactly stellar, hopefully with more time to inhabit the character, they can find a good rhythm to make it their own. After all, not every excellent TV series was perfect in their first season. Time will tell if this cast will be able to grow or not as actors, but I’m optimistic that acting will only improve if future seasons are ordered.