The Man in the Straw Hat

Amazing episode! I liked the pilot, but this one took the grand prize. How they elevated Buggy's character, the intertwining between the flashbacks and the current storyline and Nami's change of view towards Luffy were made wonderfully; some may say it's even better than the original scenes in the manga. But at the same time, the two major problems this series has had have become crystal clear. The reason why I'll focus on the mistakes rather than what is good is because I'm already giving this project a 10 star rating, but the writers need to know what the audience feels, especially the fans, after watching some of the content that didn't suit us well.

The first main problem is that the pacing kills the world-building. Not only for the world itself but for the main characters. Their traits don't have time to sink in since the dialogues are way too short and explicit, almost like they're reading a summary of their real performances. But of course, it's not only that; the citizens and side characters are also forgotten.

The manga was always careful to make every island the strawhats visited a very special place, with memorable characters that we will definitely want to see again. The first episode already had a problem turning Rika into a brief plot point to make the story advance, but that wasn't as relevant because Romance Dawn was never intended to create strong characters. However, in this episode, all we see is a circus tent. We get a glimpse of the village, but it's reduced to dust. The only sense of world-building we have is from the mayor, who has minor lines in the episode. From the amazing content Oda gave us in the manga for characters like Shushu and Boodle, now they're reduced to mere Buggy victims that can only wait for their demise. Some may say that their content wasn't as good as what we got in the live action, but it did completely kill the world-building for Orange Town. This is a mistake they can't make again if they want this series to work.

Following this very same problem, the same applied for Morgan in this episode. While we know from episode 1 that he is a narcissist, he did well arresting Zoro for injuring marine soldiers. Even if Helmeppo started the argument by simply being stupid, Zoro was definitely provoking him to make the scene happen. Morgan's corruption wasn't very well portrayed, and that's why the scene in this episode felt out of place. If they want to make a point with these characters, they first need to dedicate enough time to them to make them shine. Otherwise, it won't work.

The second main problem is the non-canonical events, especially the ones that affect the narrative. While innovating is always good, and this episode was handled perfectly, they need to take care about the themes that they introduce. Buggy being creepy is fine, but pushing a storyline where he tries to make people love him despite his goals and traits having nothing to do with that takes time that could be focused on the real theme of this episode, which is treasures. I felt like they sacrificed some of Buggy's depth for aesthetic purposes. While in the manga everything that happens reinforces one theme (Shushu guarding his treasure, Boodle fighting for his treasure, Gaimon accepting the animals as his real treasure, Buggy leaving a crew fooling them for mere money, Luffy accepting the villagers rage despite them being wrong because he acknowledges their love for their treasure), this anime episode had to rely on flashbacks to make the point more clear. It wasn't bad, but it could have been that and way more. I think this could have been easily handled with more time to create more storylines, but I understand the East Blue is difficult to recreate in this short span of time.

Following that, they tried to make a scene of Zoro's views changing, but in the ending of the last episode, he has the same attitude that he had at the beginning. Nothing really happened to make him have a change of heart, so that felt out of place and like a sorry attempt to make Zoro's path to joining the crew more special. They already changed Zoro's character; the least they can do is do it correctly. Show, don't tell! And be coherent.

I feel I will be doing these super long reviews for every episode, but it is important that we remain critics despite our love for this series. We want the second season to be even better!

A great follow-up to a great pilot and a much better version of the original Orange Town arc in the manga. Jeff Ward is unexpectedly the best actor in this episode (and series, too) as Buggy / Boogie / Binky. Directing is beautiful and the script is very fast paced in a positive manner. It manages to bind together the strangeness and humor of One Piece in an unique fashion, making Buggy a far scarier and more menacing character than he was at this point. The main trio also keeps up their game by delivering good performances overall. I can only hope for the best for the next episodes of East Blue!

I am one piece fan for very long time waiting for the anime episodes and manga chapters weak by weak, and mistakenly had low expectations from the live action as they always fail but this one is extraordinary.

The actors clearly studied the characters very well and the interaction between them were fabulous especially between nami and luffy The pilot were actually good, had a better pace than the anime, close to the manga story, and the fight was good esecially for zoro,

in this episode the CGI was fantastic, the and jeff ward as buggy was on point this series is a must watch whether you are anime fan or not.