Netflix's One Piece S01E08 Review: Surprise Bonus Boss

Netflix's One Piece, Episode 8: Worst in the East

So this is an interesting ending to Netflix's One Piece live action adaptation. As usual, this episode clocks in at around the 50-minute mark... but not all of it is devoted to ending the Arlong Park arc. Instead, the season actually finally gives us some payoff for the Garp/Koby/Helmeppo storyline that's been so prominent throughout this adaptation, something that in and of itself is already arguably worth the proverbial price of admission to that storyline... but we actually get a bonus boss fight and a confrontation between Garp and Luffy. And... I'm... okay about it? A lot of people are divided about this little confrontation. I did feel like it was handled relatively okay. It's not nearly as impactful enough for me to go "this should've been canon in the manga", but neither is it filler-y enough for me to say that the episode is worse for spending 15-20 minutes on Garp and Luffy's confrontation. 

I did think that the conclusion of the Arlong arc did suffer a bit thanks to the show condensing almost everything that's not related to Luffy, Nami or Arlong. The lack of Hatchan means that Zoro doesn't really get a chance to shine. Sanji gets to still fight Kuroobi, which proceeds more or less faithfully to the source material but with a bit less underwater combat. But easily the most neutered moment in the finale is Usopp's fight against Chew. Most of the events that happen are still essentially what happened in the source material, with Usopp playing dead and using trickery to overcome Chew and set him on fire, but them significantly reducing Usopp's cowardice -- and most importantly, Usopp's moment as he was about to set up a whole "I was injured, sorry guys" excuse before manning up? Eliminating all that reduces this to a generic action scene and takes away one of Usopp's best moments of growth in the story. 

But anyway... we spend some time setting up the climax as we see the burnt-down Cocoyasi Village, and a quick handwave that Nojiko brought Genzo and the rest of the villagers up to speed. At around 5 minutes into the episode, we begin the assault on Arlong Park with the five Straw Hats attacking the base, and... again, it's mostly action scenes. The bulk of the emotional and suspense focus is carried by Luffy and Nami, who dart immediately to the main building and Nami's map-room to confront Arlong. Usopp attacks Chew and the two quickly bugger out of the main battlefield to do their 1v1. Meanwhile, Sanji and Zoro stay in the giant park to fight against the army of Fishmen extras. It's pretty nice to see, and while I don't have anything super insightful to say about the action scenes, it's nice to see all the prosthetic fishmen fight against Zoro's multiple swords and Sanji's (presumably much easier to choreograph) kicks. 

There's a lot of fun bickering between Zoro and Sanji, as they argue about who 'got' which enemy, and the Sanji/Kuroobi fight ends with Sanji going through his anatomy-in-cooking countdown as he beats up on Kuroobi, leading to the punchline of the running gag about great warriors calling out their attack names.

We covered Chew and Usopp's fight up above, but BUggy's storyline is also quickly resolved before the Kuroobi fight. Zoro and Sanji kinda reunite Buggy's head with the rest of his body, and... in a moment that's completely in character for Buggy, he just exits stage left and runs the fuck away, leading to the most glorious delivery of the show's allotted F-bomb as Zoro says "fucking clown". 

Arlong confront Luffy and Nami, giving his spiel about governments and fishmen and the racial difference... but I do like, again, just like how he's consistently portrayed when he meets all the other villains down the line... Luffy doesn't give a shit. All he sees is his friend being used as a tool, with chains and forced to draw maps for her tormentors, and fishman or not, Monkey D. Luffy will beat the shit out of Arlong. We do get a nice little comeback from Luffy, noting that 'no one should be forced to do anything', which is a nice counterargument to Arlong spouting all these lines about being anti-slavery when he's keeping Nami as a slave-with-some-extra-steps. 

Again, it's a moment that's essentially a remix of the manga's version of events, but Luffy getting pissed off at Arlong asking Luffy if he could've "used" Nami efficiently gets him so riled up that he smashes Arlong's giant sawshark sword with his bare hands. Though... I really wished Arlong at least got to swing the damn thing a couple of times in the fight. That's a bit of an obvious cop-out not to use the wacky impractical anime weapon in live-action. But I can live with that, because the delivery of that scene is pretty fucking cool. We also get the rather memorable visual of Arlong regrowing a set of teeth after Luffy shatters his original batch, which is appropriately pretty grisly in live-action. 

I do feel like the destruction of the map room, again, is something that suffers a bit becasue it loses one of the most iconic panels from that scene -- Nami realizing that Luffy's kicking all of the cartographer's tools and maps that she was forced to use for Arlong's sake all flying out of the tower. But having Nami actually present when Luffy and Arlong face off against each other is definitely a much stronger climax. The lines being delivered between Arlong and Luffy are pretty well-delivered, too. "I can destroy everything you've built."

As Arlong Park is falling down all around him (which I guess is the 'weakness' Luffy kinda implies in the beginning of the episode? Otherwise that line is just a non-sequitur.) we get a fun adaptation of Gum-Gum Gatling (which looks really good) and Gum-Gum Battle Axe. And... it's an okay action scene. I think I kinda wanted it to last a bit longer? It's a minor complaint, but I did feel like Luffy and Arlong's clash in Baratie felt a bit more epic. I think if we had a bit more of an emphasis of Luffy crushing the map room, or more emphasis of Luffy finding a 'weakness' -- even if it's simply keeping Arlong out of the water -- the climax would've felt a lot better. As it is, after the buildup with Luffy and Arlong's actors saying all their lines, it feels a bit abrupt, is all. 

The best addition running in the background is the investigation of Nezumi by Garp's unit -- Nezumi did get beaten up by the Straw Hats in the manga, but basically went away scot-free despite being a super-corrupt Marine. Here we get a nice extension of Garp policing the Marines from internal corruption, just like what he did to Morgan earlier in the season. I do like the little interaction between Garp and Nezumi, where Garp really doesn't give a shit about Nezumi's nonsense and I think he can see that all of the rat-man's grandstanding is just hot air. 

Arlong's defeated at around the 20-minute mark, leaving us shy of 30 minutes to go through. Even with the typical end-of-arc party (which I did love that they adapt) it really did feel like the big epic confrontation in Arlong Park felt... rushed? Which is nice since this episode does give us a second climax. As Usopp regales the villagers with the tale of the Great Captain Usopp (which, again, loses its oomph due to Usopp just being a straight-up trickster warrior instead of someone who actually conquers his cowardice), Garp and company show up. And... Koby gets his scene of standing up to Garp, saying that Garp is working off of bad information, and that it's Arlong that's responsible for destroying and tormenting Cocoyasi Village, not Luffy. Again, this bit feels a bit... a bit rushed. While they handled Koby well during the Kuro arc, his involvement in the Arlong arc felt a bit tacked-on... especially since this scene is more about Garp than Koby. 

As the Marines hold the Straw Hats at gunpoint, Garp talks to Luffy and we get a confrontation as Luffy declares to Garp that he's "always been a pirate". We get a clash between the two, showing that Garp's strong enough to beat up even Luffy's rubber body (we don't talk about this 'Haki' stuff pre-timeskip). Luffy unleashes a Gum-Gum Rocket only for Garp to calmly just clothesline Luffy with his outstretched arm, which I thought was pretty damn funny. But they did a great job at showing Garp as this implacable, utterly indestructible man. And as Garp throttles Luffy and they have a heart-to-heart about the dangers of the Grand Line and of dreams, Luffy once more reiterates his dream to be the King of the Pirates, reminding Garp of Roger... and Garp lets Luffy go and laughs loud. Garp tells Luffy that they share the same stubbornness, and all he wanted to do was to deliver some tough love to make sure that Luffy is on the same page as Garp as to who Luffy is -- and it's a test all along. 

Do I like this interpretation of Garp's character? Yes. Yes, I totally would see him as someone who lets people like Luffy and Ace run around as long as they're free and following their own dreams -- even if Garp doesn't agree with it. It's just that Garp is following his own dreams, and if those dreams clash, then Garp will bring the fist down. Remember that Garp's meeting with Luffy in Alabasta was very cordial and jovial, up until he gets the orders from HQ to bring Luffy in. 

Garp decides to let the Straw Hats go, tells the Marines to hunt down the remnants of Arlong's Pirates. Nezumi's the only one who complains, but gets his head whacked by Nami as comeuppance. Garp tells Luffy that "you're on your own now", to which Luffy replies that no, of course not. He's got his friends. 

And the episode -- and season -- ends with a couple of nice, short scenes. Nami on Bellemere's grave, talking about family. Luffy and Koby have a brief talk... and it's actually narratively very awesome that it's Koby that hands Luffy his very first bounty poster, as a dual congratulations and warning, before the two of them part on good ways.

The Straw Hats discuss the bounty poster, before we get a 'decks around the world' sequence as the News Coo travel to the world. This is very One Piece, and part of the DNA that the world keeps following the journey of this dumbass with a straw hat. We get Makino back in Foosha Village. Kaya in her mansion looking at the tiny picture of Usopp in the background. Zeff putting Luffy's poster on a board. Buggy and Alvida in a tavern finding common hatred about Luffy. Of course, the fan-favourite scene of Mihawk and Shanks meeting each other, and the Red-Haired Pirates all getting super excited about little Luffy becoming a pirate. 

Oh, and also Garp telling Koby and Helmeppo that their 'punishment' is going to be undergoing some intense training from him. By the way, I realize how much of my live-action reviews have been talking about Helmeppo, but I really do like that his motivation to train is to show up Roronoa Zoro -- and that's the reason he would later on specialize in swords later in life.

And then we cut to the Going Merry. Nami gets to see the tangerines they transplanted on board the ship. And finally, the rest of the Straw Hats unfurl the gigantic jolly roger of the Straw Hat Pirates on the sail of their boat -- a truly glorious moment that not even the live-action devil-goat figurehead of the Merry can't ruin. I love Godoy's acting of Luffy in this scene, and his sheer surprise, joy and excitement at seeing that, yes, he's a pirate captain for real now is just so infectious. 

And as Luffy and Nami briefly discuss the strange map describing Reverse Mountain, Sanji pulls out a barrel -- the same barrel from episode 1 -- and all the Straw Hats slam their feet on the barrel as they all state their dreams. In a nice touch, we cut to their younger selves as the adult actors say the dreams out loud. To find the All Blue. To draw a map of the world. To be a great warrior of the sea. To be the greatest swordsman in the world. To be the King of the Pirates. 

End scene, as the camera flies to the sky, the giant One Piece logo swoops in, and we briefly get an almost Marvel-inspired moment of Smoker burning out Luffy's eye with a cigar. 

And scene. 

And... yeah. I didn't love this climax, but they definitely did stick the landing, unlike some other shows I've seen out there. But you can feel the passion they put into this. You could feel the care they have for the characters, for the location, for the story. This isn't some Netflix-Death-Note terrible cashgrab that adapts maybe just the names, a couple of cool-looking characters and 10% of the story. This isn't a 'modernized' or 'Americanized' adaptation that's ashamed of the goofy straw hats and rubber powers and three swords and attack names... and honestly, that makes all of the changes and omissions a bit more understandable. You get that this design team, if they had infinite budget, would've included Jango and Hatchan and Johnny and Yosaku if they had enough time for another full episode's worth of budget. 

And in general? This is just such a wild ride indeed. Now if they had to fit all of Alabasta into 8 episodes, I really don't know if they could do it, not without overblowing the budget... but that's a discussion for another time. This has been a wild ride, an amazing ride, and... I definitely enjoyed it!

One Piece Easter Eggs Corner:

• The hot sauce that Usopp uses to defeat Chew has 'Boshi' written on it. While the Netflix adaptation obviously uses the English translation of Usopp's attacks, in the original Japanese Usopp uses 'Boshi' (star) at the end of all of his attacks. 
  
• While the Straw Hats attack Arlong Park from the land side of base, the manga-accurate sea-facing entrance could still be seen from the sky shots of the base. 
• The newspaper Kaya is holding has a side-article mentioning the Revolutionary Army taking control of the country of Vira. In this part of the manga, Nami also offhandedly reads the same news title... and Vira has recentl became a bit notable when one of the Shonen Jump special cheekily name-drops Vira as a (joking, probably) possible location of Laugh Tale. 
• On Zeff's fridge are recipes of the following:
• Tomahawk Spiny Lobster and Oregano Aged Wild Boar (both from Shokugeki no Sanji).
• Nojiko's Tangerines (which is a bit weird since Cocoyasi Village has been under Arlong's reign, but not impossible that Nojiko has a business... they had to make all that money from somewhere, after all).
• Sandora Lizards Arabasta. Obviously, from the Arabasta/Alabasta arc. 
• Beef Mizu Mizu. The 'Mizu Mizu' food is line from Water Seven, which Luffy spends a lot of money on during the Straw Hats' first visit there. 
• Don Krieg's wanted poster is seen in the bar Buggy and Alvida meet up in, in the same pose that Krieg is seen in the first anime opening. 
• The characters in the post-credits montage, Alvida, Buggy and Smoker, would all face off against Luffy in Loguetown, the location that the Straw Hats would visit next.