One Piece: Season 2 (Live Action)

One Piece is huge, weird, and surprisingly heartfelt, so why does the Netflix live action adaptation actually work, especially in Season 2? We dig into it as a crew, with Anthony and Dakota joined by Rich and Jen. We start with a genuine newcomer perspective and build toward why this season finally feels like it finds its rhythm. If you’ve ever been burned by live action anime before, we talk about the difference between just copying plot points and actually capturing what the story is trying to say.

We get into the choices that make Season 2 feel more focused. The exposition is cleaner, the pacing doesn’t drag as much, and the show fully commits to its world instead of trying to tone down how strange it can be. We also break down Devil Fruits in simple terms, including Zoan, Logia, and Paramecia, and why abilities like Smoker’s smoke powers or the wax powers actually work on screen. Along the way, we talk about the Baroque Works casting, the myth and fable feeling of the world, and the small details that make everything feel lived in, like Crocus’ lighthouse.

And yes, we spend time on the moment that changes everything: Tony Tony Chopper. We talk about why his introduction lands so emotionally, how the adaptation balances tragedy with warmth, and why this one character can turn a skeptic into someone who finally understands what One Piece is about. We also get into what is gained and lost when a live action series compresses long anime arcs, and what we hope Season 3 does differently if the wait between seasons stays this long.

If you enjoyed the conversation, subscribe, share it with a friend who thinks One Piece is too big to start, and leave a five star review to help more people find the show.

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Transcript

Cold Open And Crew Banter

SPEAKER_03 0:00

Gather up all of the crew. It's time to listen to another episode of Project Geekology. Episode 156, that is. And with that start, you might be wondering what it what that is. Well, this week we are covering season two of the live action of One Piece. I am one fourth of your host, Anthony, and joining me as always is Dakota.

SPEAKER_04 0:24

And I love that I love that classic anime One Piece intro that you did there. I I I see what you did there, buddy. Nakama.

SPEAKER_03 0:33

Yeah, you know I I had to hit that Bing sake.

SPEAKER_04 0:37

Actually, speaking of the intro to One Piece, there was a a brief musical motif at the very start of this season where they actually like go into the the first intro music for a One Piece. Right before they go into like the live action One Piece theme. It was a really cool little tease, but yeah, so uh it's good you started with that. But you know, we are not alone, Anthony. We are not alone anymore in the universe. We are joined by little green men. One of them, say hello, first little green man.

SPEAKER_02 1:10

Hey guys, it's me, Rich. I'm Green this week. And uh we're also joined by Hey, I'm Jen.

SPEAKER_00 1:16

I don't how am I a green man?

SPEAKER_04 1:18

Yeah, I I was I was don't take that seriously. I was literally you and I were just watching an episode of uh X-Files called Little Green Men.

SPEAKER_01 1:26

Oh, that's I'm the only person that referenced was for, and even I was confused. I was like playing through one piece. I'm like, there weren't any little green men. I'm sure. There was that guy in that green like hat ensemble.

SPEAKER_02 1:39

Podcaster extraordinary didn't even didn't even miss a beat. I just kept it going.

SPEAKER_04 1:43

So no, yeah, no, he was good. He was he was gold.

SPEAKER_02 1:46

When you were saying that, I was thinking uh dirty bearded men. Yeah, this is getting crazy, guys. I want to cool down and maybe slow everything down with a nice official, unofficial beer of the podcast, Voodoo Ranger. Great every time.

SPEAKER_04 2:00

Is that the juicy kind? Or that doesn't look like the juicy IPI. Dude, like we're nobody's why'd you do that?

SPEAKER_01 2:07

Okay, because you like covered the label and we can see it's a different color, and you didn't hold it up to your screen like you always do.

SPEAKER_02 2:15

Alright, purposely hit juicy tropic force, but it's still super juicy.

SPEAKER_04 2:21

So poser. Okay. I mean, there is juice in the tropical.

SPEAKER_01 2:25

Now we're gonna have to ask them to leave us a tropical review and not a juicy review.

X-Files Season One Takeaways

SPEAKER_04 2:29

There is juice in the tropics. Let's let's not let's not go too far. Guys, what have we been up to this past week? Uh let's start with Chen. What have you been up to?

SPEAKER_01 2:39

Oh man. I mean, as you just said, we finished season one of the X-Files. There was no reason why that character needed to be called Deep Throat. I'm just gonna get that out of the way right here, right now. I still don't under like you know, Rich and I spoke about it today, Dakota and I have spoken about it. I think that was uncalled for. And I'm just I'm just I said I said my piece.

SPEAKER_04 3:00

Anthony, I don't know if you've ever watched X-Files.

SPEAKER_03 3:02

Yeah, I have started it, but I haven't like watched it all the way through though.

SPEAKER_04 3:06

Okay. And I Rich knows who the character is, I'm assuming, just because you spoke about it earlier. Yeah, so there's there's a a character who's kind of like a whistleblower in like the UFO and or extraterrestrial, like hidden departments of the military military and or US government. And we don't really know what his deal is, but he wants one of the characters, Mulder, to like find out more. And he uh his nickname is Deep Throw, that's what he wants to be called. And I guess it's a it's supposed to be kind of like a joke based on like the guy who was the whistleblower on Watergate was nicknamed by the press as Deep Throat.

SPEAKER_01 3:45

So Rich and I looked that up today, and it was still inappropriate, even back then. It was not okay to call people Deep Throw. I don't I just think it's a weird choice, uh like all around, the history of it, the whole thing.

SPEAKER_04 3:57

Fair enough.

SPEAKER_01 3:57

Odd odd.

SPEAKER_04 3:58

Anyway, did you like the first season of X-Files?

SPEAKER_01 4:02

I really liked the first season of X-Files. I was riveted. I really enjoyed it. I loved um the little non-relationship between our two main characters. I love how awful the um intro is.

SPEAKER_04 4:14

Just it is a truly awful early 90s intro.

SPEAKER_01 4:18

The song is fantastic, but the actual like footage. And you know what?

SPEAKER_04 4:22

It's not it's it wasn't impossible at that time to make a good intro because Twin Peaks knocked it out of the park a couple years earlier than that. So it's it's totally on them for making a really lackluster Photoshop intro. But yeah, I was really pleased with uh that. That was the first time I had really sat down to watch X-Files, and having finished season one, I'm I'm very pleased that it was like week in, week out of just bangers. It was it was hitting out of the park every single time. And um, yeah. Little fun fact for you friendly fellows, something that you guys should never forget is that the term shipping, like in fandom circles, like I ship that I ship them or I ship that relationship, which you know means like I want these two characters who are not in a relationship to be in a relationship, actually comes from the online fandoms of the X-Files back in the mid-90s. So that's pretty sneaky sis. So yeah, very cool. Is have we done anything else this past week?

SPEAKER_01 5:22

I've watched a lot of videos about how to take care of babies because we are having one and we don't know how to take care of a baby.

SPEAKER_04 5:28

I watched Homeward Bound and Cried.

SPEAKER_01 5:30

He's ready for children.

Pokemon FireRed And Old Games

SPEAKER_04 5:31

That's good enough, man. You got it. That's it. They're like made red. Um I'm uh I'ma send it over to Anthony. What have you been up to? Bud.

SPEAKER_03 5:40

So last month they dropped Pokemon Fire Red and Leaf Green. And so I ended up getting Fire Red, so I've been playing through that. It's been fun, you know, like going back, playing almost like the OG Pokemon, but just with quality, like really nice like quality of life updates. Like back in the day, that old Pokemon was hard, man. And this one's a little bit easier.

SPEAKER_04 6:08

Yeah. So question Fire Red, the original Fire Red was a remake of red and blue version. Right. And now this is a remaster of the remake.

SPEAKER_03 6:22

I don't I think it's more of a port. I don't even think it's it's not even a remaster. It's more of like just a port, yeah. Yeah, it's interesting playing uh a Game Boy Advance game on a Switch because like the Game Boy Advance, like the screen was already like like big for the game, but it it it worked. But like now you're you're using a screen that's just like way bigger than that, so it's like stretched. But I mean it it's still it's still been fun though. It's it's I I thought it was interesting that like back then they decided to do they did Fire Red and Leaf Green, but they didn't do like you know, they didn't do anything for blue, right? Because like remember back back in the day there was a green version, but it was only Japanese. So they decided to like do a green version for us over here, but like, you know, the updated version. I guess like you you could call that the remaster of or remake of uh well no, I think it was more yeah, it was like a kind of like because the game still plays the same, but it looks a lot better than like back in the day. The sprites look better and you know the color, it's very vibrant. So back then, like if you played red and blue on like a Game Boy color, you just got like a red or a blue tent.

SPEAKER_04 7:43

Yeah. Yep. But yeah, no, that's when you what is on your TV, Rich? I I see flashes of color coming from your screen. What is behind the computer, right?

SPEAKER_01 7:52

Can I guess? I'm gonna guess MLB the show.

SPEAKER_02 7:55

I'm not gonna speak on this. I don't understand why I'm being um questioned in this manner.

MLB The Show And Big Releases

SPEAKER_03 8:00

This is because you've been caught. You have been caught, Rich.

SPEAKER_02 8:04

Well, I guess that does lead into what I've been doing for the last week, ladies and gentlemen, because finally, the moment I've been waiting for months and months and months. Really only about two months, but you know, I mean, once the uh you know, once the the season's over and the roster changes, uh all you need is two free agent signings to throw everything off. And uh finally MLB the Show 26 came out. I'm not gonna lie to you, I do they changed the menus. I'm very kind of annoyed. I don't think they changed them for the better. The user interface, I guess, looks nicer, but it's it's the equivalent of you know when you go to like TGI Fridays and they have like 9,000 pictures of the food. I find that to be like visually overwhelming, and I actually don't it freezes me, right? Like it's like I'm used to like a list of words, you know, like hey, this is what I have to offer you. And instead, this is like oh, it's so many options, I get overwhelmed. The user interface is very bright, it's very like window-based, uh like popping out, and it's supposed to be nicer, but it wasn't great over the weekend.

SPEAKER_04 9:10

You mean to tell me it's not just start, new game, continue, and settings?

SPEAKER_02 9:15

My friend, there are so many tasks. This is a task-based game, right? It's not just about the sport, it's literally it's small tasks, you know. Get five hits with guys who played on Team Mexico last Tuesday, you know. Uh, so they already have world baseball classic stuff, which is really cool. But uh, yeah, it's uh it's just fun. And I got really lucky. I got very lucky, ladies and gentlemen. I Anthony will remember. I know he does. He's like rich. You kept trying to get Aaron Judge and Shoei Otani at the end of the last cycle for MLB 25, you know? What's gonna happen this year? You know what's gonna happen this year, Anthony? I packed Aaron Judge, baby. First week! That card is worth 400 coins. I am I didn't even know what to do. I literally called my friend. I was like, uh I was like, uh, I need to consult with you on this. Uh so should I sell him and get the Mets that I want, or do I hold on to him? And there was like a whole back and forth. It was a big debate in my family, but we settled on keeping Iron Judge right now. I did not sell him, so I'll leave it at that. I'm just uh very nice, very nice. Did I remember that? Oh, did you tell me that? I don't even remember. Oh, I knew you I know it's back uh I think I was back like uh episode 132. I noted your enthusiasm when I when I uh when I shared the information.

SPEAKER_04 10:33

Oh, that's cool.

SPEAKER_02 10:35

Isn't there another game coming out? I'm okay. So Desert uh Desert Crimson is coming out, or Crimson Desert is coming out Friday, I believe. No, tomorrow, tomorrow. By the time you guys listen to this, it'll have already come out. I'm scared. Like there's a there's a website, no, a YouTube channel I just watched for like Dad Beard Gaming or something, and it's essentially like is this game bad for dads? And like the idea is that like with if dads have limited playing time, is this a game that we can actually play when you only have let's say an hour, you know, and then you have to be on call and you can't just be like tied into the game. So um it look it's what scares me, what don't like it the size is is daunting. I I'm actually getting like palpitations a little bit talking about the like they're saying that it could take you six hours like if you went on foot, if you did not get a steed or a bear, there's apparently bears, that's awesome. You can ride bears, dragons, there's like a shadow form, but there's gotta be a progression system for that, and then there's gonna be eventually fast travel, but they say it could take six hours to cross the map. Six hours of seamless just sittering. It's like Red Dead Redemption, but with like I don't know, it's gonna I don't know. Anthony, are you excited about this, man?

SPEAKER_03 11:49

It looks good. I'm really interested in seeing what the execution of it's gonna be because a lot of people it looks really, really good, but nowadays you just you don't know if they're going to execute on the promises that they make for these games, you know? So we'll see. I feel like nowadays it's hard to trust games journalism. So I really like to see what people on like YouTube say, you know, like I I'll I'll try to get my consensus from maybe somebody that's popular all the way down to like people who may not be as well known, and just kind of get like the consensus, like oh okay, so this person saying this, and even like somebody that's not that may not be in may not be paid to say good things about this, they're saying good things about this, then this is probably good, you know?

SPEAKER_02 12:40

Yeah, that makes sense. I'm not rushing out to get it. Seems like no matter what, it's gonna be a massive game, and uh honestly, with kind of work obligations and um I'm not sure if I've mentioned this before, but uh I'll be attending some Met games this season. So with all that, I think I'm gonna hold off and kind of make this a um my birthday's right about the time that school ends. So I think I'm just gonna get it for my birthday and wait till school ends and then uh drop my son off at camp.

SPEAKER_04 13:07

And then that's your summer sorted. So you're saying it's massive?

SPEAKER_02 13:11

Yeah, yeah. I mean, they're talking about Red Dead rel like they're saying that it's dwarfing Skyrim and Red Dead by a lot.

Why One Piece Adaptation Works

SPEAKER_04 13:18

You know what else is massive? One Piece. Okay. One Piece is massive. Sorry, I'm just getting more and more ambitious with these uh segues. But anyway, yes, let's jump into our discussion of One Piece live action season two. And it's kind of hard to talk about One Piece without talking about Two Piece? The two-piece, yeah, my favorite of the pieces. No, um it's it's kind of hard not to talk about One Piece without discussing the massive size of the story. It's one of the longest-running continuous stories in history in any medium. I think right now it's like at chapter 1176 in the manga and something like that, and I think the anime's a little bit just a couple episodes behind, I'm assuming. But anyway, it's it's such a huge thing, and it's not actually a completed story. But what's awesome is that and it's kind of unfortunate, but like the manga and the anime slowed down a little bit for the production of the live action because the creator of the series, Ai Ichiro Oda, wanted it to feel true to his story. So he was heavily involved, not only like with the scripts, but like everything regarding the series. And I believe anyone who's watched the series or read the series in anime or manga form will tell you straight up that they tried their best to be as true to the story, to the visuals, to the world building as possible in in this series. Anthony, do you agree with that?

SPEAKER_03 15:00

Yeah, I agree. I feel like for something like this to be pulled together, uh it would have to be done with people who genuinely enjoy the source material.

First Reactions To Season Two

SPEAKER_04 15:11

And it seems like not only do they enjoy it, but they want to deeply convey what the stories are telling and like the the point and the the overall message of all the stories in One Piece as chapters go by. And I think that that's one of the more important things I want to take away from all of it is you know, when I when I watch certain adaptations like The Witcher, I remember being really, really let down. Not necessarily because of the casting or the art direction or anything like that. I was most let down by the inability for them to adequately get the stories from book to screen. And not only that, like they they would do the stories, but it would be like they would lose the meaning of the stories, the moral point of the story being like in existence in the first place. And that doesn't happen at all in One Piece live action. They're so good about getting the heart of the characters and the world correct. And I I really deeply love that. But let's let people who don't have a huge One Piece background talk a little bit. Let's start with Jen. First thoughts on One Piece live action season two.

SPEAKER_01 16:27

I really enjoyed it. I also liked the first season a lot. I felt like with this season, it took me like a little bit longer to really feel very excited about where it was going. But like once once we kind of like caught our rhythm and started moving, I got excited about that. I really like Tony Tony Chopper. Big fan.

SPEAKER_04 16:46

Huge fan of Tony Chopper.

SPEAKER_01 16:48

Speaking of what did she say before? Speaking of enormous. Speaking of massive, Tony Tony Chopper takes a massive place in my heart.

SPEAKER_04 16:55

Rich, this was your first time. I don't know if it's your first time ever watching anything One Piece, but I know it's your first time watching the live action. You watched both season one and season two in preparation for this episode. What first, I mean, if you can remember or you can kind of remember the split and the seasons if possible, how did you feel when you first started watching the show versus how it ended with season two?

SPEAKER_02 17:17

Very different. I didn't like the first season too much. So I've never watched the T you know, I've never watched the anime, I've never read the manga at all. Sure. I started watching it, and it just was you guys later explained that this came before Naruto, right? But you know, from from my my viewing critical. Yeah, from your point of view, this is very similar to Yeah, there was I mean, there was the, you know, there was just the way, you know, Naruto's gonna, I'm gonna be the Hokage right away, and this guy's gonna I'm gonna be the Pirate King. Uh the fact that it was even like the configuration of three, the fact that he's very much got the same kind of like indomitable spirit, but it's also kind of stupidity that just ends up at the end, you know, like, oh man, that guy just doesn't give up, you know. But a lot of it's just like him making horrible decisions, but his positivity carries him through, and his friends are just like, Yeah, like you're so positive, I'm gonna help you. So that I felt like season one was I was noticing those tropes more, and I'm gonna look it's Chomper, my man. Like, I if you remove Chomper, if I don't see Chomper, if they skip Chomper and it goes like past him or something, I don't there's no I don't like the show. Like I I I don't even like he sold it. Like he's it's unfair. He's the Grogu. I there's no way I could dislike Chomper.

SPEAKER_01 18:47

Like he there Wait, are you calling him Chomper?

SPEAKER_02 18:49

Chopper? Chopper Chopper Tony Tony Choppery? Riley? Is it Riley? It's Riley, right? So Chomper.

SPEAKER_01 18:57

I'm gonna start calling you Smich.

SPEAKER_04 18:58

It's like it's Chopper like the the art like the Star Wars character. Tiny Chomper.

SPEAKER_02 19:03

Tiny Chomper.

SPEAKER_01 19:04

Uh so I I really We don't even see him eat that much. He's just He did eat a Devil Fruit.

SPEAKER_02 19:08

He really sold it for me. You know, I I I still have a little bit of my stuff. You know, the devil fruit reminds me a lot of the way that I would understand a level of Jitsu in Naruto, and I'd be like, okay, so that's like this is the level, right? And then they'd be like, nah man. Like that's that's just that guy's level. Like, and then they're just introduced somebody with you know, so I when I saw the Devil Fruit introduced, it kinda it's like I just got like Vietnam flashbacks to watching Naruto episodes, you know? And I I said it and I know Anthony knows that I've rewatched things and I've I've I've heard you, you know, if I just stopped watching Lord of the Rings ten times, I could watch this. But it's like I read uh Jack Karaouac's The Road and I read the version that's the way he wrote, you know, it's basically a there's no paragraphs, you know, it's just straight text on every single page. There's no physical breaks, there's no chapters. And I found that to be very difficult. It was very overwhelming because it just felt like there was no end, and the anime of One Piece seems something like I could never embark on, but I actually kind of liked this.

SPEAKER_04 20:24

He said it. He said it, Anthony.

SPEAKER_03 20:25

You know, a lot of liked it. You know, a lot of a lot of people do freak out over the size of One Piece, but when you watch Are we filming an Austin Powers dedication podcast?

SPEAKER_02 20:39

Like, look, Johnson, like, oh man, he's being really frank right now. Well, I mean Hey Willie.

SPEAKER_03 20:45

No, but but like, you know, in all in all seriousness, when you're watching the episodes, like some of the episodes are I like so short, dude. There'll be, you know, the intro, like you'll cut like you, you know, you skip the intro, and then sometimes there's the intro and then there's a recap. And then when you skip that, sometimes you're skipping like five minutes, and then you then you skip like another like minute and a half, two minutes at the end with the outro. So like at the end of the day, sometimes it'll cut down like a 20 22-minute episode down to like 15-16 minutes, and so that's how that's how I like I'll watch like a bunch of episodes at once, but I will I I'm willing to admit the earlier seasons, the earlier arcs of One Piece are a bit rough to get through. Is this they are but the there is like greatness within them. There's a lot of like things that pay off down the line also from these these initial seasons or the initial arcs. So I appreciate them for that. But you know, I remember watching through the like the next season that we're gonna get, and it's probably obviously to me, it's gonna be probably better in live action, but watching Alabasta. And the anime was rough. It just felt so long. The pacing was just kind of to me not the greatest. The same thing with the next like kind of major arc, which is Skypea, where they fight Eminem in the sky. And um Martial Matters. And everybody says he looks like Eminem. And he kind of does. But you know, I I do understand it. And the the live action definitely cuts out a good bit of the fluff. Like, believe it or not, in in just 16 episodes, we've covered 91 episodes of the of the anime.

Characters That Click Or Don’t

SPEAKER_04 22:58

That's the kind of it's there is a lot of fluff in the original One Piece seasons. And I I will s or like the the the anime. And what I will say is that the early seasons of One Piece are very cheaply produced because it was a time in the early 2000s where they didn't spend a lot of money for animation, you know, per episode. So a lot of the the actual art is very stagnant. You know, it'll be like a a shot of someone's face and it's just their mouth talking for a good portion of it, or it's just like a still frame and then they just zoom out of the still frame. So it's they they use certain aspects of like cheapening, like cheapening the animation so that they can spread it out a little longer. But anyway, we're not talking about the the anime in this one. So I I do want to loop back to you, Rich. Did you you said that Chopper was the the one that kind of sold it for you, but prior to meeting Chopper, how are you feeling about the individual characters outside of Luffy? Because I I know you you were kind of like seeing you were getting some PTSD about like Naruta with Luffy himself, but what about the ensemble cast?

SPEAKER_02 24:08

So I like Kashi uh Demon Swordman. That's uh what's Snowd?

SPEAKER_04 24:14

Ro Roan Ozoro.

SPEAKER_02 24:16

Yeah, that's Demon Swordman. Uh right, isn't he like the demon hunter deer demon pirate hunter? Isn't that his like moniker?

SPEAKER_03 24:23

He's a pirate hunter.

SPEAKER_02 24:24

Alright.

SPEAKER_01 24:25

Yeah, you're kind of like throwing the word demon in the world.

SPEAKER_02 24:27

I thought I thought there was something about demon hunters.

SPEAKER_04 24:29

Maybe I think one of his blades is cursed. Yeah. Maybe that's what you're thinking about.

SPEAKER_02 24:32

I know he gets that later, but uh alright. I thought I hung on to that for some reason. But anyway, I liked him. I mean, what I didn't like about the introduction to the characters for me is like I just really don't like too much, like I don't like heavy flashback, you know, for every person. So that kind of annoyed me. Like I just don't it's just like tell me. There was one point where Sanji, I really appreciated it. They were in the restaurant, and this is I think in season two, and Nami's sick, right? And Sanji starts talking to her about like his mom, I think it is, right? And he's like relaying the story, and he just tells the story, and we don't have to see the visual, and I don't have to go back and see little Sanji and his mom. I just I'm okay with a character just doing a little exposition drop, a little bit, yeah, and I don't need to see the visual works back.

SPEAKER_04 25:21

It worked really well. I in that particular it was more powerful almost.

SPEAKER_02 25:25

You get to imagine it. It's like it's kind of I feel like what it does is like, you know, in comics, one of my favorite things when I teach about it is the gutter, right? Because that space allows all of us to see something slightly differently, but we all kind of see the same thing if the comic book writer and the artist are doing a good enough job. And I think that that's the same thing with exposition. Like, I don't need to see it all the time. So that said, you know, I was waiting for Nami to like not be, you know, she was kind of being shady the entire time, a little bit, kind of being very clear that she wasn't someone to be trusted, but you know, so I like man, by the way, the clown guy, whoo! Hate him. He's uh he's very good at his uh his job. Like he's excellent. Bunny. Uh Boogie? Uh Booney? Booney? Buggy, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 26:14

Buggy the clown.

SPEAKER_02 26:16

No, it's Booney or something. Boogie?

SPEAKER_03 26:18

Boogie. Let me tell you, man. You know, like Buggy in the anime disappears for a while, but then he comes back and it gets interesting with him.

SPEAKER_04 26:30

So does it be like, they changed up Loketown quite a bit.

SPEAKER_03 26:34

It's been dude, it's been so so long since I've been there. You know how long ago? Dude, I'm I'm like I'm rounding, I'm closing in on 600 episodes. That was like Damn, Anthony. 500 uh like over 500 episodes a w long ago for me.

SPEAKER_04 26:51

Oh, actually, uh, really quick, uh, sidebar. Uh we can keep this in the podcast, whatever, but you reminded me of something, Jen. In our last episode, we covered Major League, and I wanted the one thing I wanted to say that I didn't get to say is that the coach has the greatest voice of all time. It's the most unbelievable raspiness. And it's I almost fooled myself into thinking that that like random sound bite where it's like, damn son, where did you find this? comes from Major League. I thought that that was gonna show up later in that and it just didn't happen. But like that's the way he talks. I'm like, how is that possible? Anyway, let's go back. Let's go.

SPEAKER_02 27:32

Like my favorite, like, nice catches, don't ever do it again. Like what might be my favorite line like when he does the because Willie Mays does the basket catch, like first game. He's like, ooh, and like they're they're all complimenting his fanciness, and he's just like pissed off about it. I he's so good, he's so good, that guy.

SPEAKER_01 27:51

And the how many cigars do you have to smoke to sound like that? Let's maybe two at the same time.

SPEAKER_03 27:59

Maybe as much as Captain Smoker.

SPEAKER_04 28:02

Yeah, okay. Hold on. Smoker I like him. Uh a lot. He was cool. Yeah, he's pretty cool. His uh his devil fruit power was like really versatile. Oh, and I I was I was confused about how they were gonna like visualize that on screen, but like that's like one of the best visualized powers in on screen, like in live action. I was so surprised to do that.

SPEAKER_03 28:22

That's how it looks like in the anime. Yeah. So we actually this season that I'm actually glad that you talked about that. We get uh like we we get a visual for like each of the the uh devil fruit types. There's the Zoan type, which is like somebody turning into an animal. There is the Logia type, which is what smoker is, and then uh Paramecia, which is what um Luffy is.

SPEAKER_01 28:51

Wait, what's the difference between the smoker kind and the Luffy kind?

SPEAKER_03 28:55

So um Logia is somebody that they're able to kind of manipulate an element. So for him, it's like smoke. Later on, you and like they can kind of you know, like their body kind of becomes that element too. Later on, what is it uh like Ace? You we'll be introduced to him next season. He's the same, like he's all like kind of fire, and then Paramecia kind of does like changes to the body. So Wapple. So like Luffy being rubbery, so like yeah, like Wapple, like where he was able to like change his body. Um when he would eat, he could change his body.

SPEAKER_04 29:36

Booney, Booney, right? Bunny, yes, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 29:40

What about the girl where she can like shove her hands everywhere? What is she? Uh is that I guess that would be body Robin.

SPEAKER_03 29:46

Yeah, that that's uh par Paramecia. So so yeah, that that's that's Robin. In this season she's called Miss All Sunday.

SPEAKER_04 29:54

Yeah, so we actually got a couple future straw hats, like three, I think, as far as I can tell, Straw Hats that like show up earlier than oh I mean Robin shows up here, but we we saw Brooke in that that scene with Laboon. He's he was the one doing the so Brooke is a character that comes back later on in the series, and like his whole goal is to reunite with Laboon. Yeah, the whale. So he's Laboon won't be for alone forever.

SPEAKER_01 30:28

Oh, that's good to know. Oh, yeah, yeah. That because that actually like broke my heart.

SPEAKER_03 30:33

Yeah, that storyline when they so you get that storyline later on in in the anime. Laboon is the whale. Oh, thank you.

SPEAKER_04 30:42

Yeah, the Yeah, and and the guy who was playing the song to him.

SPEAKER_01 30:45

Brook is uh Oh, no.

SPEAKER_04 30:47

I'm thinking of the the guy that was taking care of him and shooting him with yeah, the guy who not the guy who's drugging him up. The the guy who was singing the song uh is a character named Brooke, and he he shows up later and actually becomes part of their crew.

SPEAKER_03 31:01

Yeah, he becomes a straw hat. I'm a fan of the but he doesn't look like that.

SPEAKER_04 31:05

Not anymore. Who else do we have, Anthony?

SPEAKER_03 31:08

Miss All Sunday, man. Robin.

SPEAKER_01 31:10

Yeah, Robin. Yeah, Robin I want to be here when I grow up.

SPEAKER_03 31:14

Robin becomes uh a straw hat eventually. It'll it'll most likely be like towards the end of towards the end if you're gonna you're absolutely gonna forget like who these characters are.

SPEAKER_01 31:26

What about our listeners? There are dozens of them that are gonna get spoiled.

SPEAKER_04 31:32

Okay, I'm sorry. But yeah, I think most people will have looked up these characters at you know after watching the show. I think they will be interested in the case.

SPEAKER_03 31:41

This story is like over 20 years old, you know. So we're getting close to 30 years on this.

SPEAKER_04 31:46

Yeah. And there was another, I forget the character's name, that showed up early in Loketown in this season that wasn't there.

SPEAKER_03 31:54

Bard moment. Oh, are you are you talking are you talking about Bartolomeo?

SPEAKER_04 31:58

Yes, Bartolomeo.

SPEAKER_03 32:00

Okay, so he so he doesn't really become a straw hat. He becomes uh yeah, this is woo, this is way down line. Honestly, like I'm I know this because obviously, like, I mean, uh out of all these years you get spoiled out of some stuff, but he becomes um so in the canon he actually was there, but like you don't see him during that time. But so in the canon, he witnesses all of that stuff, you know, with with um Luffy's like kind of failed execution during that time, and so like he becomes like a super fan of Luffy, and he actually becomes a hit him and his crew are like one of the like the pirate crews that are under the Straw Hat Grand Fleet.

SPEAKER_04 32:51

I understand.

SPEAKER_03 32:51

Okay, so so like he he is a Straw Hat like I guess like by extension, but like as far as like the core team, he um he doesn't actually like join the crew. Um I mean in the first season there was a name drop of a future one, Jim Be. He uh he actually joins it.

Devil Fruits And Power Types

SPEAKER_04 33:15

Alright, let's start talking about the future and start talking about the presentation. The present um yeah. Rich, who is your least favorite character outside of Luffy? I don't even know if Luffy's your least favorite, but like outside of Luffy, like which which of the straw hats was your least favorite?

SPEAKER_01 33:31

Why does it have to be a straw hat? Why can't it be like a Because I like all the straw hats?

SPEAKER_02 33:36

So like um you know, and the thing is like Luffy grows on me in the second season a little bit more. I still and I know it's such a small thing to complain about, but Luffy has a Spanish accent and the little boy the his little version like his his younger version doesn't, and that kind of annoys me.

SPEAKER_04 33:54

But oh interesting.

SPEAKER_02 33:56

It I don't care that a p uh an actor has an accent, but then like cast the little kid with an accent. I don't understand what the it just it took me out of it a little bit. Uh that's that annoyed me about Luffy. Aesop's Fables, Captain Aesop, he he annoyed me for a bit, but then um he kind of did some he he did some valiant things that I ended up liking. I didn't like Sanji at first. I didn't like the aesthetic, the I didn't like the suit. I just kinda I thought he was kinda whiny. But uh I think the exposition about his mom kinda won me over a little bit there. Uh Nami, I didn't like the character. Maybe I'll grow to like the character more now, but I was I you know I was waiting for the betrayal part, whatever. And that I didn't it really didn't like that annoyed me. You know, Booney is just very good at being an obnoxious character, so it's hard. I don't like that character, but that's because I'm not supposed to like that character at all.

SPEAKER_04 34:58

I would say in this this season, Alvita was my least favorite. That's the character who um was like fat in the first season and then got skinny in this one after taking the after eating the devil fruit and just became like Ozempic fruit? Slippery. Yeah, yeah, basically she took the Ozempic fruit and she just became like slippery, like frictionless, so like any punches.

SPEAKER_02 35:19

Yeah, yeah. I didn't like that. But Chomper. And now I know I wonder if I would like Chomper as much. You're killing me with this Chomper. Uh, you know, tiny. I was okay with Booney. I don't uh well no, the Booney thing I'm saying because doesn't Luffy Because it's a joke, yeah. He keeps forgetting the character's name. Chopper, I'm legitimately making a mistake. Uh I won't lie. Wait, I'll remember it now. Get to the Chopper. Alright, I got it. It's locked in for now. There we go. So the thing about Chopper is I don't know if I'd care in manga form or in anime form. It's this like this representation, this creation that they put on our screens. So adorbs, man. Like so ador. Like it's like a drug. Like I felt it was unfair. Once he popped on screen, I was like, well, game game set match, Anthony. You got it.

SPEAKER_01 36:13

You know, like Chomper got like his t his texture is so soft. Yes, yeah. You just want to hold him. And then you find out that he's a grower, not a shower, and and he's useful to the party as well. He can fight.

SPEAKER_04 36:28

Huh?

SPEAKER_01 36:29

What is happening on the show?

SPEAKER_04 36:33

There's a lot of innuendos going on. I don't think they're all intentional. I think that probably was though.

SPEAKER_01 36:38

Yeah, that was extremely I was I've been waiting for my I've been silently waiting for my moment to say that character.

SPEAKER_04 36:42

What I will say, Rich, you mentioned you don't know if you would feel the same way about the character if you had experienced it in manga or anime first. I can tell you that as someone who has read the manga version of this, I haven't seen the anime version of this. It was extremely beautifully written. And the entire arc of like what they did here was so well adapted. Like getting Dr. Hireluk to be given the mushroom, and that whole arc is just so tragic, and you feel so bad for him, but you're so happy for him when you know Luffy and friends take notice, basically. It's so well done in the and I think it's from what I hear, it's well done in every iteration of this particular story.

SPEAKER_03 37:30

Yeah, yeah. No, I I I would say so as somebody that's seen it in the anime form, this Chopper is one of the most like beloved characters, or like one of the most beloved straw hats. Like I would say almost everybody loves Chopper. And you know, that they're like, you know, everybody's like, you know, they'll die for Chopper. And you know, this was so I'll be honest with you, there's been times in this anime that I have like legitimately like teared up. And that was one of those times was Chopper's just like Chopper's backstory and just like kind of being an outcast, not only as a reindeer, but you know, even amongst humans and not like having friends, and then you know, Luffy, you know, that that's that that's the charm of Luffy is that Luffy doesn't care about you know like just like the way that you are. Like he's just like, oh, you know, this this is he's just like, oh, this this thing is kind of weird and crazy, but I love it. And that that's absolutely like how Luffy is. Like Luffy doesn't care if ever everybody else thinks you look weird, he thinks you look cool. Like he sees the value in the person, and he's like, and like you know, he's kinda like his goal down, you know, for is was like finding, you know, finding a cook, which he got in in in Sanji, and then finding a doctor, which he gets in Chopper, and then a navigator in Nami, and then uh Zorro's like kind of like a de facto first mate. So it's he's the tank. So yeah, it it's yeah, this part of the the anime, it's just I mean, like I said, there there's like gold in these early earlier seasons. You know, there's highs and lows, and like different this was definitely one of the highs that that got me, you know. Yeah, I love Chopper is one of my favorites.

SPEAKER_02 39:29

Anthony, did you so do you feel like I feel like it almost got a little bit witchery in that Chomper over here is very much could you know is like a root of the red nosed reindeer, right?

SPEAKER_01 39:45

He has a blue nose, actually.

SPEAKER_02 39:46

Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's like you know very close. It reminded me, I think this is why I like this, like if we had watched season one and then you guys were like, hey, let's watch season two, I would have watched it just because whatever, but I wouldn't have been excited about it. And I wasn't excited about season two. Uh, but this Chopper story really to me reminds me of some of the Witcher stories that are close to like fables or fairy tales, right? You know, with a little bit of a weird twist. Like, this is what it's really like. And I I think that's what actually made me fall in love with the character. It was like, oh, you guys doing a little bit of fairy tale switching, and uh I love that, man.

SPEAKER_01 40:29

Is there more of that moving forward?

SPEAKER_02 40:31

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 40:32

Like in the you don't, how do you know?

SPEAKER_02 40:34

No, I was asking like Anthony, is there like I'm excited, I want to know.

SPEAKER_01 40:37

Like you're answering me. I was like, hey, you have you have seen it just as much as I have.

SPEAKER_03 40:41

You you mean like is there more like fairy tale adaptations?

SPEAKER_04 40:45

It's not necessarily fairy tale, but it's myth. It's mythology that is adapted into this world, and you get a little bit of that for pretty much every mythology, as far as I can tell. Yeah. We got a we got a little bit of that with like the giants, um, we got a little bit of that with even like the world leaders. That that's that flashback scene with the world leaders. You have obvious like stereotypes, like there's the Abraham Lincoln looking dude. Oh yeah. Um there's all those are like real characters and the character in like in future seasons and stuff. And that it's all it all kind of takes bits and pieces of real world legends and mythology and kind of wraps it around this these this ongoing story, which I think is pretty neat.

SPEAKER_03 41:31

Yeah. Um the setting for Alabasta kind of reminds me a little bit of um Agrabah.

SPEAKER_01 41:38

Oh, that's cool.

SPEAKER_03 41:40

So Aladdin? Yeah, it it's it's a it's a desert kingdom, so and and it's not and it's not like you know, specifically that it's like Middle Eastern. It takes like different elements, you know, kind of like from that region, kind of like what Agrabah does, right? Like Agrabah isn't like one you can't like tag one specific culture to it. It's like a blend.

SPEAKER_02 42:05

Does it like do the there are a lot of street rats in uh Alabasta?

SPEAKER_03 42:09

Yes.

SPEAKER_04 42:10

I can only imagine the amount of street rats that exist over there.

SPEAKER_01 42:14

Alright, let's not be too hasty.

SPEAKER_03 42:16

We shouldn't move too far forward to Alabasta and but but Jen, I'm I'm almost 600 uh 600 episodes in.

SPEAKER_01 42:25

We've got to get one jump ahead of Anthony and watch 601 episodes.

Casting Wins And Weird Powers

SPEAKER_04 42:31

One jump ahead of the breadline. Oh man. It's alright, I'll stop now. Let's what was I gonna say? Uh speaking of Chopper, I think uh there's a couple things I want to say. Like the actor who played Dr. Hiruluk.

SPEAKER_01 42:44

Wait, can you like clarify? Because I'm one thing I didn't I didn't do well with it was like remembering all the names. Is that the hot old chick?

SPEAKER_04 42:53

That's uh Kareja.

SPEAKER_01 42:54

Oh yeah, okay, because I loved her.

SPEAKER_04 42:56

Hiruluk uh was the the crazy doctor that like nobody respected or anything that that raised Chopper.

SPEAKER_01 43:03

That lied to him.

SPEAKER_04 43:04

Yeah. What's funny is that the actor who portrayed him was literally named Herilich. So and he Mark Herelik played Hereluk, and I thought that that was pretty funny. And they kept saying the word Mark throughout like all of his scenes.

SPEAKER_02 43:19

So I thought it was it was a little funny little Do you know uh the uh actress who played the his the other doctor, I can't remember her name correctly. She so one, she's the voice of Lila from uh Futurama, and uh for me she is uh Al Bundy's wife from Married with Children. She would, you know, in like the you know nineties was wearing this like giant wig and pretending to be trailer trash. It was kind of crazy. I mean, she's she's like she's legitimately seventy five years old. Uh so it was just kind of wild to see her pop up in this because this is the absolute last thing I expected to see her in. You know, like she She nails that.

SPEAKER_03 44:00

role though. Yeah, she she absolutely like nails that role.

SPEAKER_04 44:05

It was almost Jamie Lee Curtis.

SPEAKER_03 44:06

Yeah, it was almost Jamie Lee Curtis because she is Jamie Lee Curtis is a is a massive fan of One Piece. But she she just couldn't swing.

SPEAKER_04 44:16

She was gunning for the she was running she was gunning for that role of Korea she wanted to play it and but like in a recent interview basically she said that uh it just didn't work out because they were filming in South America or no South Africa. Yeah South Africa and and she just couldn't find time in her schedule to do it. So but I'm I'm happy with the actress that they chose just because did a fantastic job.

SPEAKER_01 44:38

Because Lord if I can rock a crop top at that age I will feel so blessed.

SPEAKER_04 44:44

Yeah I mean I will Jamie Lee Curtis Jamie Lee Curtis said that was the actress's real stomach. Yeah I got that um interview also and if uh she had done it she would be wearing a prosthetic so it was a good thing that they they chose this actress.

SPEAKER_01 44:58

What else? She was just so good at playing like standoffish and rude but secretly caring.

SPEAKER_02 45:04

But that's like and like behind the scenes character and that's that character that's her Korea yeah. But no but that's also like the act like I mean at least in like in Mary with Children and in the Futurama that's her. Like she's this standoffish but deep down caring character you know like I think that's kind of I you know that's been her a role she's played very well throughout the years.

SPEAKER_04 45:29

A character that an actress that I didn't expect to play a certain role was oh goodness I can't remember her name. Hold on give me one second it was Michaela Hoover which is a a funny name in and of itself just because Hoov like H-O-O-V chopper has Hooves um but he goes oh no this whole episode Michaela Hoover is is is funny or is a weird choice is a great choice actually but it I I thought it was such a strange choice because it's such a strange role for her to be playing in in terms of like her filmography like James Gunn uses her a lot as he has Michaela Hoover in pretty much all of his films as like just the busty girl as that just shows up in one or two scenes and like that's her stick which bounces a little bit and yeah wait who is this Michaela Hoover.

SPEAKER_03 46:23

She's like the isn't she gold she's one of the gold people in um no she wasn't guardians uh if you look up Michaela she was Kat Grant in the new Superman movie she was uh Oh from two uh two girls in a diner or something right what no no you're thinking of Kat Danny oh never mind the character in the fits the oh Michaela Michaela's the voice of Chopper I think yes that's what I'm saying yeah Michaela Hoover is the voice of Chopper but I feel like we're having fit yeah yeah I know sorry anyway this it's I just found her casting to be weird but you said busty girl bouncing and the chat fell apart that's what we don't have in different directions everyone just went straight to their phone all their heads like started looking down I'm sorry I'm sorry okay I'm trying to like pull pull up the um casting to remember you know for for Dakota and I who have you know Dakota's read through this part and I've watched through this part the casting that they you know something that's like r obviously important is the casting of Robin I mean you know she's she's a she's a future straw hat so like you have to nail that casting and I was absolutely blown away who's I was blown away by the casting like I mean she what are you asking Rich?

SPEAKER_04 47:45

I'm sorry who is Robin Robin if you move your head Anthony it's the character right in the middle oh okay yeah uh it's it's the character who has the ability to like create limbs wherever there's a surface miss all sundae yeah like she she's like one of the the top bad people of the season okay it is a very very OP okay you're hitting me with random hands Jen I don't understand like why why are you guys like holding your nose as you like slap the air what is that what is that part this is like the new thing that's the new thing if you don't know you don't know okay you have to like work with high schoolers to know the cool the cool I see all right in general I really like the casting of pretty much all the Baroque works oh yeah characters like they they killed it yeah like I was Ms.

SPEAKER_03 48:31

Golden Week Mr Three oh my gosh like as like they picked the best weird person to to nail that to nail that role yeah because he always plays weird characters and like Mr Three is a weird character uh Mr. Three being the candle guy yeah actually that the that guy I for I oddly remember because of the wax and it was such a weird power and and like they they did the whole scene like I was wondering how they were going to do it with like the whole wax like cake and everything and they were able to do it.

SPEAKER_02 49:03

You know what what amazed the wax was a choice but anyway it ties into this episode so just moving along.

SPEAKER_04 49:10

Yeah no it was definitely a choice but it was an interesting choice in the sense that like I could not believe episode by episode that they were adapting the story so closely to the actual canon and the manga and the anime I was so impressed that they would do stupid stuff. Because let's be honest it's a really stupid power. You know there's a bunch of really stupid powers in One Piece that most people would say that can't be translated to live action.

SPEAKER_03 49:41

Like Mr 5?

SPEAKER_04 49:43

Which one's Mr.

SPEAKER_03 49:44

5 I forgot Booger Bombs.

SPEAKER_04 49:45

Oh okay I that's another one yeah or or who was it Mr I think it was Mr. 13 is the uh it's like the otter the otter yeah I I did not Mr. 13 and Miss Friday like the like vulture the yeah I did not expect them to do that scene. There's so many little things that I was just like they can skip that there's no reason for them to even try to adapt this in live action that scene was pretty comical between um Mr. 13 and Sanji and Sanji yeah Jen kept throughout the entire season Jen's like why doesn't he ever use his hands?

SPEAKER_01 50:20

Why does he always have to kick I was dying laughing before you just like how inconvenient that fighting style is there's a there's a reason for it there's literally a reason for it.

SPEAKER_03 50:30

Oh there is yeah is it that like his hands are like his tools for cooking right essentially yeah it's a like his he only uses his hands for cooking and he doesn't want to like injure his hands essentially I would guess that's why like all he does is kick.

SPEAKER_02 50:45

I feel like Sanji would be like I use it for cooking and love.

SPEAKER_01 50:49

Probably when I was a kid my brother and I used to wrestle and for some like we were always like play fighting and stuff like that and for some reason I always had the very strong desire to like kick him in the face but I was a lot smaller than him. I could kick quite high but every single time I tried he would grab my leg and just pull me and I would land on my back and I just watching him fight with his legs was like inspirational but also like tragically stupid at the same time just because like I just have vivid memories of my brother being like why do you keep trying to kick me it's never gonna you can't do that in a real fight.

SPEAKER_03 51:24

They're just gonna do this to you idiot wait till he gets to the part to where he spins on his leg like really fast and it becomes hot. Oh it happens and then he and then he cries away that like where he starts spinning with his hands his hands are available to just start doing some he becomes a literal hot stepper like oh my god oh my gosh I actually do like that they did like they got like because in the anime he'll do that thing where he's like on his hands like and he'll spin like to kick and like they actually did that in this show.

SPEAKER_04 51:58

So um an another thing that I found kind of interesting like thinking so before this season came out before I watched the trailers or anything I was thinking to myself alright they're probably gonna skip this island and this island so that they can get straight to the chopper pit. You know like straight to the chopper. I think that they definitely want to go straight to chopper and that's I was thinking Lopetown and then they go over the line and they they get to the what's uh it's not Whiskey Peak Drum Kingdom. Well they they have to go to like it'd be like you know obviously they would show reverse mountain right okay you know what I'm saying but like that they would have to go into the Grand Line and then they would do the whole chopper arc. But I was amazed that they just they didn't do that. They they went chapter by chapter and they actually showed every single little mini arc within the Baroque works up to the Choppers stuff and I I could not believe my eyes when Brogie and Dory the the giants that are battling every day for a hundred years showed up and I was just like I was just in awe and they got the like laughs like down pack too I was like oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_03 53:06

Yeah like One Piece is is there's a lot of like really funny laughs in it. And yeah yeah like I was like oh wow they yeah and they they nailed those characters they did really good the it was Little Garden. But you you know what's actually crazy about that you know the giants they're they're from a place called Elbaf and which is like the last arc right literally the arc that they're in right now is Elbaf they finally in the current like storyline of One Piece they finally made it to Elbath. Oh wow that's super cool think about like how long ago that was I think this was like the the this was like probably I don't even I can't even I think was it maybe episode 50 60 like around there in the in the anime and like that like over a thousand episodes later they're finally in L Bath.

SPEAKER_04 54:00

I applaud that I think it's cool. I have no idea how long the live action goes I hope it continues to be popular to a point where they don't have to wait two years between seasons anymore. They can just dude just do it year after year.

Nami Trust And Mythology Threads

SPEAKER_03 54:16

I would that would be ideal they dude and this wasn't even two years dude we were like knocking on the the doorstep of three years. Which really stinks just because time is everything when it comes to this stuff so I I expect them to do like maybe two more seasons probably of of the live action yeah that's what I was thinking too which kind of sucks because that that's like that would be alabasta and then maybe another two after that maybe covering up to like Sky Pia but which kind of sucks because I feel like the anime like really really like the story the story really grabbed me and like I would say like a lot of people that this is where like you realize like oh this is why people love this anime is when you get to water seven water seven and he's lobby after that you know this is around where you're getting to you know like the art looks a lot better like you're you know it's like digital it's HD now and the story is just it's a lot better. I feel like it the story really like picks up. Don't don't get me wrong like I love the story like before because there's things that set up for like later on but I I just it does get better yeah um in the Lyra Abova that's the actress that does Robin her audition tape was the I want to live scene from any's lobby and that's like a really like huge moment in in the anime so I would I'm like man I would love to be able to see that like adapted live.

SPEAKER_04 55:54

Oh here here's a question for Rich. You mentioned earlier on that you you mentioned a couple times that you were waiting for Nami to turn on them. And she does at the end of the first season she has that moment where she's in it for the money she has she's planning to buy her town she gives the money to Arlong and Arlong basically just steals it and says nope. And that's when she has that great moment where like she's she's pleading with Luffy for help and Luffy just says of course I will why did it make me raise it yes Jen did you need to add something?

SPEAKER_03 56:33

You you raised your hand freaking zoom um actually I I love that you brought that up because that shot right after she asked Luffy for help they have that shot in the manga and the anime and it's just like it where like Luffy's like walking away and like you know Zorro's like sitting like literally like the way that everybody is like standing or sitting it's like a one-to-one like shot from like both the manga and the anime and I love that they had added that to that but so so Luffy helps her out.

SPEAKER_04 57:09

Now did you think in season two that she was still like at odds with the rest of the team or did she were you on board with her being on the team at that point?

SPEAKER_02 57:19

I was on board I just got a little annoyed that like then you know to be fair I did watch like I watched this in a smash so like I'm trying to yeah but um you're trying to separate it yeah she gets sick like fairly quickly no isn't it not really isn't it like halfway through the second season or am I wrong?

SPEAKER_04 57:39

Yeah we don't actually know what she got sick from it was something yeah yeah we do.

SPEAKER_03 57:44

Yeah it was um do they it's from it it's from a a a prehistoric tick. Yeah that she gets and it's the same way in the anime and yeah because uh Korea like mentions like you know sickness unless you were walking in a prehistoric jungle right right right and like and she's like oh yeah I was yeah so so yeah that that's why she had gotten sick.

SPEAKER_02 58:10

I just I wish there was a little bit more space because I feel like you know you just kind of betrayed the team and then you know yeah Luffy's very accepting but I just wanted there to be a little bit more friction before she was trusted and it's just I think like maybe violence the the thing is is that Luffy had already established that trust but the thing is is that she did what she did not out of it wasn't selfishness that she did that. And Luffy recognizes that this is the same thing he recognizes that like what what do you think this is like this sounds like an Uchiha excuse alright like to explain away bad behavior.

SPEAKER_03 58:55

Well no I was doing it uh if I was doing it for the good of the village I I don't uh but but the thing is is that like she she you know she was like she had like you know she had like a timeline that she had to like go through like that that's the thing uh like honestly to tell you the truth like if somebody did something like that to me I I obvious I mean yeah I would be pissed but if they like explained like look she obviously had a lot that she was going through like she was pissed and then she she was betrayed you know she was all you know obviously betrayed herself and she obviously needed help and Luffy was there you know he he was always going to help he was always willing to help that's his whole honestly Luffy's thing he doesn't care about being king of the pirates because he wants power he wants a family and he wants the freedom that's the whole thing that's really what all it is the king of the pirate and he and that's like to him he feels like that's like the ultimate source of all of that so like really like I mean the the live action condenses a lot obviously because it it there's things that I mean it's not gonna cover every little like episode that happens or every scene in the manga that happens you know that's where you know some of that you read through all of that stuff obviously the you get to know these characters a little bit more whether it's filler or not but these characters are spending more time together so that's you know they get to you know this is where they're they're establishing their relationship this is where they're getting close. Yeah they you know she got she betrayed them but it was not out of selfishness. I would understand if it was out of selfishness but it was not out of selfishness. It was out of out of it was out of you know trying to save her her village and that that's literally like what Luffy's all about is that he wants to protect people. He sees people being oppressed he's gonna help them out.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:01

Man I'm so happy to hear you say that Anthony because um when we go down to Florida I'm planning on betraying you for the sake of my family. So it's good to know I'm gonna have forgiveness.

SPEAKER_04 1:01:11

Rich I wanted to interject because I I've thought about a couple more parallels you mentioned like the reindeer like Rudolph the reindeer parallel with Chopper and you inadvertently mentioned Aesop's fables the character Usopp is famous in his town for making up lies telling stories and his primary story is an adaptation of Aesop's fables specifically the boy who cried wolf or the boy who cried pirates like that's the story of his origin. So you get a whole bunch of that where you like the the whole show is kind of I don't know about the whole show but like there's a lot of the show that takes bits and pieces of ideas from legends and history and characters and our past and interjects it in into One Piece and I think that that's pretty cool.

SPEAKER_03 1:02:02

Yeah he he's notorious for his BS stories.

SPEAKER_04 1:02:05

Why do you hate Usopp Jen?

SPEAKER_01 1:02:06

I don't hate Usopp I actually really like that Usopp and Songji dislike each other though. Oh no it's not it's um no I'm thinking of Zorro and Songji. Oh Zoro I like it I like that they dislike each other. I think it's really cute.

SPEAKER_03 1:02:20

It's it it and it's and it's liter literally like that in the anime rivalry.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:25

Yeah yeah they're like you can't be like everybody's best friends and like everybody's just like Luffy where they all see the best in each other and get along perfectly like if you have coworkers you know two people aren't gonna like each other.

SPEAKER_03 1:02:37

Yeah it was it Sanji calls him um Mosshead in in the show that he calls him that in the anime I was like oh like I I love like the little like details like that they throw in.

SPEAKER_04 1:02:49

I can't imagine strongly disliking people that I work with that's just odd to me but on the opposite hand you have as soon as Chopper comes on board you have Zorro immediately pick him up and put him on his shoulders uh which is such a cute scene and is a common visual in the anime just Chopper's always everywhere you know on the ship but I love that because it's it's this it's the gruffest character on the ship taking the cutest character on the ship and just like carrying him like a child. Pretty cute, pretty cute. There's a theory that I read earlier um about Chopper that hasn't been explored in the manga or the anime but we've seen a picture of Chopper's devil fruit that he ate. We don't have a name for it or anything like that but it's in the shape of a mushroom. Like it it looks kind of like the mushroom that he gave to Herook and the theory is and I think the reason people are bringing it up now I think is I think they're going to talk about it like in the manga like coming up the theory that is currently being proposed is that the cure all that the people were looking for was the devil fruit that he ended up consuming. And he confused that for the the mushroom that he ended up picking for Dr.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:12

Herula but why what would it do for them? It made him yeah I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:17

Well I think like if like you could see how that could get like inflated this devil fruit that's super powerful and then eventually through maybe like generations like it becomes this cure all. My thing with the devil fruit is this if I lived in this world my sole purpose in life would just be getting a devil fruit and I wouldn't waste my time with I wouldn't even bother with the One Piece until I had a devil fruit. It's like it's like in board games you know when you figure out like okay if I just get this one rule if I just get this one item or like this one thing if I if I buy Park Av I'm set. You know and I think that's the devil fruit of that's very awesome I actually I'm really bad at Monopoly I don't know if Park Ave is actually good or not it's just like an idea. That's why you always lose I I don't think I've ever won a givea monopoly in my life.

SPEAKER_03 1:05:04

So the thing about the devil fruits are that they are so they're extremely rare and a lot of the times people don't know what they do. So that's I guess like yeah you can have one and like just get the worst power like you know Mr. Five with the booger bombs.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:25

So you can't tell like by the color or shape or anything like you have to eat it. And it does like could two people take a bite of the same Delbo fruit and have different powers?

SPEAKER_03 1:05:34

Like is does it like interact with your I mean where I'm at I I don't think that there's been anybody that's like shared a fruit not not that I know you have to eat the whole thing. But I mean there are some fruits that I feel like that could be some type of like tip off of like what it does. But um Luffy's fruit which was the gum gum fruit it's literally like a like a purple just Bulbous fruit. So like you went So I just sent you guys a picture in the group chat um of the of chopper's yeah that one I've seen there looks like there is one that looks kind of like metallic that is the double fruit of somebody called uh Eustace Kidd and he he has like this like m magnetic power he's essentially the magneto of of One Piece.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:27

Greatest thing that happened this morning was my coworker said to me, Hey, uh maybe you know this one. Uh X-Men villain control magnetism, and I was like Mutant name? Captain Kidd from One Piece? Or real name? Yeah, I was like, uh come on.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:40

Wait, who was trying to quiz you?

SPEAKER_02 1:06:42

It was uh it was Greg, he was doing the crossword. And I was like, ah this is my time to shine, baby. Wait, he didn't know who Magneto was.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:49

Greg doesn't know like things.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:51

No, no. Well actually I think it's literally to him Spider-Man. I said I think that Greg's favorite Marvel movie is Guardians of the Galaxy, and he quipped quickly right back. I liked it better, and it was Indians of the Galaxy.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:06

It's a baseball team. Yeah, it's a baseball team.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:08

I lost Anthony, sorry, man. It was 30 seconds of baseball.

SPEAKER_04 1:07:12

I think Anthony's thinking about like possible one three pieces. Three piece?

SPEAKER_02 1:07:15

He's thinking about three pieces. Guys, uh listen, when three piece comes out, everybody here has to wear a three-piece suit. So Anthony, I'm getting you ready, buddy. Alright? We're gonna suit up for three piece.

SPEAKER_04 1:07:27

Three-piece.

SPEAKER_03 1:07:28

Three yeah, three piece hopefully doesn't take like almost uh another three years to be done.

SPEAKER_04 1:07:36

A three night.

SPEAKER_03 1:07:38

I mean, I think that they are I think they are working on season three already.

SPEAKER_04 1:07:42

I hope so.

SPEAKER_03 1:07:43

So I hope Yeah, they need to we need a new season next year.

The Juicy Five-Star Review Bit

SPEAKER_02 1:07:48

I mean honestly, if they don't start to do it this faster, I think that the it's just gonna dry up. Like the fandom's gonna dry up. And it's not it's just not gonna be juicy. Uh I think that's gonna be a problem here. So uh Anthony, do you wanna speak on the juiciness, the ripeness of uh this show?

SPEAKER_03 1:08:11

You say ripeness, right? When when you say ripe, I think of a fruit. Like a massive fruit, you know. Maybe you know, a fruit that you know you bite into and it might give you powers, or it might just be juicy enough to make you want to review this podcast.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:33

That might be the worst power in the world.

SPEAKER_03 1:08:34

You know, it's gonna be called it's gonna be called the Star Star Fruit, and it's gonna urge you to rate us five stars.

SPEAKER_04 1:08:43

If I eat an apple and it's like really juicy, and I'm I'm thinking, man, I gotta go back to that podcast and review it. That's that seems like the best thing to do. That's exactly what you should be doing, exactly, folks. Exactly. You should be going. You may not be currently listening to us, but we are in your heads, we are in your walls. You are thinking the next time you hear or taste something juicy, you are going to want to go back to your podcast application uh or network and give us a juicy five-star review. I I think it's something that you will be pleased in doing, and uh, we will be pleased as well.

SPEAKER_02 1:09:19

Right after you do that, go grab yourself a five-pack of the official, unofficial gum of our podcast, Juicy Fruit. Oh my god. Official, unofficial.

SPEAKER_04 1:09:29

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 1:09:29

Yeah, while while Rich is finding trying to find, you know, ways to get us sued. But yeah, you hear that knock on your wall, that's us. But not really.

SPEAKER_04 1:09:42

Guys, what are we uh let's give our final thoughts on One Piece Season 2, the live action. Uh, I'm gonna start from Jen. Why didn't you start with me? Alright, you know what? We're gonna end with you. Rich, what are your thoughts on One Piece live action season two?

SPEAKER_02 1:09:59

I think that season two did a good job in condensing a lot of what I think I didn't like about season one. I think that the change in the exposition style was great. I thought that the references to mythology were fun, and it started to form its own identity that's separate in my mind from a lot of the anime that I've seen outside of this. But um it's not the type of thing that I would have willingly put on on my own, you know, but after watching it, you know, I uh I would say it was pretty good.

SPEAKER_04 1:10:36

Nice. And you can see why people are into One Piece.

SPEAKER_02 1:10:41

I can see why, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:10:43

Yeah. Um I I too really enjoyed season two. I don't know if I enjoyed it more than season one, because season one got me into One Piece in the first place. So that was kind of what was interesting about season one is that I had no idea what was gonna happen versus season two, I knew everything that was going to happen, but I was more impressed with season two because they were able to make everything happen. So that was just the fact that it was such a a juicy adaptation from the serum that Crocus shot into Laboon, juicy. The dinosaur that they cooked, juicy. The devil fruit that Wapole ate, juicy. The soldiers that he ingested and then spat out, covered in juice, juicy. It was such a juicy show, guys, and I really top five MCU series for me. Anthony, go ahead.

SPEAKER_03 1:11:36

I mean, you know me. I I absolutely enjoyed it. I'm a massive One Piece fan. When it comes to the big like anime, especially from like that era, I would say One Piece is my favorite from that era. And you know, just continue on. I I just like I absolutely love the casting. I think they killed it. I loved the nods to future characters like Brooke, Bartolomeo. They also showed um Sabo, which is like another like foster brother to Luffy that you get to know in the future. Was it uh Luffy's father, Monkey D. Dragon? You don't get to know too much of him until like later on.

SPEAKER_04 1:12:20

I just like I loved Oh, that's that's one thing that like for people who haven't read or watched uh One Piece, they are currently under the impression that Gold Goldie Roger is his father.

SPEAKER_01 1:12:33

Yeah, that's I'm I was really confused just now.

SPEAKER_04 1:12:35

Yeah. Spoilers.

SPEAKER_03 1:12:36

But well, I mean, it's is it you know uh but um What are you gonna tell me next?

SPEAKER_02 1:12:41

What are you gonna tell me? You're gonna tell me that Darth Vader's father?

SPEAKER_03 1:12:45

And then what's it? Yeah, yeah, forever. The frick, man. See see, Rich gets me. But uh, and then yeah, they mentioned like the whole Will of D thing that like isn't really Yeah, that that that's really early. So I mean, I like I absolutely loved and I think that all that is like in preparation because they know that they're not gonna be able to get that far. So I appreciate that.

SPEAKER_04 1:13:08

Yeah, they're just teasing us for stuff we can never have because this is only apparently 13% of the whole story that they've adapted at this point. But Jen, final thoughts.

SPEAKER_01 1:13:18

One thing that I really loved that I didn't get to mention earlier was the set designs. I thought the sets were really cool, very like lived in and really intricate, which I loved. Um, that's something I love about like Harry Potter. For example, like certain shows and movies and stuff where they have like fantastic set designs. I get really excited about stuff like that. Specifically um Crocus' home, I really liked the lighthouse, yeah. Yeah, the lighthouse. I thought that was super cool. Another small detail that I noticed but forgot to mention earlier was crocus are the flower that's that bloom first in the spring. So they're known for being like the first sign of like renewal. And basically, like as soon as they got what is that?

SPEAKER_04 1:14:04

They went over the to the grand line.

SPEAKER_01 1:14:06

Yeah, once they got into the grand line, they like encounter this character named Crocus, and it represents kind of like this new. It's a new beginning for them, which I thought was really cool. That's true. One of my least favorite things about the second season was the king wapple. Wapple, yeah. Oh yeah. Um I kind of thought he would be harder to beat. I don't know. I just thought like he got kind of easy to beat there.

SPEAKER_04 1:14:27

He's just a mean chump.

SPEAKER_01 1:14:28

Yeah, like all the metal in the world, he couldn't save that hippo.

SPEAKER_03 1:14:32

The the fight's a little bit more extended in the in the anime, but I mean they're they cut stuff down to like condense it. In the first season, there's the whole thing with Don Krieg. That the guy uh Mihawk fights Don Krieg. They cut that out. They cut that out. What whereas like in the anime and the manga it's the straw hats who fight them.

SPEAKER_04 1:14:55

Okay. Which is kind of interesting. I think had Don Krieg appeared in the second season, like story-wise in the manga, they would have put him in correctly. So I think it's kind of a different, a slightly different direction because they're they changed things up in the first season, but with the second season, they're very like, and this happened, and this happened, and this happened, and this happened, and I love that. But anyway, guys, thank you so much for listening to us here for our 156th episode of Project Geekology. Um, we are in a unique position where I just realized we have no idea what we're covering next week. So Jen, do you wanna do you wanna give us a recommendation?

SPEAKER_01 1:15:33

Okay, wait, I'll go with my original recommendation. I hope you guys don't get annoyed with me because it's actually two movies. It's the movie Her with Joaquin Phoenix and the movie Lost in Translation with Scarlett Johansson.

SPEAKER_04 1:15:48

And there's a reason why these two disparate movies are worth watching side by side. I haven't done it. I think you have done it, Jen. So I'm excited to see how these two movies connect, even though they are completely different productions. So you want me to watch it?

SPEAKER_02 1:16:04

Two different TVs at the same time.

SPEAKER_04 1:16:06

Yes. That's that's ideal. Yeah. Optimal viewing. That is ideal.

SPEAKER_01 1:16:10

So we I want you to have one headphone in each ear.

SPEAKER_04 1:16:13

We cool with that for next week, guys? Her and Lost in Translation?

SPEAKER_03 1:16:16

Oh, the double feature? Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:16:19

Is that okay?

SPEAKER_03 1:16:20

No, yeah, that'll be interesting. We we've never done that before.

SPEAKER_02 1:16:23

Ben Her and the show Lost. Let's go, guys. We have we actually sponsored by Boodoo Ranger and Juicy Fruit.

SPEAKER_04 1:16:30

We did that for like some of the uh the Disney movies where we would compare the live action to the original animated back when we first were sponsored by Disney.

SPEAKER_03 1:16:39

But we've never done We were not sponsored by Disney. I feel like doing this is almost like listening to the Dark Side of the Moon um matched up with the Wizard of Oz.

SPEAKER_04 1:16:50

Oh, yeah, actually that would be kind of a cool Oh yeah. But yeah, so let's all right. So next week we're covering her and Lost in Translation. Folks for episode 157. Thanks so much for listening to us here. If you want to check out any of our socials, be sure to click down into this show notes below. And come back now, you hear?

SPEAKER_03 1:17:10

Gum gum gatling.