The live-action adaptation of the extremely popular anime, One Piece, managed to live up to the fans’ expectations, something which is quite rare these days. With just the first season out right now, the series stands at a score of 85% on Rotten Tomatoes, whereas the audience score for the film is 95%. Needless to say, both fans and critics were more than pleased with the outcome of Matt Owens and Steven Maeda’s hard work.
However, while everything seems to be right on point with the adaptation, it looks like fans have one complaint – the wigs. From Emily Rudd’s Nami to Chioma Umeala’s Nojiko, fans cannot begin to comprehend what went wrong with the wigs department over at Netflix and some even wonder if the streaming platform’s star series Stranger Things took up the entire budget of the streamer had for wigs.
Fans Complaint about the Wigs in Netflix’s One Piece
GamesRadar+ believes that thanks to One Piece, fans of anime finally found the series that “breaks the live-action curse.” Isn’t that right? The craze behind live-action adaptation was so intense that Netflix renewed the series for a second season just two weeks after the release of the first. It goes without saying that Netflix and everyone involved in the project knocked the ball out of the park. Maybe, not in one particular department, though.
A fan of the series who goes by the username, ‘Ok_Comunnication314’ on Reddit posted their reaction to the wigs used in the live-action series. Clearly quite upset with the debacle, the user stated,
“I love the live action and everything about it, but with season 2, they need to get rid of those trash a-s wigs. Nojiko, Nami and Kuina are great examples of this. There wigs look so f-cking cheap and it looks like they got them from party city. PLEASE DONT F-CK UP VIVI! Please and thank you.”
The opinion was posted on the r/OnePieceLiveAction subreddit and the O.P.’s opinion sparked a debate in the comment section where while some agreed with him, others spoke in favor of the show. One user added,
“nami’s first wig is horrible, i agree. the second one looks fine.”
However, even on X, viewers didn’t seem to be a big fan of the wigs. Take a look at what they had to say about it all:
i think the entirety of netflix’s wig budget goes to stranger things or something because the wigs i saw in one piece live action…diabolical 😕
— gloria is tired 😷 (@gloriarais) December 9, 2023
The live action one piece is a lot of fun but what in the hell is this wig? pic.twitter.com/yDTCHSha9m
— miss jazz hot 🇵🇸 (@jazzhott96) September 18, 2023
Those one piece live action wigs….. pic.twitter.com/oLbx9GbE99
— Hadari Yao 🌪⚡️✨❄️ Storm (@HadariYao_X) January 31, 2023
whoever was on wig duty for the one piece live action need to get jumped i’m sorry. it must be said. pic.twitter.com/DmH6lwy48A
— nibby⁷ (@zoromins) August 31, 2023
after seeing many of the stills from avatar netflix and after watching one piece live action, it definitely feels like netflix’s wig budget goes entirely to stranger things and bridgerton 😭😭
— gloria is tired 😷 (@gloriarais) February 26, 2024
While One Piece may or may not have done a good job with the wigs, we cannot deny the fact that it was nominated for Best Hair Styling at the Hollywood Makeup Artist and Hair Stylist Guild Awards. while it lost the award to The Santa Clauses, a nomination is a big feat in itself.
Emily Rudd Believes She Was Born to Play Nami
We all have heard countless times from actors saying that they were born to play this role and that role. More often than so, it has proved not to be the case. The truth is, only a handful of actors have managed to prove that quote and truly epitomize the character as their own self.
One of the newest actors to have said this is the One Piece actor, Emily Rudd. In a recent interview with GamesRadar+, she stated,
“I know I was joking when I said ‘I was born to play Nami, but she truly is the first character in my career that I have ever been like ‘oh, of course. Of course it’s her, Of course it’s me!”
When asked what the greatest challenge of the project was for her, she said “I think emotionally, that moment for Nami’s story was the hardest.”
Rudd also emphasized the importance of her character in the series, saying,
“She’s the boss, like we said, who controls the money? Who navigates the ship? You can’t get anywhere without her and you can’t buy anything without her, like, you’re stuck, I’m sorry.“
She also added, “You cannot get anything done without that woman.” How very Nami of her!
You can stream One Piece on Netflix.
