Main blog @aprikosenklang ✨ Currently watching the new anime episodes on my own, rewatching the anime from start with my husband and in love with OPLA!!!
Some context: I started watching One Piece when I was 19 years. So the straw hats have been part of my life for over 9 years. Nevertheless, I’m anime only. I have never read the manga. But I know about the story differences between the manga and anime.
I love the live action adaption! The characters feel in line most of the time. The pacing is quite fast, which is actually good for the story. It definitely broke the curse of bad live action adaptions. I can feel the love that is put into this series at each and every moment. Yet, it still feels different to the One Piece in my heart.
I was super excited for the series to be released. After my initial hype, I still tried to keep my expectations low. Yet while watching the first episode, I felt really conflicted. I loved it for what it is. But I wished I could love it even more. Does this even makes sense? Even after finishing the first 4 episodes, I felt every loving post and meme about it. But something was missing. And this feeling didn’t change after finishing the series.
After exploring my thoughts I noticed to main reasons for this:
First and foremost, I love One Piece for its emotions. I have goosebumps, I cry, I feel excited and motivated. With OPLA the emotions where conveyed on the conversational level a lot. A lot more than in the anime. But I was missing the emotions on the emotional level. Characters where saying what they feel. But I couldn’t sense them feeling it.
The second thing which is crucial about One Piece for me is the music! Especially reoccurring background music that also conveys a lot of the emotions. Yes, we had a little bit Bink's sake here and there. And the main theme song We are was incorporated twice if I’m not wrong. But besides that I cannot recall any music except the fishmen's background music. Most of the time I didn’t even notice the background music at all. Epic moments had no epic music.
Nevertheless, I am still very much in love with it. I see so many people engaging in my most favorite fictional world. And they get lost in it! Maybe some even start to read the manga or watch the anime. Some might won’t. But knowing the straw hats - somehow as they are - will be part of other peoples lives as well, makes me unbelievably happy!
And for everyone interested, here are some other random impressions and thoughts:
Almost all story changes where made with love and payed tribute to the original. Like having Chouchou in Orange Town or a girl offering Zoro onigiri. But making the Grand Line map the main story plot device leading to Arlong being kind of the end boss of season 1 felt off to me. It fits somehow into the story. But since Arlong is from the Grand Line, I feel like he wouldn’t be that much in need of the map anyway?!
Koby had sooo much screen time! It was an interesting choice. But I’ve admit, I liked it a lot! Yet I’m not sure if I like how Garp is portrayed. He seems a bit out of character to me personally.
I loooved how they integrated the wanted posters for each character! That was a really unique and cool idea!
We had a panda in the show!!! At this point I knew it’s just a big success haha!
There had been a lot of queer moments! So many more than in the anime at that time of the story. There will be so many fanfics lol
I loved Namis and Luffys first interaction. Even though it was different from the original , it was so cute and gave them some funny moments together. In contrast, Sanjis and Luffys first interaction felt really lame. I love how in the anime the first thing Luffy sees Sanji doing is offering someone starving food for free. This way he knows immediately Sanji is a good one. He asks him to join his crew without having tried his meals. In OPLA Luffy first sees Sanji as waiter resolving some fight. Luffy goes from "he's a good fighter" over "he's a good cook" to "he’s a good guy". And to me Sanji is a good guy first and everything else comes after!
The only time I felt emotions like in the anime, was the scene were Luffy gave his hat to Nami. I think it was almost a 1:1 adaption of the original scene and the dialogue. But somehow this scene felt also off in the live action, because it was so much heavier in emotions than the rest of the series. I’m sorry I’m really picky about the emotional stuff lol
Thanks for reading my rumbling about my favorite fictional universe! I’m really excited what OPLA can do in the future! For anyone starting to watch the anime, I have some last words for you: I’ll wait in Wano Kuni for you!!!
They are so undervalued! I love their dynamic. Always a good reminder that you don’t need to be the strongest to achieve a goal or contribute to a team 🫶
Sometimes I wonder if Oda looks up what kind of new One Piece merch is out there and thinks: Wow, that got turned into this kind of merch as well?! Awesome!!
Perfect activity for a rainy day: building a Thousand Sunny kigumi set ☔️🫶
The other day my husband and me put on some One Piece ambient lofi mix on YouTube and build this cute wooden Sunny model!
Kigumi is actually a japanese form of traditional wood framework. We found a shop at Solamachi mall where they sell kigumi models of lots of different stuff like traditional houses, cute character and obviously also anime stuff.
The Sunny set was rated with difficulty level 4 out of 5 and it took us one and a half hour to build it. We had no experience with kigumi before, but that wasn’t a problem at all. We just had to get used to how much pressure we can put on the wood pieces. I’ve to admit I broke one piece, though. But we could glue it and everything still worked out fine.
I went to an OPLA pop up event in Tokyo - again! Haha! This time I checked out the so called One Piece Shibuya Grand Line Store! She’s a fancy one wow!
The store is actually called Toy Sapiens and the flagship store of Hot Toys, which currently has a lots of OPLA merch! Hence, the store is OPLA themed until October 15th!
Actually, I didn’t know they have anything displayed besides the merch they’re selling. But turns out, they had some decorations and a display window with the costumes of Gold Roger, Morgan, Buggy, Mihawk, Arlong and Alvida. And gosh, I love to look at the costumes!
Those were actually a lot more detailed that the ones of the main cast I saw at the other OPLA event a few weeks ago. It felt like they allowed a lot more creative freedom for the roles beside the main cast.
There was also a photo spot! Because what’s better advertisement than people posting cool pictures of themselves haha! You could write you name with magnet letters on a bounty poster and pose in the picture frame of the poster! How cool! And wow, we’re worth as much as East Blue Luffy! Since I was alone the staff took pictures of me. So nice! Look at me being so cringe it’s almost cute!
Tbh, I only bought some stickers. But I was tempted to buy one of the shirts. The quality was so good! And the Going Merry one looked soooo cool! But I guessed I wouldn’t wear the color and it would only end up hanging in my closet. Please don’t tell anyone you can buy them online as well. Because maybe I’ll do that later. No, I shouldn’t! And btw, how many more OPLA stickers can one have?!
I said it already and dare to repeat it: Japan does pop up events so well! And this was actually "just" a decorated store!! I took more pictures this time. But some videos too, so yeah I’m planning of making a little short video as well. But who knows if this will ever get published.
The weekend after OPLA aired, I went to an OPLA pop up event in Odaiba!
And oh my good, is was so fun! The event space was decorated with a lot of love! They had a little exhibition of props that were used in the live action. Stuff like money, maps, Luffys jolly roger, the gum gum fruit and all the outfits of the main cast. You could take photos at several photo spots like the bar or the ship’s ruder. The staff would also take photos of you as well!
The most fun have been the games though! One was like a ring throwing game, but you where throwing straw hats. The other two were small video games. One was a memory with bounty posters of the cast. And the other one was a motion capture game where you had to punch a treasure box in gumgum-gatling style. If you had won the game, you received a sticker with a photo one of the strawhats!
When we first left the event I didn’t manag to get all stickers. Zoro was missing. He had to be so in-character, hugh. So I had to go back and try again. And I was lucky enough to get him – thanks to the help of some friends! Now I have Sanj, Nami and Usopp twice. But well, there’s nothing I want do for my little dumbhead haha.
Japan does pop up events so good! And it was completely free! The whole area was decorated with so much love and details. I didn’t take so many picture because actually I wanted to cut a little short video about it and was focusing on filming. But a big lack in creativity is holding me off. So please send me some motivation to cut the video lol.
I feel like Zoro in the live action felt a little bit… edgy?! Not sure how to put it.
Somehow like they "researched" why the broad fan base loves Zoro so much. But they just listend to those power scaling and theory addicts and told Makenyu "Please be this version of Zoro!"
I’m not sure if this explains my impression well. He just felt a little bit different to the Zoro in my heart. But maybe thats because I’m comparing East Blue Zoro with Wano Kuni Zoro? But actually I don’t think that’s the reason.
Don’t get me wrong. Makenyu is still the best Zoro I could have imagined! He pulled it off really good. It’s more like the directions they gave him made it feel not 100% true to the original character. At least for me and I might be picky because Zoro was my favorite when I started to watch One Piece.
I loved Namis and Luffys first interaction in the live action. Even though it was different from the original, it was so cute and gave them some funny moments together. It felt in some way or another similar to their first meeting in the anime.
In contrast, Sanjis and Luffys first interaction felt really lame. I love how in the anime the first thing Luffy sees Sanji doing is offering someone starving a meal for free. This way he knows immediately Sanji is a good one. He asks him to join his crew without having tried his meals. In OPLA Luffy first sees Sanji as waiter resolving some fight. He goes from "he's a good fighter" over "he's a good cook" to "he’s a good guy". It didn’t felt in line at all.
I think we can all agree, the bounty reveals were the most well done parts of the entire series. A lot of commendable moments in general, but one of the places where they noticeably improved upon the anime was the bounty posters. Instead of having some stranger tell the bounty amount, it was delivered to us in this badass and slick way which didn't feel out of place.
Oh man my mom made a great point. One Piece is already like a legend/tall tale. And OPLA is just another person telling the same story. Different but the same core like every campfire story told and retold and handed down over generations.
I was so confused when I first opened the tumblr app two days ago. I was like: wait - why do I have a Nami tab? I mean I don’t mind but what is going on?
And it took me one a few seconds to understand because the One Piece community here seems to be so strong and whole some 🫶
i'm excited for the one piece live action, and i think a big part of it, to me, at least, is because there's such a sense of community with it. you're not watching it alone! maybe not everyone is into it, but those who are are excited and we're excited together! i'm excited to watch it with people and experience it with people, and be a part of it with others. i hope it's silly, i hope it's goofy, i hope the cast and crew had a blast with their heart and soul. i hope arlong park and the duel with mihawk pull at my heartstrings. i hope seeing sanji, luffy, and usopp's backstories make me hold my face in my hands. it's been a few months now, almost a year, but i still feel so new to one piece in the grand scheme of things, but i'm having so much fun. i'm not kidding when i say i'm having a blast, because the people i've met so far have been so cool and so welcoming, and i don't regret a minute. i'm so excited.
