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Reviews
One Piece: The Chef and the Chore Boy (2023)
Mixed feelings with this one...
On one hand, the episode itself is great, maybe lacking a bit of emotional value but still effective. On the other hand, if you compare it to the original work, you become desperate because, oh boy, it could have been muuuch better.
The consequences of not bringing Gin and Krieg to the arc are far too great. With this decision, they shifted the whole narrative and took Sanji's arc from him.
Making Sanji leave because of a tantrum was probably the worst of everything. In the manga, Sanji witnesses firsthand how Zoro and Luffy fight, putting their lives on the line, while Zeff reminds him of what really matters in this world: following your dreams. At the end, Zeff and the cooks throw Sanji's soup to the floor (despite not throwing food being a strong theme in the arc) to make him leave and fulfill his dream. This only works because we see the antagonism between Patty, Zeff, Sanji and the rest of the cooks in their philosophies. Their friendly enmity makes their bond strong, and it only works because Gin and Krieg are there. This synergy makes the farewell hit 300 times harder, but sadly, here it's just another bye-bye; we only care about it because of Sanji's flashback, which doesn't even mention the main point of his character. I could comment more on that matter, but I'd be summarizing the whole arc in the manga, and it's just better to see it for yourselves.
Following through, Garp's tantrum made no sense. Were they trying to imitate something from the manga? I don't know, but it was definitely not great. I hope it doesn't happen again.
Arlong is more decent than I thought. While it's not great, it's not bad enough to criticize, so I'm cool with it.
Luffy seems way too sensible here. Sure, he's sensible, but he's not easily depressed. It feels weird to have these kinds of feelings so early on, but oh well, at least they don't really contradict anything.
It's a good episode, but it leaves a bad taste in my mouth, especially because I wanted to see a lot of the Baratie come to life. At least I know the ones who are here for the first time will enjoy it, so that's great!
One Piece: Eat at Baratie! (2023)
The best of the first five episodes!
Wow, I didn't expect the live action to exclude one of my favorite characters, Gin, and still make me love the episode. From beginning to end, it's perfection with very, very minor issues that don't affect the plot at all.
The dialogue was fluid and immersive, something that I felt the series lacked until now. The acting gains another level with the kitchen; I absolutely loved Patty, Sanji and Zeff. Mihawk might be the only one who acts too theatrically, but who cares? It's Mihawk, he's cool no matter what he does.
I see they tried to replicate the Zoro scene in the manga, with posture and all. It was emotive, but they should have aimed for a more natural approach to avoid making weird shots.
Spectacular non-canonical content. The conversation between Nami and Zoro was perfect; I can imagine it in the manga like it was there in the first place.
The first Garp scene didn't even bother me; we finally see some of Garp's real personality. Great stuff. My only complaint would be Garp's argument about the warlords. While half of it aligns with what the real character is, I don't think he would be collaborating with warlords that easily. It kind of contradicts his fierce speech back in episode 2. The scriptwriters tried to experiment, and while the content is good, they need to take care of the continuity so they don't contradict themselves.
That would be it, really. Top-notch episode that actually made me feel like I was seeing a top-tier series. It's amazing they could pull this off despite it being a live action. Of One Piece. Cheff kiss... now more than ever.
One Piece: The Pirates Are Coming (2023)
Much better than episode 3!
I was accurate when I said episode 3 was the black sheep of the series. This episode felt much more One Piece than the last one, with better-crafted scenes and a much better emotional grounding. I absolutely loved Luffy being serious with Koby; for a second, I felt like I was witnessing the very same character I fell in love with in the manga. Having said that, it's time to comment on what could have been better!
Firstly, as much as I love Jacob, his acting felt a bit off during his scenes, probably due to the fast pacing that forced him to overreact and try too hard to be believable.
Kuina's flashback was good, but given how short the original content was, I was expecting some kind of improvement. It's good, but I think it's worth mentioning. However, it did feel out of place, but I guess it's better than cramping Episode 1 with a lot of content. Anyway, if they can elevate future flashbacks, especially the ones that are very short and simple, it would be a huge hit.
The Koby's trial that was supposed to happen in episode 1 happens here. It leaves a good scene, but that's it. For the most part, it feels like this Garp storyline is just there without actually doing anything substantial. I hope it gets better. On a different note, Helmeppo's actor is always a delight to see.
I liked Kurahadol's take here. Giving him a bit more emotion when mentioning Kaya's parents was great, especially since in the manga it's not clear if he ever had any empathy for them. Now it's clear he had. The biggest problem is, of course, the same as in the last episode. The Morgan storyline isn't resolved because, well, there's no Jango and they can't explain it. There's not a plan, and that's a huge miss because Kuro's character is all about plans. The dialogue was good for the most part; the CGI felt cheap, but that's probably because the camerawork was clumsy when trying to hide the imperfections of Kuro's fighting style. Still a very enjoyable fight.
Usopp was probably the worst part of the episode because of the missing content. In the manga, there are a lot of things that complement his character. For starters, he's always brave; he stops fearing death as soon as his village is threatened. Here, he looks like a scaredy-cat, and he never does anything worth mentioning. In the manga, he actually defeats Jango and saves Kaya. All these bits that strengthened Usopp's relationship with the village and Kaya don't exist in the live action, so the farewell doesn't hit as much as it should, especially since there are no Usopp pirates to make us cry (probably the worst mistake of these two episodes). Although there is something at the end that is nice and confirms a thing we fans have been wondering since the very release of this arc in the manga, more than 20 years ago, hehe. Better watch it yourself. Anyway, all these misses regarding Usopp's character directly affect the tone of the arc, making the bigger scenes lack emotional value. Especially when Luffy and Zoro push Usopp to join, it feels weird because their dynamics were poorly portrayed. None of them actually saw Usopp's sharpshooter skills (which only happen in one instance), so it felt very weird. Another relevant point would be Usopp wanting to be a real pirate, especially the captain. Both his admiration for Yasopp and the Usopp pirates helped to build Usopp's dream to go out to the seas and be a brave pirate, and now that that's mostly gone, it feels like Usopp didn't really join, more like he's a bypasser. One particular scene that lacks context is when he wants to be the captain of the strawhats, which comes out of nowhere because the Usopp pirates never existed.
It's a shame that the lowest points of this two-episode arc were the antagonist (Kuro) and the main side character (Usopp), but they managed to deliver a good episode regardless. With this, faith is restored, and we keep sailing. To the next island!
One Piece: The Man in the Straw Hat (2023)
Incredible episode, but the issues become more obvious
Amazing episode! I liked the pilot, but this one took the grand prize. How they elevated Buggy's character, the intertwining between the flashbacks and the current storyline and Nami's change of view towards Luffy were made wonderfully; some may say it's even better than the original scenes in the manga. But at the same time, the two major problems this series has had have become crystal clear. The reason why I'll focus on the mistakes rather than what is good is because I'm already giving this project a 10 star rating, but the writers need to know what the audience feels, especially the fans, after watching some of the content that didn't suit us well.
The first main problem is that the pacing kills the world-building. Not only for the world itself but for the main characters. Their traits don't have time to sink in since the dialogues are way too short and explicit, almost like they're reading a summary of their real performances. But of course, it's not only that; the citizens and side characters are also forgotten.
The manga was always careful to make every island the strawhats visited a very special place, with memorable characters that we will definitely want to see again. The first episode already had a problem turning Rika into a brief plot point to make the story advance, but that wasn't as relevant because Romance Dawn was never intended to create strong characters. However, in this episode, all we see is a circus tent. We get a glimpse of the village, but it's reduced to dust. The only sense of world-building we have is from the mayor, who has minor lines in the episode. From the amazing content Oda gave us in the manga for characters like Shushu and Boodle, now they're reduced to mere Buggy victims that can only wait for their demise. Some may say that their content wasn't as good as what we got in the live action, but it did completely kill the world-building for Orange Town. This is a mistake they can't make again if they want this series to work.
Following this very same problem, the same applied for Morgan in this episode. While we know from episode 1 that he is a narcissist, he did well arresting Zoro for injuring marine soldiers. Even if Helmeppo started the argument by simply being stupid, Zoro was definitely provoking him to make the scene happen. Morgan's corruption wasn't very well portrayed, and that's why the scene in this episode felt out of place. If they want to make a point with these characters, they first need to dedicate enough time to them to make them shine. Otherwise, it won't work.
The second main problem is the non-canonical events, especially the ones that affect the narrative. While innovating is always good, and this episode was handled perfectly, they need to take care about the themes that they introduce. Buggy being creepy is fine, but pushing a storyline where he tries to make people love him despite his goals and traits having nothing to do with that takes time that could be focused on the real theme of this episode, which is treasures. I felt like they sacrificed some of Buggy's depth for aesthetic purposes. While in the manga everything that happens reinforces one theme (Shushu guarding his treasure, Boodle fighting for his treasure, Gaimon accepting the animals as his real treasure, Buggy leaving a crew fooling them for mere money, Luffy accepting the villagers rage despite them being wrong because he acknowledges their love for their treasure), this anime episode had to rely on flashbacks to make the point more clear. It wasn't bad, but it could have been that and way more. I think this could have been easily handled with more time to create more storylines, but I understand the East Blue is difficult to recreate in this short span of time.
Following that, they tried to make a scene of Zoro's views changing, but in the ending of the last episode, he has the same attitude that he had at the beginning. Nothing really happened to make him have a change of heart, so that felt out of place and like a sorry attempt to make Zoro's path to joining the crew more special. They already changed Zoro's character; the least they can do is do it correctly. Show, don't tell! And be coherent.
I feel I will be doing these super long reviews for every episode, but it is important that we remain critics despite our love for this series. We want the second season to be even better!
One Piece: Romance Dawn (2023)
A good beginning for this series
I give the episode 10 stars because it is deserving of praise after delivering what seems to be a good adaptation of one of the most difficult animes to take into life.
The action scenes were perfect, the scenery was astonishing, the acting was on point, and, while they disrespected the original source (regretfully), it still holds up.
The only real problem would be not giving enough fluid dialogue between the characters and better pacing between scenes; instead, occasionally they spit and condense the original lines into the scenes so they can cover as much content as they can, resulting in awkward moments here and there.
This would be the case for the first conversations between two of the main characters, Koby and Luffy, where they try to build the themes that surround them the same way the original work did instead of letting them express themselves in a more realistic fashion. And of course, the omission of some scenes made the connection between these two characters feel less believable.
Outside of that, I do not feel like the changes they made worsened the experience. The dialogues though, are poorly translated from the manga to the series, almost like an amateur was in charge of them. However, they added original content, and I'm more than sure it will satisfy the fans. Don't be scared, this isn't a bad live action at all!