The One Piece anime and manga is arguably the biggest franchise ever, with millions of viewers and readers tuning to the tales of Luffy and his Straw Hats Pirate crew. So that clearly screams “Netflix live adaptation”, correct? Well, some early reports seem to indicate that it’s not a good idea.

According to film info leaker Twitter user Divinity Seeker , the test screening for the One Piece Netflix show flopped hard. The show tested horribly, with complaints targeted at the bad CGI and the nonsensical story to non-fans. The latter is bad to the point where the showrunners are rewriting entire episodes so that it’s cohesive. The adaptation also has a tone problem, which jumps between goofy and serious in a jarring fashion.

From a source connected to Netflix:
• Avatar: The Last Airbender will no longer release in 2023, but Netflix believes this will be their Stranger Things
• One Piece tested horribly, the CGI looked bad and the story didn’t make sense to non-fans, and they’re rewriting entire eps

— Divinity Seeker (@DivinitySeeker1) April 13, 2023

To be fair, it can be hard to make the manga’s exaggerated Devil Fruit powers and other nonsense come out as believable in a live-action adaptation. Which begs the further question: who is this show for? Guess we’ll find out later this year if the show is planning on releasing this 31st August 2023.