"One Piece," Year Two (With Spoilers)

Spoilers ahead for the second season of the live action series, and the manga/anime up through the end of the Alabasta arc.

So, first things first.  Charithra Chandran is fantastic as Vivi.  Her switch from assassin to princess was note perfect.  I like Lera Abova as Robin so far, but since she hasn't dropped the Miss All Sunday persona yet, it's hard to know how she'll stack up long term.  I've never been much of a Chopper fan, but I have no complaints about Michaela Hoover, or the efforts of the VFX team bringing the cute reindeer doctor to life.  However, what I'm really impressed with is the characterization of the minor characters like the surprisingly loyal Mr. 9, a Twiggy-inspired Miss Valentine, and the menacing Mr. 3 and Miss Goldenweek (Sophia Anne Caruso).  They actually feel like real people instead of cartoon caricatures, which helps the show immensely.  

I'm not as invested in the "One Piece" arcs where the five main crewmembers aren't as involved, and I was pretty cool on this run of episodes in the anime.  The live action version does a much better job of keeping the crew front and center.  I was very happy that the show's creators gave us more character moments and crew interactions, like Usopp befriending Brogy, and Luffy connecting with Vivi.  Adding some foreshadowing for the later arcs, like Sanji talking about his mother, was also a good way to use the source material more fully.  I really like how these versions of the characters are progressing, and that they're allowed to be more human and well-rounded.  Zoro is probably the most improved from last year - the third episode is entirely devoted to his 100 enemy showdown - and he's allowed to smile and be friendlier.  Usopp is more heroic and less prone to being relegated to easy comic relief.  I was worried that Nami being sick during Drum Island would put her in the damsel in distress role, but that's not the case.  

The weaknesses of this season mostly have to do with the awkwardness of trying to adapt a bunch of shorter manga arcs that introduce a lot of characters, some much more interesting than others.  The story is more incidental and still building up to the next big storyline that we won't see until next year.  Wapol (Rob Colletti) is a comic villain who isn't very formidable, and not a great choice for the climactic baddie of the season.  While the action scenes have generally improved, they've also been uneven.  While Luffy had a few good fights this year, he's also noticeably less effective than we've seen in the past.  He gets rescued or assisted multiple times by other characters, and doesn't get the kind of big dramatic moments that some of the others do.  This should be fixed in the Alabasta arc where he gets more of the spotlight, but in this season it means Luffy often feels a little lost in the shuffle with so many other characters in play.       

Frankly, the Drum Island Arc didn't hold my interest.  It's where the limitations of the special effects and the unreality of the anime aesthetics were the most apparent.  Everything involving Chopper and Hiruluk was fine, and the Chopper backstory flashback episode was a highlight of the season.  However, similar to the Arlong Park episodes, the more extreme characters like Wapol and Dalton (Ty Keogh) were very difficult for me to take seriously  because they were buried under so many prosthetics and weird gimmicks.  Wapol and his monster army just looked silly, and the stakes never felt very high, so the whole finale underwhelmed.  I expect that it's largely an issue with the material in this arc in particular, though.  A stronger villain like Crocodile (Joe Manganiello) should help considerably.

Fundamentally, there are parts of "One Piece" that just aren't going to work in live action, no matter how high the budget is.  I like that the series is trying to push the boundaries and use more of the manga's visual language, but sometimes it just looks terrible.  There are also still translation and cultural gaps that result in awkward names and dialogue, things that probably could be fixed if the show weren't so adamant about catering to existing fans.  Still, the little details don't matter as long as the creators are getting the bigger things right.  So far, they're doing a pretty good job, and I'm looking forward to more "One Piece" to come.   

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