The big difference with Jimbro is that he had multiple arcs (Impel, War, Fishman, WCI) and cover story before joining. It took him a damn decade but he had exposure along the way, and there was still TIME in the series .

Anyone that's still left there's just... no more time if Oda is to be believed at all about his timetable. (Yeah, he's not going to make it in three years and we all know that but...) Anyone not travelling with the crew right now isn't getting the bonding or the antics or the color spreads or the real life giant bronze statue... whatever their official classification they're just going to be one of dozens of old recurring characters returning for the final war.

The surprise twist (off camera) turn just doesn't sit well with me. It's absolutely Oda's job to surprise and go directions we don't expect... and I'm even okay with Yamato deciding to stay after all that in concept... but the actual execution was really really botched. That major character shift was NOT a moment that should have been off camera.

This is the first time I feel kinda straight up lied to rather than carefully misled.

Combine this with the clumsiness of the Gear 5 Nika exposition dump, and how much Oda whiffed the Kaidou finale... it's just been a really awkward dozen chapters.

OPLA reactions by non-One Piece fans are SO entertaining.

I love seeing people fall in love with the world of One Piece. And so many times already "Luffy has POWERS?"

Also, it made me way more appreciate and understand the purpose of the Garp storyline. Yeah its weird for us vets to get all that so early, but it grounded the world and allowed for a lot of exposition, and a big plot twist cliffhanger 4 episodes in.

Also the reactions to the snails.

When Oda kills a character, especially a main one, he makes you feel it and know.

Outside of maybe Pedro, who I still don't believe, it's usually obvious.

Garp is fine.

So... two years of this nonsense.

Everyone was right.
And everyone was wrong.
And everyone is disappointed.

What the hell was that, Oda?

Already gone on at length about... that... in the spoiler thread and the discord so I won't repeat myself.

I'm not against Yaamto sticking around Wano, that makes some sense, but give more than a one panel mention of an off-camera discussion with Luffy if you're going to have a major swerve like that. Carrot's farewell was equally a non-thing with no follow up (Unless she shows up stowing away next chapter.)

Also I guess I should apologize to any Hancock/Perona/Rebecca/Carrot/etc supporters I might have been rude or dismissive to over the years, regardless of what happens next. If I was mean or rude or an awful person, I wasn't insulting you, I was insulting your stupid full of holes theory.

And now it was my stupid full of holes theory too.

Whatever your feelings on Yamato, that was EXTREMELY sloppy and rushed. Is this a film red thing? A last minute decision to cut one more person to speed things along? Just always a red herring to make a Wano character fans actually liked? Any way you slice it that was handled badly.

If Oda's THAT willing to change course just a chapter after the characters make it clear they're doing one thing, and they change their mind the next... there's no point in debating this stuff or trying to prove anything or debunk or argue if Oda is willing to completely throw things to the wind on a whim. So i think, barring Carrot stowing away next chapter, or responded to people mentioning this exact post....

This is going to be the last time I post in this thread. Because while this has always been a dumb pointless thread... now really what's the point?

So long Nakama thread. You were a waste of everyone's time.

@andre said in One Piece Live-Adaptation Drama Announced:

I think they're going to lose people every day as out of context images leak until they put out a trailer. I really don't get the Netflix strategy of waiting just a few months before a show comes out to release a trailer.

Because Netflix has 78 bazillion shows and they can't show love to any of them as a result.

They really need to drop their method of dropping whole seasons at once and go to weekly for new projects. Give it time for people to pick up on it and develop watercooler conversation. Have a show be a topic for 2 months instead of two days. And then they won't have to cram out so many shows.

If Oda hadn't introduced haki as a go-to power up I think we might have seen a few more characters get fruit upgrades during the time skip. As is I'm confiident whenever the hell we get back to Axe Hand he'll have had some kind of upgrade besides haki.
Fruit or cybertnetics, I dunno.

@DollarScholar said in Nobody in One Piece finds/eats a devil fruit:

Who wouldnt like to see Sanji or Usopp eat a devil fruit?

That would be terrible. As is Sanji getting his dumb genetic power up super healing factor and invisibility are really bad.

And Usopp was already wrecked by changing his entire arsenal to plants and ignoring that he used to have caltrops and fake hammers and dials and whatever else he found and incorportated along the way. Nowadays instead of relying on his wits or an old thing we saw him acquire, he just uses a random new plant. Even when the new plant does the same thing as an old plant! Heck, Usopp unlocked haki a decade ago and we still haven't seen him do anything with it!

(see also Franky losiing a ton of moves and personality when he switched to bulky mode and then mecha suit)

Organic growth expanding on what they've been doing since the start is always more interesting but I guess after 25 years Oda just ran out of ways to do "make kick stronger"

"Who is this live action for?"

Everyone that dismisses comic books and cartoons no matter what. Everyone here is already a convert, we know how good cartoons can be. But outside of anomolies like Frozen, animation just is NOT as wide stream as anything live action. Like the new Spiderverse movie has made like 600 million! Fantastic, huge improvement over the first!

The most recent live action Spider man almost 2 billion. Nearly 3 times as much. Even the lowest grossing live action Spidey, Amazing 2, made 800 mill.

Look at the top 200 highest grossing movies of all time. 26 of those movies are animated and they're almost all sequels. The other 174 slots are live action. (And in the top 50 its like, 7 films, none in the top ten.)

WE all know animation is great, we don't have to be convinced. But the general public its always just kids stuff and they'll never give it a chance.

If you want to reach a NEW audience, you need to do live action. Same with Last Airbender.

Yeah, it's near perfect in its animated form and live action won't improve it. But there's millions and millions of people that might be willng to watch it and get the same story we already love, that have ignored the animated one for 15 years... just because its animated and "for kids".

Just how it is.

Also, One Piece is currently a 1088 chapter, 102 volume, 1070 episode anime with 14 movies that's been running for 26 years and has AT LEAST 4 years to go if not another 10. . You can't convince anyone to start that at this point. I used to introduce friends to the series and I don't anymore, it's too much a commitment.

But an 8 episode mini-series? That will get to what most people consider THE high point hooking moment in that time? I might be able to finally convince some of my friends to give it a shot just so they finally understand where I've been coming from all this time.

The live action isn't for the pople who already know the property. They're along for the ride ANYWAY. Its for the people who would never have touched it otherwise.

"But it's already a best seller and perfect in its medium".

So was Lord of the Rings. So was Super Mario. Sometimes it doesn't matter if its already the most popular influential thing, it can still reach a new audience. And, as someone who has read LotR 4 different times in my life, about once a decade, and grew up on the animated versions... I love the movies way way more, for a wide variety of reasons.

@Shiebs said in Greg: Teacher of SUPER " OP " course !:

Greg I want to hear all your theories on this chapter

If we're giving review scores, then accepting the fact that obviously stuff was going to be lost when you cut roughly 25 hours down to 8?

I would have liked some of the fights to be longer and a little more time for character beats to build up. I'm not sure how much of my enjoyment was the actual material and how much was just my already being a fan.

If I'm being honest I'd probably give it an 7.5, maybe generously an 8 out of 10. There was absolutely room for improvement,(I hope they get a second season and a chance to do just that) and if they'd have like, even one more episode to breathe I think the whole thing would have benefited. Some of the pacing choices seem pretty obviously based around the restructuring from 10 episodes to 8 (like Zoro's flashback being in the middle of nowhere instead of anywhere it would be potent, or how all the flashbacks were broken up instead of given time to just build their momentum for 20 minutes, but different format so it is what it is). I'd like crazier fights, and more time for the character stuff to breathe.

But those are nitpicks born largely from me already knowing the material and being very aware of what was missing, rather than any failing of the actual show. I wish I could see it fresh for the first time with zero context and just be overwhelmed by all these characters and ideas and frantic stuff being thrown at me so fast there's no time to process it. But I enjoyed myself the entire time and will rewatch at least some parts of it, and I wanted more, which was the best sign.

But! I'm going be generous and give it an extra point on the merits this is far and away absolutely the best we could have ever possibly imagined or gotten from a live action version of the show when no one believed it would be possible or that it would translate in any workable way.

When i look at how Wheel of Time is being utterly butchered, or RIngs of Power sucking hard, or how so many Star Trek shows the last few years have been so wrong, when we had Cowboy Bebop make very specific mistakes just a year ago? When Dragonball Evolution exists? All shows that are much more grounded and should have been easy to make great that failed?

(On a side note, I hope the upcoming Last Airbender show nails it in the exact same way.)

They pulled off a small miracle making it all work somehow, When so many before have failed. Even the overly colorful bad wigs stopped bothering me after a while. So sheer raw "I can't believe they pulled this off" elevates it alot, kind of like the first Avengers movie which was a lot of fun but the big thing was that they did it at all.

And because I enjoyed myself the entire time.

So 9 out of 10, extra points for existing and warranting any kind of high score at all..

Well, I think I should probably make the effort to post the last image, even if its not as good without the life story build up.

Who is Greg?

I think he's going to have some stuff to talk about later.

This kind of clears up a lot of comments from the last few months, I think.

They've uploaded a HD version of the WISH trailer.

No one ever shares these cause usually it's not worth the bandwidth, it never matters this much.

The bad one everyone's insulting on has... 5 million views.

The HD one has... 2000 views. Oops.

Make sure to hit the settings wheel so that its actually high res, it auto-adjusts to your usual if you don't.

The pitch of the story doesn't interest me at all but damn I think the animation alone is going to get me to this one. It looks GORGEOUS in HD. Rather than like an unfinished pre-render with no shaders.

On a tv it should look fine because it won't be compressing for bandwidth the same way. Unless you're streaming it at really low quality.

DreamWorks has announced a new animated film called The Wild Robot. The film is based on a book by Peter Brown and follows a robot washed ashore on a deserted island living with a close-knit group of misfit animals and will be directed by Chris Sanders. I am so hyped for this!!

Sanders was the force behind Lilo and Stitch, and the co-director on the first How to Train Your Dragon. And the interesting version of Bolt that we never got. Sight unseen I'm hyped!

Sander's also worked on B&tB, Aladdin, Lion King and Mulan. He also co-directed the first Croods which I didn't love, but it was pretty easy to tell which parts were his and those were the parts I really liked.

Sadly its still so far out it doesn't even have a release year yet, but...

The visuals look... kind of bad.

Or so I thought until one of the animators spoke up.

"You'll want to see this one on a huge screen; the watercolor style has a crazy amount of beautiful detail that unfortunately Twitter/Youtube's compression just completely smooths out and loses."

And if you check the HD trailer from a few months ago... yeah. Insane difference. You can't even tell she has freckles in the new trailer!

@Kitsune-Inferno said in Season 2 (and Beyond?) Speculation Thread (Spoilers):

I keep seeing y'all mention the possibility of doing movies for Skypiea and Thriller Bark, but is that an actual practice that studios are doing? I've never seen a live action show do a movie in the middle of its run before.

Don't mean MOVIE movie, like they up the budget and release it to theaters. (But there are examples of that like Transformers, MLP, X-Files, Dark Shadows, Simpsons, Pokemon, Batman 66, South Park, etc. )

Just they break up the seasons in a slightly different way in order to lessen the big breaks between seasons, which streaming can do.

"We have these three episodes that work as a standalone story. Release that in December of 2025 instead of waiting until October 2026 for the entire season to be done.

Doctor Who does it EVERY YEAR with their Christmas specials. Standalone event released outside of the regular season to break up the wait between seasons a little.

Look at the season breakdowns on Netflix for almost any of their shows that made it to long runner status and there will inevitably be a random set of seasons that are 6 and 7 episodes, instead of the 13 they were obviously intended as.

Stranger Things season 4 comes to mind immediately. They paired some episodes up without any breaks or cliffhangers to make them movie length, and had a random mid season break so they could have two releases in the year instead of one.

, Bojack, She-Ra, Voltron all come to mind as well. I think they mostly do that to animation because it has such long lead times and to keep the younger audience remembering it exists, but...

So basically, rather than try to make a really awkward 8 episode season of One Piece with really odd puzzle pieces in there there don't lead to obvously stopping points, and that would force a very condensed Water 7 or have a weird break in it... a quick standalone drop makes a lot of sense. More releases, keep the hype up, better for the actual story.

Of course its made moot if they expand to a 10 or 13 episode season, but 8 seems to be what the streamers have settled on as the magic number for whatever reason.

@CosmicDebris said in Season 2 (and Beyond?) Speculation Thread (Spoilers):

Well, good news is the an agreement has been reached and the strike is over, so they can get to working on the next season very soon!

They've reached an agreement. They haven't voted on it or signed it yet.

And that's only the writers guild, not the actors.

Still, if studios are giving into one the other probably can't be far behind.

The final episode of the season was a solid one, easily the best of the season. An actually interesting sci-fi premise, good jokes, and some heart. Cohen delivered. That one deserves a place on the shelf with the other seasons.

The episode with Kif and Amy's kids was nice enough (mostly neat for the fact of real world time having passed), and the Christmas episode was pretty decent.

3 out of 10 decent episodes is enough to justify the return, especially since one of the best writers isn't until next season. But man the other episodes were a really mixed bag. mostly forgettable but harmless.

THe bitcoin , amazon and Covid episodes are already aged, and are right next to the Eye-Phone and 2012 election episodes, and the one that kept harping on the matrix batteries. Way too blatant on a specific current subject and so the jokes fall flat because we've heard them before AND will age quickly.

And then Prince and the Product was outright one of the worst episodes of the series and I'm not sure what happened there given Eric Kaplan wrote some of the show's best episodes. Their anthologies have almost all been awkward excuses to use weird versions of the character designs and then the joke ends there.

So the show justified its return, but its easily the weakest season.

Also a little unfair to judge as its also the shortest season since every other season was 13-20 eps. Those remaining 3 could have been the balance on the good side.

Like Wheel of Time had to make a Tar Valon set in season 1 and spend two episodes there because they needed at least one permanent set built in the first season, even though the books didn't get there till later.

We might actually see a lot more of Merry for that reason.

@Cockycent said in Season 2 (and Beyond?) Speculation Thread (Spoilers):

Don't need the "come back and help us God" subplot, so Conis and "Kami" are out of here. Reduce them to cameos or nothing at all
Aisa out of here too. Wyper can even be amalgamated with Kami, which puts Skypieans and Shandians into 1 group - 2 birds, 1 stone.
Nola saves so much too. Get it out of here

You gotta make changes and cut characters and condense to make things work, but oof, erasing the entire conflict between ground people and sky people seems like it would rob the arc of most of its identity.

Obvously cut back the fiights and the crew splitting up and Enel's death elimination game but... merging the two groups seems a step far unless they really whittle it down to nothing.

@Gizmo said in Season 2 (and Beyond?) Speculation Thread (Spoilers):

so yeah a whole season on Skypiea isn’t out of the realm of possibilities. J

It's a possiibility, but it retains the problem it had in the original run.

However much it means to the overall lore in the long run and secrets we still haven't gotten to, however much its a true fun adventure, with some actual pirating and swashbuckling in it, with some great moments in it and an amazing flashback...

It's an arc that happens immediately after introducing new warlords, Blackbeard, showing Luffy is a big name 100 million man now... and then it dodges ALL those plot arcs and Marine stuff for an arc.

That 2 year/1 season detour is fine now on the scale of a 30 year series... but that's just really, REALLY awkward for the casual audience. "What happened to all this other stuff that was going on? What's the point of being here?"

Obviously a LA reqrite can sort of adress this by having another cut away B plot but... cutting away to Garp? Smoker? again in a completely unrelated side story would just emphasize the point that it wasn't clearly connected to anything.

That's why its so rough. Unless they cut it down to just a mini-arc mid season and then it's fine.