The voices are killing me😭

The voices are killing me😭

Movie May Day 23: Another day another stupid One Piece special

Movie May Day 23: Another day another stupid One Piece special

Watched this in order to log my One Piece progress, which I have now finished Whole Cake Island.

It had been a while since I was last watching One Piece, and talked about that a bit the last time I logged it, so if you wanna see my thoughts on Zou, I'll link it below. But after making my way through Zou like a warm up, I dove straight into Whole Cake Island and honestly, I'm so fucking glad I decided to dive back into One Piece.

This arc felt like One Piece at its best pre-Time Skip era, almost like a Water Seven but for Sanji rather than Robin. I really enjoyed diving deeper into Sanji's backstory and exploring the inner politics of Germa and Big Mom, there was the perfect balance of World Building, Intrigue, and Adventure. Most of the characters introduced were compelling or entertaining in one way or another, the Vinsmokes left a tiny bit to be desired with regards to individual character depth, but they did take part in the most interesting plotlines and moments in this arc.

As for the setting and style, I felt there was a distinct step up in vibes and quality. Big Mom's country is super fun and pleasing to explore, the musical aspects of the episodes and style choices in character introductions felt distinctly more thought out and exciting, almost like a televised version of the vibes some of the movies capture but in the more detailed and slower paced storytelling. But as much as I enjoyed the exploration on WCI, my biggest issue making my way through this arc was just that.

The pacing here is definitely way way way way better than in Dressrosa or Fishman Island, but the post-Time Skip era has certainly made itself known as being much more drawn out, at least in my experience. Overall, I was happy to see the pacing feel more intentional, but the biggest example of my issue is in the second half of this arc, where Luffy fights Katakuri for an in-universe 10 hours, it is explicitly stated by Nami that there is a hard out of "1AM, that's 10 hours from now." And instead of that being used as a way to introduce a sense of urgency, a ticking clock, that is where the arc really slows down and any time we cut back to Luffy's fight, he seems to be going through the same story beat over and over and over across enough episodes that amount to over 12 hours of runtime. There are of course still intriguing and fun moments in that battle, as well as in Nami/Brook's storyline, but I felt most of that could've been truncated by at least half.

Overall, this arc was amazing and I will be diving straight into the shorter Reverie arc and Wano next, which I am super excited for, especially with the change in art direction I've seen it adopt from the Dragon Ball Super films. Good stuff! Also, the Straw Hats playing Baseball and Soccer is fun!

**My review of the Zou arc on Letterboxd https://boxd.it/6SQQ2V**

Watched this in order to log my One Piece progress, which I have now finished Whole Cake Island.

It had been a while since I was last watching One Piece, and talked about that a bit the last time I logged it, so if you wanna see my thoughts on Zou, I'll link it below. But after making my way through Zou like a warm up, I dove straight into Whole Cake Island and honestly, I'm so fucking glad I decided to dive back into One Piece.

This arc felt like One Piece at its best pre-Time Skip era, almost like a Water Seven but for Sanji rather than Robin. I really enjoyed diving deeper into Sanji's backstory and exploring the inner politics of Germa and Big Mom, there was the perfect balance of World Building, Intrigue, and Adventure. Most of the characters introduced were compelling or entertaining in one way or another, the Vinsmokes left a tiny bit to be desired with regards to individual character depth, but they did take part in the most interesting plotlines and moments in this arc.

As for the setting and style, I felt there was a distinct step up in vibes and quality. Big Mom's country is super fun and pleasing to explore, the musical aspects of the episodes and style choices in character introductions felt distinctly more thought out and exciting, almost like a televised version of the vibes some of the movies capture but in the more detailed and slower paced storytelling. But as much as I enjoyed the exploration on WCI, my biggest issue making my way through this arc was just that.

The pacing here is definitely way way way way better than in Dressrosa or Fishman Island, but the post-Time Skip era has certainly made itself known as being much more drawn out, at least in my experience. Overall, I was happy to see the pacing feel more intentional, but the biggest example of my issue is in the second half of this arc, where Luffy fights Katakuri for an in-universe 10 hours, it is explicitly stated by Nami that there is a hard out of "1AM, that's 10 hours from now." And instead of that being used as a way to introduce a sense of urgency, a ticking clock, that is where the arc really slows down and any time we cut back to Luffy's fight, he seems to be going through the same story beat over and over and over across enough episodes that amount to over 12 hours of runtime. There are of course still intriguing and fun moments in that battle, as well as in Nami/Brook's storyline, but I felt most of that could've been truncated by at least half.

Overall, this arc was amazing and I will be diving straight into the shorter Reverie arc and Wano next, which I am super excited for, especially with the change in art direction I've seen it adopt from the Dragon Ball Super films. Good stuff! Also, the Straw Hats playing Baseball and Soccer is fun!

**My review of the Zou arc on Letterboxd https://boxd.it/6SQQ2V**

Watched this in order to log my One Piece progress, which I have now finished Whole Cake Island.

It had been a while since I was last watching One Piece, and talked about that a bit the last time I logged it, so if you wanna see my thoughts on Zou, I'll link it below. But after making my way through Zou like a warm up, I dove straight into Whole Cake Island and honestly, I'm so fucking glad I decided to dive back into One Piece.

This arc felt like One Piece at its best pre-Time Skip era, almost like a Water Seven but for Sanji rather than Robin. I really enjoyed diving deeper into Sanji's backstory and exploring the inner politics of Germa and Big Mom, there was the perfect balance of World Building, Intrigue, and Adventure. Most of the characters introduced were compelling or entertaining in one way or another, the Vinsmokes left a tiny bit to be desired with regards to individual character depth, but they did take part in the most interesting plotlines and moments in this arc.

As for the setting and style, I felt there was a distinct step up in vibes and quality. Big Mom's country is super fun and pleasing to explore, the musical aspects of the episodes and style choices in character introductions felt distinctly more thought out and exciting, almost like a televised version of the vibes some of the movies capture but in the more detailed and slower paced storytelling. But as much as I enjoyed the exploration on WCI, my biggest issue making my way through this arc was just that.

The pacing here is definitely way way way way better than in Dressrosa or Fishman Island, but the post-Time Skip era has certainly made itself known as being much more drawn out, at least in my experience. Overall, I was happy to see the pacing feel more intentional, but the biggest example of my issue is in the second half of this arc, where Luffy fights Katakuri for an in-universe 10 hours, it is explicitly stated by Nami that there is a hard out of "1AM, that's 10 hours from now." And instead of that being used as a way to introduce a sense of urgency, a ticking clock, that is where the arc really slows down and any time we cut back to Luffy's fight, he seems to be going through the same story beat over and over and over across enough episodes that amount to over 12 hours of runtime. There are of course still intriguing and fun moments in that battle, as well as in Nami/Brook's storyline, but I felt most of that could've been truncated by at least half.

Overall, this arc was amazing and I will be diving straight into the shorter Reverie arc and Wano next, which I am super excited for, especially with the change in art direction I've seen it adopt from the Dragon Ball Super films. Good stuff! Also, the Straw Hats playing Baseball and Soccer is fun!

**My review of the Zou arc on Letterboxd https://boxd.it/6SQQ2V**

Watched this in order to log my One Piece progress, which I have now finished Whole Cake Island.

It had been a while since I was last watching One Piece, and talked about that a bit the last time I logged it, so if you wanna see my thoughts on Zou, I'll link it below. But after making my way through Zou like a warm up, I dove straight into Whole Cake Island and honestly, I'm so fucking glad I decided to dive back into One Piece.

This arc felt like One Piece at its best pre-Time Skip era, almost like a Water Seven but for Sanji rather than Robin. I really enjoyed diving deeper into Sanji's backstory and exploring the inner politics of Germa and Big Mom, there was the perfect balance of World Building, Intrigue, and Adventure. Most of the characters introduced were compelling or entertaining in one way or another, the Vinsmokes left a tiny bit to be desired with regards to individual character depth, but they did take part in the most interesting plotlines and moments in this arc.

As for the setting and style, I felt there was a distinct step up in vibes and quality. Big Mom's country is super fun and pleasing to explore, the musical aspects of the episodes and style choices in character introductions felt distinctly more thought out and exciting, almost like a televised version of the vibes some of the movies capture but in the more detailed and slower paced storytelling. But as much as I enjoyed the exploration on WCI, my biggest issue making my way through this arc was just that.

The pacing here is definitely way way way way better than in Dressrosa or Fishman Island, but the post-Time Skip era has certainly made itself known as being much more drawn out, at least in my experience. Overall, I was happy to see the pacing feel more intentional, but the biggest example of my issue is in the second half of this arc, where Luffy fights Katakuri for an in-universe 10 hours, it is explicitly stated by Nami that there is a hard out of "1AM, that's 10 hours from now." And instead of that being used as a way to introduce a sense of urgency, a ticking clock, that is where the arc really slows down and any time we cut back to Luffy's fight, he seems to be going through the same story beat over and over and over across enough episodes that amount to over 12 hours of runtime. There are of course still intriguing and fun moments in that battle, as well as in Nami/Brook's storyline, but I felt most of that could've been truncated by at least half.

Overall, this arc was amazing and I will be diving straight into the shorter Reverie arc and Wano next, which I am super excited for, especially with the change in art direction I've seen it adopt from the Dragon Ball Super films. Good stuff! Also, the Straw Hats playing Baseball and Soccer is fun!

**My review of the Zou arc on Letterboxd https://boxd.it/6SQQ2V**

Watched this in order to log my One Piece progress, which I have now finished Whole Cake Island.

It had been a while since I was last watching One Piece, and talked about that a bit the last time I logged it, so if you wanna see my thoughts on Zou, I'll link it below. But after making my way through Zou like a warm up, I dove straight into Whole Cake Island and honestly, I'm so fucking glad I decided to dive back into One Piece.

This arc felt like One Piece at its best pre-Time Skip era, almost like a Water Seven but for Sanji rather than Robin. I really enjoyed diving deeper into Sanji's backstory and exploring the inner politics of Germa and Big Mom, there was the perfect balance of World Building, Intrigue, and Adventure. Most of the characters introduced were compelling or entertaining in one way or another, the Vinsmokes left a tiny bit to be desired with regards to individual character depth, but they did take part in the most interesting plotlines and moments in this arc.

As for the setting and style, I felt there was a distinct step up in vibes and quality. Big Mom's country is super fun and pleasing to explore, the musical aspects of the episodes and style choices in character introductions felt distinctly more thought out and exciting, almost like a televised version of the vibes some of the movies capture but in the more detailed and slower paced storytelling. But as much as I enjoyed the exploration on WCI, my biggest issue making my way through this arc was just that.

The pacing here is definitely way way way way better than in Dressrosa or Fishman Island, but the post-Time Skip era has certainly made itself known as being much more drawn out, at least in my experience. Overall, I was happy to see the pacing feel more intentional, but the biggest example of my issue is in the second half of this arc, where Luffy fights Katakuri for an in-universe 10 hours, it is explicitly stated by Nami that there is a hard out of "1AM, that's 10 hours from now." And instead of that being used as a way to introduce a sense of urgency, a ticking clock, that is where the arc really slows down and any time we cut back to Luffy's fight, he seems to be going through the same story beat over and over and over across enough episodes that amount to over 12 hours of runtime. There are of course still intriguing and fun moments in that battle, as well as in Nami/Brook's storyline, but I felt most of that could've been truncated by at least half.

Overall, this arc was amazing and I will be diving straight into the shorter Reverie arc and Wano next, which I am super excited for, especially with the change in art direction I've seen it adopt from the Dragon Ball Super films. Good stuff! Also, the Straw Hats playing Baseball and Soccer is fun!

**My review of the Zou arc on Letterboxd https://boxd.it/6SQQ2V**

Watched this in order to log my One Piece progress, which I have now finished Whole Cake Island.

It had been a while since I was last watching One Piece, and talked about that a bit the last time I logged it, so if you wanna see my thoughts on Zou, I'll link it below. But after making my way through Zou like a warm up, I dove straight into Whole Cake Island and honestly, I'm so fucking glad I decided to dive back into One Piece.

This arc felt like One Piece at its best pre-Time Skip era, almost like a Water Seven but for Sanji rather than Robin. I really enjoyed diving deeper into Sanji's backstory and exploring the inner politics of Germa and Big Mom, there was the perfect balance of World Building, Intrigue, and Adventure. Most of the characters introduced were compelling or entertaining in one way or another, the Vinsmokes left a tiny bit to be desired with regards to individual character depth, but they did take part in the most interesting plotlines and moments in this arc.

As for the setting and style, I felt there was a distinct step up in vibes and quality. Big Mom's country is super fun and pleasing to explore, the musical aspects of the episodes and style choices in character introductions felt distinctly more thought out and exciting, almost like a televised version of the vibes some of the movies capture but in the more detailed and slower paced storytelling. But as much as I enjoyed the exploration on WCI, my biggest issue making my way through this arc was just that.

The pacing here is definitely way way way way better than in Dressrosa or Fishman Island, but the post-Time Skip era has certainly made itself known as being much more drawn out, at least in my experience. Overall, I was happy to see the pacing feel more intentional, but the biggest example of my issue is in the second half of this arc, where Luffy fights Katakuri for an in-universe 10 hours, it is explicitly stated by Nami that there is a hard out of "1AM, that's 10 hours from now." And instead of that being used as a way to introduce a sense of urgency, a ticking clock, that is where the arc really slows down and any time we cut back to Luffy's fight, he seems to be going through the same story beat over and over and over across enough episodes that amount to over 12 hours of runtime. There are of course still intriguing and fun moments in that battle, as well as in Nami/Brook's storyline, but I felt most of that could've been truncated by at least half.

Overall, this arc was amazing and I will be diving straight into the shorter Reverie arc and Wano next, which I am super excited for, especially with the change in art direction I've seen it adopt from the Dragon Ball Super films. Good stuff! Also, the Straw Hats playing Baseball and Soccer is fun!

**My review of the Zou arc on Letterboxd https://boxd.it/6SQQ2V**