Reblogging to respond to a few of these points as I was one of the people in the server! This was really interesting to read :D I would also like to preface that I am an OPLA enjoyer in general, but I do have my fair share of criticisms for it. I don't want to come across as though I hated it at all because that was not the case haha
On the eyebrow: You could be totally right about this—I don't know a ton about makeup first hand—but I also kind of think that's less of a limitation than it might seem at first? There is so much absolutely phenomenal work done in the special effects makeup industry, in a way that can look incredibly natural. It is not as though this edit requires limiting the movement of the face—you compared it to the Wapol jaw prosthetic, but I kind of feel that's on a whole different level of difficulty? Eyebrows are covered and reshaped all the time in drag, for example, and a HUGE part of drag is the performance and expression work. And in drag, they are often actually covering up the entire eyebrow, but in this case, that wouldn't even be necessary. They'd only have to reshape the end, and if it doesn't look totally real in close-up, the technology is there where they could touch it up in post. OPLA did this for a lot of the characters already in the series, so it was def within their skillset/capabilities? The series had the budget/abilities to come up with something, i would imagine, but they decided against it. I kind of assume it was because it would make him look a little silly, which would not have been a bad thing imo. I wouldn't even expect the spiral to be exaggerated like it is in the manga or in cosplays, just a little something or curl upwards at the end would be fine. As it is, Sanji is just kind of.. some guy lol. His other defining features (other than his blond-ness ig haha) were cut back too—like the suit. That one I do understand a lot more because those would be brutal to move in like Sanji does, so I'm not that mad, but its absence in conjunction with him having normal eyebrows just makes me kind of.. sad?? All of the things that make him different visually are gone, and now he's just kind of a pretty blond guy. Which is fine for new viewers, it's not like you would miss the weird details if you'd never known about them, but it is disappointing.
On his anger: The slapstick humor only works in the ani-manga, that is totally true, and the removal of it is fine by me. I also really agree with what you're saying about his masks, that's not what bothers me. What I do sort of have an issue with is that they made him kind of base-line polite? In my opinion, Sanji is so interesting because he is so contradictory. He dresses in a very trim and proper way, combs his hair just-so, etc. He's a gentleman. He is the kindest man you'll ever meet. He'll feed anyone who is hungry. He's also just rude as fuck. His anger is a mask in the manga (though not entirely. He is just properly hot-headed as well lol), but he's also just... not that polite of a person, even when he's not doing his whole fuming routine. He swears very casually, uses rude nicknames, has a rather cavalier attitude in general, bristles very easily, etc. OPLA Sanji isn't really allowed to be like that most of the time, I think because they didn't want him to be "unlikable." Kind of like what they did with Nami's volatility, i guess? And that is an understandable thing to consider when switching mediums, but I think that a lot of Sanji's uniqueness comes from his brattiness in combination with his kindness. When you remove that juxtaposition, he's kind of just a generically pleasant guy. Sanji's character is a very long-term setup/payoff situation, like you said, but I think that has more to do with his internal emotions, and less-so his external ones (ignoring the creepy flirting for a sec because I talk about that in the next section). I don't think that making him a bit ruder would have put anybody off, not in a story about pirates and nonconformity, where that is sort of the point.
On his charm/the thing with women: I'll be honest, I am not one of the people that hated the change about his thing with women. I'm able to look past the creepiness in the manga and still enjoy his character, but I don't begrudge anyone who can't. And, remaking the same mistakes in OPLA would have put a lot of new fans off of the character. I totally completely 100% agree with what you said about making him feel "safe" as a flirt. That was necessary and I do think that they accomplished it. However, I do have some minor issues with how they adapted his charm, which is to say that it kind of... Works Too Well?? In the live action, he is still rejected by women/not taken all too seriously, which I liked, but he is objectively a pretty decent flirt. I think that there are ways to adapt his too-much-ness from the manga without making him scary or having him cross any lines. One way would be to lean more into the "fairy-tale" perception of romance that he has in the manga. I wrote this in a comment about this topic and I'm gonna copy-paste it to avoid having to retype the whole thing lol:
"If you get rid of all the gross parts of his gag, Sanji is a daydreamer when it comes to love. He likes to imagine a fairytale ending for himself, something romantic and right out of a storybook. His flirting is never suave or cool-headed or surface level—it’s silly and passionate and over-invested. He does little spinny dances and dramatic bows while serving Nami and Robin snacks, and while they find it cute in the story, the point is that it’s unrealistic to the point where it’s socially a little bit odd how romanticized his view of romance is. I just think they could have adapted this more directly into opla in a way where it was WAY more respectful and normal than it was in the manga, but still let him keep a bit more of his silly uncool-ness"
And, that all could be nitpicky on my end, but I don't think that makes it unjustified? His charm in OPLA was quite, well, charming. And that was his base-line. But it's more complicated in the original. Sanji is a cool person in the manga/anime, especially early on. He has a jazzy battle theme, good one-liners, amazing poses, and a cool-guy demeanor. He's attractive as a character—he has a lot of moments where he makes you sit up in your seat and go "omg hell yeah look at him go." But, that "coolness" is only interesting because he also swings in the opposite direction just as regularly. He's afraid of bugs, he's a goof with women, he can be just a little bit childish and bratty. Again, he's full of contradictions. Obviously, all of that cannot fit into a trimmed-down adaptation, but the tone of his character can be adapted in a way which provides the same feeling, especially to returning viewers that do have that context from the manga. And, there were moments in season 2 that I felt the stuck the landing on this. Or, one moment, at least, that is coming to mind rn. I actually really, properly, loved the scenes where Sanji and Usopp went to go find the part replacement for the Merry in Laboon's mouth. They landed it so well—Sanji had some snark, he was a little bit silly. He picked on Usopp for a bit, then imparted some genuine advice. He was a bodacious and cocky, but was then ultimately too creeped out by the ghost-story vibes to want to touch the "skeleton." And, he had a great fight scene with some fantastic badass momentum. It was a wonderful moment where he got to be likable and keep his charm, but still got to have some of the edge that manga Sanji does. It, to me, proved that it is possible to adapt Sanji in a way that I like, which is part of what made all the scenes where they don't get him quite right feel so much more disappointing to me. I don't ask for an adaptation to be exactly one-to-one, that's just not realistic. But, I do ask for it to be parallel when it comes to the tone.
On his openness/his dream: Okay so I was the person who talked about his dream in the server. You have an interesting point about Zeff, but I ultimately think I disagree? In universe, I would potentially accept that as part of the reason (though its impacts on Sanji are still not a change that I like for his narrative personally), but I do not think that that is why the show makers made the change tbh. I think they did it because they did not have the time, which, although a reasonable explanation, is not a responsible one imo. Sanji easily got the least development out of the main characters in season one, and it flattened his character a lot. And, it's a real shame, because imo, they did have the time available if they just allocated it differently. OPLA spends a lot of time on the marines—Koby/Helmeppo/Garp in season 1, specifically. And that is fine. It's not my favorite part of the show to actively watch, but I do think that adding some extra scenes/cutaways with them can bring some new clarity to the narrative (I have a lot more thoughts about this but that is not the point of the post haha). However, these new scenes/character details should not take priority over establishing the inner workings of one of your main 5 characters. Introducing Arlong early at Baratié?? Totally fine, love it. Cutting down on the Don Krieg fight? I see why it needed to be done (though I do kinda wish that it happened with Mihawk at Baratié for reasons I won't get into here). Removing the bulk of Sanji's internal conflicts about his dream? No, it doesn't work, it's just too important.
Maybe the reason I'm so upset about this in particular is because I related to him personally in this arc, but it just guts me. That feeling of trying with all your might to let go of a passion, of a dream, but never being able to manage it is just so poignant and familiar to me. Sanji needs, emotionally, to try and find the All Blue. He can't help but need it. Yes, it's a fairy tale that no one believes in, but he needs to try. He does not want to let himself, though, because it is not a grounded desire—it is a fantastical one. He wants to stay with Zeff because he thinks he owes it to him, and trying to find something that allegedly Does Not Exist is not, rationally, a better use of his time than helping his aging adoptive father with his restaurant. Sanji wants to feel like an adult, and following a childish dream is not what a "grown-up" would do. That's why he never brings it up—he doesn't want to draw attention to it. He doesn't even want to acknowledge it as his dream. Sanji's story during the Baratié arc is about this conflict as a whole. The live action made it basically about his guilt towards Zeff. Which is a part of it, but not all of it.
The fact that Sanji wasn't even there for the Mihawk duel is just... baffling to me??? As that would not have changed much of anything production-wise. They seemingly just didn't consider it, but it's such a revealing scene when it comes to Sanji's internal workings. When Zoro continues to fight Mihawk even though he's obviously losing, Sanji yells out "Isn't it easy to give up on your ambition?!" and it is one of the first unmasked moments we get of him in the series. He is affected by the idea of someone risking it all for an "impossible" dream, as that is the exact thing he hasn't let himself do. He's ashamed, and seeing people who aren't—who callously declare that "I will become the greatest swordsman!" or "I will become the king of the pirates!" is a big thing for him. In the manga, the moment he finally, finally asks Luffy if he'd ever heard of the All Blue is the first breath of clear air he had let himself take in a long time. He's finally entertaining the concept of his ambition, letting it out to someone who dreams with the same ferocity that he does. It's a beautiful thing, to me. When Sanji asks Luffy if he's heard of the All Blue in OPLA, none of this context could be realized by the viewer, based on what they were shown. Sanji just hadn't gotten the chance through that arc.
And, as an aside about the Zeff thing, I didn't honestly read their relationship as that different emotionally between the manga and the live action, but that was just my interpretation. The scale of their aggressiveness has shifted to address the slapstick violence, like you said, but I feel that the core of their relationship is about the same. It's something that I thought was done well, actually? Neither the manga or LA pairs communicate openly and they are both still very combative with each other, but they do still truly care. I kind of think it was just chilled-out a bit to suit the medium better? But I definitely don't think that the Baratié environment was actually so volatile in the manga that it would be the reason for Sanji to feel shame about his dream/not want to talk about it. Zeff is the one person in the world who gets it in the way he does, actually. I really do think that the reason it was changed for the live action was because they needed to streamline the Baratié arc and some bits just fell to the wayside :(
Totally unrelated to what you said but something else random which really confused me about him in OPLA was the way that he wasn't bothered by Zoro wasting pomegranates while under Miss Goldenweek's trance. Like, that's his whole thing. Why didn't he care???? Why didn't he take some of them with him to make use of??? It was so strange. That scene also felt awkward because I don't think Sanji would have actually ignored Zoro asking for help like that. They bicker, sure, but the second Zoro actually asks for something seriously, Sanji is always right there with him. And it could have been explained by him being angry about the pomegranate thing, but the details were seemingly not connected?? This is what I mean about him not feeling like the same character when it comes to the tone. Was it just like a weird choice, or did they just not think about it that hard???? I dunno
But, like you said, it's all open to interpretation. He's likable to me in some ways, just as a wholly different character than his manga counterpart. And there are some new things I like too. I do love how visibly charmed he is by all of his friends/all of the people he meets—Like, damn, the guy has tangible stars in his eyes half the time, and that's such an interesting way to adapt his powerful feelings of love into the live action acting of a character. I love how he moves, too. The fight choreography is fun, and I also like how he's always standing in, like, poses. He hops up onto railing and leans against tables/walls when talking to people. He sways back and forth and does little flourishes. It's a very Sanji-esque sort of physicality to me. I also do like some of his phrasing/his accent quite a lot. The way he talks is just a bit different enough from the others that it feels like he might not be from the east blue, which is a nice detail, considering his backstory.
So, yeah, I think my general thesis here is not that OPLA Sanji isn't a fine character, it's just that he's a somewhat declawed, somewhat sanitized version of manga Sanji in a lot of respects. He's just kind of a different guy. Any one of these changes could have been looked past/appreciated on its own, but together, I think it's entirely understandable that Sanji fans would be really upset about about how, collectively, most of his attributes were either removed or shifted towards the center. I was upset by it at times, even though I was one of the people who still ended up enjoying the final product/was able to have fun watching his character.
(I'm an OPLA enjoyer, I swear)