Live-action adaptations of anime have a downright atrocious track record, so when Netflix announced it would be tackling One Piece, one of the most beloved animanga around, there was a healthy dose of skepticism. How could the streamer possibly do such a lengthy and fantastical series justice? It certainly didn’t help that it had butchered one of the medium’s classics, Cowboy Bebop.
But despite these poor odds, theadventures of Monkey D. Luffy made the jump to three dimensions with aplomb, capturing the spirit of its source material in each impassioned speech about impossible dreams and every phone call made using telekinetic snails. Then came a two-and-a-half-year break, which took a bit of the wind out of its sails. Thankfully, the second season—titled IntoThe Grand Line—was worth the wait. Showrunners Matt Owens and Joseph E. Tracz demonstrate a continued understanding of this tale, and while small cuts here and there dampen a few subplots, the big moments come across with powerful sincerity. Get ready to cry over a bipedal reindeer in a top hat.
As for where the latest stretch begins, after gathering his crew, Luffy (Iñaki Godoy) and the Straw Hat Pirates set sail for the Grand Line. It’s a dangerous series of islands where the One Piece is supposedly hidden. Pursuing this treasure is Luffy’s life ambition, a goal that seems quixotic to everyone except him and his buddies. As they set off, they clash with Baroque Works, a secret organization of assassins, and become entangled in a political struggle that will decide the fate of an entire kingdom. Also, there is a Tyrannosaurus rex. It’s all in a day’s work for Luffy & co.
If there’s a big storytelling shift from last season, it’s that the setup stage is over and the mainline adventure has fully kicked into gear. Now, this is obviously still the “beginning” in the grand scheme of this sprawling epic—out of the manga’s whopping 1,174 chapters and counting, the latest season spans from chapters 96 to 154—but the process of exploring the Grand Line and island hopping toward their ultimate goal has begun. It’s a change that this adaptation generally handles well, settling into one-off escapades as the crew raises and lowers their anchor at a steady pace. There are prehistoric islands and winter wonderlands, each tied together by a conspiratorial subplot involving Baroque Works. These many scenery changes capture a swashbuckling spirit while still giving the biggest and most important turning points enough room to breathe, like an excellent three-episode finale arc that mixes tragedy and redemption.
Many of the source material’s fantastical sights continue to make the jump to live-action surprisingly well, and at the core of this is a solid mixture of practical and digital effects. The series goes tactile at the right times, whether it is sizing up human actors to look like battle-hardened giants or concocting pig-faced monsters. Of course, given that the main character is a dude whose body is literally made out of rubber, there is plenty of CGI work as well, most of which is well-placed. There will always be an inherent uncanniness to many of the Devil Fruit powers, such as when it comes to visualizing a beer-keg-shaped bad guy who uses his giant cartoon mouth to munch on ship hulls, and there are points when some of these translated flourishes don’t quite look right. But in general, the compositing work blends CGI and props into this world, one where iconoclastic costuming and colorful sets create an Age Of Discovery hodgepodge.
Well-cast performers bring us further into this buccaneering setting, starting with the Straw Hats, from Godoy’s infectiously enthusiastic Luffy to Mackenyu’s straight man Zoro. Especially when the gang is all together, this crew’s screen chemistry is a delight. At the intersection of this season’s impressive visual effects and performances is Mikaela Hoover as newcomer Tony Tony Chopper. For those unfamiliar, Chopper is a cute little two-legged reindeer who wants to be a doctor, and he offers a big challenge for the show in that he’s a major character that would be very difficult to render without CGI. Thankfully, he comes alive seamlessly. Part of this has to do with Hoover’s voice performance, which gets at the character’s insecurities and underlying charm. It also helps that the digital effects team sidestepped an Ugly Sonic situation, splitting the difference between adorable and realistic (for this show, anyway).
This adaptation isn’t without a few missteps, though. If there’s a shortcoming in the show’s design, it’s that these fight sequences can’t match the escalating intensity of the source material’s battle shonen brawls. For what they are, these live-action scraps are generally well-choreographed, especially the ones centered around Zoro and his more grounded swordsmanship. (He still cuts down like 100 people in a few minutes.) The bigger issue is that the manga’s author, Eiichiro Oda, is better at using these showdowns to build and amplify struggles over ideals. This makes the season’s middle section sag, especially during an extended duel with a candle-wax-wielding foe (played with sicko relish by David Dastmalchian).
More importantly, though, Owens, Tracz, and the writers continue to capture the secret sauce of this work, one where literal cartoon characters are regularly granted unexpected depth, like when a scheming shop-owner archetype suddenly drops their cynical façade after a display of bravery or a villain of the week turns out to be a key player with a life story of their own. Then a man with a ridiculous haircut forms a heartfelt bond with a blue-nosed reindeer while fighting for the belief that even the most rotten, broken societies can be saved from the chains of tyranny. That these more serious moments can sit next to Suessian silliness without inducing total tonal whiplash is a major accomplishment. This adaptation continues to demonstrate why so many are willing to follow its central rubber-limbed weirdo across the seven seas and beyond. He believes in something, and that makes it easy for us to do the same.
Elijah Gonzalez is The A.V. Club‘s associate editor. One Piece season two premieres March 10 on Netflix.
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