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The source material wasn't afraid to go very dark at times, but the live-action adaptation lends those dark moments a very visceral feel that you couldn't get otherwise. Have fun sleeping.
- All of the villains in this take are given a much darker glow-up in this adaptation, especially given they were the "Starter" pack of sorts.
- Alvida is a lot more fearsome, lugging around heavy weapons and using them to bash in the heads of people who don't see her as the strongest in the sea. She is deadset on proving that.
- Buggy is more akin to The Joker this time around, especially with the burning of Orange Town and forcing them to become the audience of his Circus of Fear, and also taking sadistic glee in the torture he puts the Straw Hats through. The way he begins laughing manically as his entire body breaks apart, turning into a pseudo hurricane of parts that can easily hit or stab people from any conceivable angle, highlights just how creepy this Devil Fruit user can really be.Nami: What did you do to their town!? You destroyed everything!Buggy: (scoffing) Not 'everything'. I let them keep their hands.
- Kuro and the Meowban Siblings are much darker than they were in the manga, especially in the case of the Meowban siblings. The way they act, talk and move are more akin to Slasher Movie villains. Especially with how Kuro talks in slow, methodical ways all while disappearing from sight. And that's not going into Kuro mercilessly skewering Merry when he was starting to get suspicious. Not to mention Buchi, as the mansion's chef, was secretly poisoning Kaya.
- Mihawk is a force of nature in this adaptation, as we see him mercilessly going through the Don Krieg crew while holding a conversation with Garp because he was bored. Not to mention when he takes the job to go after Luffy, we see the freshly killed Don Krieg and Pearl behind him. When Gin arrived at the restaurant starving after this, it is no wonder he is terrified for his life.
- Arlong and the Fishmen are a lot more monstrous in both appearance and methodology, becoming nigh unstoppable rulers of the local waters with all the pirates being scared of them, and the merciless plan that Arlong has to take over the Grand Line.
- Kuro displays his infamous speed by taunting Merry with it…right before killing him with his trademark bladed gloves.
- In the manga and anime, aside from having hated having to be her servant for so many years, Kuro displayed his usual detached coldness about killing her - it was just a step in his plan. Here, he's positively relishing it; as soon as the clock strikes midnight for her birthday, he starts slowly stalking her down the halls while declaring that it's "time to CELEBRATE".
- Kaya's illness is far more noticeable than in other adaptations: her skin is pale with the color drained from her hair and her coughs are noticeably hoarse. This is because it’s not psychosomatic here - Kuro has been actively poisoning her for years.
- Chef Zeff and Sanji's time on the rock is just as dark as the manga, yet unlike the Toei adaptation, they also leave Zeff's self amputation untouched as we see dried blood on the rocks and all over his beard. When Sanji finally confronts him, this is what clues him in on the horrific answer of how he survived months without food.
- Unlike his original counterpart who was chilling on a secluded island until the right time would come to take over East Blue, here Arlong effectively has done so already, and demonstrates that nobody is safe by terrorizing Buggy and Baratie's customers.
