Thoughts On One Piece Season 2

Okay, guys, buckle up, because Steven is going to ramble. Less than three weeks ago, the second season of the One Piece Live Action adaptation dropped, and it absolutely, unironically, hardcore slapped like a Netflix series has never slapped before. I held off as long as I could to talk about it, and even so, as my goal is to get you to watch it, I will hold off on any major specifics as there will be spoilers, and I dare not spoil everything for my loyal readers. However, let me tell you, as a One Piece fan, this season blew the first season out of the water. As a storyteller, this season did so much justice to the greatest story ever told. This series is such a passion project, and we as a fandom are so blessed to have it.

Very generally, I feel as though this season fixes the major pacing issues of Season 1. In the first season, story arcs were truncated to the point that they were changed entirely to suit the needs of the production. This includes the technical needs, for example putting a lot of Luffy’s major fights in dimly-lit indoor spaces so the CGI would look less cheap and chintzy. This benefitted some arcs, such as Orange Town, where Buggy vs. Luffy took place in a big top tent rather than some random city street, but it also cheapened some arcs. Syrup Village, which was Usopp’s arc in the manga and anime, turned into something of a horror arc where Usopp didn’t do much of anything, and as such, when he joined the crew, it didn’t feel quite so earned.

In Season 2, however, they fix a lot of these pacing issues and make every arc feel complete and not rushed at all. Roguetown, Reverse Mountain, Whiskey Peak, Little Garden, and Drum Island are all adapted perfectly, and I feel as though someone not familiar with the story would not feel as though anything vital was lost in truncating them to fit inside eight episodes altogether. The proudest moment of the OPLA for me was the fact that Chopper’s backstory, perhaps the most resonant of all the Straw Hat backstories to date, was given a full episode to breathe. As such, Chopper’s parental figures felt significantly more impactful and fleshed-out. In Season 1, Nami’s backstory was supposed to fill that emotional role, and provide for the season’s inflection point. However, given how rushed it was, characters like Genzo and Belle-Mere became kind of forgettable. One Piece lives in its flashbacks, and the OPLA crew learned their lesson this time around. They spared no expense in breathing life into Hiriluk and Kureha (two of my favorite characters in the series as a whole), and I don’t think anyone was disappointed.

A few other major and minor things I liked: Sanji being given emotional depth this season, Zoro being given the room to be goofy and not a stone-faced samurai, Vivi and her chemistry with the rest of the crew, Igaram’s cupcake car (oh my God, that thing is ridiculous), the fact that Mr. 5 somehow took time between Whiskey Peak and Little Garden to put in hair extensions, Usopp’s arc in Little Garden and the epic clash between the giants, all the delightful Easter Eggs and connections to late game One Piece, the absolute banger soundtrack from Sonya Belousova, Bartolomeo, Smoker, Tashigi, Chopper’s ugly-ass beast form, and that one scene where Nami is wearing a—[THIS WRITER HAS BEEN SENT TO HORNY JAIL]

I do have a couple of areas of worry, though, namely with Lera Abova’s portrayal of Miss All Sunday. This is a spoiler for those of you who are Live-Action only, so don’t read on if you don’t want it spoiled. But Lera Abova’s Miss All Sunday is way too cruel, and not nearly warm enough to make you question her motives. Right now she is being played like the sidekick to a Bond villain who will betray the villain in the end, and while that is weirdly accurate to the manga, she also takes actions that confuse the readers as to her exact motives. In the manga, she likes Luffy and the Straw Hats, and she kinda likes Vivi. Here, she taunts Vivi, tells her she’ll watch her kingdom fall and her friends die, and seems to delight in it. She is needlessly and relentlessly cruel, and since she will eventually have to transition from Mysterious Femme Fatale Villain Miss All Sunday to Straw Hat Crew Member Nico Robin, I just don’t see how she can make that switch believably. My other gripe is, I genuinely hope Igaram isn’t actually dead. I’m generally fine with characters in the live-action dying, because the show is supposed to be darker and more realistic than the anime and manga, but Igaram is one death I can’t get behind. I hope that the OPLA tries to redeem Lera Abova’s Miss All Sunday by showing her in flashback saving Igaram’s life.

Also a super minor gripe, but Sonya Belousova went out of her way to release the track “Whiskey Peak Saloon,” an absolute bop that’s been stuck in my head, with all sorts of dynamic movements within the song, and the producers wasted it on an establishing shot! You’d think that with a track like that, it would have been used during the Zoro vs. 100 Bounty Hunters scene in a sort of Kingsman Church Fight-esque battle royale, but instead they chopped that fight up and braided it into the story in a way that they kind of made me bored with it in Episode 3. Like, cool, we’re moving on with the plot, and now let’s take a break for 2 minutes to watch Zoro cut some people. I don’t know, it made that whole fight drag on too much. And they didn’t even reuse the track for the fight! They used their typical Zoro leitmotif. Mihawk showing up to taunt Zoro in hallucination form was a peak decision, though.

Anyway, the next season of the OPLA is supposed to come out in late 2027, and I am undoubtedly pumped. I will be putting myself in an 18-month medically-induced coma to make it come faster, so if you need me, I will be asleep. Good night! And in the meantime, if you haven't watched the One Piece Live Action, WATCH IT.