(835-word review) Nami was the final crew member whose backstory had yet to be revealed and was saved for last, and here it is. It wasn't entirely unknown, as with other things from the manga mentioned in my previous reviews. Objectively speaking, it was undoubtedly the most tragic of the backstories - right now. And THAT scene at the end of the episode was nicely done; let's ignore Luffy's shouting-at-the-sky declaration, for it was too much, regardless of source material accuracy.
Even before that, the scene in which her lifelong plan falls apart was superb and perhaps better. Emily Rudd's performance in each of them was outstanding. Her line delivery has occasionally felt forced in prior episodes, but her overall acting has been adequate. That seems contradictory - doesn't it? This episode set the stage for her to cook, thanks to the scriptwriting/manga counterpart, and she went all in.
I've been speculating how her theme song track (featuring AURORA's melancholy but soulful and heavenly vocals) will be applied and woven into the show since hearing it. Given the feeling it evokes, I expected it to accompany a scene/moment with a central theatrically epic nature. And that wasn't necessarily the case, though there is some leeway in making that association.
Prior assumptions aside, the incorporation, not of the song but of an instrumental version, fit its context; it intensified the emotion spilling forth of the severity behind the crumbling away of everything worked towards for so long. It may even be in the finale, and if so, its insertion (which will most likely be the actual song with the lyrics) could be during a more epic/montage-y moment, with the crew sailing off. I particularly enjoyed the musical motifs (?) that appeared throughout the episode; I heard two instances, but there could have been more. That was a nice touch.
But I don't have a firm view on the backstory's overall success, and the occasionally awkward acting by Lily Fisher, notably by Genna Galloway in the scene where Nami mentioned hating being poor, didn't help. Neither did the dialogue about "I thought I was going to die; when I saw you, I knew I had to live," which appears manga/anime-like and may even be accurate; yet, the ridiculousness underlying such dialogue remains. On the plus side, Lily's performance was good preceding Bell-mère's death.
The more obvious impediment was how much it depends on Arlong's character; he's the linchpin. The seriousness of his cruelty is critical for adequately portraying Nami's past and effectively establishing the type of person he is, in addition to McKinley Belcher III's acting complimenting that. But his characterization and some areas of the portrayal dragged those elements down a notch. You can tell he's supposed to be this terrifying, terrible villain, while, in actuality, he's a palpable misfire and the weakest one; Kuro has been the best villain of this season, which sucks because Arlong's supposed to be a super intimidating and formidable opponent for Luffy, the toughest so far, indicating the increased effect the Grand Line antagonists/opponents will have on him and even us, the viewers.
The choices to cast a black actor to play him and to write the Fishman-human dynamic complexities in the slightly heavy-handed way they have to blend those two elements further, in addition to that hip-hop centric theme song score cue and the undertones of excessive/on-the-nose modernity, lessened the ruthlessness aspects of his character that should've been a slam-dunk: making him come across as goofy. And, of course, considering his part in Nami's backstory, it also lessened the effectiveness of that.
He's essentially an expanded/reworked iteration of Alvida - and portrayed as unconvincingly. While this was among the worst offenders, the two instances of him vibing to the music were somewhat funny - and his complete laugh, accompanied by pissing himself from the sound of it (that was served to us two times (?), beginning with him at Baratie in the previous episode after threatening to start eating the other people there, and when he laughed here in the map prison room with Nami) was the same way.
To avoid a misunderstanding, he's rightfully dislikable/hateable. For me, however, the subtle things that contributed to his, no doubt unintended, goofiness did most of the work in making him easy to dislike and want to be beaten by Luffy as immediately as possible - and I doubt the writers wrote him that way, topped with the additions of modern times, through the theme song in particular (though it's a catchy beat) among other details, revolving his character around them, with that in mind. But I'll take anything that makes his looming defeat more satisfying.
In other news, that Jinbe name-drop/foreshadowing by him was something else. I have no idea whether he was mentioned this early in the manga or if it was later on, which, in all fairness, would still constitute "early," given the number of chapters. When I heard that, I immediately became the Leonardo DiCaprio pointing meme. I liked it.
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