When you think of the prequels, the first thoughts you think about is Star Wars the prequels.
While this isn't exactly a prequel because it was created first, the fact that it is added to One Piece makes it a prequel.
That being said, you can't ignore that there are clear and obvious flaws. First of all let's admit that the setting is most clearly in a town that looks much more inspired from old Westers movies rather than a town in the Edo period inspired Wano. (You can't really convince me that something as usefull as pants somehow faded out of style for robes or tables and chairs for low tables and mats or glasses for tiny saucers). This is the criticism of the original work though. But the animators had creative license to change that if Oda allowed them to.
But even that isn't the reason why I gave it an 8. The reason is: the pacing. Look, I love Zoro and Nami as much as anyone but I had to skip through 5 minutes of the episode because it basically repeated itself. The short is ONLY 25 minutes long, you don't have to keep reminding me of things.
And the climax, it ends as quick as leaving the room for a glass of water. They could have stretched out the fight instead of the dialogue. (I know that the oneshot was like this too, but they had creative liscence with this to improve on the original even slightly)
All in all, it is a great piece of lore for Zoro fans and Ryuma fans. It's just a shame that we didn't get to see more of what Ryuma is known for: "being the greatest swordsman of his century."
While this isn't exactly a prequel because it was created first, the fact that it is added to One Piece makes it a prequel.
That being said, you can't ignore that there are clear and obvious flaws. First of all let's admit that the setting is most clearly in a town that looks much more inspired from old Westers movies rather than a town in the Edo period inspired Wano. (You can't really convince me that something as usefull as pants somehow faded out of style for robes or tables and chairs for low tables and mats or glasses for tiny saucers). This is the criticism of the original work though. But the animators had creative license to change that if Oda allowed them to.
But even that isn't the reason why I gave it an 8. The reason is: the pacing. Look, I love Zoro and Nami as much as anyone but I had to skip through 5 minutes of the episode because it basically repeated itself. The short is ONLY 25 minutes long, you don't have to keep reminding me of things.
And the climax, it ends as quick as leaving the room for a glass of water. They could have stretched out the fight instead of the dialogue. (I know that the oneshot was like this too, but they had creative liscence with this to improve on the original even slightly)
All in all, it is a great piece of lore for Zoro fans and Ryuma fans. It's just a shame that we didn't get to see more of what Ryuma is known for: "being the greatest swordsman of his century."