With ¡°One Piece,¡± Netflix repeats history, and there isn¡¯t much evidence that it paid attention to what happened the first time around.

¡°Cowboy Bebop¡± was a cult-favorite Japanese animated series that fetishized cool American jazz and film noir and Hollywood Westerns, and in 2021 Netflix returned the cultural homage by making an American live-action adaptation. It wasn¡¯t a disaster, but it quickly fell from sight.

¡°One Piece¡± is a remarkably endurable manga and anime franchise ¡ª more than 500 million books sold, 1,073 television episodes and counting ¡ª that applies a slapstick, Buster Keaton-like visual energy to an adventure story with roots in Hollywood swashbucklers and musicals like ¡°Captain Blood¡± and ¡°The Crimson Pirate.¡± So once again Netflix has been moved to produce an American live-action remake, whose eight episodes premiere last month.