With "Stranger Things" wrapped up, I expect that Netflix's next major event series will be "One Piece." It has a huge existing fanbase thanks to the long-running manga and anime, and the Netflix series is one of the few live-action manga/anime adaptations that has been received well by both critics and fans. Netflix has increased the budget significantly this season, which means bigger fights, crazier enemies, and a couple of full CGI characters in the mix.
The show is shifting gears from a relatively self-contained first season to being an ongoing series, so there's a lot more setup and a lot less payoff this year. The second season can be roughly divided into three smaller arcs. The first is about the Straw Hat crew getting started in the Grand Line and setting up the new enemies. There are a pair of new Marine antagonists, Captain Smoker (Callum Kerr) and the sword expert Tashigi (Julia Rehwald). However, the main villains are the agents of the assassin group Baroque Works, who are code-named after numbers, days of the week, or holidays, like Miss All Sunday (Lera Abova), Miss Wednesday (Charithra Chandran), and Mr. 9 (David Lasker). The second arc brings everyone to the prehistoric jungle island of Little Garden, where they meet giants Brogy (Brendan Murray) and Dorry (Werner Coetser). The third takes them to the snowy Drum Island, the home of Dr. Kureha (Katey Sagal) and her student Chopper (Mikaela Hoover). By the end of this season, Luffy and friends have new crew members and are on their way to confront a much bigger threat than anything they've faced so far.
If you thought that the first season of "One Piece" was cartoonish and over-the-top, the second season doubles down on every front. The stunt sequences are more elaborate and involved. The Devil Fruit superpowers are even stranger, with Miss Valentine (Jazzara Jaslyn) changing her body density at will so she can fly, Mr. 5 (Camrus Johnson) throwing explosive boogers, and Mr. 3 (David Dastmalchian) creating wax out of thin air, which he uses to turn his enemies into wax art. Fully CGI characters like the whale Laboon and the critters at Little Garden appear more frequently. However, the main cast stays pretty grounded in reality, and are super charismatic and entertaining as an ensemble. I like the little personality tweaks that have been made, so Zoro is more easygoing and Usopp is more empathetic, even if his first instinct is always to run away.
There are some stronger actors in the cast this year, who add some interesting shadings to what were previously pretty one-note players. "One Piece" has a lot of minor characters who are only around for an arc or two, which means that bigger names like Katey Sagal and David Dastmalchian can guest star for a few episodes without it being too much of a commitment. Mark Harelik as Chopper's mentor Dr. Hiruluk features in only one extended flashback episode, but is the standout of the season. I really like Charithra Chandran and Lera Abova as two of the Baroque Works agents who end up at odds with each other. Iñaki Godoy is probably the only one who feels a little underwhelming, and that's largely because Luffy doesn't get many big moments in this part of the story. I expect this will change next season when he becomes more central to the plot again.
And we already know that there will be a next season, which is important. I didn't enjoy this set of episodes as much as the first because of the more open-ended nature of the source material, but there have been big improvements in the pacing, characterization, and adaptation choices which are going to greatly impact the show going forward. You can tell that the creators are more comfortable in this universe now, and have a better understanding of what the audience will accept, so they're willing to take more risks. Compared to the anime adaptations of these stories, I vastly prefer the live action version. However, there are still a few elements that I feel could be improved. I'll get more into that in the next post, where I look at this season from an existing fan's perspective, with all the spoilers, and how the rest of the series appears to be shaping up.
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