all right, just finished watching and overall it was good, better than expected since it was an live action. There were some changes that I did like but likewise there were a lot of complains on my part. This only make me want to rewatch one piece but at this point with more than 1000 chapters is too much.
I guess 7/10. Good thing I watched the japanese dub, I wouldn't have stand the english voices.
- There were some eater eggs that I like, like cavendish wanted poster
- Baroque works coming to play early trying to recruit zoro at the beginning and Garp aware of them and investigating too
- Most of the actors fit the characters pretty well, except luffy and nami
- I don't know about others but koby parallel story with luffy I did like since koby became a somewhat important character now in the manga
- Kaya and Usopp romance already there. I expected in the end of the manga for him to return to seal the deal but it's already sealed
- Merry dying was more realistic than surviving kuro attack
- Going merry is beautiful
- Arlong controlling east blue and showing in baratie early. It was good they skipped all the don craig thing and nami stealing the going merry
- Mihawk in baratie was there by order of garp instead following craig because he was bored, shows how the shichibukai can be used by the marines.
dislikes
Spoiler for spoilers:
- I didn't like luffy actor, he did his best and got his moments but I just didn't like him but to be honest I doubt I would like anyone as luffy
- I didn't like nami actress either, too serious and I think she smiled like 5 times in all the season, it was never showed her love for berries and that is one of her quirks
- As much as I like zoro, he played more the main character than luffy
- Even with japanese dub I cringed in a lot of scenes
- There was so much zoro and nami interaction that I'm not surprise everyone is shipping them with how much they interacted. Even if oda explicit said no romance between the crew, the power of shipping and fans will win against them. Nami and zoro ship doesn't make sense in manga and anime
- No hachi, I guess because his arms they didn't bother with him and no johnny and yosaku
- Luffy felt weak and it felt like he couldn't beat arlong. Luffy at the beginning was already pretty strong and ready for the grand line
- Zoro no naming his moves, maybe he will in the future
- Zoro made the promise to luffy that he wouldn't never lose again but they skipped when he called him pirate king already believing in him
- Nami's village didn't knew about her sacrifice. I didn't like that
- Nami asking for help was underwhelming, it is still one of my favorite scenes
- No arlong park walk
there may others but that were the most that I noticed.
Thanks for sharing, hiding my responses bolded inside your spoilers.
Quote:
Originally Posted by grecefar
all right let's see... here MAJOR SPOILERS
likes
Spoiler for spoilers:
- It was pretty faithful to the manga In terms of themes like Dreams I agree, if it comes to characterisation I find it very lacking for Luffy and Nami. They only established Nami: I hate pirates and Luffy: I'm the other kind of pirate. The complete journey of how Nami got see first hand what Luffy's moral compass looks like, what a crew means to him (value+trust), and how she got affected by it. That's pretty much missing.
- There were some eater eggs that I like, like cavendish wanted poster True that, and there were several easter eggs I would never have spotted on my own, like how the creation of the map they stole was ordered by Kong.
- Baroque works coming to play early trying to recruit zoro at the beginning and Garp aware of them and investigating too I would put this more into the easter egg category as it was simply moved from season2 to 1. very nice regardless.
- Most of the actors fit the characters pretty well, except luffy and nami I watched it in my local dubs, they delivered it well enough what they were given. I blame the writers for not including the scenes in which Nami grinned as stupidly as Luffy.
- I don't know about others but koby parallel story with luffy I did like since koby became a somewhat important character now in the manga That's something I disliked a lot. If you take into account current Coby, it might makes sense, but on its own it in season 1, it just slowed down the pace with no payout. Time that could have gone into adding more characterisation scenes.
- Kaya and Usopp romance already there. I expected in the end of the manga for him to return to seal the deal but it's already sealed It felt like that in the manga to me, so I wasn't surprised they added it in.
- Merry dying was more realistic than surviving kuro attack Pell might not be a fan of season 2 w
- Going merry is beautiful Absolutely, the ships were all very well designed.
- Arlong controlling east blue and showing in baratie early. It was good they skipped all the don craig thing and nami stealing the going merry Both versions are fine with me, though it came at the cost of Luffy not showing his superior will when he smashed that spiked shield. This is related to some of your dislikes, so I'll elaborate more in that section.
- Mihawk in baratie was there by order of garp instead following craig because he was bored, shows how the shichibukai can be used by the marines. I get where you are coming from, but imo these are the wrong characters to showcase that. I don't think Garp would rely on a pirate and I don't see Mihawk taking orders of this level. Fighting vs a Yonko sure, hunting down a small fry newbie, I feel like no.
dislikes
Spoiler for spoilers:
- I didn't like luffy actor, he did his best and got his moments but I just didn't like him but to be honest I doubt I would like anyone as luffy I don't mind a humanisation of Luffy, and again with my local dub, he was pretty good in his delivery. There are many issues though with his portrayal in the OPLA.
- I didn't like nami actress either, too serious and I think she smiled like 5 times in all the season, it was never showed her love for berries and that is one of her quirks With how the writers changed the story, I'm surprised you counted up to 5 smiles. In the manga most of the smiles were connected to the characterisation journey of Luffy and what kind of person he is, which were pretty much absent in the OPLA or changed to tell not show.
- As much as I like zoro, he played more the main character than luffy Absolutely agree. Throughout the OPLA, Luffy was just the rubber boy with a dream. No determination, no trust, no strength. But again, he was robbed of his journey, no ShuShu, not preventing Kuro from killing his own crew, no Krieg, barely an interaction with Nami at Arlong Park. Zoro on the other hand got it nearly everything from the manga that made him stand out and more. 2 upgraded introduction scenes, his Mihawk moment was close to faithful (except for the one thing you mentioned), extended emotional "let's care for him"-scene. Only thing missing was showing how bad in shape he was during the assault (only hinted at) that made Arlong respect him (missing).
- Even with japanese dub I cringed in a lot of scenes Well, cringe is unavoidable imo.
- There was so much zoro and nami interaction that I'm not surprise everyone is shipping them with how much they interacted. Even if oda explicit said no romance between the crew, the power of shipping and fans will win against them. Nami and zoro ship doesn't make sense in manga and anime Time spent on that should have spent on the MC portrayal.
- No hachi, I guess because his arms they didn't bother with him and no johnny and yosaku In the credits they named someone Hachi w, Johnny and Yosaku missing, I don't mind them missing for their personalities, but for heir failed revenge for Nami and how they stopped the villagers from a suicidal attack. I loved those scenes.
- Luffy felt weak and it felt like he couldn't beat arlong. Luffy at the beginning was already pretty strong and ready for the grand line It's not just that he appeared way too weak, it was also that there was no emotional climax during any of his fights. No rage at how Kuro treated his crew, no obstacle vs Krieg's armor, No rage on how Arlong made Nami cry. His immunity to blunt attacks was absent as well. Pretty much every of his fight was, gomu gomu no pistol being caught a few times, thrown around, finisher move. No emotional peak. Neither for him, nor for other characters. How much of an impact on budget/time would it have been to include him pushing the furniture/maps out of Nami's cell for her to react to? Probably insignifact, but emotionally very worthwhile.
- Zoro no naming his moves, maybe he will in the future I guess that joke will come back to bite them in the future. w
- Zoro made the promise to luffy that he wouldn't never lose again but they skipped when he called him pirate king already believing in him True.
- Nami's village didn't knew about her sacrifice. I didn't like that Changing that was borderline criminal from the writers. No idea why. They didn't even bother to include them at Arlong Park. I'm not asking them to be included in the fight, just their perspective from normal humans would have been worth so much. Without that it barely felt like an obstacle instead of something humans shouldn't been able to.
- Nami asking for help was underwhelming, it is still one of my favorite scenes Randomly dopping in the field was lame, at least let her see the burning village first. But then again, most of Luffy's and Nami's interactions were missing, so I doubt that scene could have ever had the emotional peak it deserved.
- No arlong park walk Only thing from Arlong Park walk I care about is the Johnny and Yosaku scene. Rest has always been anime only.
there may others but that were the most that I noticed.
Main protags casting (Iñaki, Mackenyu, Emily, Jacob & Taz). They nailed it. And major props to Jeff Ward who went all-out portraying Buggy and it paid off. And another props for McKinley Belcher III (Arlong), Steven John Ward (Mihawk), Morgan Davies (Koby) & Vincent Regan (Garp) for doing their own version of the characters so well. I didn't know I needed a Welsh Garp but here we are. Also, Peter Gadiot (Shanks) felt like Ryan Gosling's (Ken from Barbie) younger brother.
Production value is great. The sets are on point most of the time. The costumes & appearance mostly fit the characters and the VFX is pretty good.
Fight choreography is good for the most part.
Music is good.
The Bad:
Whoever played Alvida was so bad. I encourage them to recast the shit outta her.
Some of the fights are a bit slow considering we live in a world post The Matrix, The Raid, IP Man, John Wick and even Shang Chi. Zoro vs Mr. 7 felt like a LARP fight. Some parts of the fights in Morgan's base, vs Kuro & vs Arlong also felt rather lame.
Usopp's arc felt dragged out while Sanji's arc felt rushed. They really could use some rearrangment there.
The Ugly:
The way Luffy shout after putting his straw hat on Nami was so cringe I actually covered my face. That's the part that they could've just left on the cutting-room floor.