I watched the whole thing and I really enjoyed it. They really tried to translate it to people unfamiliar or uninterested in anime/manga and I think they did a great job of it. I think the flow was okay. 8 eps to cover all of East Blue is not much time.

I think the thing that got me the most hyped before it was out was Oda's seal of approval. It's a good series and they already introduced a heap of characters.

Once thing that keeps coming up in my small circle is the amount of screentime

spoiler

Garp and Koby

have. I was okay with it - maybe it's the Hollywood direction/way while others felt it detracted from the story. I didn't event click

spoiler

Django was left out of it. But there is still hope for him to pop up down the track.

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I guess it's difficult to balance when there are so many important characters that have been introduced and you don't want to overwhelm new fans.

Edit: I'm bad at spoiler tags