Watched the first two episodes, to make sure the pilot wasn't just a fluke and... they did it! As a fan, I think it's very good.

They somehow make tons of character designs and costumes I genuinely could not imagine working in a live action show (because One Piece is the most cartoony of cartoony shit) work!

In terms of like, how the show looks and feels, it feels like a cross between a Japanese anime adaptation (good), a fan-film, with a bit of Pirates of the Caribbean to make it go down easier in live action and it kind of just... works? The casting is absolutely on point down to secondary and background characters, too.

It seems to really understand the characters and their motivations and the story themes, which you almost never seem to see with these Hollywood adaptations. Hollywood anime adaptations always have this embarrassment of and prescriptive/paternalistic (to put it mildly) need to subvert and shy away from the source material and inject whatever the people making it actually wanted to make instead, but somehow it seems like everyone involved genuinely loved the anime and manga, and it doesn't seem embarrassed to be an anime adaptation. It feels made with love in every way I hoped for.

Based on the first two episodes, I feel like if you need a heavily condensed version of one piece this actually does a really solid job of it!