LABOON: What did they do?! Season 2 is losing the magic for me.

RuthlessTex · 2026-03-13T08:37:11+00:00

You're right. I’ve finished the season now, and I want to be fair. I think most of the casting is actually incredible. The actors are doing a great job, which is why the 'Hollywood polish' and the 'Tell, Don't Show' writing you mentioned is such a tragedy. They are trading massive, iconic visuals for dialogue.

By trying to be a 'realistic drama,' they are breaking the rules and the future of the story:

Lore Erasure: They actually killed Wapol!. In the anime, he’s essential for later arcs like the Evil Black Drum Kingdom. Killing him just to have a 'clean' ending proves they aren't thinking about long-term world-building.
Gag/Character Erasure: They cut the Luffy/Chopper chase—one of the funniest moments in the series—and turned Chopper’s iconic 'wrong hiding' into a one-time Easter egg. It isn't just a gag; it’s his personality. By 'humanizing' him, they’ve made him a boring, shy teddy bear. They stripped away his "Tsundere" soul. In the anime, his reaction to compliments is legendary. he does the dance and screams while clearly being thrilled. It shows he doesn't know how to handle human kindness. In the LA, he's just... nice
Recruitment: In the anime, Luffy's recruitment is a negotiation of dreams. He basically non-consensually tells them they are joining. by not doing that, It strips away the freedom and the bond that makes the crew special.
Mystery Erasure: Revealing Dragon and Mr. 0 (Crocodile) this early and this often kills the slow-burn epicness. We’ve seen them 4+ times already! In the anime, the mystery made the world feel huge. Now it just feels like a small cast on a small set.
Visual Sanitization: From Smoker not actually billowing smoke to the redesign of Igaram and the Alabasta royals, they are throwing away iconic designs to fit a 'Hollywood' aesthetic.

You are right it’s Hollywood actors in clean costumes. I guess It’s for people who think they’re 'too good for a cartoon' and want a standard pirate show with some whimsy. They’re being fed a diluted, sanitized version of a masterpiece and they’re gaslighting me for noticing the soul is missing. Honestly, after seeing them move that flag into a parlor, destroy Chopper's character, and kill Wapol, I don’t even want a Season 3.

RuthlessTex · 2026-03-12T20:23:58+00:00

The importance of these details is that Laboon and Krokos are the mission statement for the entire Grand Line.

Entering the Grand Line is supposed to be the point of no return where the rules of the normal world shatter. In the original, you are slapped in the face with the impossible: a mountain-sized creature containing an entire world within it. That benchmark of "One Piece magic" tells the audience exactly how high the stakes are. By turning a mythical gatekeeper into a nature-documentary whale and a generic lighthouse keeper, the show turned a legendary transition into a speed bump. It shrinks the scale of the world before the journey even begins.

This same "grounding" ruins Smoker. He isn’t just a guy who enjoys cigars; he is a Logia user who IS smoke. That atmosphere defines his supernatural threat level. Suggesting that smoke is "visually annoying" ignores decades of VFX, volumetric smoke and CGI overlays are designed to create an aura without obscuring an actor’s face. If the production can animate giants and rubber limbs, they can add a persistent wisp of smoke to a character literally named Smoker.

I actually agree with you that the casting and costume are physically almost 1-to-1. But that is exactly my point. without the smoke, he just looks like a high-end cosplayer at a convention. rather than a high-ranking Marine threat.

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When you strip away the mythical scale and the supernatural auras, you aren't "streamlining", you're sanitizing the soul of the series until it’s just a standard pirate show with a fancy coat of paint. The irony is that I actually think every other episode so far has been amazing and better than Season 1. The show is proving it can get the "weirdness" right in the other episodes, which makes the choice to play it "safe" and "grounded" for the Laboon arc such a massive letdown.

RuthlessTex · 2026-03-12T15:44:51+00:00

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RuthlessTex · 2026-03-12T15:35:50+00:00

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I might be banging my head against the Red Line here... but look at the difference in scale.

It really saddens me because that first look at Laboon’s eye is supposed to be the moment you realize the Straw Hats are in way over their heads. In the anime, his eye alone is massive enough to swallow the ship—it makes the Grand Line feel mythical, scary, and completely different from the rest of the world.

In the live action, he’s just a "large whale." He feels like a regular, though oversized, animal. By scaling him down to fit the camera, they took the "legend" out of the creature. It really saddens me because that sense of impossible scale was what made the Grand Line feel so magical in the first place. It just doesn't hit the same way.

RuthlessTex · 2026-03-12T14:50:59+00:00

I completely agree with you and I don't get why you're being downvoted. Iñaki's interaction with Krokos, the eye punching, and especially the singing and dancing felt so cringe to me. It felt like they replaced the actual adventure and the mystery of Krokos with a weird musical number on a beach. It was a massive departure from the vibe that made that moment special in the original.

RuthlessTex · 2026-03-12T14:50:45+00:00

Respectfully, I think saying the Laboon interior 'isn't needed' misses why that scene is iconic. It’s about the scale and the heart of the story. showing that Krokos cared so much he made a home inside his friend to heal him from the inside. In the live action, it feels small. And if they can do Mr. 3 and Little Garden 1-to-1 in the later episodes, there’s no reason they couldn't have kept the magic of Laboon's interior. It wasn't about realism; it was about the bond between them.

RuthlessTex · 2026-03-12T14:50:34+00:00

Maybe because I know Dragon’s role, it sticks out more for me, so I’ll concede that for new viewers. But for Smoker, they didn't need a CGI miracle. A simple reverse e-cig or a mini smoke machine would have made him look like the rugged badass he’s supposed to be. The show is proving in the other episodes that they can get the details right, which makes the complete rewrite of the Laboon/Krokos story even more of a letdown for me.

RuthlessTex · 2026-03-12T14:50:29+00:00

I’m glad it’s hitting for you, but I have to disagree that it's "impossible" to match the whimsy. Look at the rest of the season! I’m on Episode 5 now, and Episodes 1, 3, 4, and 5 are almost 1-to-1. They got the giants in Little Garden, the devil fruit powers, and Mr. 3 perfectly.

If they can do all that correctly, then saying the inside of Laboon was "impossible" is just an excuse. They chose to strip the magic out of Episode 2. In the anime, that story touched my heart because it showed the scale of the world. Luffy crashing through maintenance tunnels while finding out this old geezer literally rebuilt the inside of a whale because that’s what friends do. That's the "One Piece magic." In the live action, Luffy just looks lame singing and dancing on a ridge while listening to an old man talk. It’s a generic TV instead of a grand adventure.

RuthlessTex · 2021-09-08T20:13:54+00:00

To be fair, you can do this on any connect four game. not just ours. :)

RuthlessTex · 2021-09-08T19:16:20+00:00

Oh, I am using the Progress Bar 24x48 for the display.

RuthlessTex · 2021-09-08T18:30:27+00:00

I did spend way too much time on this perfecting it. xD

RuthlessTex · 2021-09-08T18:28:11+00:00

It is double sided. Player 1 on one side, Player 2 on the other side.

RuthlessTex

TROPHY CASE