It's time to go get a ship and pick up Usopp.
Luffy shows off that horrifying flag. Zoro's actor gives amazing deadpan. Nami apparently has reading glasses. I'm also on the fence if Zoro deliberately sabotaged Nami's spy device or not.
"Not a crew" remains a shitty catchphrase. But you can see Luffy wearing them down.
I forgot to say it but Garp's ship looks pretty cool. And Garp pretty much is one of the best examples of what I meant when I said an actor was taking things seriously. I could see the actor as Ahab in a version of Moby Dick very easily. Problem is as well as everything else he needs to be able to do less serious at some point and I am curious if he can do that.
The Straw Hats are plotting their next moves. Not much to say, not a bad scene
Buggy is alone and muttering his scheming about the humiliation he's suffered. Looks like his crew have completely abandoned him, though I am curious if this is meant to be the same location. If so that kind of implies he went back there and likely slaughtered the town.
And here's Kuroobi. No two ways about it, these fishmen are going to suffer in live action. Seems he's here because Arlong is actually functioning as the criminal overloard for this sea at the moment and after Buggy gets mouthy Kuroobi Fishman Katates his ass unconscious.
Strawhats boat "shopping" with Luffy's standard insane wants while also refusing to side with Nami's ship stealing plan. At this point Zoro is basically letting Nami dictate the plans and following along however whether or not he's actually going to follow through with her plans is debatable.
AAAAAAHHHH IT'S THE DEMON MERRY!
Okay fine, it's the ship. It's a nice little scene of Luffy meeting the ship and thinking it's talking to him at first because he missed that Usopp was there at first.
Usopp has a job in this version. He cleans barnacle and bird shit off the boats. I guess that makes more sense than him doing nothing to earn a living. No Usopp Pirates crew I'm afraid.
Garp teaches Koby how to play shogi. Because he is already sizing him up for greater things. In fairness given what we have seen of the Marines thus far you can kind of understand why. There's also a cute transition from a white shogi piece to a top down of Luffy's straw hat
Nami's thieving desire is treated as a cute personal tic. This will become relevant later in the episode and is one of the bits that makes me irked
The set for Kaya's gardens is actually pretty cool. It's nothing massive but it looks fairly unique design-wise
...Sham and Buchi are part of the staff of Kaya's mansion too. I want to say more on that but I immediately am distracted by the fact that Kaya turns up and they somehow make her more frail. She feels like she belongs in a period piece mewling for a fainting couch. The actress is doing well and looks very true to the part but she's that little bit too frail and fragile.
Kuro is pretty good. The actor nails the little glasses tic and when the reveal comes later and he repeats it with the claws on it unquestionably works.
Back to the Nyaban siblings Sham's now a woman (I don't care, it works well enough) with them pretending to be a maid from the looks of thing and Buchi is the chef for the household. No Jango. No other members of the crew.
Kaya invites the crew who Usopp introduces as his crew to dinner.
Quiet meeting with Kaya and Usopp, him using the servant's passageways to sneak in. He tells he the giant poo story, it's probably a only a few minutes of a scene but it's a nice one between the two of them and the actors do have good rapport. Remember that shortness though. Because I'm going to bitch about it later.
The rest of the Strawhats are prepping for dinner. Nami has used Usopp for her critic and I freely admit that Luffy's responses are great. Zoro's arrival only makes things worse for her.
Nami goes off on a spiel about rich people which will be undercut in the same episode so I actually like it. She's shown to not already be right and indeed quite prejudiced.
Luffy bets Nami Kaya can be persuaded to give them the ship. If he loses they'll steal a ship and move on. Aside from being suspicious about the butler and convinced he recognises him Zoro is mostly winding Nami up in this scene.
Kuro/Kaya scene. Clarifies their relationship fairly well, when you know what's coming he's obviously evil but you could argue him as merely snobbish. Of course the very next scene is Buchi brewing the stuff they're slowly poisoning Kaya with. Interestingly it's a very distinctive colour and shows up a lot making it seem very creepy when you're watching for it. Kuro also makes Sham near soil herself because she put a dirty glass on the table. Again, it feels like all the actors are putting the effort in.
Back to Garp/Koby. It's not subtle, Garp is forcing his pupil to learn confidence and overcome his hesitance. It does work.
Dining scene. Luffy has not changed his attire. Merry is here and the costume is great. Zoro is drinking, Usopp is lying about having eaten dragon, Sham confirms they're fresh out and Nami absently makes a pass at Merry when money is mentioned.
Kaya notes the dress Nami has picked is one of her mothers and because Kaya died for our sins she is an utter saint and thrilled to see it worn.
Zoro directly asks Kuro where he knows him from and namedrops places like Mirror Balls Island. This makes me smile. Kuro's actor also does amazing disdain.
I really do think this episode is where they nail both Luffy's shameless desire for food and Zoro's fondness for drink.
Kaya asks if she could try fish tonight, it being an event in her honour, and Kuro politely tells her to drink the poison soup Buchi has slaved over.
It's confirmed that with Kaya turning 18 she'll be taking over ownership of the shipyard from Merry. I am certain readers can guess who at the table is looking ecstatic about this. Luffy decides this is the perfect time to discuss buying a ship. And mention they are pirates.
I think all of the Straw Hat crew's reactions are 100% on point here. Usopp does a spit take, Nami looks like she wants to stab him, Kaya tries to look politely interested and Zoro settles in for the ride as the captain explains what they've done so far including the evil clown and the man with an axe for a hand. During his sales pitch which of course includes with him announcing he will be Pirate King Luffy gets on the table and strolls across it, even passing his glass of to Kuro as he starts wrapping up. And again all of the cast are on point as he talks about the ship that spoke to him in her shipyard. UYsopp and Kaya are both getting caught up in the emotion of it, Nami is cynically all but rolling her eyes and Zoro is enjoying the show but mostly he is observing Nami's reactions. At this point he might not be committed to Luffy's dream but he is clearly watching Luffy and Nami both, for very different reasons.
Kuro, kind of justifiably chooses this moment to tell them to get the fuck out. In either one of his roles this is a fine reaction and Kaya overruling him and saying they must stay the night is very apt for her.
More Garp/Koby shogi, at this point Koby is apparently beating him non-stop. They're interrupted by Helmeppo, the crew's found an abandoned sloop with an abomination against God Luffy's flag on board. Garp immediately clocking that could be because the hunt is for a Straw Hat pirate but it's almost certainly because he took one look at that work and knew exactly who was behind it.
A post above already mentioned Kuro being threatening. I suspect this is the scene they meant as him and Merry meet in the wine cellar. It's a really cool touch having Merry show that he will stand up for Kaya. Shame that Kuro goes...well. We know how this goes. Also this is the glasses scene with the blades on and it's pretty good.
Back to Buggy who has been dragged somewhere and has the bag removed from his head.
"Sheesh, fans have gotten so toxic." Fuck off writers.
And here's Arlong. I have nothing nice to say about the costumes except they are doing the best they can. I will note something I failed to mention before which is that when a big name bounty shows up their poster covers them for a moment of the scene and then is torn away by an action of the character. It's actually pretty neat.
Arlong is ruling over the piratical actions in these seas and demanding a cut from any other pirate. Buggy naturally tries to turn his attention Luffy's way which goes poorly at best. I'm slightly annoyed because when Arlong hauled Buggy's head up I thought because of him being a Chop-Chop man he literally hauled just his head up. But not, that would have been a tricky effect so why try. Back in the bag Buggy.
Back to the mansion both Zoro and Luffy are awake. One for booze, one for food. They also work in Zoro's directional failure. In their wake Nami saunters out to begin stealing everything not nailed down and moves into Kaya's bedroom to loot, where she wakes up her host.
This is why I bitched about Usopp's earlier short sequence scene with Kaya. And this was the point where I lost it with the episode. We now begin a not ludicrously long section but still feels longer where the male Straw Hat crew are in the kitchen with Usopp where he starts going "hey, maybe Kaya like-likes me!" and Nami talking with Kaya and basically giving her the inspirational advice about being stronger than she thinks that should be coming from Usopp, someone she has known for most of her life, rather than Nami, the woman she just caught stealing her family stuff.
Since I'm once again shitting on Nami when it should be the writers interestingly they have her lie to Kaya about never losing someone close to her. And I think the actress nails being a good liar who still doesn't quite do that particular lie perfectly.
Similarly while the "like-like" stuff from Usopp is unadulterated Netflix cringe the cast are doing well, especially with the revel that Luffy knows Yasopp and the faintly betrayed look from Usopp on finding that out. Zoro's reaction is that discussing emotions need booze. He and Usopp head that way whereas Luffy, in his eternal quest for food, spots a pot full of the special Kaya poison and goes to town.
Down in the cellar Kuro and his crew cross paths with Usopp and Zoro. The Pirate Hunter finally nails where he knows the guy from and schemes start to get spilled. Then Sham one hit KOs Zoro with a wine bottle.
Sigh.
Usopp does a runner and the Nyaban siblings are told to dump the bodies of Zoro and Merry.
Nami leaves Kaya and puts back some of the shit she stole. In character for her.
Bodies are dumped down a well looking site along with Zoro's swords.
We get the scene of Usopp trying to warn the town, earlier in the episode we saw him doing that over the years and it goes the way you expect. Also we get a flashback to someone bring Usopp's bullshit with his mother and, unsurprisingly, they've decided in this version his mother is black too.
I could do a long rant on what the erasure of the children of inter-racial couples says about trash fires like Netflix. But fuck it, I'm still more positive about the episode than I was. It ends with Usopp realising nobody will believe him and then Koby appears to offer an outstretched hand. The Marines dumped him on shore to investigate rather than do a full scale incursion and we are now quite a way off the manga map.
