Photo of the Straw Hat Pirates’ ship has some fans wanting to burn it ASAP.

One Piece definitely doesn’t seem like the easiest anime/manga to adapt into live-action. It’s an epic seafaring story filled with fantastical locations, giant-sized villains, and zany superpowers, all rendered in an intentionally strange-looking art style.

And yet, Netflix is going to try it anyway, with its live-action One Piece series scheduled to premiere sometime later this year. The streaming giant has doled out precious few previews of what the series is going to look like, with only two in-costume pictures of the cast so far, both with them facing away from the camera and silhouetted by the sun.

So it’s a big development that Netflix has finally released one smile-for-the-camera photo for the live-action…but it’s not a smile a lot of fans in Japan sound very happy to see.

【本日解禁】#Netflix 全世界独占配信
実写ドラマ版『ONE PIECE』
新ビジュアルが解禁されました！

一味を乗せ、海を駆けるメリー号…
冒険の夜明けは近いです
続報をお楽しみに！https://t.co/hcll1u0Iax#ONEPIECE pic.twitter.com/Uidb12JBmy

— ONE PIECE スタッフ【公式】/ Official (@Eiichiro_Staff) May 29, 2023

That’s the live-action One Piece’s Going Merry, proud ship of protagonist Luffy and his crew of Straw Hat Pirates. Except, as preexisting fans of the franchise have been pointing out, the sheep figurehead, carved into the ship’s bow, looks a lot cuter in the anime, and a lot more unsettling in the Netflix version.

#OnePieceAdaptation — Going Merry pic.twitter.com/D3dKRSiIJn

— ONE PIECE NETFLIX FAN (@OP_Netflix_Fan) May 28, 2023

The Japanese-language official One Piece Twitter account’s tweet doesn’t allow for comments, but the same photo of the Netflix Going Merry, when tweeted by Famitsu (Japan’s most prominent video gaming magazine), prompted comments such as:

“That’s kinda scary, isn’t it?”
“It’s way too scary.”
“Kill me…please…with fire…”
“Definitely gotta burn that.”
“That aint the Going Merry. It’s the Going Baphomet.”
“Do they think One Piece is a horror series or something?”
“I think the designers got the project mixed up with a live-action Berserk.”
“Those dead eyes…”
“It looks like a sheep that was suddenly petrified.”
“There was absolutely no need to screw with the Going Merry’s design like this.”
“All Netflix ever does is screw things up.”
“No desire to stay loyal to the source material, huh?”
“’It’s the live-action Wa Piece!’”
“This looks like it’s going to be on the same high level as the live-action Dragon Ball.”

実写ドラマ版『ワンピース』よりメリー号の新ビジュアルが解禁

麦わらの一味の海賊船としておなじみのメリー号が超リアルな姿でお披露目。本ドラマシリーズは今年Netflixにて全世界独占配信予定。冒険の夜明けは近い……！

https://t.co/Y7HvmdYsm1 pic.twitter.com/33ALfhNrIv

— ファミ通.com (@famitsu) May 29, 2023

It’s really pretty startling how just a few changes can have such a big impact on the impression the design gives off. In the anime/manga, the Going Merry’s figurehead has black pupils, a closed mouth, and no external ears. The Netflix version, though, has solid gray circles for its eyes, and the angles of its stuck-out-to-the-sides ears and open maw with an inky blackness inside make it look like it’s lunging at you to swallow you whole, or at least suck out your soul.

お台場にあったやつの方が絶対いいよ… pic.twitter.com/Nf6kYd6Li7

— るかるがる．EXEverE7 (@razor0909) May 29, 2023

Perhaps making the changes even more startling for some Japanese fans is the fact that there used to be a real-world Going Merry that ferried passengers around Tokyo Bay. Pictured above, its figurehead was pretty much an exact match to the anime/manga version.

Of course, with Netflix still not having released any trailer for its One Piece, we’re all still unsure of what tone it’s going to have, and its possible the Tokyo Bay ferry’s design would have looked too cutesy for what Netflix is aiming for. It could also be that directly from the front is just the live-action Going Merry’s bad angle, as an image with a more offset perspective that Netflix released back in February didn’t provoke nearly as negative a reaction.

▼ Though that might have been because the glare of the sun here makes the ear sort of blend in with the horn and partially obscures the flat gray eye.

Come on board and bring along all your hopes and dreams - ONE PIECE sets sail in 2023. pic.twitter.com/0Kg8Ti1wfR

— ONE PIECE(ワンピース) Netflix (@onepiecenetflix) February 7, 2023

Luckily for Netflix, at the end of the day how the Going Merry looks probably isn’t going to be what sways people’s watch/don’t watch decision for the live-action One Piece. Making what appear to be changes just for the sake of making changes, though, isn’t exactly going to give the series smooth sailing with existing fans, though.

Source: Twitter/@Eiichiro_Staff, Twitter/@famitsu
Top image ©SoraNews24
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Just like Christmas mornings when you were a child, just because the inevitable has happened doesn’t mean it isn’t exciting when it does. Yes, friends, that’s right! The law has finally caught up with U.S. Rep.—and seemingly pathological liar to the point that his own party hates him—George Santos, who has been charged by the DOJ and arrested. For what crimes? Well, it’s unclear just yet, but rest assured they are crime crimes. Per CNN.com:

Santos is expected to appear as soon as Wednesday at federal court in New York’s eastern district, where the charges have been filed under seal.

The post Good News, Everyone but Kevin McCarthy! George Santos Has Been Arrested. appeared first on The Mary Sue.

Kana Quest recently came to Switch, and new gameplay has emerged. We have footage of the “kawaii kana match ’em up”. More information can be found in the following overview: A Kawaii Kana Match-Em Up. Learn Japanese. Match Kana (Japanese letters) with their sounds. Solve Puzzles. Your quest to learn Japanese starts now! Are you sick of educational games that...

The post Kana Quest gameplay appeared first on Nintendo Everything.

Back in 2013, EA released the latest game in the SimCity franchise. Simply titled SimCity, it promised to be the definitive version of everyone’s favourite city-builder, but unfortunately, it fell short of those expectations. There were a few reasons for this; the gameplay was fairly basic and uninvolving, and the game had an always-online requirement that meant many players couldn’t enjoy it as they wanted to. EA and Maxis diligently patched the game, but it was too late for SimCity to recover its reputation.

Luckily, just two years later, Colossal Order and Paradox released Cities: Skylines, which many have since called the unofficial SimCity 5. It’s an in-depth city-builder with all the systems and features you’d expect of a SimCity game; you can plan and build your city, look after zoning, and watch it grow into a modern metropolis. Eight years on from that game’s launch, Colossal Order and Paradox are once again teaming up for Cities: Skylines II. Here’s everything we know about the upcoming city-builder!

Cities: Skylines II release date – when is the game out?

Right now, we don’t know much about the Cities: Skylines II release date other than that it’s coming in 2023. Per the description in the official trailer, the “sequel to one of the best-selling management games of its decade is coming in 2023”, so we know that we’ll be able to play this hotly-anticipated followup at some point this year. Sadly, it’s probably going to be quite a few months before we actually know when. Expect to hear some more information during this summer’s gaming events, like E3, Summer Game Fest, and Gamescom.

Cities: Skylines II trailer – what trailers have been released?

So far, just one trailer has been released for Cities: Skylines II, but it’s already racked up over 2 million views, so it’s clear that this is a massively anticipated game. The trailer doesn’t actually show any gameplay, but it honestly looks like many of the images shown during the trailer are in-engine, and that would certainly match with Colossal Order’s desire to make what it calls “the most realistic city builder ever”.

The trailer is pretty much just an overview of a modern city, cutting between street views and overhead vistas and showing us skyscrapers, parks, planes, and building sites. It’s more of a teaser intended to get people excited for Cities: Skylines II than it is a demonstration of what the game will eventually be able to do. Still, just the mere fact of the game’s existence is enough to make us excited, so the trailer has us hyped, which we’re sure is the intention.

Cities: Skylines II features – what will it play like?

As you can probably imagine, Cities: Skylines II will pretty much play like a Cities: Skylines game. It’ll be a city-builder in which you can construct the city of your dreams, then oversee it as it grows from a nowhere town into a bustling metropolis with huge economic value. At time of writing, Colossal Order and Paradox haven’t revealed much about this upcoming title, but here’s everything we know the game will feature.

• A “dynamic and ever-changing world”. Cities: Skylines II will, according to its Steam listing, offer a “dynamic and ever-changing world” that will be both challenging and rewarding to navigate. This likely means that you’ll need to meet many and varied challenges that come with running a city, like administration, emergency services, and everything else you might expect from this popular genre.
• Realistic and detailed graphics. Colossal Order and Paradox are promising that Cities: Skylines II will reach an unparalleled level of realism. The two studios say that the game will have “graphics that are as beautiful as they are detailed”, so it sounds like Cities: Skylines II will be a joy just to look at. That’s exactly what you want to hear about a game where half of the fun is in simply watching your city grow as you guide it subtly from on high.
• A growing, transforming city. As you’d expect from the city builder genre, Cities: Skylines II will offer a cityscape that grows and changes over time. Zones will become more populous and will change their appearance as a result. Tourists will flood into your city, adding to the game’s living economy and giving you even more reasons to invest in public infrastructure. Cities: Skylines II’s cities will be living entities, and you’ll have to feed them in order to keep them alive (not literally, obviously, but it’ll certainly feel that way).

Cities: Skylines II platforms – where will you be able to play the game?

At present, Cities: Skylines II has been confirmed for PC, as well as PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S. It seems like this is one of a new wave of games that are leaving the PS4 and Xbox One behind; those machines are likely incapable of keeping up with the kind of visuals that Cities: Skylines II wants to have. 

If you want to play this city-builder, you’ll need a modern current-gen console or a pretty powerful PC, by the looks of things. Colossal Order and Paradox haven’t released the specs for the game yet, so we don’t know what kind of graphics card you’ll need, but expect the recommended specs to match the GeForce RTX 30 series or even higher. The kind of realism that the studios seem to be aiming for must come at a cost.

The post Cities: Skylines II Release Date, Trailer, Features, And More appeared first on NerdLeaks.com.

It's codenamed the "Q-Lite".

videogameads:

CYCLE RACE: ROAD MAN
Tokyo Shoseki
Famicom
1988

Source: pony.velvet.jp