@King:
Where is this significant part of the fanbase you speak of, though? Most of the people I've talked seemed to like it too.
I think you are the only one in this thread that thinks the two (animation and song) goes well together. But then again, I mean the forums died back then. To answer your question.. for instance on the official reddit thread for the opening one of the higher comments was "I like the song, but it doesn't fit the arc or the visuals of this opening at all." and "this feels like a naruto opening" and the top comment for the youtube video (the one with 600k views) is
"A super chill opening for such an intense sequence of events."
I feel like I'm trying to write up a thesis here and I get your point that there are people that like it and once again, I don't dislike the song and I like it but its a mismatch. The general sentiment is that it is a mismatch and praises goes more towards the visuals rather than how good the two, music and animation, goes together.
Well, it beats having Dreamin On 2.0. I'm only saying that I appreciate the different direction.
One of my favourite openings is hands up even though it is not loved by the fanbase because of how chill and different out of all the hype songs. Hands Up didn't feel too out of place because Punk Hazard wasn't necessarily "we are up against a yonkou and this arc have a shit ton of fights ", it was a slow (relatively speaking in one piece terms) arc and just felt right after how hyper We Go was. This is not the case. Like others have mentioned, this opening belongs somewhere else in terms of placement.
And again, you keep saying "chill song" as if any slow-paced song is "chill". It just feels like a very narrow-minded way to describe something. You can have something slow that is meant to inspire other emotions.
I'm not a musician, I don't do write ups on music or spend minutes on the best key words to describe a piece. However, this is their whole MO. I Don't Like Mondays, from their tracklist to their performance venues to their social media platforms, is best described as a band with a super chill, cool and relaxed image. That is not to say they are incompetent or lazy, but this type of music is their entire MO, this is what they are good at. They don't necessarily wax philsophies in their lyrics nor do they do over the top or ground breaking innovative composing. You don't need a music degree to understand that. I actually do listen to the band way before this opening even landed. Is Kaze wo Sagashite bad on their own? Is it shallow music? I don't necessarily think so and I think the girls exceed at a certain type of music but it does not necessarily fit what the music is used for.
And "shounen" should not be constrained to just fast-paced songs.
It's the factor of decision making. Do you priortize nostalgia and bittersweet tones (that is almost non existent in the narrative of said arc) over feelings of adrenaline and excitement (that an arc is filled with). I'm arguing that the later is a lot more appropriate. Like come on, this song belongs way closer to the endgame then here.
Marineford was also one of the series's flashiest, action-packed arcs (the actual drama and sadness was reserved to the post-arc), with half of the opening visuals being literally just characters flexing their superpowers. Would you say that One Day was a mismatch for it?
One Day was also used all the way until and after Ace's death. The entire sequence also consist of Luffy running towards Ace and the importance of their relationship, ending with an intentional scene of him smiling(implying ace is saved and there's a happy ending). It was directed in a certain way and there's purpose to it, the entire opening plays with the narrative of the arc. You see what I mean? When there is something more important than the fighting: the narrative of Luffy and Ace and his subsequent loss of him, the actions CAN take a backseat. What about PAINT? Why exactly is the action taking a backseat to…nostalgia? bittersweet? there's no indication of any of that to be significant enough to warrant any discussion in this arc. Its a non stop bullet train. The only thing we got from Paint was Luffy hugging Jinbei in the end and that happened in the episodes before the opening and is not impactful compared to everything else that is going to happen. Similarly, there's no "bittersweet" or "tragedy" even close to the level of Ace's death. You also forgot about the scenes with the straw hats looking all sad that especially works well because they were separated at that point of the story. None of the standalone scenes in this opening plays to the current narrative, its your obligatory straw hats shot. The two are vastly different.