Very cringe-inducing first episode. Everything already looked terrible from the trailers, but I still decided to give the first episode a chance. I was cringing so hard during the entirety of it that my face was hurting (hopefully it didn't get frozen in that expression).
Everything looks so fake that I believe they may have done it on purpose. It's hilarious how you'd expect the green, pink, and orange hairs to look fake, but you wouldn't expect that they'd manage to make actual hair colors like blonde and red look fake too. Along with the very plastic-looking accessories and scenography, and fake clothing, it was impossible to immerse myself in the story because I couldn't stop thinking that I was watching bad actors playing on a set.
Special note to the bad acting too. Whoever did the casting had a talent for casting terrible actors for every role, who never once managed to deliver a single sentence naturally and have the range of facial expressions of an animatronic. The worst one is Luffy's, who was the one giving me most of the aforementioned cringes. It's amazing how you can sense that someone is a bad actor even before seeing their acting; just look at the posters or photos featuring him with that forced and unnatural smile he sports all the time. And it's ten times worse when he actually moves and speaks.
I wish I could say anything about the story, but being so distracted by how poorly everything was set up and played, I could barely go any deeper. I could say that none of the characters or their motivations (none of which are explored) are relatable, but it's impossible to relate to anyone when you can't stop seeing them as actors.
I know people defending the show will say that this style was made on purpose in order to make it goofy and cartoony, as if you're watching an anime and not a real thing. That can be positive or negative depending on how well it's played out, but "pathetic" would probably be the most accurate word to describe what they came up with.
I have no idea if it improves or worsens [even further] in the following episodes because I'm not subjecting myself to watching the second one, and I definitely don't recommend this first episode to any One Piece newcomers. The anime may be overly long, but you only have to watch the pilot to see how infinitely superior it is, from the very first episode.
