[Hoodspirit]

Thanks for sharing, hiding my responses bolded inside your spoilers.

Originally Posted by grecefar

all right let's see... here MAJOR SPOILERS

likes

Spoiler for spoilers:

- It was pretty faithful to the manga
In terms of themes like Dreams I agree, if it comes to characterisation I find it very lacking for Luffy and Nami. They only established Nami: I hate pirates and Luffy: I'm the other kind of pirate. The complete journey of how Nami got see first hand what Luffy's moral compass looks like, what a crew means to him (value+trust), and how she got affected by it. That's pretty much missing.
- There were some eater eggs that I like, like cavendish wanted poster
True that, and there were several easter eggs I would never have spotted on my own, like how the creation of the map they stole was ordered by Kong.
- Baroque works coming to play early trying to recruit zoro at the beginning and Garp aware of them and investigating too
I would put this more into the easter egg category as it was simply moved from season2 to 1. very nice regardless.
- Most of the actors fit the characters pretty well, except luffy and nami
I watched it in my local dubs, they delivered it well enough what they were given. I blame the writers for not including the scenes in which Nami grinned as stupidly as Luffy.
- I don't know about others but koby parallel story with luffy I did like since koby became a somewhat important character now in the manga
That's something I disliked a lot. If you take into account current Coby, it might makes sense, but on its own it in season 1, it just slowed down the pace with no payout. Time that could have gone into adding more characterisation scenes.
- Kaya and Usopp romance already there. I expected in the end of the manga for him to return to seal the deal but it's already sealed
It felt like that in the manga to me, so I wasn't surprised they added it in.
- Merry dying was more realistic than surviving kuro attack
Pell might not be a fan of season 2 w
- Going merry is beautiful
Absolutely, the ships were all very well designed.
- Arlong controlling east blue and showing in baratie early. It was good they skipped all the don craig thing and nami stealing the going merry
Both versions are fine with me, though it came at the cost of Luffy not showing his superior will when he smashed that spiked shield. This is related to some of your dislikes, so I'll elaborate more in that section.
- Mihawk in baratie was there by order of garp instead following craig because he was bored, shows how the shichibukai can be used by the marines.
I get where you are coming from, but imo these are the wrong characters to showcase that. I don't think Garp would rely on a pirate and I don't see Mihawk taking orders of this level. Fighting vs a Yonko sure, hunting down a small fry newbie, I feel like no.

dislikes

Spoiler for spoilers:

- I didn't like luffy actor, he did his best and got his moments but I just didn't like him but to be honest I doubt I would like anyone as luffy
I don't mind a humanisation of Luffy, and again with my local dub, he was pretty good in his delivery. There are many issues though with his portrayal in the OPLA.
- I didn't like nami actress either, too serious and I think she smiled like 5 times in all the season, it was never showed her love for berries and that is one of her quirks
With how the writers changed the story, I'm surprised you counted up to 5 smiles. In the manga most of the smiles were connected to the characterisation journey of Luffy and what kind of person he is, which were pretty much absent in the OPLA or changed to tell not show.
- As much as I like zoro, he played more the main character than luffy
Absolutely agree. Throughout the OPLA, Luffy was just the rubber boy with a dream. No determination, no trust, no strength. But again, he was robbed of his journey, no ShuShu, not preventing Kuro from killing his own crew, no Krieg, barely an interaction with Nami at Arlong Park. Zoro on the other hand got it nearly everything from the manga that made him stand out and more. 2 upgraded introduction scenes, his Mihawk moment was close to faithful (except for the one thing you mentioned), extended emotional "let's care for him"-scene. Only thing missing was showing how bad in shape he was during the assault (only hinted at) that made Arlong respect him (missing).
- Even with japanese dub I cringed in a lot of scenes
Well, cringe is unavoidable imo.
- There was so much zoro and nami interaction that I'm not surprise everyone is shipping them with how much they interacted. Even if oda explicit said no romance between the crew, the power of shipping and fans will win against them. Nami and zoro ship doesn't make sense in manga and anime
Time spent on that should have spent on the MC portrayal.
- No hachi, I guess because his arms they didn't bother with him and no johnny and yosaku
In the credits they named someone Hachi w, Johnny and Yosaku missing, I don't mind them missing for their personalities, but for heir failed revenge for Nami and how they stopped the villagers from a suicidal attack. I loved those scenes.
- Luffy felt weak and it felt like he couldn't beat arlong. Luffy at the beginning was already pretty strong and ready for the grand line
It's not just that he appeared way too weak, it was also that there was no emotional climax during any of his fights. No rage at how Kuro treated his crew, no obstacle vs Krieg's armor, No rage on how Arlong made Nami cry. His immunity to blunt attacks was absent as well. Pretty much every of his fight was, gomu gomu no pistol being caught a few times, thrown around, finisher move. No emotional peak. Neither for him, nor for other characters. How much of an impact on budget/time would it have been to include him pushing the furniture/maps out of Nami's cell for her to react to? Probably insignifact, but emotionally very worthwhile.
- Zoro no naming his moves, maybe he will in the future
I guess that joke will come back to bite them in the future. w
- Zoro made the promise to luffy that he wouldn't never lose again but they skipped when he called him pirate king already believing in him
True.
- Nami's village didn't knew about her sacrifice. I didn't like that
Changing that was borderline criminal from the writers. No idea why. They didn't even bother to include them at Arlong Park. I'm not asking them to be included in the fight, just their perspective from normal humans would have been worth so much. Without that it barely felt like an obstacle instead of something humans shouldn't been able to.
- Nami asking for help was underwhelming, it is still one of my favorite scenes
Randomly dopping in the field was lame, at least let her see the burning village first. But then again, most of Luffy's and Nami's interactions were missing, so I doubt that scene could have ever had the emotional peak it deserved.
- No arlong park walk
Only thing from Arlong Park walk I care about is the Johnny and Yosaku scene. Rest has always been anime only.

there may others but that were the most that I noticed.

Thank you for sharing your thoughts.