Well, I’d have to agree with you. Your statement of “It was a good arch to begin with” is so true, in fact I’ve heard many times that people not sure about one piece have been told to get up to and finishing the Arlong park arc before they drop the show… but as if anyone would do that! That arc was good, one of the most emotionally driven arcs in one piece and a good one to explore the characters, in particularly Nami of course. Arlong was a great villain and also a great lead up for the arc 500 episodes in the future.
Anyway without spending too much time on the pass let’s talk about this present version, Oh my it was enjoyable. Unlike the Alabasta remake that I have actually very recently watched, this was made the much better. Alabasta was good but it was a much longer arc and the final result was a movie that actually ran shorter than this special if you could believe that. Of course there were still cuts in this special as well but they didn’t weaken the story at all, we missed out on the whole Luffy being thrown into the sea and drowning but hey, I’m fine with that and it made the whole special move so smoothly. A couple of the fights where a bit shorter of course we still got the great scene of “USOPP HAMMER, USOPP HAMMER, USOPP HAMMER, USOPP HAMMER” arr classic Usopp just had to mention that scene (Unrelated remember how early on one of choppers special powers was to find weak points… why no use anymore? He could use it as a doctor to find damaged areas. Haven’t looked back at it for a while maybe I’m remembering it wrong). Also I enjoyed how the little lead in while not showing you every detail gave you enough to be able to remember everything that happened or give sufficient details for someone new to just jump into it.
Ok too the art/Animation, WOW this is where the story and art come together to create something amazing. In my opinion the characters looked better in this style than the original and with 10 years or changing and improving it must have given them a great idea of how to make this perfect going back, the animation was also astonishing, couldn’t of done it better myself. It was such a brightly coloured and well thought out special it gave me the same feeling I had while watching strong world.
Clap Clap!... now lets hope the
Episode of Luffy will be just as good, I’m assuming it will be! Luffy’s special will “for the first time in the entire series, the story of how Luffy got the scar under his eye is animated.” Of course shown in the manga but I’m excited to see it animated. And let’s not forget Film Z, I’m expecting that to be one of the best anime movies in general! I normally try not to get my hopes up but comparing the new special with Nami’s and Z with Strong World… YES!
I hope this accurately gives you a sense of my views of “Episode of Nami” as requested.
