As promised, here is my review for the second season of Netflix’s One Piece live action series, which i now fully realize isn’t gonna be a few season thing, as in, it became clear it wasn’t after the first was a success, and the second too, but i guess it took time for me to properly sink in we’re gonna have One Piece live action material… and that i was actually looking forward to it.
If you told me this even just 10 years ago, i would have spat or laughed in your face, but what can i say, the future can be a foreign country as the past, in its own way.
Season One of “Netflix Piece” was indeed the freak surprise of that year for me, i’ve talked about that enough in the old review, so time to move on!
This second season (after a handy recap of Season 1) basically covers the Alabasta/Arabasta arc from the beginning in Rogue Town, and then up to Drum Kingdom…but as with the first season, this live action adaptation does make a notable amount of changes and additions.
But yes, indeed we go from Rogue Town, we visit Reverse Mountain, get drunk at Whiskey Peak, meet the giants at Little Garden, and we end up with the Drum Kingdom arc, setting up for the proper Alabasta Arc…
Again, like for the first season, some events happen in a different order, characters are introduced early on (one here WAY earlier than it originally was, maybe a bit too early) sometimes there’s entirely new original material added on top, sometimes important pieces of lore are foreshadowed in places they originally weren’t, and so on, that didn’t change for this season.
The biggest invention is the Marine Festival going on in Rogue/Logue Town, which never happened in the manga but it’s a nice excuse why some characters are all reunited back there, and it fits with the Marine wanting to further cement the optics of Roger’s execution being an earned victory.
But fear not, because they still kept in how Smoker’s pants hunger for ice cream.
It’s still heartwarming to see the writers deciding to keep in some moments, no matter how stupid, juvenile or ridiculous, like “hungry hungry Smoker pantaloons” or the stupid ass hypnotic belly dance that Mr. Wesneday does on Luffy.
Without spoiling all the episodes, i still have some qualms, as Reverse Mountain is handled differently than you’d think, which is a pity because they could have easily kept the hilarious introduction of Crocus, which is one of the funnier scenes in the East Blue saga, but i guess for budgetary reasons they opted for a slightly different variation, ill say that much.
Which comes off as “surprise” because its also clear the budget for season 2 is notably higher, you can tell almost immediatly but then becomes obvious by seeing the effects and the deliciously over the top costumes and prosthetics, like for Wapol’s jaw, alongside a lot of effects (some practical too) that honestly look damn good, like the various carnivorous plants in Little Gardens.
I also really liked the different approach taken with the Baroque Works agents on Little Island, especially for Mr. 3 and Miss Golden Week they went the horror route, which worked for how they did adapt Kuro in Season 1, and works here too, it’s bloody good, with Mr. 3 channeling an art obssessed Patrick Bateman of sorts and Miss Golden Week being a straight up psycho little freak.
This is not to say the other new cast additions are weak, but David Dastmalchian (Late Night With The Devil, Dune, Oppenheimer) as Mr. 3 and Sophie Anna Caruso (The Nether, Lazarus, The School For Good And Evil) are my favourites this season, sorry.
I also really like how they had Mihawk “appear” to Zoro during his fight with all the Whiskey Peak crooks in the pockets of Baroque Works, but again, don’t fret, they didn’t forget the “Gospel Gosher” bit….. which is strange as it’s such a random bit that most wouldn’t have noticed if taken out, but that could be said
Kinda surprisingly and not really, Drum Kingdom is given the most space (three episodes), and it’s a pretty faithful recreation-adaptation, there’s all the good stuff and as usual someone keeps cutting onions during Chopper’s and Hilluk’s backstory, it must be a new 5D technology Netflix is experimenting on. Impressive stuff, nevertheless.
About Wapol, there is a notable change to the character motivation (which i won’t spoil) but i can’t fault the writers, because most of the times these aren’t random changes, but actually work for the better and – if not improve – make way more sense in the live action format, or are well written enough that it feels extremely petty to criticize them for “straying from the source material”.
Actually, i think this season these “knots” are even better and serve in tying up together quicker elements that for years we didn’t even know if they were connected, help in making the world feel more alive… even if you can argue this is just putting a positive spin on the expected facet of these live action shows “overcondensing”, offering almost “digest” versions of the events to accomodate modern audiences lack of any patience or ADD tendencies.
That said, i wasn’t really fond of the finale, as in, the final battle of Luffy against Wapol in the castle could have been better and freakier, but mostly the original stuff they added, even if i do understand why, since the Drum Kingdom arc did leave most of the crew incapacited or not directly partecipating in the final battle against Wapol and his lackeys.
and yes, you’d wanna have a big battle climax for the season finale… but i dunno, i feel they could have come up with slightly better design for the “soldier monsters”, those feel like someone meshed together their pewter figurines of medieval soldiers and orcs, it’s not great, even if they give off a Return To Oz kinda sorta vibe.
The biggest hurdle for this season was gonna be Chopper, we saw a teaser of his appearance, as a Paddington style CG character, which made sense….. but it clears that too, you easily adapt, the Paddington style fits perfectly, and you simply forget this was ever gonna be a problem in the first place, as you’ll get to cry all over again, as it customary and inevitable.
Especially because of this, i feel that this season in particular highlights how much of a fuckin miracle Netflix Piece is, as it doesn’t falter upon the “Chopper hurdle” but strives with it and alongside it, and even putting that aside, it improves on pretty much everything we saw on season one, helped by a notably bigger budget.
for all that it changes, adds or modify in order to condense the source material into the live action format and the “Netflix pacing approach”, even ignoring some of the more nostalgic bits (like the orchestral remixes of classic series themes like We Are!), it also invents stuff of his own that fits with the material while also not ruining it, and honestly i feel extra lucky, especially given what i’ve seen and heard ot the new Netflix live-action Avatar The Last Airbender adaptation.
As said at the beginning (and as one could expect given the second season still being 8 episodes long), the end shows Crocodile a bit more and teases/confirms that Season 3 will be mostly focused on the Alabasta arc…. in 2027, as of now we don’t have anything more definitive than “2027” of a release date.
But if this the quality we’re bound to expect next, i’ll gladly wait.
Wise Cafe (International) 