Oh Boy Do I Have Feelings | One Piece Live Action Episodes 3-6
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- Опубліковано 6 вер 2024
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please read the novel known as "lord of the mysteries" it is a really good webnovel with amazing worldbuilding ,lore and characters
on behalf of the whole lord of the mystries fandom please at least consider it
@@remero_0 On behalf of the human race, you dont need to repeat yourself unless someone asked what you said.
@@remero_0 We heard you the first time.
@@lanmandragoran8337 sorry dude
I love that Zoro asks why they are taking the waiter and Usopp answers because we don't know how to boil water
I like the waiter substitute for twirly brow.
In the Spanish dub he says because they even burn water lol
@@CloudyMagpieLMFAO and its true😭
Usopp is me when I was 15 and would burn water
@@CloudyMagpieLuffy finds a way
Idk why, but that scene where Sanji asks if Zeff just wants him to quit, and Zeff says "quitting is staying here," really got me. That was excellent.
Zoro continuously calling Sanji a waiter, especially when others refer to him as a cook just cracked me up every time! It's the little things sometimes. :)
It makes it all the better that there's a good reason for that - the fact he was unconscious for Sanji's entire backstory and only woke up after he was joining the crew. The last he knew, Sanji was just his waiter during dinner the day before.
Yea I loved how they handled this funny rivalry & gags between them in general, the actors nailed that aspect as well
@@danielbroome5690tru😂
@@danielbroome5690And not even a good waiter. He just showed up and started insulting everything, then turned on the rizz for Nami. I'd be annoyed with him too.
I loved the fact they went with a psycho horror/slasher vibe with Syrup Village. The guy who played Kuro was so unhinged it was amazing
I’m really not trying to harp on this, but did it bug you when he didn’t kill Kia or Nami but holding them both in his hands it felt a lot more like Scooby Doo
If Freddy Kreuger had a cat fetish and cosplayed a buttler. Do you enjoy this nugget?
Agree with both of you 😂. Never liked syrup village and didn't expect much from this part in the live action. But it turned out to work quite well in my opinion.... Even though it was a bit cheesy ❤
Sure, but why take away Usopps hero moment of him having to fight alone to save his own village?
It's such an important part for Usopps character to take consequences for his lies
@@MarkFilipAnthony I agree that Usopp is downplayed, but you cannot reject that he had consequences for his lies - nobody, including Kaija, believed in him about Kuro. Also his hero moment was when he decided to stay and guard Kaija, although it was not as big as I too wanted - overall for Usopp centric arc, Usopp was too less concentrated on, he needed 1 or 2 strong moments, when he was a coward, so when decided to stay, it hit stronger.
I want a shirt that says "oregano is for savages" on it so bad lol. One of my favorite lines in the show.
This was the one line in the show that made both my wife and I laugh out loud.
We’ll be quoting this in the kitchen for years haha
I would add "And I'm one of them"
I took offense at that 😂
To defend Kuros plan in the manga. He wanted to pin the death of Kaya and Merry on the pirate attack of the black cat pirates, because no one would find it suspicious if people died during an attack
I guess that works for the live action as well. There wasn't a Black Cat Pirates attack planned on the village as in the manga, but Kuro did have reasonable scapegoat in Strawhats when Luffy introduced them as pirates. When it became clear Merry wouldn’t, without Kaya’s confirmation, accept moving the shipyard assets to Klahadore, he needed to be removed from the equation. Having had the Strawhat pirates over at the manor gave Kuro a simple and fast solution. Then some other lawyer (who’s not a close friend to Kaya’s family) could execute the fake will after the “tragic pirate attack” that killed both Kaya and Merry. Having some Strawhat bodies there also would just prove he did everything he could to protect miss Kaya.
@@WednesdayOrFriday good point
He decided to kill kaya before even the strawhats arrived. So no, the live action Kuro was dumb af
@@asced1860 Yes but the introduction of strawhats to the equation could have cause him to accelerate the process. Again none of this is stated, but I don't think this was as ridiculous of a plan as everyone is stating. With that said, I still don't like Kuro as a villain for other reasons, but it was never because I didnt think his plan would work.
@@asced1860 He was poisoning her to make her sick for years, so her dying would not have been a huge shock since everyone knew she was sick. The plan was fine. Luffy showing up allows him to pin things on them and make it far easier to get his plan to go flawlessly.
I definitely agree that they didn't emphasize Usopp's dream enough
When they declared their dreams legs up the barrel, it felt like he made up his dream on the spot
Honestly though, It might make Water 7 hit harder. Personally I watched the live action and then read the manga, and Water 7 was my absolute favorite part of the entire series. Usopp's uncertainness really adds to him doubting if he is on the right path with his journey with the straw hat crew.
As someone who hasn't read the manga or watched the anime and recently watched the live action it definitely seemed like usop had no dream and made one up on the spot
His only motivations or dreams if you can call them that are protecting his mom, the rich girl, and maybe finding his father
@@jetkirby Usopp is a much deeper character than the other 4 actually in the source material...especially becoz he is the most human and not very powerful but allas live action watchers will never know coz they chose to give him the short end of the stick for whatever reason🤦♂
I think Kuro works as a villain specifically because his plan is stupid. It's needlessly complicated and Kuro's weakness as a character is that he can't adapt to new situations. There were multiple ways to get what he wanted from Kaya and he didn't grab them because, well, he can't change the plan on the fly. Luffy is the opposite - he only adapts to the situations he finds himself in with zero caution. So even if I didn't really like him I respect all the parallels between him and Usopp, him and Luffy
My interpretation of "Kuro of the 100 Plans" was always that he needed that many plans because he couldn't come up with a single good one.
That actually sounds pretty plausible an explanation why an allegedly smart character makes so many stupid mistakes. He killed Merry because he had no plan for someone not buying his "perfect" story. He didn't hide the body, because having guests staying over was not in the plan. Then when he had perfect scapegoats in the house, a trio of openly piratical strangers, he jumped out of the shadows to confront Zoro, a swordsman, standing over a corpse with blade wounds; but instead of putting the blame on him and having the perfect excuse to get rid of the hinderance, he just has him knocked out (not even killed!) and dumped with the body; because he didn't think to take advantage of the opportunity...
If the show gets that far, he'd make a great foil to Blackbeard, too. Both are "mastermind" villains; but one makes convoluted plans too inflexible to accommodate any disruption, while the other doesn't really have big plans, just a list of goals, but is very good at spotting and using any opportunity to make those goals a reality... Which actually is part of the reason he's a good foil for Luffy too, now that I think about it. Damn, do people who never met him think Luffy's a diabolical genius that orchestrated every event he got caught up in? Sasuga Luffy-sama.
The cat duo have no excuse for not killing Zoro when he's unconscious, though. They're portrayed as dumb, but not nearly dumb enough to drop the ball like that.
Kuro had lots of plans and tended to fall back on "kill everyone" when they failed. I loved the anime/manga Kuro, and while I liked the LA actor, the plot for the episodes is pretty bad.
@darthralin Maybe the meowban siblings just expected the fall down the well to kill him and didn't plan for Zoro being that durable (or lucky)
@@darthralin "do people who never met him think Luffy's a diabolical genius that orchestrated every event he got caught up in"
Unironically yes. Probably mostly due to Morgans being such a cheerleader for Luffy. You can see a little bit of it in chapter 1090 after Luffy talks over the transponder, there's a panel of two Marines saying "He's a true monster!" and "Just as evil as the stories say!". The general perception of Luffy is much different to the reality.
that little smile from Nami when Zoro and Usopp are teasing her is one of my favorite little scenes, because Nami is letting herself think and hope for the first time since she was a kid, that she might have a chance for a normal life and friends
I can understand why people don't like the Syrup Village stuff in this. However interestingly my brother, who didn't like the anime Syrup Village, enjoyed this version more
im the same, idk why tho, but I liked the LA syrup village more than the anime
I like the fact that Merry stays dead instead of it being a fake out death like in the manga.
Because the anime was full of filler and dragged out. The manga Syrup village is 1000x better than the anime version
If Freddy Kreuger had a cat fetish and cosplayed a buttler. Do you enjoy this nugget? Next - if the shark from "Jaws" was a marine life supremacist.
Eh, it is more popcorn entertainment without having to use your brain. All the nuance and development is missing. Different strokes for different folks.
I think Murphy might have missed something in the Merry and Kuro discussion that led to his death. Kuro's decision to attack Merry isn't unprovoked.
Merry isn't telling Kuro that Kaya is giving him the shipyard but rather the opposite. Merry was told by Kuro that Kaya wants that to happen but Merry is insisting on confirming it directly with Kaya because it doesn't make sense.
Kuro is being pressured by Merry because if he does let them meet to discuss things, they'll realize something is wrong.
Yea she completely misinterpreted that conversation. She definitely was just looking for a reason to hate kuro
Zoro will always be my favorite in any media, but the live action Sanji is amazing. He did a great job and now he and Zoro are tied for my favorite in the live action. His dedication to the role is impressive.
I am pretty sure everyone has an equal level of dedication, Emily did her stunt and same for Inaki.
Taz did not have a martial arts and cuisine background, learning those is great.
For me, Zoro is my favorite in the original and still is my favorite in LA. Mackenyu has just too much presence and charisma.
I love his fighting scenes and funny lines.
Funnily enough, Sanji is next to my favorite in the animanga, but I like Zoro more in the LA.
I loved the addition of Nami and Kaya having 1 on 1 moments. The thing that bothers me most about this arc is that at the end Kaya is left ALL ALONE. Merry was killed for real and the Usopp Pirates were written out of the story so Usopp isn't telling them to be her friends and check in on her. So she's left all by herself! That's so shitty for her!
Dang, I haven't watched this part yet but it sucks they don't have the kids in there. They're kind of an important part of introducing Usopp's character as a liar and a wannabe leader.
Kayas small arc at the end is her learning to be self reliant. She even says she needs to learn how to fend for herself after usopp offers to stay.
However Usopp did offer to stay but Kaya told him no, and she wants to learn how to be by herself and not have to rely on anyone.
Beating the Bechdel Test before Vivi (or Nojiko, oof on abt that tho) is here
She wants to be alone. She spent three years with three psychopaths in the house, she doesn't want to have anyone around at the moment.
as someone who hasn't watched or read One Piece, I saw the Garp bits as more a Koby plotline and Garp was serving a multi-purpose: the connection to Luffy and deepening of how grey the world is to Koby plus being a good mentor.
I’m surprised you didn’t mention Nami’s scene with Kaya, which was a huge part of her development in the live action IMO. And Zoro’s fight with the cat pirates was legitimately one of the best choreographed fight scenes in the show
I spent that whole fight wanted to scream "use your 3 swords!" and he never did.
She did mention it but kinda brushed it off because of the Kuro rant. But yeah I really loved that scene too. We had a first glimpse of Nami’s ride or die character and it allowed Kaya to bond with her. It was a beautiful scene.
I think her absolute hatred for Kuro made her downplay a lot of the really good scenes from those episodes that she otherwise would have praised heavily.
@@eriana21 I never realised how much I wanted to see Nami bonding with more women before I saw the Kaya scene. It was really just so good.
Buchi and Sham were also surprisingly fun characters in this adaptation, haven't seen many people talking about them so maybe it's just me. Also yea, the fight with Zoro was fantastic
I totally agree I wanted more of sanji and luffy talking about dreams and gin. Wasn’t done bad in the anime but was just better in the manga and anime. Having gin try and threaten the barate to give him food and seem like this antagonist but having sanji still feed him is something I loved whereas him just being a stranded hungry guy asking for food is still fine but I think the original is more unique.
It does feel a LOT more significant when Gin comes guns blazing and then everyone (including Gin) tell him "hey, if you feed this guys they WILL double-cross you." The stakes are massively bigger. Its feeding the enemy versus a random person.
Also I really like Gin so it was a little disappointing. The juxtaposition between his loyalty and his sense of honor is really compelling.
Yeah while I do enjoy the live action I do feel, for sanji specifically, they glanced over/ignored a lot of small moments which at first glance don’t seem to major actually play a big part in defining who sanji is as a character. Him feeding gin despite him trying to kill them earlier, his pure malice towards someone wasting food (then compared with how he wasted food vs having to starve for days) and they completely glanced over the basis for his fighting style “a chef never dangers his hands”. Sanji is all about convictions and I feel the show needed to give these aspects of him more time to be shown. I really hope next season they increase the number of episodes from 8 to say 10 because the alabasta saga is much longer and some moments need to truly shine
I actually prefer syrup village in the live action than in the manga. But the live action can only do so much in trying to make syruo village entertaining while not straying too far from the source material
But they missed half the content, usopp is missing most of the reason why Luffy chose him in the first place. He didn't have a stand up to the villain moment where he was beaten badly etc etc it also wasn't emotional in any capacity
Syrup village is a weaker arc. But cmon the lack of emotional impact from Usopp really hurt. The Usopp pirate crew not being there is ass. It ruins so much emotional impact. And it being basically a Zoro arc. Yuck. It’s my least favourite part of the LA. Because it just ruins any emotional connection to Usopp in my opinion.
Usopp has been made the most forgettable character in the live action due to all of these changes
How can say this? I don’t know what show people are watching but the live action version is not good at all
What I thought didn't really hit in Baratie is Sanji not watching Zoro vs Mihawk, and the missed fight of Luffy vs Don Kreig. Along with Zeff's commentary on those fights about our crew's motivations for fighting for their dreams.
In my opinion, these were actually very compelling reasons for Sanji also chasing after his dreams.
tbh i love how people who've never watched one piece before are enjoying the live action. for people that can't stop comparing the anime and the live action, they might not enjoy the show as much compared to the ones who are watching one piece for the first time.
Honestly I enjoyed the live action a lot. I'm kinda glad it's different from the anime and manga. Those things still exist. I can go back to them whenever for my umpteenth re-read. This was new and cool.
I love the anime, but I also love the Live Action. I love that they changed stuff - because watching the LA is fresh. It's interesting to see what they kept in, what they cut, and what Oda said they could cut - because that shows what's REALLY important to the storyline. RIP Gin. Never seeing that boy in the Grand Line, I guess. o7
It also gives old fans going into the Live Action something new to experience, with some highs and some lows - and new fans going into the main series a bunch of new surprises ahead to experience too. I've already seen a few reactors saying they want to watch the anime/read the manga after seeing the LA. One of them even started today and is all :O about the changes so far (he's just met Zoro, so he's not too far in yet). "Luffy's much meaner in the anime!" was his first observation. XD
As a One Piece fan, this is how it should be.
I thought the syrup village "arc" was such an improvement over the manga, and i loved Kaya and Usopp's relationship with her
why?
@@asced1860 well, I didn't care about the children so it's fine that they got removed, I love the added scenes with Kaya, the Nyan siblings were much better and more memorable characters, kuro was really cool to watch, and it was generally more streamlined. Couple things were iffy, sure, like Usopp's backstory was super short and Zoro's backstory didn't fit at all, and knocking out Zoro with a bottle was strange, but overall it was really nice to watch
I really like that Sanji's over-the-top tendency was toned down in live-action. He just come off as more geninuely compassionate and charming than his manga counterpart in East Blue Saga, which aligns more with his later and more established characterization.
They also toned down ALOT of his better features and story beats as well.
@@talalahsan6824like?
- Gin scene was not handled well at ALL
- Very little screen time , him joining didn't even feel like a big moment.
- Nami , Zoro get better moments even in his "arc"
- There was no real motivation for Sanji to join the crew , he just did and felt like he did it because of a tanturm.
- Feels like a side character to 3 main one in Luffy/Zoro/nami.
- They cut important things like Sanji watching the Zoro vs Mihawk fight and Zeff telling him about chasing his dream etc
@@FalconPinch27
His character is all about being unapologetically himself, so I kind of like him over the top. I think the whiplash readers get from Sanji is comedic in its own right, and knowing all of it is genuine is at times endearing. That said, the live action also shows him to be extremely genuine in everything he feels, and I get why they cut it down.
But even if they don’t make him act all cartoony- and of course the perv stuff has to go- they could have written his actions to be more extreme and didn’t get many opportunities because they cut Don Krieg (choosing to die defending the Baratie and having Luffy reprimand him for it was a major point of interest for me at his introduction, as well as choosing to feed violent criminals despite the risks they pose to his home. It’s a major contradiction because Sanji is entirely all or nothing with his codes of conduct, and having Gin be more of a victim in this situation I think undersold just how strong that drive is.)
I think they could have spent more time focusing on his fiercer side than they did (because, tbh, Zeff’s low key guilt tripping him to leave and having it work felt a little off, where as in the manga/anime Sanji not only realized Zeff wanted the best for him, but saw how determined the straw hats were to achieve their own dreams when Zeff’s word alone wasn’t enough to break his iron grip). I’d say live action Sanji is a pretty good marker for the manga character in a ‘neutral’ state- but we’ve really only focused on his daydreaming / loving side, with his anger being a little more typical of anyone in his situation. His character is defined by his steadfast / overly-passionate demeanor, so giving more time to see his resolve to stay at the Baratie break down and his desire to leave overcome it would have justified his sudden presence and devotion to the ship a little more. Like, if they showed him being willing to die for the Baratie, it would have meant more to have the Straw Hats earn his loyalty and faith, and shown that his bonds are the kinds he takes to the extremes. I don’t dislike the live action portrayal and think Taz Skylar did a good job- but Sanji (and Usopp for that matter) legit just needed more to do that the live action didn’t have time for.
I like what they're doing with the Marine subplot of this season just because I feel like it does a good job emphasizing the outlaw nature of what Luffy's doing as a pirate. It feels more like they're being actively hunted rather than just running from whatever marines they happen to run into, and it has me SUPER hopeful that season 2 will have some more emphasis on Smoker's chase as a result
I cried at the Sanji parting scene as well. Phenomenal
I feel like we barely know Sanji during the arc even with the flashback.
With this live action im getting amazed with every interpretation of feelings people got from it. Some people feeling the hit, some not, some feeling it in one place, some in other places. Some liking certain parts and some other parts. The live action is Just like an amazing new reminder of like in one piece how different people are and that none of those opinions and feelings is wrong. Because all of that is validated with that person’s experience and preference. I love it! ❤ I really love it! And especially love when people who don’t know this world are feeling it. ❤
Personally, Kuro being cheesy kinda made him more entertaining for me, like he was waiting all this time to show his true colors so he was just having fun with it. Also, for Luffy knowing what was going on, I think he was half-conscious, so he kind of knew what was happening, but didn’t have the energy to do anything
Yeah, the Luffy thing - that's what I got too. I don't think Kuro was stupid, he just ran into an issue a lot of people who get set into their plans do - they find that they want to stick to the same plan even when things go wrong, so keep trying to 'get it back on the rails' only to ultimately fail because they can't be flexible enough to go "Okay, this isn't working, let's do something different instead." Like, the guy tried but kept wanting to keep the plan in place EXACTLY on the same day, same time as he wanted it to happen. Got no patience, that one.
Let's be honest, he should have just went "Okay, so we have guests staying over... let's put the plan off for a day or two, until they leave." But because he was so immersed in the Plan, he wouldn't. And thus, he failed. It's a very normal, very real thing that people do. I don't hate it. It says so much about his character and his pride in his ability to create and push plans through in the past.
Personally, what bothered me the most about the syrup village adaptation was the erasure of usopp's big moments!! specially bc it’s HIS arc!!
@@kyeda In the context of these eight episodes, they're his arc, they're his introduction as a character, and he should have had more to do.
@@kyeda Nah, we just need to wait until Water 7
Hopefully they expand him on little garden with the giants.
@@TyRendition yea some even tho in the manga hes a wimpy and runs from fight i hope they make ussop a cooler guy make him crafty and witty with his fights make it so that ppl really pump their fists when he wins
@@LoveJatttit's funny, cause they didn't make him a coward thus reducing his room to grow but they also completely threw away his inventor side. Now he's just an adorkable fast talker, which he wasn't really in the manga.
I really like how they changed Kaya to have more agency - and how the exclusion of the veggie pirates and the death of Merry actually feeds into it
Feel like that focus on kaya should have been put on usopp
On the flip side, Usopp loses agency. Him fighting to save his village is cut entire
Things I loved in these episodes:
Sanji telling his story to Luffy, and having the parallels between them as they both had someone willing to give up a limb for them.
Usopp being a goof at the bar. It added a lot more breathing room.
Luffy's change of mood when Zoro gets hurt. I love how that makes him not hungry when Luffy is all about food.
Mihawk's design. That casting was so good!
The music style was my favorite part. Whenever Buggy shows up, music that's sounds like it's out of a carnival would play, which is so perfect for a clown. And when the crew comes to the restaurant, swing music starts to play, since that's Sanji's theme.
Speaking of the music, the opening themes with the title changes were also really good!
Things I didn't like as much:
I find it kind of weird that Luffy sees Sanji fight before he gives the meal to Gin. Luffy seems to be in awe of Sanji's fighting style.
In the source material, Zoro was more cheerful before the fight. However, after the Mohawk fight, that's when he became stoic, because he realized that he isn't strong enough. But when you have a character who's stoic almost all the time, it kinda loses the impact a little for me.
Another nitpick I have is Sanji not seeing the fight. When he sees Zoro, *he's* the one saying that it's reckless instead of Nami, and that "it's easy to give up on your ambition." I feel as if this is important because seeing Zoro was one of the reasons Sanji decided to join because despite their bantering, Sanji respects Zoro which will be important in later arcs.
I think the Garp plot line is fine, just has a lot of focus.
I’m sorry maybe I’m a little conservative with this story which I love but for me Luffy wouldn’t actually pay attention to a whole conversation about someone’s past he would immediately lost interest and probably fall sleep, I love this about Luffy’s character because he doesn’t actually keep record on their past he just understand they’ve been going through a lot. Excuse my English if I mess it up.
@@lygonzaldi5902
No worries! Yeah, I do agree that Luffy would immediately fall asleep. He actually did that in Arlong Park as well because he didn't care about Nami's past. But in the LA, he listened to Nojiko's story? Which makes his eventual confrontation with Nami even more confusing.
Man I LOVED Kuro here. I thought the goofy/cheesy vibes from him and his crew were the perfect example of camp done RIGHT. Like, obviously in a more serious show it would stick out like a sore thumb, but in this I LOVED it. Couldn’t get enough. Kuro was arguably a top 5 character for me in this show. Of course the plan was stupid, but to be fair, it’s always been stupid.
My only real gripe was them just… not killing Zoro? Maybe they thought the fall down the well would kill him, but it was wild that they wouldn’t at least check to make sure he’s dead or anything. That’s the one thing that even through all the cheese I thought was just TOO much.
No hate. To each their own and all, but I thought he was brilliant.
Yeah totally agree!!! Give me that campy shit all day long 🔥
Maybe leaving him alive was the point, after all someone needs to take the fall for all the killing, why not the newly wanted pirate who happens to be in town?
I really think it was a case of Kuro expecting that they'd 'deal with him' by slitting his throat or something, and them, being the semi-incompetent people that they are, just figured the fall would kill him. Which... if this weren't One Piece, and fiction, likely would have. Being dropped on your head into a well? Yeah. XDDD
@@7thlittleleopard7that’s what I thought to tbh.
Gotta agree
I just assumed that Luffy was conscious after eating the soup but was in the state you're in when you're really sick.
I love Merphy telling us her husbands reaction. Its soooo wholesome😆
One of the thoughts I had about the Live Action is: that they shot it during the pandemic, and I think that the fish-eye face close-up scenes are a result of not being able to have many people in a closed space. The cutting down of the originally planned 10 episodes to 8, makes me think that they were highly restricted in the number of people and extras, maybe even local government restriction which resulted in them cutting parts of the story, improvising, and patching together scenes.
i really liked how cheesy kuro was personally. it fits his megalomaniacal character and how he thinks he's so much smarter than he really is
Last Friday: "I will watch these slowly and upload one video per 2 episodes every Friday"
Monday: "I watched 4 and here is the video" xD
i 100% agree with the syrup village criticisms. The only thing I'll say is regarding their "decision" to spend 2 episodes on this mansion, I don't think it was necessarily their decision. I think they probably spent more time here because dark, indoor settings are easier and cheaper to film in that on an outdoor floating set like the Baratie so the length of this arcs was probably down to budget and practicality. They still could have done a better job with Ussop's story though, that was the roughest part of the LA for me...
Same with the Garp storyline. They are almost certainly giving Garp's story more time because his and Coby's scenes can generally be shot independently from the Strawhat's scenes so they are easier to shoot and can even be filmed at the same time to help meet deadlines. It would be amazing to get more Strawhats and less Garp but in reality that would mean more shooting days for the main cast who probably have full schedules and that would mean rushing the the rest of their scenes to fit it all in. Plus, even with its bad parts, I think overall the Marine storyline is a net win because it really focuses more on Coby's growth than on Garp.
The whole season consistently spent 2 episodes on each major location, so for better or worse it probably was just what you say: budget and practicality.
Honestly, Syrup Village has always been one of my least favourite arcs in the manga, so I like the way it was handled in the Live Action. It was probably still the weakest part, but I think they did well with what they had.
They took away all emotional impact with Usopp in the changes though, making us care less about why he joined
The lows of anime Syrup Village were pretty low I'll agree with that, but the highs were insanely high as well. The live action version just kind of leveled it out towards the medium. Like the lows in live action aren't nearly as bad but the highs are also not there.
@@2changotb That's kinda how I feel about the live action as a whole. Because it's so fast paced the lows don't stick with you and some improvements to writing smooth out the lows but the highs aren't nearly as earned and so the whole experience is leveled out. In Syrup Village they made Kuro more competent and made his plan make more sense... but they cut my favorite scene with Kuro. Him putting on the Klahadore persona to talk down Kaya when she had a gun pointed at him then transitioning to his true persona talking about how it was all suffering for him once he has hold of the gun) They cut the villagers missing Usopp when he was gone.
One Piece can make me cry like crazy but I never cried during the live action. In particular Nami's backstory was missing several layers that made it more emotional in the original. In the live action Bellemere actually gives up the girls to Arlong before finding out whether or not she can pay for them. They cut Nami and her having a fight immediately beforehand, they cut that fight leading to Arlong finding their house. They cut 90% of Nami's relationship with Genzo, as well as the meaning behind the pinwheel. They cut Bellemere being young and a bit irresponsible. They cut Genzo's quick thinking to explain the extra plates for dinner. They cut the village wanting to rescue Bellemere and later Nami, they cut the village knowing why Nami was working for Arlong and hiding it from her so she could leave without knowing they were depending on her. They cut the village's plan to save the girls. They cut all the boats being sunk to prevent them from leaving. There's actually a bunch more little things I could point to but I'll stop there.
One of the defining attributes of One Piece is how hard Oda works to make you care about something.
Point is, they abridged it too much for me to be able to cry. For a person who hasn't experienced One Piece in another form it won't convey just how intensely emotional the story can be.
I binge watched this with my husband who never read or watched One Piece too and he really enjoyed it all! So I relate to your feeling of satisfaction in sharing these moments with a loved one and seeing then awed and loving something you’ve loved for a long time~ ♥️♥️♥️
I do like that, with Kuro, they leaned more into the horror movie slasher villain look. It's cheesy, but I kinda like how unapologeticly spooky scary Kuro acts, dragging his claws around the house.
You and Morj have the best unbiased review. Truly saying what you didn’t like. Hopefully they will see the videos and fix it
I'm mixed on the Syrup Village adaptation. All of your gripes were solid. My problem with the arc falls solely on the fact that they sacrificed almost all of Ussops struggle for Nami development and Zoro's backstory at a time that made no sense for it to occur. One hit in the Kuro fight puts Ussop out? I get they wanted to build up Nami and let Luffy finish the fight, but Ussop isn't really given any time to shine at all and it's a shame.
Nobody has mentioned my favorite little detail. Ussop was able to read ‘The Baratie’ when it was still blurred through the fog.
True! I was like "where does it say baratie?!"
I actually liked syrup village as a whole, except for one thing: Usopp. He’s not really cowardly, and because of that, he has no opportunity to overcome his own internal struggles. And the show doesn’t even try to give him that opportunity. He stays back with Kaya, but then doesn’t do anything else the entire time…
Yeah, I imagine it's something very hard to translate into live action, especially under time constraints. They absolutely show a bit of that with him (Luffy asking him to fire, him wanting to run, he made another comment about returning to syrup village later, him hiding under the table in Baratie, etc.) but I'm hoping, maybe with whatever they do with Little Garden, they can give Usopp a more proper characterization as he is meant to have.
Syrup village is interesting. I didn’t care for it in the anime/manga, but actually like the route they took for LA. 5 and 6 were phenomenal though. Sanji and Zeff were casted perfectly and the backstory had me tearing up
I’m glad you mentioned the choice they made to make every shot an extreme close up. Because that’s been driving me crazy. Extreme closeups are great for a moment of emotional impact! But when every shot is super close, they don’t have any emotional power, and you just feel claustrophobic. Plus, I wanna see the actors interact within shots more!
11:25 I think they made it clear that Usopp wanted to have real adventures like Luffy, that's why he went with them, and kaya was no longer in danger, so he didn't need to protect her
Plus its only in the final episode where we will clearly see Usopp firmly state his dream
That's not just his dream tho
I am so excited for you to watch 7 and 8. I didn't think the live action would give me the tears, but it did. Last two episodes are definitely the best. Comedy, drama, action. I love it.
Also the soundtrack!
I think they should have had Gin come in, get kicked out by Zeff because he couldn’t pay, then Sanji goes out and gives him the food. Luffy sees this and then goes out and has the conversation with Sanji about his goal/dream. Luffy then goes on to talk about the One Piece and Gin interrupts saying to give it up.
Having Zeff kick Gin out would then give a lot more meaning to Luffy yelling at Zeff about Sanji’s kindness
Idk....I think the Luffy drinking poison thing is something added to start hinting at his stupid high resistance to poisons/toxins that he develops throughout the manga/anime. It makes a lot more sense that they slide things like that in instead of, at least in my opinion, how it was handled in Impel Down.
I actually really liked syrup village in live action compared to anime/manga.
Why?
@@IanM92because the original syrup village ass is aids
Usopp had nothing to do in his own arc.
Same!! Episode 4 is in my top 3 episodes
@@IanM92 I think Syrup Village drags a bit in the anime
I've watched a lot of "new to One Piece" reviews of the live action, and all of them loved Syrup village. They seemed freaked with Kuro. Like yes, its sooo tropey and standard, but for those who are not experts of thriller mansion, its a great time! It's something familiar to grab onto in a show that's so goofy. Those who were familiar with the trope did roll their eyes a little, but then really appreciated the fresh aspect One Piece's craziness brings into it.
Personally as a long time fan of One Piece, I was hurt by the lack of Usopp buildup, but I appreciated the fresh genre perspective. One Piece has freedom of Genre after all, I love that aspect of the show. Maybe in Thriller Bark they'll lean more into the Zombie side of haunted mansion.
I also think maybe they can't make Usopp as lame as he needs to be, so that he can be brave in his weakest moments because it would be too camp. Which is sad. But that's why I appreciate the Live Action, those who haven't watched it can get a taste of it, and maybe they'll get hooked realizing how much more the original is!
Now, the most important question remaining is: Will Korey give the manga a shot after the live action?
I love Garp in this one. He has so much heart, and it really does help to world build to give more examples of good and bad marines, more exposition about how this weird world works.
I really liked the cooking scenes with sanji and zeff
I love how you can really tell Oda himself picked the Straw Hats
Sanji's episodes were the best. I never got into the One Piece manga or anime, and I was also a sobbing mess by the end of episode 6. That was one of the moments that made me think I maybe should pick up the manga after all.
theres an arc much later where sanjis backstory gets an even sadder backstory to it.
8:45 as a chef i gotta say it, it makes sense for the soup to be out. First of all it wouldn't go bad and be rotten overnight. But remember he had just made that batch that evening. Before you can put it in the fridge it has to cool off, so you let it sit out in ice. If no ice, let it sit out anyway.
OPLA didn’t make me as emotional as manga did. I understood they didn’t have time but they cut too many good scenes to ignore.
I love the moment no one believes ussop but he still tries to protect the village he loves, the reason why Genzo put a pinwheel on his hat, and How Zeff came up with making a restaurant on the sea. These things are what I love about ONE PIECE.
Agreed 💯
Yep up this!
Absolutely! OPLA is ok but I'd rather watch the anime or read the Manga
Finally getting some sane takes. I had fun watching the OPLA, but I felt like I was taking crazy pills while reading the praise. I can't wait for s2 to flesh out the characters and themes, cuz they didn't achieve everything they needed to in s1. I really like the take on Sanji tho.
I'm kind of disappointed with Sanji's arc but other things were still cool. They emphasized Sanji's kindness but didn't explore the main reason why Sanji has to stay at Baratie. He chained himself there, but after witnessing Zoro vs Mihawk's fight and also Luffy vs Don Krieg's fight, he saw them wanting to achieve their dreams no matter what, just like how he used to be. They inspired him and reminded him of his dream of All Blue. This is why the 3 shares such a special bond. I'm sad that Netflix cut off the scene where Sanji can witness Zoro's fight. Him saying to Zoro "It's easy to give up on your own dream" is so pivotal to his story.
I think Baratie suffers the most from the condensed time. Sanji's departure from the Baratie feels less impactful to me because we spend all our time on Zoro and Nami drama. It wasn't bad, but his motivation to join Luffy is slightly lacking.
I actually really like what they did with Syrup Village. I've seen a lot of complaints about the lack of Jango and the Usopp pirates, but for me it was a good tradeoff for how much they flesh out Kaya.
That trade off was actually that they also barely fleshed out Usopp himself though which is the real complaint.
The tradeoff is unnecessary tho since Kaya is a character that barely has any screentime
Definitely keep us up to date on your husband's comments too! It's always interesting to hear a new one piece fan's opinion on it too.
I may have choked / teared up / cried a few times each episode (I have a problem) but I solely believed it was because I’m already a long-time fan and I’m attached to their characters. So I’ve been really curious if the emotional moments would also land good for first time viewers. Thanks for sharing that it already made your hubby cry, you know we gain satisfaction from that. (We sound cultish I know) 😂
Episode 4 almost had me in a murderous rage. The scene that kills me more than anything was how they incorporated Zoro's flashback. Listen, I know OP is a flashback machine and I've mostly come to terms with that but if you are going to flashback to something it HAS to be relevant to what is happening at the time the flashback is happening. Him becoming the greatest swordsman has nothing to do with climbing out of a well. It is made worse by the fact the the next episode with him fighting Mihawk has it done perfectly.
To me, the weirdest part of syrup village was easily the placement of Zoro's flashback. Like yeah, the Kuina scenes were doing it for me more than any other flashback we'd gotten up to that point,, but then we cut from a "one of us will be the world's greatest swordsman!" scene to just Zoro being stuck in that hole on like three separate occasions. Actually insane to me, who thought that was a good idea? Really just killed the emotional impact of those scenes immediately after they'd happened lmao
I love how you started your journey with one piece and how passionate you are about it now ❤
The Kid-Sanji is the same actor from Sweet Tooth, and I absolutely love him, he did such a good job.
My grandmother used to do that with soup. If you keep it on a simmer on the stove than it basically preserves it. Especially if you plan on continuing serving it than you can basically perpetually cook it by never letting it go cold and just add ingredients as you use it. I thought that method of cooking was pretty common knowledge, but i guess it's an outdated method of cooking.
Honestly I liked Kuro a lot more here because he got the claustrophobic environment to really come off as a slasher villain with him stabbing through walls and looking for them through floorboards. I feel his plan stopped mattering because he could easily pin it all on the pirates.
Still usopp getting nothing in his own arc was terrible lmao. He socked Kuro in the manga and declare his determination to save the kids and kaya that moved luffy and zoro. And he actually does get to save kaya from Jango later.
Same kinda feels like it happened with Sanji. "Can gold fill your belly" was removed with fullbody and so it was also removed with the flashback as well when Zeff points it out. Lil Sanji wasting food was also removed, so his lesson while he was starving and lost that moldy bread was also removed.
And sanji's flashback's placement also kinda sucks because in the manga its meant to show why sanji is willing to take all this punishment for zeff, but in the live action instead of serving his character it serves luffy's dilemma on making tough choices as a captain so it sort of fails to emphasize and explain why sanji has those values.
With Gin and krieg gone they removed the aspect of Sanji's morality carrying a inherent risk, because he's willing to serve even scum who'll attack him right after they're back to strength. Gin in the manga even pointed a gun at Patty, making it seem like it would be a bad idea to feed him but here it was too quick to carry any of that impact.
I feel removing the part about Zeff's new dream being about wanting a seafaring restaurant also then reduces the reason for Sanji to be around because Sanji's purpose for being at baratie instead of pursuing his own dream was because he was protecting zeff's dream not realizing that zeff passed it on to him.
I didn't think the placement of Sanji's backstory was bad tbh. After seeing his backstory and Sanji talking about it, it becomes very clear even to first time viewers why Sanji sticks around at Baratie instead of following his dream. But these are all great points! Especially the part with feeding Gin having no negative consequences in the live action.
It got every emotional beat except for that gin one you mentioned there
it just wasn't rubbed on face like they did in anime
I'm like just as hyped as merphy that KORY IS FINALLY FEELING SOMETHING FOR OP LOL
Didn’t even notice the camera angles
I love the live action. Having grown up with One Piece, I'm at a place where I don't need the live action to be anything more than just fun.
It's perfect for new viewers with no shoehorning expectations and long time fans who have already grown with one piece who's fully satisfied with the story over the years.
I can see how "recent" fans in the middle can be left with a tiny bit of unsatisfaction and want that "hit" to be met.
(Yes, I consider Merphy to be a recent fan. An awseome fan nonetheless as not most recent fans read the manga.)
I actually ended up liking this Syrup village arc a bit more than the manga/anime version . On the one hand, I do miss some of the Usopp moments and some of the more subtle Kuro moments that gave him a bit more characterization(pluss Jango).
However, the live action version ended up giving us alot cool stuff in return. Like Kuro being straight up a slasher villain, the friendship between Nami and Kaya and the fact that Merry was actually killed off (which pretty much tells me that LAOP is gonna have WAYYYY less fake-out deaths), not to mention the kiss at the end.
Also judging by what we saw in the final episode, I think the reason why Usopp didnt talk about his dreams was because up until that point, he himself hadnt really figure it out yet.
Also, fun fact. Kuro poisoning Kaya was actually implied heavily in the manga, with the exception that Kuro was poisoning Kaya's tea that he was always preparing for her every day. Also, Kuro was planing to pin the blame for Kaya's death to his crew. This is why he went full villain mode the day his crew was scheduled to attack.
finally thank you.
someone points out how weak they made them for no reason.
zoro going down by a bottle to the back of the head is SO BAD.
luffy being held down by 1 marine in the morgn fight is so bad.
your the only youtuber who isn't afraid of pointing out the flaws and not afraid of the backlash of the hype train.
Sanji is my favorite character and I loved how they portrayed his back story. I was happy with that even with the story changes!
13:13 TEKKING TUMBLE!!
I can't believe Matt taught you his ultimate technique. I hope you use it wisely.
Personally I prefer Syrup village in the live action, that arc was always the weakest link of the East Blue and i think it was done better here. I also liked that little moment with Nami and Kaya because it gives another hint about her issues, you can tell: she clearly lost family on top of having her home destroyed thanks to the previous scene with Buggy's arc
I can understand why many people don't like Syrup Village and why they prefer the LA but how can you say it was done better?
Usopp didn't got a dream and was sidelined in his own introduction arc.
@@psthbest to be honest, it seems my head filled the part of Ussop dreams because I was sure that it was said but whatever, he can say his pledge when they put one foot on the barrel going to the Grand Line. You win some you lose some, I still thinks it's a better work than the original Syrup Village, that arc is always a chore to get through.
Done better is just an insane exaggeration of what really happened, maybe you don't like Usopp because for an arc that was supposed to introduce Usopp's character and his dream it ignored all of that to just focus solely on a crush and add unnecessary plotlines like the marines.
@@chrissmh473sooo, in other words you just hate Usopp and are glad he was barely in his own arc.
When Luffy first meets Arlong, Arlong says "You know, I was expecting someone... bigger."
And Luffy responds says "So was I."
That's directly referencing the stature of Arlong. I think they went with Arlong's actor because of how strong his performance was, in spite of his size, and decided to cheekily reference it.
I will say manga/anime Kuro didn't mind killing Merry because a good portion of the town was about to be killed in a pirate raid, his body would have been one of many.
I agree the cheese was a but thick at times and hallway scenes were definitely long. Also not a single person could look at this Kuro and not see a villain haha. I will never forgive the removal of Django!
They literally "CUT" Donkrieg out of show with Mihawk.😂
I think the overall "theatrical" approach works wonderfully, even though it's cheesy. I wouldn't even mind if they would switch to clay stop motion in Luffys fight scenes ❤
The biggest surprise for me was Mihawk!!! To make him a bit annoyed flamboyant British was gold! Never thought of that 😍
It's a live action cartoon in a best possible way
I think my favorite line for the adaptation was when baby Sanji tells Zeff "I'd rather die than have you season my food."
My guess is that the mansion was really expensive to build and they tried to get as much out of it as possible.
For the same reason Garp visits previous sets. It is a simple way to reuse assets.
That’s probably one of the reasons they didn’t want Krieg as they didn’t want the cut ship design as it would of cost more to make and film on.
@@felixowen2693 It would have been awesome but I get that it would have been a nightmare to build xD
Kuro slowing walking down the hallway with his claws out gave me major Jack Torrance vibes
I know the live action did a good job with sanji's farewell when ive watched it 4x over and teared up everytime. Hell, even just hearing you talk about it made my eyes start to water again. They really did it justice, and even if the bow was left out, i felt like the entire scene and its delivery were better than the manga or anime ever did it.
So sorry for what the comments are saying to you! I appreciate the honesty and hope you'll review the rest of this!
The live action may not be perfect but if they can make it this good to start, imagine what they can do once they've got some practice! The manga and the anime both have gotten better and better as they have progressed and I think this show could do the same.
It's amusing that Kuro being cheesey is a negative thing to you, when for me, it was positive. I love how cheesey and over the top he is, it's so much fun
Syrup Village arc being this horror mansion based works pretty well because Kuro is not only a slasher but it is also a cat and mouse game. Beside, the arc is widely considered to be the worst of the East Blue Saga and the LA improved the tone of it quite a bit. The only big issue is that usopp himself feels like a side character in his own arc.
I think the Baratie arc is probably my least favorite of the LA arcs because they gutted it quite a bit and all of the memorable scenes there doesn't hit nearly as hard because the live action either toned it down a lot or just removed it. The biggest offender is the MIhawk vs Zoro duel where the circumstance for their duel isn't as hectic as the original. Zoro challenging Mihawk in the heat of the moment is just better than Mihawk staying at Baratie for an entire night to fight Zoro in the morning. Mihawk also never really raises his voice to respect Zoro. The man is as cool as can be but he break a bit of that character in the source material and it's a powerful moment. And finally, Zoro's one crying scene in the entire story is watered down a lot. Since ugly crying isn't a thing in LA and Makenyu's acting is very stoic, both those elements leads to Zoro's proclamation feeling flat. His second proclamation felt a bit better.
I have not read the manga nor watched the anime but I decided to give the LA a shot. I really liked and what impressed me the most were "villains" specifically. And I actually liked the portrayal of Kuro. He was giving me the bad kind of goosebumps. Especially with his repeating "~Kaya~" and walking around the mansion. I will admit tho that the whole Syrup village arc was a bit dragging. I feel like they could have resolved it in 1 episode. But probably the important flashbacks were the reason for making it 2 parts.
I agree with your point about the cinematography. They built all these amazing sets so it's such a shame they fail to show it by shooting all these close ups with super shallow focal range.
I'm very excited for your reaction of the last two episodes! I also loved child Sanji saying he'd rather die than have Zeff season it 😂
I actually found it nice that they slowed down in syrup village because unlike when other crew members joined syrup village has two new crew members joining. and I feel like if they didn't show kaya spending time with them merry joining would feel weird and out of place
Id love to see a video when you finish the series of you and your husband discussing it. I think he brings a unique perspective having not read the source material and seeing you two discuss it would be fun.
Personally; While I understand that this is a reinterpretation of the source material and I understand some changes needed to be made in favour of the story they wanted to tell here, I didn't really like the Baratie episodes because of how much they took away from Sanji, and how much they changed the character of Luffy. They made Luffy way too "normal" and strip away many of his quirks, he doesn't have the unrelenting confidence manga Luffy has anymore, now he doubts and questions his own decisions. And I know this also happened in Enies Lobby, but there it was different because his choices derived into one of his friends (arguably his best friend) fighting him over Merry, who he was, to some extent, still blaming himself for losing (not to mention at that point Robin's apparent betrayal could be seen as him being wrong about her and all). Here Zoro gets beat up and he starts being all mopy and whinny and I get it may make for a more relatable character and it may ad tension to the story they are trying to tell but like... that's just not Luffy.
And about the Sanji thing, when he tells Luffy his dream he's acting the same way as always, which is why that scene falls flat. In the manga when he tells Luffy about the all blue his "cool guy" façade falls off and he gets all happy and emotional like a little kid. And that's why the moment works. Also, changing Gin takes a lot of drama away from Baratie and his character development and, last but definitely not least, he doesn't see Zoro's fight with Mihawk, which in the manga is SUCH an important moment for him. Because seeing someone put everything on the line for his dream (with Luffy but at first with Zoro) and seemingly getting angry at him for almost dying (when in reality he envies the conviction Zoro shows) is such an important moment for the character that I honestly hate they took it away.
Sanji got done so dirty in the Netflix adaptation... and I like the performer, I think he does a great job, but they took away too much.
my friend made a good point about the camera angles, it looks more like an anime/manga format which she actually really liked for the show to go back to it's roots
Lets follow Kaya and Nami, centered on their conversation in Kaya’s bedroom.
The key points of the conversation are: Kaya wants to help Nami, Nami is hostile to the idea of being helped; Kaya opens up to Nami, Nami softens up a little but lies when confronted with the opportunity to form a deep connection with Kaya, and Nami offers genuine advice saying Kaya is stronger than she thinks and she shouldn’t let other people run her life to which Kaya defends Klahadore, while still taking what Nami said to heart.
The lead up to this was good. Nami had sees plenty that day that would make her suspicious. It seems Kaya is being purposefully isolated and where she stands up for Kaya is a great lead in for their conversation because if Kaya is genuinely sick, dietary restrictions would be a reasonable consequence. The story through their conversation was strong and could have went forward to pay off in a really strong way, but how it did move forward was muddled at times and ultimately backwards.
While Nami is technically correct in the final beat of the conversation; Nami is wrong. Not in the particulars of her advice, but in her worldview and in what “strength” she attempts to project. “Strength” to Nami in Syrup Village is in not depending on others. Which in the initial scene, seems to create a beautiful dissonance in Nami. The strength she sees in Kaya is an open heart and an ability to depend on others. Despite it all, Kaya wasn’t wrong to depend on people. She depended on the wrong people, people who worked very hard to appear dependable and betrayed her trust, but that’s not on her. For Kaya to be strong after Syrup Village, she needs to continue to trust people, despite how much this betrayal hurts her.
Nami’s advice is ultimately to herself. She’s stronger than she realizes. At her lowest point in Arlong Park, despite everything she’s been through, she asks for help and depends on her crew.
So Kuro’s plan turns into a pumpkin at midnight (which we won’t get into), and Kaya, Usopp and Nami team up to escape him going all Freddy Kruger on ‘em. Usopp and Nami do not know how to disengage the shutters and Kaya needs some help moving about being in a weakened state. They depend on each other. It’s already gotten a little messy at this point and the snowball is gonna keep rolling. Hiding from Kuro, for some reason Kaya being stronger than she thinks means she should attack their armed assailant with a penknife. Perhaps it’s attempting to hit a similar beat to when Kaya confronts Kuro at the coast with a pistol. That is where Kuro’s dialogue in scene took inspiration, but trying to kill Kuro by a penknife in the back (Rosemary on the Gallows, she didn’t even blink) doesn’t translate that moment well. Connecting it to Nami and her conversation doesn’t work, which Nami acknowledges and tries to stop her, indicating clearly that this isn’t what she meant. This is the most muddled development and the ending of the arc is where it becomes completely backward.
In the original story, Usopp disbands the Usopp Pirate Crew to head out to sea, Kaya *and* Merry give the Strawhats the Going Merry and the Strawhats don’t even invite Usopp aboard, their just confused that he seems to think he’s going it alone and not coming with them.
In the show, there are no Usopp Pirates and Merry is dead. In isolation these decisions aren’t inherently an issue, but together with the direction the story went, Kaya is left completely isolated. With Usopp leaving she’s alone with no one (at least no one *we’re* aware of) that she can depend on. What makes it worse, is their conversation set a perfect arc for Nami in Syrup Village, but didn’t pay out
Nami’s Phantom Syrup Village arc: She initially lies to Kaya, then opens up to her about the loss of her mother in the denouement. She is beginning to be able to trust, and has an organic bit of backsliding in her taking issue with Luffy not mentioning his Grandpa is a Vice-Admiral in the Navy. Instead adopting Nami’s incorrect worldview is Kaya’s character arc.
That’s a big issue.
Then Garp shows up so this big issue gets shelved if you felt it at all and you start the next episode and it gets pushed further into the background. I’m not claiming that hiding that was their intention: getting a person to binge the next episode off a good cliffhanger is full season release 101, simply that that is what my experience was. I didn’t really consider all that (^) until I read your community post/poll and reflected on episodes 3 + 4. I thought I was more mixed on Syrup Village and then I started to write on them and a lot of problems came to light.
I think Kuro had reason. His plan to kill Kaya with poison failed as Luffy ate it all, so they couldn't make it look natural anymore. Now he had talked to marines who were looking for pirates in their house, and he had admitted to Luffy being there. If Kaya and Merry is then found dead, he could blame the pirates they were looking for.
As a bonus he got to take out his frustrations after having to serve ssomeone whom he thought was beneth him.
Please upvote this so Merphy sees it.
i genuinely think they were a ton of tiny tweaks they could have made without changing what they did overall to make it better. there's definitely more but these are the main ones off the top of my head
1. kuro should have sliced merry instead (while still killing him). that puts the idea that he likes to slash in your head so when he can move quick its less weird why he doesn't just stab everyone in a split second and stop wasting his own time.
and have usopp actually land a punch on kuro while protecting kaya, then instead of when he dashes in front of usopp and pushes him (smh), he could have slashed him and injured usopp. this leads to the luffy fight, where instead of luffy closing his eyes, its usopp that concentrates and hits kuro, leaving a scratch on his forehead and distracting him for luffy to land the hit, and then fight till the bell. so we at least get a stronger idea of usopp's bravery despite his lack of strength and a clearer reason of joining the crew.
and yea not one mention of his actual dream (which LA luffy is infatuated with) of being a brave warrior of the sea. he really just joins because "fuck it he joined in the manga"
2. they should have moved luffy and sanji's interaction outside, maybe because sanji wants a smoke, and have them see a drifting dishevelled gin in the ocean.would have sold the starvation and lost at sea bit a lot better. instead, it just looks like a homeless man rocked up and knocked on their door. patty also could have had more pushback instead of just being like "well not my business" to really drive in sanji's morals
i also don't like that they had luffy say that sanji was "also a good person". him smiling at sanji and gin would have been more than enough. didn't realize how much the subtle undertones of one piece i appreciated until they outright shove it in your face
and i get *why* they did it, but they really should have cut majority of the marine stuff and given us actual time for the main characters and plotline. we did not need to cut back to them as the b-side storyline every 10 minutes. some of the best scenes are when the strawhats are just allowed to chill and be peopel instead of trying to push the story forward and hit an imaginary checklist in a way, ie end of episode 4 , sanji flirting with nami and the boys making fun of her scene, usopp vibing.
About Kuro:
The Straw Hat pirates appearing gave him the opportunity to dispose of Merry, a potential long time obstacle in his plans. Even if he gets what he wanted, Merry was always going to bother him. So his solution was killing Merry and most likely blame it on Usopp or Luffy somehow. He also was very anxious because he was just hours away from fulfilling his goal, so he might have acted irrationally out of it.
Usopp and Sanji character arcs were kinda skipped that sucked
I can relate with you on soooooo many point you mentioned and im happy to hear all your thought! Because when i try to talk with lots of people online or IRL i cant really say much without being judge or something so hearing my tought throught you was awsome !!! Cant wait for your recap of arlong park :)