‘One Piece’ Season 2 review: Still got it

For many, Netflix and Tomorrow Studio’s adaptation of One Piece is the standard by which all manga adaptations must meet. There’s a good reason for that: the ambitious, if flawed, project maintains a strong sense that everyone involved understands the spirit of the material. Now, after a long gap, One Piece Season 2 has to meet the same standard that the first season set. Can an eight-episode adaptation hold together when digging into the deeper material that One Piece evangelists adore? At the same time, can this adaptation keep that material accessible for the majority of viewers?

The Straw Hats are still the core of One Piece Season 2.

To help ease fears up front, the strengths of Season 1 are 100 times stronger than they were 3 years ago. The series is building upon the energy of the Straw Hats that made up the first season’s backbone. As each episode of the season kicks into its plot, the crew spits off into groups beyond the source material, Sanji (Taz Skylar) and Usopp (Jacob Romero) make a particularly fun pair that the manga doesn’t explore often, and Luffy (Iñaki Godoy) continues his iconic performance playing off of every one he shares a scene with – and there are some real surprises.

At the same time, One Piece Season 2 is working to leave its own mark on Luffy and the others. While this adaptation will never deviate too far from expectations, it takes some interesting creative liberties. Nami (Emily Rudd) gets quite a bit more stunt work than expected. Zoro’s (Mackenyu) characterization relaxes enough to give him far more humorous moments, including getting the best jokes of the season. Usopp may be the season’s winner through shifts in the story structure, giving Romero plenty of meat to chew on. And Luffy and Sanji get brief glimpses into the more realized characters they eventually become in the manga.

So much more lore this season.

In fact, One Piece Season 2 does a lot more front-loading of dots to connect than Season 1. Much of this is to help with the structure of the move to TV, which creates plenty of Easter eggs. Longtime fans will have fun with Leo pointing at the screen and then refusing to explain anything to the normal people watching with them. There are some genuine surprises throughout, and they go far beyond saying Garp’s full name last season. 

However, these creative decisions raise a specter: what if the live-action One Piece adapts too much? One of the joys of the One Piece experience comes from seeing the vast world of the story grow larger over time, with seemingly disconnected and separate elements crossing, clashing, and going beyond. The live action takes advantage of knowing how these threads converge to various successes. One arc is better in this version, using future information. Other plots are going to need some big changes to pay off. This is to say nothing of one particularly strange decision early on that the fandom will have to collectively agree to be cool with people misunderstanding.

It’s possible none of this matters too much. New fans lack the context to catch on to any deviation from the sacred text, for one. But at the same time, there’s a lingering sense that the joy of discovery that every reveal in One Piece brings is being whittled away. Yes, Oda makes up more of this along the way than fans want to admit to themselves. At the same time, that very nature is part of the core of why this world feels so vast and rich. Meanwhile, the live-action series is already starting to work the world into revolving around the Going Merry. 

Assassin’s Creed.

Now, concerns of knowing too much can only really happen when the production really gets its material, and that’s One Piece Season 2 in a nutshell. This season adds quite a few characters, and the casting team of Libby Goldstein, Ruth Lambert, and Junie Lowry-Johnson remains the secret weapon of this series. The assassin organization of Baroque Works staffs some truly wacky and dangerous threats, with every cast member having a strong understanding of how to do both.

David Dastmalchian, one of the big gets this season, is well within his element in the murderous wax artist Mr. 3, but he’s surrounded by strong co-stars. Camrus Johnson and Jazzara Jaslyn have to make some really silly Devil Fruit powers seem cool, and they do a bang-up job.

Broadway alum Sophia Anne Caruso gives Miss Goldenweek a truly sinister and unsettling turn. Meanwhile, Rob Colletti gets the short stick thanks to a truly unfortunate muppet mouth prop that comes with his character of Wapol. He’s doing the best he can, and a practical-effect costume is appreciated, but it really undercuts his entire performance when his big mouth fails to keep up. 

Femme fatales aplenty.

The big flowers will undoubtedly go to Miss All Sunday (Lera Abova) and Miss Wednesday (Charithra Chandran), who have to interact the most with the main cast and with each other. Abova is the pinnacle of the femme fatale in every scene she’s in, serving as the ongoing threat for this season – complete with a terrifying action introduction.

In tandem, circumstances find Chandran’s Wednesday tied up in the Straw Hat’s affairs, and the season gives her just as much time to play off of each crew member as it does let them play off each other. She’s got the hardest job of trying to understand this found family in a way similar to how they all did last season. Both women build dynamics with the leads that are sure to make them instant fans.

Accomplishing a VFX miracle.

But from the moment season 2 was announced, everyone knew what was most important. The Devil Fruit empowered reindeer Tony Tony Chopper (Mikaela Hoover) has been at the heart of marketing because Chopper is the heart of this block of episodes. A walking, talking, transforming creature is a lot of VFX to ask of Marvel movies, much less an 8-episode TV show with real boats. Yet, they really got this right. 

While personally it would have been better for Chopper to be a muppet instead of Wapol’s mouth, what the VFX team (supervised by Victor Scalise, produced by Scott Ramsey) delivers is quite stellar. Hoover’s voice performance maps expertly to Chopper’s face, and he never creates a feeling of actors talking or interacting with open space. Chopper gets multiple close-ups of his doe eyes, and careful attention is given to ensuring those eyes properly reflect who he’s talking to or looking at. Netflix owes the team a very large raise. 

Unfortunately, high-quality Chopper seems to come at a cost, because the episodes he’s in are the season’s weakest. Not to continue complaining about muppet mouths, but that’s just one example of these episodes dipping in quality in comparison to the rest. There are only a couple of rooms for scenes, and less time for Straw Hat shenanigans. There’s real “bottle episode” energy, which is a real shame, as the rest of the season’s production efforts are so high quality. 

One Piece of excellent production design.

Extremely high quality, in fact. Costume designer Kerry-Anne Barnard continues some fantastic adaptations of manga drip for the entire cast. Some remain so 1:1 that they resemble cosplay rather than something a character would wear, but as the season goes on, more and more blend familiarity with believability into an eye-pleasing success. It remains so impressive to see real sets and props wherever possible, even to the occasional detriment (Wapol’s mouth is really not great, okay?)

Worthy of special praise is Sonya Belousova and Giona Ostinelli’s score for One Piece Season 2. The pair created strong leitmotifs last season, too, but this season has more complicated and fun arrangements. Each island also gets its own specific composition that are all earworms to themselves. No one could predict the song of the summer would be “Whiskey Peak Saloon,” but with a fire accompaniment from saxophonist Leo P, how could it not be? There’s even clever integration of iconic songs from this portion of the anime, sometimes for excellent humor. These tracks are worth watching the full credits for, and everyone involved in this production deserves the attention. 

Yes, One Piece Season 2 still gets it. While still imperfect, the season is a great follow-up to a strong start. With Season 3 already in production, it remains to be seen where the ceiling is for Tomorrow Studios’ efforts to get the good word into more and more hands. For now, this adaptation remains the high bar for manga adaptation and an excellent entry point into this wonderful story. 

One Piece Season 2 is available on Netflix.

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Images courtesy of Netflix.