Alex Matthews, TJ Blackwell, and Will Rose dive into the high seas of geekdom as they dissect Netflix's live-action adaptation of One Piece, focusing on the first season's adventures and their hopes for the upcoming season two. Right off the bat, they explore the essence of camaraderie that drives Luffy and his crew, emphasizing how each character brings their unique flair to the crew dynamic, making the journey to find the One Piece all the more thrilling. The trio shares their personal experiences with One Piece, from nostalgia to newfound appreciation, sparking a lively discussion about what makes the series resonate with fans both old and new. With the excitement brewing for season two, they speculate on potential story arcs, character developments, and the challenges of adapting such a long-running saga into a digestible format. So, whether you're a seasoned pirate or a curious landlubber, this episode promises a treasure trove of insights and laughs as they navigate the waters of One Piece together!

The crew of Systematic Geekology dives deep into the high seas of Netflix's live-action adaptation of One Piece, exploring the thrilling escapades of Luffy and his ragtag band of misfits. Alex, TJ, and Will kick things off with a nostalgic trip down memory lane, sharing their personal journeys with the One Piece franchise. From childhood encounters with the anime to the excitement of the new series, their camaraderie shines through as they discuss the show's unique charm and its ability to resonate with both old fans and newcomers alike. They tackle the tough questions: does the live-action adaptation do justice to the beloved source material? And how does it compare to the sprawling anime that spans over a thousand episodes? Each host brings their own perspective, analyzing character arcs, pacing, and the emotional weight of pivotal scenes.

The conversation is peppered with witty banter, making it clear that their passion for One Piece runs deep. As the episode unfolds, the trio dives into the specifics of what worked in the live-action series and what could have been better. They highlight standout moments, such as Luffy's unwavering spirit and the importance of friendship, which are central to the narrative. Their discussions touch on the significance of character development, particularly how Luffy's kindness and leadership qualities inspire those around him, reminding us that sometimes, the greatest strength lies in uplifting others. With season two on the horizon, they speculate about what’s to come, expressing excitement for new characters and story arcs while also acknowledging the challenges of adapting such a vast universe. Fans can expect an emotional rollercoaster, with the crew hopeful that the show will continue to respect the heart of the original manga while bringing fresh energy to the screen.

In a fitting conclusion, the hosts reflect on the themes of adventure, belonging, and personal growth that permeate One Piece. They explore how Luffy’s journey mirrors our own quests for identity and purpose, inviting listeners to consider who they would choose for their own pirate crew. This thoughtful reflection adds depth to their discussion, illustrating how stories can shape our understanding of ourselves and the world around us. Overall, this episode is a treasure trove for fans and newcomers alike, filled with insights, laughter, and a shared love for the spirited world of One Piece.

Takeaways:

1. The live-action adaptation of One Piece has surprisingly captured the essence of the original anime, balancing nostalgia with fresh storytelling.
2. The crew discussed their initial experiences with One Piece, showcasing how its themes of friendship and adventure resonate deeply with fans.
3. Expectations for season two of One Piece are high, especially with beloved characters like Chopper soon to make their debut, promising exciting new dynamics.
4. The hosts emphasized the importance of character development in One Piece, particularly how Luffy's kindness and acceptance transform his crew's self-perception.
5. One Piece's unique power system, specifically the concept of Devil Fruits, adds a layer of intrigue and creativity to the story that keeps fans engaged.
6. The podcast highlighted how One Piece encourages a sense of belonging and teamwork, mirroring real-life friendships and the importance of chosen families.

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Check out our other One Piece episodes:

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Hear our other review of the live-action One Piece adaptation:

https://systematic-geekology.captivate.fm/episode/navigating-the-high-seas-of-adaptation-one-piece-live-action-insights/

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Who would you have on your pirate crew to find the One Piece? What's up, everybody? This is Alex Matthews, your host. 1. For the first time in a long time, I am here with my good friends Will and tj.

And today we are talking about the live action One Piece season one and our expectations for season two coming in March. Yes, sir. All right, friends, so what have we been geeking out on lately? Will you start first?

There's so many things to geek out on, but I will say Wonder Man. Wonder man on Disney is absolutely wonderful.

And it's not like a huge production, over the top action every single episode, but it's like a slow burn with particular character and character development with this story. Struggling actor who eventually, you know, has a. Has a secret that he's hiding and he may have superpowers or not. You have to wait and see and watch.

By time you get to the crescendo to the final episode. Actually, I, I adored this.

This show and maybe because I had low expectations, didn't know what to think about it, it made me go back and deep dive some of Wonder man in. In the comics and his origin story and those kinds of things. And it's different from. From the show a little bit, but I, I loved it. It was wonderful.

Check it out.

Cool.

I'm not, I'm. I've never heard of Wonder man until like, y' all started talking about it a few days ago.

I do remember seeing him in comics in the 80s when I was reading comics. Was kind of an adjacent Avenger, you know, or not a main mainstream Avenger, but. But he was popular in the 80s.

But the fact that how they've reworked him and redesigned him and redone him a little bit. Loved it. Loved it.

Cool.

For me, I've been geeking out on Lost hard. I haven't watched an episode of anything since Lost. I started lost 18 days ago and now I'm done with Lost. I watched it all. It's phenomenal.

I love Lost. I can't believe people don't like the ending. If you want to talk to me about it, join our discord at me and we, we can. We'll talk about it.

I'm on. I'm on Team TJ when it comes to loss. Yeah, I mean, I have my ups and downs and, and I watched it happen in, in in real time in my life. And it was.

It was a game changer in how we geek out on as, like, geeks out there. But, yeah, I think we can do a whole episode on. On loss. I don't think we've done a whole episode on Loss.

Joshua doesn't like it, so we're gonna, like. He. He can't. He can't be a part of that one. But I think Leah and others would probably hop on with us to talk, so let's make that happen.

He is anti Abrams.

He is not. I said the fly.

Never. I. Wow. Okay. Well, as for me, what I've been geeking out lately was I've been catching up on playing south of Midnight on my Xbox.

And it's really good. I think I'm on chapter nine. I think that's where it's, like. It's getting serious.

Good on.

Good game. Really underrated game.

It's. Yeah, it's so good.

If you have Game Pass, you absolutely should play it. Like, that's what I'm already paying for. Game pass. It's on. Game pass.

Play it.

It's great. And it's stylistically, yeah. Incredible.

Yeah, incredible.

It's.

I'm only on, like, chapter three.

Oh.

And then I started watching Lost.

Okay.

I love how Lost made you lose everything else in your geek realm.

It's pretty much all I've done this year.

Lost and Lost. I love it. We're a month in, and I'm glad you've emerged. I'm glad you emerged from the hatch. And now you can see clearly now.

I imploded my perception of mainstream tv. Yeah.

Ah, I love that dude. Hey. Yeah, guys, there's so much to. To geek out on, and we're so thankful for all the things and all our hosts. And you know what?

We hope that you can rate and review our show.

Wherever you get your podcast, you can hop over on our YouTube channel where this is being played right now as you're listening, and you can smash that, like, button. If we get 50 likes, then I will go make a snow angel in only my bathing suit in North Carolina. I. You can do that.

I'll video it and we'll put it up on a short. You can see that. But that's only if this episode here gets. Gets 50 likes. I will go do that.

But, yeah, wherever you get your podcast, like, and review, rate and review. It really helps us in the podcast game and keep us out there in the algorithms. We want to thank one of our financial supporters.

We want to thank Aaron Hardy. Aaron, thanks for supporting the show. We really appreciate it. We can't do this without people like you.

And so we will remind you listeners and watchers on YouTube that you can get your own shout out by becoming an official member of Cismic Ecology on our website in the description, in the show notes. And so in the show notes, you could go over to fourth wall and you can click on that. And there's a lot of merch.

There's so many cool merch for all the shows that are on the Annazaw podcast network. It's so much. There's so much going on. So thanks. You can find playlists of all the things we're up to. And again, thanks for supporting the show.

And now on the main topic. Yeah.

Oh, I will say, though, there's a secret. There's a secret supporter benefit for the Anzel podcast network.

Okay.

Some of us in the network can do weddings.

Okay.

And I mean that me and Josh can technically do a wedding because it's.

We can do a geek wedding. It can be a One Piece themed wedding.

Yeah.

Live Action on a pirate ship. Your Live Action.

So the start of the rest of your life is. I got to send you the picture. Will it. Literally the last one I saw Josh officiate was a pirate wedding.

Oh, man, I love that.

Let's do it. Cool.

But let's talk about One Piece.

Live Action. Let's do it. Yes.

The main topic, okay. It is the Live Action One Piece. So let's first start off with our history of all of One Piece.

Tj, would you like to hit us off with how did you get into the world of One Piece?

One Piece?

I didn't have cable growing up, so when I went to my grandma's house to stay for, you know, the night or a couple nights or the weekend or whatever it was, I would catch glimpses of One Piece. You know, it was one of those. So I thought about it a lot. I'd be at home doing nothing, reading books, running outside in the yard.

It's pretty much all I had to do. So I would just go inside and think, man, I wish I could watch that show with the pirates in it.

And eventually when, you know, Internet became more of a thing and I got a cell phone, found out it was One Piece, I was able to actually watch One Piece.

So that's what I do now. I just read the manga. I'm not technically caught up on the anime because I don't. I don't have that kind of time.

Yeah, no. Isn't it like.

It's a lot faster to read it.

Yeah, it's the. Is it the longest running anime out there? Technically?

No, no, it's the longest one with a continuous story.

Okay. Interesting. Yeah.

But I'm curious what the longest Doraman.

I think Doraemon is has never stopped since like the early 80s.

Wow.

But it's like, when did a Manga Start with one piece? Do you know?

My goodness gracious.

I think it's 99. I think it's 99.

Okay.

Wow.

So there. I mean, he's had a few hiatuses here and there, but he's been consistently cranking out this story for mine and Alex's entire Life. Yeah. 99.

Yep.

So it's been. It's been quite a while. 97 for the manga, 99 for the anime.

Gotcha.

Yeah.

All right. Well, Will, how was your history with One Piece?

Like, I didn't even know One Piece was a thing until we started Systemic Ecology and a couple other co hosts like Joshua and TJ and Christian and James Other. Talk about One Piece a lot. And I was like, what is this? All right, I'm familiar with. I mean, I didn't.

I didn't divert from my lane of geekdom of like Star wars comics, Lord of the Rings, Hobbit, the fantasy. Sci fi is kind of in my lane of.

You're a traditionalist.

Traditionalist. You know, a kid of the 70s and 80s and you know, 90s or whatever. But I. I did like anime. I like that style of animation on some of these. Like.

Yeah, I can't think of. You know, I grew up on Saturday morning cartoons. There's a few, like, anime style Saturday morning cartoons that. That 2D was. Was great.

So I was familiar with it. I liked it. But. But I didn't really get into it. But I didn't know about One Piece until this show.

And then a couple of our hosts have them, Luffy as their avatar. And then once you started talking about the anime and the manga. And then when I started, I was going to Comic Con. Going to Comic Cons.

But then I started noticing people in co. Cosplay as certain characters from One Piece I was like, ah, I get that reference. I know who that is. That's the only one I really know from. And. And we go to Comic Con, people cosplay, they like to do deep cuts.

And like, they want you to come up and ask, like, oh, who are you? Not just, I know who Superman is and who Batman is, but like, anime characters. I, you know, like, oh, who are you?

But I was recognizing some One Piece characters and then I read a manga, tried to watch some of the anime, but then when the live action came out, I was like, oh, okay, I don't have to read a thousand comic books, watch a thousand TV shows. It can just be boiled down to the basic of the live action. Just eight episodes, and I can do eight hours.

I can do eight hours of a TV show and finished it for this episode. And I loved it and would love to hear you guys take from those who've been there from. From your whole life to me just being kind of a newbie. I'm.

I'm curious.

Yeah. Yeah. My history with the show actually isn't. That isn't as in depth as you guys's. Because I remember watching it.

It was like one of those first few animes that I watched when I was a kid that actually put me on the map for anime and stuff like that. And Naruto and Dragon Ball Z. Those are like the three animes that I started.

The classics.

Yes, the classics. But with One Piece, I think I only watched like the first arc when it was on TV and then fell off of it and had.

And haven't looked back since until the live action came out. Then I watched that and I was. And I love.

But just the thought, because I thought about, like, catching up on the anime itself and the fact that it's like over a thousand episodes.

I was like, a thousand slow episodes.

Yeah. With filler. A lot of filler.

A lot.

Because this came out at the age when filler was the main thing, though. Yeah.

But One Piece just now made that, like, this year made the transition from, like, traditional release, which was just weekly every week all year, to seasonal. Now it's a seasonal anime.

Yeah, I saw that. Yeah.

Now we're gonna get 24 episodes a year maybe, and they're gonna take half a year off. So filler's dead.

Yeah, they've killed filler.

It's awesome.

Filler. Filler is dead. Yeah. That's not a bad thing. Well, I. I think that's a problem with within kind of the geek culture and these big ips.

That have been on, been. Have decades of storytelling. People don't know where to jump. Jump on. I think comic books have that. Star wars has that. Where I begin. Where's this fit?

Where's fit the timeline? How do I get into this? You can kind of lost as long you know you. But you know where to start and just kind of go through those seasons and binge it.

But. But yeah, what. What kind of time and energy do you have to get into something?

I think some of these Live action from anime or comics into Live Action give people, introduce people to the characters in the storyline without overburdening them with so many things that they have to watch and do. So I think that's a benefit of this Live Action.

Yeah.

Trend.

You know, it's a little dissuasive. So if. But if someone asks me what the best way to catch up is, I still tell them that it's. It's the manga. Read the manga.

There is a fan made like edit of the series called One Pace. It cuts out the filler.

Yeah.

It shortens a lot of the episodes because there's just like short little. They'll just focus on scenes for too long. They cut that out. One Page is good.

But they're working on reanimating the entire series, which I think is hilarious because the series is not done.

It's not even over.

They're just going, okay, we're gonna restart. So a different team is working on remaking One Piece.

Oh man.

For modern audiences. So if that comes out, that will be great. Until then, this is the easiest way.

Yeah.

It takes a lot longer to produce, so, you know, you will still be behind. But if they keep this up and keep, you know, a season coming every couple of years, One Piece, Live Action is. Is where it's at.

Especially because it's faithful. Like it's. It's a really good adaptation.

Yeah. So I've heard.

So I've heard.

You would find out, you know.

Sure.

Pretty cheap to read. You get the Shonen Jump app. It's like $3 a month.

You know.

But it is really good. And I thought they would struggle. I think it took this long to make Live Action One Piece for a very good reason.

Because it would have been very easy to make all these characters look really bad.

Yeah. Yeah.

Especially Arlong. I'm Arlong in here. Six years ago, yeah. What would you have done with a shark? Man, that would have looked terrible.

Yeah.

And some people still think it doesn't look great, but, I mean, you can see the comparison. It's pretty close. It's pretty good.

Since you already touched on it. Do we like the live version versus the anime? Like, how do we feel about this, guys?

Yeah, I'm curious. I'm not as familiar with. With the anime. I loved the live action. I thought the pacing, the story.

I was able to follow who these were, the backstories and stuff.

I am curious because as someone who's like the deep lore of Marvel comics and Star wars, if they divert or do different things from the comics and the movies and things, I can def. I can see the nuance changes. Like, even Joshua messaged me. He's like, I didn't like this one part. And I'm like, what is that? He shared me.

I was like, oh, that was so small. But, like, the people who read or dedicated this, I'm very curious. Tj. What. What's the word on the street? How do you feel?

And then what's the word on the street?

I think it's good. So you do miss out on some character stuff. You know, little interactions that flesh out the crew with the live action. Cut, action, release.

But Arlong park, you watched episode eight, right? He beats Arlong. Just guess what manga chapter that is.

I'm scared to ask.

95.

95. Okay.

That is chapter 95. That's longer than some whole series that I've read. Oh, my gosh. And we knocked it out in one live action season. So the pace for the live action is.

Is breakneck. But I still think they're doing a really good job because what they. What they're cutting out, I would say is good.

Like, it's borderline necessary, but it is not. I think they're towing a very fine line.

Yeah.

And it's good. I think they're doing a great job.

Nice.

But yeah, that is chapter 95 anime episode, like 44. So even in the anime up to this point, they were like, wow, they're going at a pretty steady pace.

The. So here's a question. I know we're not talking about season two yet, but have they.

Did they put some things in season one that were past episode 95 in the comics or whatever? Do they. Did they incorporate other things? I know, like three Body problem did that. Some of the books.

There are some other shows that incorporate stuff from future things. Things, I mean, was on pace. Did they. Do you Think they skipped?

I guess my question is, did they skip anything or did they add something in the future that they should leave for season like, two or three? You see what I'm asking?

Not that I can remember.

Okay.

Like, off the top of my head, there's nothing I can recall. You know, maybe we hadn't seen Garp by chapter nine. No, we did.

We did. Cigar?

Yeah, there's nothing I could think of where they were. Just, you know, let something rip way too early. I do think as things go on, that might begin to happen.

Especially like when we get into season two, because we're gonna meet Dorian, Brogy, and Chopper, some very important characters. So we'll see how that.

I've heard you guys talk about Chopper a lot, and I don't know what that's in reference to, so I'm excited about. Looking forward to it.

He's so cute.

He's Chopper.

Oh, there you go. All right. There we go.

He's the ship doctor.

Stop it.

He's a reindeer who ate the human. Human fruit.

He's so adorable.

There's a great character. Well, Alex, I'm curious, not seeing the anime, but then this show, did that hold your attention? You love. What did you love about this show?

Or the characters that kept you glued and. And geeking out on. On this? I'm. I'm curious what? Because I'm kind of along with you.

I mean, you're a little bit more familiar than I was when I jumped to live action. But yet you still, like, like, deep as TJs.

But yeah, I guess one of the things I love about, like, each character is, like, so different and unique that. And they have, like, different skills and abilities that you don't really see anywhere else, at least to me. Like, the fact that. What's his name?

I forgot his name. But he wields three swords at the same time. What's his name?

Zoro.

Zorro. I literally have a T shirt of this guy. Like, Zor. Zorro literally wields three swords at the same time. Like, who else in the anime universe does that?

Like, come on.

Yeah. And no one's.

Any universe.

Any universe, really.

I guess there's some lightsabers out there. Three lights. Yeah.

Oh, yeah.

She cheats, though.

Yeah.

She owns all three with the Force. She doesn't hold any with her hands.

Oh, see? Yeah. Three swords. Yeah.

But, yeah. Three sword style. He's like, you know what? Two's not enough. I'm gonna put one in my mouth.

Yeah. And then when he.

I'm a Strong neck. I'm a strong jaw. Just right in the mouth. Insane.

Yeah, but he's cool. And the story itself is like. It's so inspiring. Like the way Luffy doesn't matter. Like any of these characters, backgrounds, he.

He invites them to join him on this voyage to find the one piece. Like, forget your past, come join me. I'm gonna be the King of the Pirates. Like, make a better life for yourself. It's just like, wow. He's just so.

He doesn't judge them at all. He's just so.

Yeah, yeah.

It's so. It's like. I don't even know how to describe it, but he's just so. Wow. Like, I. I go wow. Every time he invites somebody on that ship.

He's great. He's just the greatest.

Yeah.

In his universe, maybe in ours, like, your past doesn't matter. We're worried about right now. And me in the future King of the Pirates, I'm freeing everybody.

Yeah. And.

And you know, we. We have a theme this year of the faces behind us. And I love his backstory with the red hair pirates. Is that who they are?

And then the guy who led him, Shanks. Is that what it is?

Yeah.

Yep.

Shanks. And so like, you can see even the short clips.

You don't spend a long time on this guy, but you can tell what a good role model he is and what he's learned from him. I don't know if you're laughing, so I don't know if there's something later on we find out. But like.

But the fact that like, he has, you know, you see him being a kid and he's a ratty little kid. He does things he shouldn't do, and he's got a little attitude. But eventually you see what he learns from his mentor.

The faces behind us, his mentor of how to be a pirate or how to live in the world, how to treat other people is right there in front of us. So talk about. I know that'll be an episode later on on that. It should be. But yeah, he had some people that he was following. He would.

He didn't just dream this up on his own, create out of thin air. He had some role models in his life.

Yeah.

No, it's funny because Shanks is like. Shanks has no screen time until like very recently, like in real life, very recently in the manga, we didn't even know what he could do.

Oh, but you're still correct. Luffy has so many great role models in his life. And Shanks is One of them, yeah.

But after he gives him the hat, they don't see each other for so long. But he keeps up with him, and he makes sure Luffy's okay. And every time Luffy hears about him, he's like old man Shanks.

I don't want to spoil anything, but it is really funny just to think about. But even the other people in his crew, his nakama, he calls them, they are the influences in his life. And each of them, they're very important.

Because if you look at them, he freed all of them in one way or another. Two of them, literally from some form of imprisonment. Those Sanji and Zoro. That's a little on the nose.

He literally freed them, but that's consistent for every member that joins the crew. He frees them from whatever was restricting their life. And that's just what he is.

And you start off, it's like the parable of the mustard seed, right? He starts off just him on a boat, a small little boat, can't swim. And then his boat grows, and he has a bigger boat, and he has a bigger crew.

And then it keeps getting bigger and bigger. And all because of how he treats others that, like, it's hard to say no to this guy. Like, they resist.

But there's something that's contagious about how he operates in the world that this little mustard seed of a. Of a pirate who really shouldn't be the bad great people laugh at him.

To eventually get to the end where, like, we talk spoilers where he has his own Wanted Dead or Alive poster, and he's so stoked that he gets.

He gets one of his own that build from each episode to a bigger crew, deeper friends, bigger boat, to eventually becoming, like a legit wanted pirate. That progression in the show was really fun to journey along with.

It's awesome. And he's just wanted for being a good guy.

Yeah.

You know? Yeah. Yeah. Maybe he hurts some marines, but they're evil. Plus, the ones that he hurts, they're evil. They don't count. So, like he said, even a pirate.

Who's your favorite? Who's your favorite character on. On the. On the. On the. In the series, you gravitate to, oh, Chopper.

I mean, he's not. He's not in season one yet, but he's coming. And when he comes, I'm gonna be so excited. Yeah.

It would be tragic if they mess Chopper up like I. I have. I try to have very low expectations for everything. I'm kind of worried about Chopper. It just seems really Easy to mess it up.

Maybe up to now, except for like the Fishmen, which I think they generally did a pretty good job. This is like the least realistic thing they're trying to do because at least the Fishmen are human sized.

So we'll see how they handle a completely cg.

True.

It's cgi. It's not. There's no practical. It might be.

There might be, like a puppet.

It's not it. Okay.

But he is cg, so it's a.

Reindeer, not a rain. Is. Is a reindeer, not a teddy bear? Yeah, that picture looked like a teddy bear to me.

Yeah, well, he's. He's just. He is actually reindeer. He ate the human. Human fruit and now he looks like this.

Okay.

It just stopped him from growing into an adult reindeer.

All right, can we talk about the food in this world? Like the fruit and the dragon fruit and the things? What is going on? Sort of the devil fruit. Yeah, yeah.

So that's kind of at this point in the story, that's the power system is devil fruit. They are cursed fruits that can bestow upon you powers. In season one. How many do we know? I'm trying to remember who shows up in season one.

It might just be Luffy Malcolm that has a devil fruit smoker's name. Lucy Smoker.

The clown. That. Which one?

Buggy. Yeah, Buggy the clown.

Of course. Yeah.

Oh, my gosh. That guy.

One of the. One of the goats. I love Buggy. I forgot he was in the live action. I haven't seen it in three years.

Yeah. All right. Can I just say about Buggy like that he's a character I love to hate, like every time I like. I know you love him, but he's. He's classic.

He's good. He's. He is, I guess, og of of this. But I. Man, he showed up. I was like, I just want him out. Taking out. Take him out. Take him out.

He's such a good nemesis.

He cycles.

He cycles.

He goes through that.

At first you love to hate him, and then you love to love him, and then you'll go back to loving to hate him, depending on how long the live action adapts the story. Yeah, but devil fruits are. They give you basically a superpower. They can do pretty much anything. But each fruit is specific.

So Luffy, when he was a kid, ate the Gomu Gomu Nomi. That's the rubber. Rubber fruit. And they're all kind of like Japanese onomatopoeia. That's just because it's, you know, used to Just be for kids.

Yeah.

But it gave his body the properties of rubber, so that's what he can do. The only major downside is that if you eat a devil Fruit, you cannot swim in the ocean. You can swim in, like, fresh water.

There's just not much fresh water.

The.

The world of One Piece is pretty much a giant ocean. So not being able to swim in it is bad.

It's like a Kryptonite in the pirate world because there's a lot of ocean. And so that danger of not being able to swim in the ocean. That's pretty.

It's.

So.

It's a big trade off.

Brilliant.

It's a big tr.

Yeah.

So that's kind of how they balance it. But I. I can't really say that much more about Devil Fruits. Well, without spoiling one.

Okay. Yeah.

And we still up to date, don't know everything about Devil fruits, so still. Oh, yeah. Oda keeps saying that he's getting close to the end, but I think he's lying.

We're never gonna reach, honey.

He's just lying. There's a lot. There's a lot of questions that still need to be answered. And we just keep getting close.

I want to hold. I know, I know. In our episodes, we're walking through the story arcs in our. And you can find those playlists where we. We have them. And I do.

As someone who's not reading or following those along, I do like, listen episodes just to kind of hear what the characters are doing just to. So they do the work for me. So I have to read or. Or watch. But I am curious, like, how they land this plane. How do. How.

I mean, how does anything happen where he's doesn't become the Pirate King or get the treasure? It's like, is there a way to end this without him winning with a fan base? I know. What do you think the fan base will do?

Like, I can speculate how they. They wrap up the end. The finale of the whole thing, but I'm. I'm curious about that now. I'd like to hear a roundtable discussion on.

On this podcast, YouTube, of you of One Piece fans how they would end this with. With Luffy.

I don't think there is anyone that I know of, at least, who doesn't think that Luffy's gonna become the Pirate King. They're gonna find the One Piece, okay? ODA has confirmed that they will find the One Piece. And the One Piece is not friendship.

That is all we know about what the One Piece is.

It's not friendship.

Okay. Yeah. That's a proper facial expression, Alex. You're like, what? You're just getting started. Yeah.

And he was. But he was also like, yeah, it's probably about five years from finishing the story.

Okay.

So far, it's been two years. I think he's a liar. I think he's a liar.

Just gotta keep. You gotta dangle that. El. I understand why you would say that. You want to. You know, we were talking about Lost earlier. You want to. You want to.

You have an end point. You just can't keep it going season after season, season, dragging things out. You got to have an end point. Yes, he can, though.

Not tired of it.

Yeah. Okay, let's keep doing it. Wow.

So you're in for a ride.

Yeah. Okay.

But live action, you can get to episode a thousand in, like, season nine.

Season nine, really?

Probably like season seven. There's a lot of filler. There's so much filler for One Piece that half of the movies aren't canon.

They were just like, hey, you know, it would make a bunch of money, a new One Piece movie. So they do that.

So knowing all this, do you guys think that. Well, I guess. More you, tj, since you're more familiar with it, do you think that the live action is still going to make sense?

That it's basically cutting out a lot of stuff?

I do. I believe in the team.

Okay.

I think this. The start is gonna be the easiest part, but I think they did it so well. We'll see after season two.

Yeah.

How I feel. But. But I really think that they could take it all the way.

And it's gotten some good reviews too. Right. Like, how does the fan base feel about this?

They're mixed. You know, nothing's perfect. But I think generally most fans think it's pretty good. They're not going to watch instead.

Yeah. IMBD has it at 8.3, which is really good on IBD out of 10.

Wow.

Yeah. Yep.

Now that's it. We'll see. That's a strong start for season one. So they got. Yeah, they got some expectations. Yeah.

Yeah, they do.

Before we get.

They nailed the casting, so.

Oh, yeah, they did. I was gonna say the casting is phenomenal. Phenomenal.

So great.

Yeah.

I don't know who plays Chopper but we'll see. Maybe one of the air buddies. Yeah, they can learn to talk. They're good dogs.

All right, before we get deeper into this conversation, how would we rate and review first season of the live action One Piece?

None.

I'm gonna let nine.

Okay.

I mean, they're asking a great story.

Yeah, I was curious. Nine.

Even a bad. Even a bad adaptation of One Piece would probably be like a solid seven.

Okay. Okay.

Yeah, I. I will say I. I liked the first four episodes. I was ready to go. But there's a. A scene, the scene where he puts the straw hat on Nami's head.

And like that whole character arc, I literally got goosebumps. And I was like, wow, this is just giving me some feels. He was like, no, we're going to defend this. We're going to do this.

I. I didn't expect to feel that way, and I did. And so I'm giving it a nine as well. Like, I. I love the casting. I love the action. I like superheroes. Is so. It's cartoony enough, is superhero enough.

It's, you know, fantasy enough, but still like real people and real stories, wrestling with real things and with. With the big. With the big ideas of friendship and loyalty and what gives you purpose and how do you live in this world? All those things are there.

And yeah. Nine. Nine for me.

I really. I'm about to cry just thinking about that scene.

Oh, my gosh. It did. It got me. It got me.

Yeah, I think I was tearing up too, at that part.

And then he goes and he puts belt on our long.

Yeah, it's peak.

That's probably my favorite part of the season. This. That part. Yeah.

That's so good. It's also interesting. We don't really get to explore it that much in the live action.

This is one of the benefits of reading the series or watching it. Luffy is basically a huge fish in a little pond. Like, he's not actually struggling to fight our long.

You know, once he realizes that, like, this guy really needs to be dealt with, he just does it.

Yeah.

He's like, hey, all right, no more with the sword. I'm going to kill you now. You know, like, he doesn't because he's a nice guy, but yeah, yeah, like in.

In this arc, in these first few arcs, Luffy's kind of untouchable just because his power is so good.

And he's. He still has a hum. He has a. Has humility about it. Yeah. Like, that's. That heart is still there. Alex, how about You. Where do you rate this?

I would also rate this as a 9, because I feel like. I don't know, I haven't watched all of the anime, so I feel like it's a little too high, but it's a nine. I love it. It's great.

It's a very colorful show. It's very inspiring. Very fun. Got my whole family hooked on it.

So nice.

Yeah, it's good. It's good. I love, like, they just nail so many things.

Yeah.

Like little character quirks. This the thing they do where they put their feet on the barrel. And Sanji's leg is just straight.

He's got. He's got flexible hammies right there. That's him. That's.

That's who he is.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So good.

All right, now, going deeper, is there anything we can pull from the show and the characters that can inspire our.

Fate from the live action? It's kind of hard to say at this point.

My entire adult life is kind of inseparable from the influence of one piece, so it's kind of difficult for me to say.

Golly, okay, I. I relate because that's kind of how I feel about Star Wars. Like, it's always been a part of my life. From like a 5 year old all the way through Action Figure. All the movies has always been a part of my life.

So that's why I'm so invested when these shows or movies come out, they're like, is. I've never known my life. Not some part I've always been a part of Lutheran Church. Faith has always been a part of my life.

That's hard to separate that. But also my, like my fandom. Star wars is the same way. But yeah, I. I think that's. That's an interesting way to put.

And here's the drinking game of being entangled with a. With an IP and having a part of your life where that means a lot to you. I think that's. I think that's important. Yeah. For me, it's the. Is how.

Who are you going to invite onto your boat? Like, who are you going to. Who. Who's a part of your team?

What's your team you're going to pull together to help you do what you want to accomplish in life and you know, chosen team, chosen family. Some of them are reluctant because they have trust issues. Rightfully so. But Luffy's like, come on. This.

Being a part of a team and being a relationship with each other is going to change and transform one another. We. We don't Go through the waters alone. Like we're. How do we do this together and work together with all our different gifts?

Every single person is different. And that. That can cause, like, complications. But again, that whole, you know, image that Paul does in Corinthians, 1st Corinthians about.

About the body, you know, that we're all part of the body, but different parts of the body working together for one purpose is. This is a perfect illustration for that. Perfect illustration for that. Yeah.

And it. It's very reminiscent to me, it's kind of a more oblique version of the message from Ratatouille. Buckle up.

Expand more. Yeah, yeah. Here we go.

Here we go. So ratatouille. The point of ratatouille is that anyone can cook.

Right.

But that does not mean that anyone can be a chef. Anyone, a great cook can come from anywhere.

Is.

Is the point of ratatouille. It's not that everyone can do it. It's that anyone can do it. And there's a distinction there.

And I think that is something that one piece takes its time to show us. It really does. Because, you know, not to say like, you know, your life partner, but the most important people in your life can come from anywhere.

It could be any.

Yeah.

Not everyone can be. Some people deserve to get stomped through an eight story building.

Yep.

By someone. Maybe not by me, but some people deserve that. But anyone could become one of the most important parts of your life. So I try to be very open.

That's. That's nice.

I don't care.

In this world of pirates, there's so many pirates around, there's so many ships around, there's so many characters, you know, and there's so many different teams and allegiances you could be a part of. But where do you feel connected? Where, Where. Where. Where do you have that sense of belonging? Which ship do you want to part? Which. Which pirate team?

And the joys along the way. And yeah, he's a different kind of pirate. Luffy's a different kind of pirate than everybody else. But. But def. Desperately wants to be one.

And he's so stoked when he gets that one a dead or alive. And they're happy for him. But. But yeah, the. Which boat. Which boat are you going to be in?

I do also think, like, the naming scheme and one piece is really funny. I used to think that and then realized, like, that's just how real pirate ships were named. Like the Blackbeard Pirates.

It's just one dude with a black beard. His name is Blackbeard. Blackbeard's also in one piece, by the way.

What?

Yeah, but they're like the Straw hat Pirates. Luffy's the only one with a straw hat.

Yeah.

The red hair Pirates. It's just shanks. The white beard Pirates. Guess what?

One dude has a white beard.

Doesn't even have a beard. Mustache.

Whale.

Yeah.

Gotcha.

Got you with that one.

Yeah, that's good.

Wow.

Just fun. Fun part of the show.

What about you, Alex? What do you glean from this in terms of, like, thinking the big picture of life and faith?

Well, I mean, I kind of touched on this before, but just like Luffy's character of how he's. He just leads with kindness and he. What's the word I'm looking for? I want to say, like, kind of redeems his crewmates in a way.

I don't know that's the right word I'm looking for, but.

No, I think it is.

Okay. Perfect.

But not. Not to other people. More so to themselves.

Yeah.

Because part of what they need freeing from is their own perception of themselves in. In every case.

Yeah.

So good.

It's so cool. It's so like. That's my favorite part. One of my favorite parts about One Piece is just how Luffy is. So. Yeah, it's just.

I love that. And so his kindness, him treating them with kindness, allows him and gives them permission to treat themselves with kindness. Yeah, that.

That they are seeing themselves now through Luffy's eyes. Like, oh, if he can see me that way, maybe I can see myself that way.

I think that's an important lesson to take so that, like, him leading with kindness is huge.

It makes it so easy to, like. Like, he makes it so easy to love them and to be kind to them. And it's like, he's like, I don't care about what you did in the past.

Like, come on this boat with me.

Like, wow.

Just blows my mind. I don't know.

And I am excited for season two, since we didn't talk about that much. We'll see what happens.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah. Well, there we go.

See what happens. I'm excited. There's some very, very cool characters coming up. And with the pace of the live action, I have no clue where we're going to end up.

I was gonna ask, do you have any expectations?

I expect it's gonna be pretty good.

Have they said whether it's eight or 10 episodes or expanding it? Some. Like, eight seems like, you know, a good amount.

But sometimes these Netflix shows can go 10 or 12, especially there's a lot of story arcs and it's got a good reviews.

I'm pretty sure it's released. I. Season two is going to be eight episodes.

Okay, good. Same as the last.

Holy crap.

Yeah.

I think my hopes and expectations, like I, I, I know they're going to level up because you start off, you know, small with their backstories and they introduce all these other pirates. But now he's finally got this one or dead or alive poster. What, what does that mean for people coming after him?

Before, they didn't know who he was and he was able to kind of have the upper hand because he was someone they didn't know or heard they were who they were up against, you know.

But now that they know who they're up against and his story and legend is going across the seas and he's become a pir know and are hunting down then, then I'm interested to see how they level this up. And yeah, all the characters and how they design them and all that stuff will be, will be fun.

I'm, I'm curious to see what, what characters show up because I know nothing about the anime, but in the, in the manga, the book, but, but yeah, I expect them to level up. Bigger ships, bigger battles. I found a battle of Zorro and, and who's the chef dude that kicks?

Sanji.

Sanji. Like they're, them working together reminded me of like Gimli and Legolos.

That kind of having their, their competition of who's doing better and what's going on and keeping count reminded me a lot of that teamwork too. So that was, that was fun. But yeah, I'm excited. I'm there.

Like I, I'm glad this episode made me kind of finish it and forced me to like keep going and, and complete it and then I'll be there March 10th.

Oh yeah, I know I did. Just look at all the episode like names for season two.

Mm.

They're going very far. The season two is gonna cover like a couple hundred episodes.

Oh, man.

Yeah.

So we'll see what happens. We will see what happens. One of the, one of the coolest characters in the series is gonna be in season two, in my opinion. So.

Okay, cool.

I'm excited. For sure.

I'm excited. And here the best part is if the live action show does fall off, guess what? You can, you can start reading one piece.

There you go. Yeah, that's right. That's right. Yes. Star wars fans, if you don't like the present movies, you could always go back and watch the original three.

And there's some good comics and books out there too do exactly.

Yep. Yeah. All right, all right, moving on. Do we have any recommendations that we can give our listeners? Lost.

Lost. Yeah. Yep. I second that. Lost. Watch it. And then we're going to talk about it and. And break it down and do a whole yearly theme about it.

It is that I don't know anything about loss, but the way you guys there.

We got time.

I should.

We got time.

Yeah, yeah.

That's our recommendation.

My interest.

There you go. Cool.

Yeah.

Watch the pilot. I guarantee you'll be hooked. Oh, yeah, watch the pilot of us. You're hooked.

All right. 40 minutes, and then you'll probably lose the next at least 80 minutes. And then you'll be like, okay, I gotta go to bed.

All right.

Yeah, yeah, it's great.

Alex, how about you? What are we recommended?

That's a good question. I recommend playing south of Midnight. It's a good. A good game.

I also recommend that It's a great game and I'm. And I'm going to finish it eventually.

Okay.

I'm still trying to word it in my head, but basically my bonus question is, if you could choose a devil fruit or create your own devil fruit, what would it be?

Okay, right. Like, what power we would have.

Yeah.

If we ate the devil fruit. Okay. That means I couldn't swim the ocean. That's like. That would be my nightmare.

There's a loophole.

So there's.

I don't have. There are loopholes. Oh, there's loopholes. There are loopholes. Okay. Okay.

All right.

I like that question.

I like it.

I'm thinking about right now.

Cool.

Yeah. So friends, like, hop over to and support us with the show, support rate, review, do all those things.

But if you do support us, your subscriber, you can get bonus content, like how we're going to answer what superpower we're going to have if we eat some devil fruit. Because we just can't resist eating devil fruit. What we're going to have. And so there you go. Peace, y'.

All.

Sam.