So, just finished the series. Liked it overall. Absolutely loved Mihawk and Buggy. Mihawk for being exactly like he was in the manga, and Buggy for changes which actually made him more interesting not to mention the actor for Buggy absolutely hit it out of the park. Garp was controversial, but I can see where they are going with him and its not necessarily a bad place, and they can do it without breaking canon. Coby was serviceable.

As for the strawhats... Nami was hands down the standout, though it baffles me why they would change her backstory the way they did. Her character did have more emotional beats to hit and the actress did a fantastic job. The minor changes to Luffy worked well for the live action and does make him more palatable, same with Sanji, though his emotional bits were nowhere near as hard-hitting as they were in the manga or the anime. Usopp needed a bit more... but well you cannot have everything.

Overall 8/10 and I cannot wait to see more, partly because I know what's coming next.

 

We talked about it in the upcoming movies/tv thread. Overall consensus seems to be that it was the best live action anime adaptation ever (which isn't a high bar), and pretty good on its own merits.

 

Eh, it was fine.

They clearly put alot into the first 3 episodes, but there was a steady decline in quality in the last 3 episodes as a result.

I really think they did Ussop dirty.

If I had never read One Piece I would be very confused. Why would this guy take some random ass people, to his best friend's house? To make it worse, Nami and Zoro were a hundred percent willing to steal from her. Shit Nami literally gets caught fucking red handed stealing from her.

what the fuck does Ussop even do to earn the respect of the crew? In the original source, Ussop earns the crews respect because he chose to step up. depsite how fucking scared he was, he chose to actually stand up to an invading force of murderous pirates. THAT, is what earned him a spot on the crew.

Let's go to Sanji. Why does Sanji pledge his services and life to luffy? Luffy barely does anything to earn his respect, except telling him his food his great. Which, I guarantee anyone else on the restaurant would probably tell Sanji the same thing.

Again, this was another instance where the show didn't get the point the original source was trying to make.

Nami's story was also bungled. I don't know about you guys, but one of the reasons Arlong park really hit for me was because Nami had a two way relationship with the villagers. Both sides were making active sacrifices for each other. Nojiko getting tatts in solidarity with her sister.
Not gonna lie, I was taken aback with Nami storing her treasure in her mother's grave, that was some seriously depraved shit tbh. It only makes it worse because her sister genuinely belives that Nami is a heartless bitch who joined the people who killed their mother and took over their village.

You have to remember that in live action, all Nojiko knows is that her sister was a selfish entitled child who didn't consider her family and that was the last thing she told her before joining the terrorist, racist pirates.

We never truly feel Nami's desperation. So that iconic, "Luffy, help me" scene doesn't hit as hard.

Lastly, Including Garp was a mistake. I kind of don't like the casting. Why does he have a scottish(is it scottish?) accent, but Luffy has a mexican accent?

All in all, the show is different enough and respectful enough of the original source, that I can comfortably enjoy it as its own thing.
As far as I'm concerned, there is the Manga/Anime universe and ther is a live action universe where Luffy is smarter, empathetic and throws out marvel style quips.

The manga/anime are its own separate thing, and that's ok.

I just hope next season, they get more episodes. So they can flesh out these characters and do them justice.

 

As someone who only watched to Arlong park from years ago and barely remembered anything, I thought the show was great. Some uncanny valley moments bug easily overlooked.

Glad I get to experience the story without having to spend 80 episodes on arcs.

 

I generally like it and eagerly await the next season, but there's plenty of nits I can still pick. Almost everybody's character felt a little bit off.

Zoro was the worst offender. His tone of voice was all wrong. He was way too quiet and detached all the way through. Zoro's gruff, not aloof and it doesn't take that much for him to raise his voice. Things improve a little once Sanji arrives but it just felt they were trying too hard to make him seem cool. He's just not stupid enough here.

Also they really skipped over developing his relationship with Luffy. In episode 2 Zoro talks about how Luffy's changed his perspective but nothing's happened to do that yet. Zoro only seemed to join because he had nothing better to do.

Nami felt too serious and miserable. It felt like everything with Arlong consumed the rest of her personality. I don't recall ever getting the sense that she was greedy on her own merits or anything like that. When Sanji tried to flirt with her she acted confused rather than immediately trying to exploit him. At least that's something that could be rectified in the next season.

Usopp felt generic. I never really got the sense that he was cowardly, he just came off as a normal guy.

Sanji also felt pretty bare-bones. Skipping all the stuff with Krieg really stopped them from being able to flesh out his personality. I don't think they ever even established that he hates wasting food and will feed even known enemies. The flashback was just to establish his loyalty to Zeff. That bit where Zeff threw out Sanji's dish really rubbed me the wrong way. Also this Sanji's way too nice.

Some other things: Kuro's plan here was idiotic. Rather than staging a pirate attack on the entire island and Kaya being one of those killed in the chaos, he's just going to stab her death on her birthday and inherit everything. How does he expect to escape suspicion for this?

Mihawk being sent to the Baratie, rather than just turning up out of nowhere. Really makes the whole world feel smaller in scale and like everything revolves around the protagonists.

 

> Some other things: Kuro's plan here was idiotic. Rather than staging a pirate attack on the entire island and Kaya being one of those killed in the chaos, he's just going to stab her death on her birthday and inherit everything. How does he expect to escape suspicion for this?

Pretty sure the original plan was 'the disease got worse, she sadly passed away', as demonstrated by the poison Luffy drank. The stabbing was his plan failing. I actually enjoyed the episodes when I really disliked the original saga in the manga, so I think the change is for the better.

 

Why did he feel so pressed for time? Why not just poison her next week once the pirates were gone? If Merry just asking questions about the will ruined everything, the plan wasn't a great one.

Yeah, the original arc was weak but at least the scheme was solid.

 

They've announced a Season 2

 

Chopper is going to be nightmare fuel.

 

Oda: It'll take a while to get the scripts ready:

So I guess the producers saying that the season 2 scripts are already finished lied.

I hope Netflix gives into the strikes, so we can not have this ruined by a lack of writers.

 

Huh. Unexpected, but nice.

Hopefully S2 gets even more people excited.

 

Watched it. Honestly expected a lot worse after reading the reviews here.

Sure, it can't avoid some live-action adaptation pitfalls, and does look silly in places. It also absolutely does lose a lot of nuance and some of the motivations, etc etc. Even so, while rough around the edges, it stayed true to the spirit, was clearly made with love, and was a fun watch.

The Garp-Koby B-plot might have seemed like a weird choice now, but if this sticks the landing and goes long-term it will have been good in retrospect.

Mihawk was absolutely top-tier. Casting and costuming in general was exceptional.

Spoiler

I genuinely don't remember if Garp shows up in Arlong Park in the originals, but seeing him effortlessly beat Luffy's ass into the ground was immensely satisfying, easily the best fight of the season and a great way to cap things off.

All in all, I am pleasantly surprised at his, however flawed it was. Eagerly awaiting season 2.

 

He does not.

But the reveal of his relationship to the cast is revealed like 600 chapters into the story in the original

 

I watched up to Arlong Park years ago. Enjoyed but never continued. Now, as I’m older, the thought of starting an anime/manga as large as one piece is daunting and just not a time commitment I can make.

This show feels like a great way to experience One Piece without having to spend so much time on it.

 

The manga would go much faster, time-wise.

 

The manga is also of a much higher quality than the anime

 

I tried to get into the manga. This show is better than the manga or the anime. You can also stomach Luffey's voice.

 

BLASPHEMY!! But I get your point. They made the live action to capture that particular audience. Manga takes some getting used to. That said, changing some of the backstories just made no sense and took away some of the depth.