I was certainly amused to see a scene during one of the episodes where an entire half of the audience residing in the Colosseum was animated and put on display for all to see. With many shonen series that have a tournament arc, you tend to see the same oft repeated close-up shot of a portion of the crowd with never-changing shocked or amused expressions, with only the most basic of lip movements as animation.
Cheeky animators sometimes even flip this portion to make it appear different, which really riles me up, but I digress.
Dressrosa has really drawn me in. I watched the animated version beforehand, which drew me to read the original comic interpretation to make personal crib notes. Due to the pacing of the animation, I've found myself switching to the manga entirely for now, but I am fascinated with the Dressrosa arc. If all else fails, resort to the tournament formula – No complaints here, as I love fighting scenes and tournament arcs.
It seems Toei Animation have upped their game. Some of the animation from a certain point back in the day, I want to say around Skypiea, was truly diabolical. You'd see so many awful animation errors and mistakes, and I've not had a glaring error catch my eye during Dressrosa once so far. Due to Luffy's face being masked with that artificial beard, I've found myself focusing on other characters a lot more. Bellamy, who was part of a pivotal emotional moment once upon a time, looked especially manic and menacing, for one.
I'll stop talking about the Colosseum now, promise. The story is idiot-proof in terms of adaptation, frankly speaking.
The voice acting has been of a professional quality, which I believe has been superior even during the frugally animated years, and the animation has truly captured what it might be like to live in Dressrosa. It has brought that world to life successfully, as I've found myself wondering how I'd react if I was confronted by a stuffed doll claiming to be a jealous ex-lover.
Admittedly, I smirked at the storyline of "living toys" at first, but when you immerse yourself into it, it's no different than a Twilight Zone scenario and a positive display of Oda's latent creativity. As a standout figure for the world outside of the Colosseum, I found myself becoming sympathetic towards "Soldier" -- I'm unsure of who the voice actor is, but he has captured the stoic, hardy nature of a tin soldier with the vulnerability of something that was once human.
Soldier is clumsy, awkward, has a terrible sense of humour -- Yet, you can hear the sorrow behind it all. This is something you have to imagine as vividly as possible when you read a manga, and I was surprised they didn't give him a goofy, high-pitched sort of voice.
I suppose they'll try that one when they get around to dubbing it in English.