User blog comment:Samium/Question - The Voice of Merry/@comment-24769684-20170214032308

I haven't watched anything before Dressrosa in the anime, but I never pictured Merry as a solemn old spirit, but more of a fairy-like spirit that embodies a young hard worker with dreams to be one of the big boys. Merry was less than a year old, after all, and was the embodiment of a young crew's dream to reach the top, not an ancient relic with a great amount of experience like, say, Zunisha.

And it's a common trap to get into: things always look/sound better in your imagination. People are extremely varied in what they like and don't like which is why leaving some things open to interpretation is sometimes a better device to use. Like, I would've loved to see Doffy's eyes, but I can imagine that no matter how Oda drew them he would get a large amount of backlash, so the fact that they remain hidden is honestly better.

And the main reason why manga is better than anime is that the anime is much too slow.