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A handful of random One Piece Live Action thoughts ...
... resulting from making that vid this past week.
One thing that I was thinking about is the sheer challenge of costuming this show, because most of the costumes are directly patterned after their manga/anime looks. So whereas most of the time in most shows, you can probably source the characters' everyday wear from basic mass-produced clothes or even vintage or secondhand shops, aside from really specific superhero costumes or whatever, this is more like a historical production in that everything has to be made from scratch. (Only, if possible, worse, because unless you're doing an unusual time period, normally you could probably go to the warehouses of Elizabethan or Regency costumes or Roman togas that no doubt exist.)
Here, even the relatively normal clothes are directly echoing something specific, like the patterns on distinctive shirt, or dress.
Anyway, it's just interesting to think about. Even the simplest costumes are more complicated than they seem, because it's not just an unusual shirt that the costume people found at a vintage shop; they're having to explicitly pattern-match or color-match or style-match items from the manga and anime.
More specifically spoilery for season two, one thing that picking clips of the season one Marine characters (Koby, Helmeppo, Garp) and the season two ones (Smoker and Tashigi) made really clear is just what a leveling-up Smoker and Tashigi are from what we saw of the Marine antagonists' fighting skills in season one. (I mean, Garp is obviously a stone cold badass, but all we actually see him do that really stands out physically is that one scene where he throws a cannonball between two ships.)
Smoker and Tashigi, meanwhile, are really, really good fighters who do it a lot.
I think this was especially interesting to realize about Tashigi, because Smoker is also, canonically, a total badass, and is introduced in a way that makes this clear. He beats Luffy *and* Sanji easily in their first fight; we haven't seen him lose yet.
But it's kinda interesting because we first see Tashigi (in both the manga/anime and this adaptation) being very quickly and handily beaten by Zoro. But that doesn't mean she's bad at fighting! Actually, another thing I've been thinking about with the adaptation is that I think it's a little more clear with a few of the changes that Zoro is also *insanely* badass. He's not only better than most people around him, he's WAY beyond where any of the other Straw Hats are, too. He's the only one of them who has an actual reputation already as a really skilled fighter. Zoro is actually a fighting prodigy; even in his earliest appearances, it's already clear that he can very easily beat a room full of people of normal fighting skill. He's the only person in the Straw Hats - to date in the live action - who beat a Baroque Works agent by himself (actually two of them, I think, since he gets the lady in Whiskey Peak as well?) whereas generally it took several of them working together. The only reason why he doesn't immediately beat the Baroque Works agent he's fighting in the cake scene is because HIS FEET ARE GLUED TO THE FLOOR and he still holds his own and eventually wins; it's just that being glued down is the one thing that stops him from ending that fight in a few seconds rather than having an uphill battle. The fact that Mihawk easily beats him doesn't mean Zoro isn't good at it; it's that Mihawk is just that good.
So basically, Tashigi losing to Zoro doesn't mean she's bad at fighting, it's just that she's up against a sword prodigy who is better than almost everybody. Later on, she also beats a Baroque Works agent by herself, and pretty quickly too, which again is something that we've seen most of the Straw Hats can't do yet. There's definitely a reason why Smoker picked her as his protégé and I like that we see that on screen, and also that her fight with Zoro was more about Zoro being Just That Good rather than Tashigi being bad at it.
Anyway, all of this created a bit of a challenge in cutting between seasons one and two clips in the vid, because we have a ton of really fun, kinetic scenes of Smoker and Tashigi fighting, but for the season one characters, there really is nothing comparable, except a brief scene or two here and there. There were plenty of other types of scenes and I ended up feeling like I hadn't shortchanged the season one characters, but it was definitely much easier to cut together the Smoker and Tashigi clips for a fast-paced vid.
One thing that I was thinking about is the sheer challenge of costuming this show, because most of the costumes are directly patterned after their manga/anime looks. So whereas most of the time in most shows, you can probably source the characters' everyday wear from basic mass-produced clothes or even vintage or secondhand shops, aside from really specific superhero costumes or whatever, this is more like a historical production in that everything has to be made from scratch. (Only, if possible, worse, because unless you're doing an unusual time period, normally you could probably go to the warehouses of Elizabethan or Regency costumes or Roman togas that no doubt exist.)
Here, even the relatively normal clothes are directly echoing something specific, like the patterns on
season 2 character's
Tashigi'sanother season 2 character's
Miss Valentine's lemon-patternedAnyway, it's just interesting to think about. Even the simplest costumes are more complicated than they seem, because it's not just an unusual shirt that the costume people found at a vintage shop; they're having to explicitly pattern-match or color-match or style-match items from the manga and anime.
More specifically spoilery for season two, one thing that picking clips of the season one Marine characters (Koby, Helmeppo, Garp) and the season two ones (Smoker and Tashigi) made really clear is just what a leveling-up Smoker and Tashigi are from what we saw of the Marine antagonists' fighting skills in season one. (I mean, Garp is obviously a stone cold badass, but all we actually see him do that really stands out physically is that one scene where he throws a cannonball between two ships.)
Smoker and Tashigi, meanwhile, are really, really good fighters who do it a lot.
I think this was especially interesting to realize about Tashigi, because Smoker is also, canonically, a total badass, and is introduced in a way that makes this clear. He beats Luffy *and* Sanji easily in their first fight; we haven't seen him lose yet.
But it's kinda interesting because we first see Tashigi (in both the manga/anime and this adaptation) being very quickly and handily beaten by Zoro. But that doesn't mean she's bad at fighting! Actually, another thing I've been thinking about with the adaptation is that I think it's a little more clear with a few of the changes that Zoro is also *insanely* badass. He's not only better than most people around him, he's WAY beyond where any of the other Straw Hats are, too. He's the only one of them who has an actual reputation already as a really skilled fighter. Zoro is actually a fighting prodigy; even in his earliest appearances, it's already clear that he can very easily beat a room full of people of normal fighting skill. He's the only person in the Straw Hats - to date in the live action - who beat a Baroque Works agent by himself (actually two of them, I think, since he gets the lady in Whiskey Peak as well?) whereas generally it took several of them working together. The only reason why he doesn't immediately beat the Baroque Works agent he's fighting in the cake scene is because HIS FEET ARE GLUED TO THE FLOOR and he still holds his own and eventually wins; it's just that being glued down is the one thing that stops him from ending that fight in a few seconds rather than having an uphill battle. The fact that Mihawk easily beats him doesn't mean Zoro isn't good at it; it's that Mihawk is just that good.
So basically, Tashigi losing to Zoro doesn't mean she's bad at fighting, it's just that she's up against a sword prodigy who is better than almost everybody. Later on, she also beats a Baroque Works agent by herself, and pretty quickly too, which again is something that we've seen most of the Straw Hats can't do yet. There's definitely a reason why Smoker picked her as his protégé and I like that we see that on screen, and also that her fight with Zoro was more about Zoro being Just That Good rather than Tashigi being bad at it.
Anyway, all of this created a bit of a challenge in cutting between seasons one and two clips in the vid, because we have a ton of really fun, kinetic scenes of Smoker and Tashigi fighting, but for the season one characters, there really is nothing comparable, except a brief scene or two here and there. There were plenty of other types of scenes and I ended up feeling like I hadn't shortchanged the season one characters, but it was definitely much easier to cut together the Smoker and Tashigi clips for a fast-paced vid.