What One Piece Fans Want to See In Season 2 of Netflix's Adaptation

Netflix’s live-action adaptation of One Piece restored the fandom’s hope that live-action anime adaptations can be high-quality entertainment if the producers handle it just right. In fact, the live-action One Piece series slightly improved upon the original with tighter pacing and some intriguing new horror elements in the Syrup Village arc, so fans have faith that Season 2 will be even better.

Season 1 covered the East Blue saga which, in all versions of One Piece, is the introductory phase of the story to ease fans into this sprawling pirate world. Next is the popular Alabasta saga, which will bring the Straw Hat Pirates crew to the famed Grand Line with all-new adventures in exotic new lands, from Little Garden to Drum Island and the desert nation of Alabasta. There are plenty of plot points fans hope to see in this upcoming voyage, but that’s not all. Fans also hope that certain characters are done justice and the combat system will become bigger and better than ever.

One Piece’s Next Season Must Maintain the Series’ Good Pacing

The original “Big Three” shonen series, for all their strength, sometimes suffered from pacing issues. One problem was the presence of anime filler arcs, with Naruto and Bleach having filler make up roughly one-third of their episodes, and even One Piece indulged in the filler, albeit comparatively less, pound for pound. Also, those three shonen giants spent a lot of time on most story arcs and battles, cruising through the story at a leisurely pace with endless reaction shots, fluff dialogue, and internal dialogue to pad the runtime. Fortunately, the first season of Netflix’s live-action One Piece series easily dealt with both issues, so there is hope that Season 2 will do the same.

To begin with, filler is no problem for live-action adaptations, since that material serves no purpose years after the anime comes out. Filler is only meant to buy time for the source manga to stay ahead and provide enough material for future canon episodes, and that’s a moot point after a certain amount of time. That leaves the issue of the original anime’s pacing in the canon episodes and storylines, and fans have faith that won’t be a problem, either. The first season did a lot of trimming and streamlining to fit the entire East Blue saga into eight hour-long episodes, even doing away with the Loguetown arc to make sure the pacing was suitable for a beginner-friendly experience. It was a daring compromise that worked and, given how much longer the anime’s Alabasta saga is compared to the East Blue saga, the producers must do even more compromise and trimming.

One Piece fans want to see an ideal balance of trimming vs including all the best story beats of the anime’s Alabasta saga, and the main question is whether too much trimming is done in fans’ opinion. It’s unlikely that the live-action series will accidentally indulge in the opposite extreme and adapt too much material in a slowly-paced series, since that would be time-consuming and far too costly. So, it’s a matter of avoiding the extreme of cutting the Alabasta saga to the bone and ruining the fun of this lengthy Grand Line adventure.

At the bare minimum, fans want to watch all five story arcs of the Alabasta saga unfold in the Netflix version, and most likely, only the Alabasta arc itself will need trimming. The Reverse Mountain, Whisky Peak, Little Garden, and Drum Island arcs are all short and could probably take up one episode each in the Netflix version, leaving four episodes for the Alabasta arc if Season 2 ends up having eight episodes like Season 1 did. Even if the saga’s final arc gets four whole episodes, though, a lot happened in the anime’s version of that arc, and some of them involved fights that happened for their own sake, such as Usopp and Chopper vs Mr. 4 and Ms. Merry Christmas or even Luffy’s second fight against Sir Crocodile. At the very least, fans want to see Sanji vs Mr. 2, Zoro vs Mr. 1, and Luffy vs Sir Crocodile, so if the live-action show handles those fights well, fans might forgive the omission of Mr. 4’s fight.

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One Piece’s Next Season Must Handle Its Key Characters Well

One Piece fans dearly hope they see their favorite Grand Line characters depicted well in the next season since the series’ colorful cast of characters is a major part of what makes One Piece such a shonen icon. So far, based on the stellar casting in Season 1 — such as actor Iñaki Godoy as Monkey D. Luffy and Vincent Regan as a stellar Monkey D. Garp — fans can reasonably expect Season 2 to keep up the excellent casting trend. Other live-action adaptations have faced criticism for iffy casting, such as whitewashing Motoko Kusanagi in the live-action Ghost in the Shell movie, but Netflix’s One Piece has cast its characters smartly and tastefully so far.

Now, the stakes are higher with even more colorful and beloved characters on the horizon, including the future Straw Hats Tony Tony Chopper and Nico Robin, who will both make their debuts in Season 2. Ideally, Nico Robin’s actress will not just physically resemble her character, but also capture the character’s signature blend of her cool, calm personality and hidden warmth, not to mention her ruthless side. In the Alabasta saga, Nico Robin is a villain with a heart, a Baroque Works member who will kindly spare Luffy’s life and then ask to join the Straw Hats after Sir Crocodile turns on her. That will call for some multi-faceted acting for Nico Robin’s role, and One Piece fans dearly hope she is expertly cast to bring this essential character to life.

It is also hoped that major Alabasta-era characters get the right dialogue and scenes to emphasize their key personality traits, goals, and powers without overdoing them or cutting any material. Anime characters tend to be cartoony and extreme compared to characters in regular live-action shows and movies; it’s not easy to make characters like Luffy, Sir Crocodile, and Buggy the Clown feel true to their anime selves while also feeling like real human beings who happen to have Devil Fruit powers.

Screen time will be limited for the likes of Sir Crocodile, Mr. 2, Mr. 1, and Nico Robin, so fans want them to make the most of it and show their true colors without feeling like cosplayers being melodramatic. Season 1 handled that well, but Season 2 will be bigger in every way, so there’s a bigger chance that the narrative will unravel and become totally silly if the balance is mishandled, so fans urgently want to see the producers keep a tight grip on all that. It could make or break the season.

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One Piece’s Next Season Must Depict New, Stronger Devil Fruits in Realistic and Immersive Ways

One of the trickiest parts of any anime adaptation is handling the special effects, including both practical and CGI effects. Some series dropped the ball, such as the clunky-looking CGI in the live-action Fullmetal Alchemist movies, but fortunately, One Piece‘s first season handled the Devil Fruit effects fairly well. Luffy looked realistic and cool as he stretched out his body to execute moves like the Gum-Gum Pistol, making his Gum-Gum Fruit feel highly convincing and tangible as a shonen-style power made real. The same was true for Buggy the Clown’s Chop-Chop Fruit. However, Season 1 and the East Blue saga overall only provided hints about the true extent of the Devil Fruit combat system.

The stakes are much higher for Season 2’s special effects, and One Piece fans dearly hope that the producers can deliver. That’s because the Alabasta saga will introduce many more Devil Fruits, most of which have fancier and more complex powers than Luffy’s and Buggy’s own Fruits. One of the earliest examples is Mr. 3’s Wax-Wax Fruit, which can form anything from hard wax armor to walls and body doubles of Mr. 3 himself, not to mention Mr. 1 using the Dice-Dice Fruit to form sharp metal blades all over his body. And, of course, Sir Crocodile’s Sand-Sand Fruit is a visually stunning and powerful ability that makes him a living desert who’s nearly impossible to beat without either water or the power of Haki. Then there’s Nico Robin’s Flower-Flower Fruit, allowing her to sprout dozens of human arms and hands from any surface she chooses.

There’s more to One Piece than its Devil Fruits and action sequences, but even so, shonen fans know that combat is at the heart of stories like One Piece, and if the action and special effects fall short, fans might not even be in the mood to appreciate whatever else the series may offer. Season 2 ups the ante with more and better fights, cool new Devil Fruit powers, and ever-stronger characters, so this factor may make or break Season 2 of Netflix’s One Piece series.

If the series drops the ball with clunky visuals, the magic of One Piece will suffer, but if Season 2 makes these new Devil Fruits realistic and scary, then they may become the season’s highlight and show Fullmetal Alchemist‘s live-action adaptations how it’s done. Besides, the original anime’s visuals are rather dated, so fans are overdue to see the Wax-Wax Fruit, Sand-Sand Fruit, and the others look stunning and exciting, live-action or not. That’s what One Piece fans want most of all from the upcoming Season 2, and they deserve every bit of it, too.

One Piece

Follows the adventures of Monkey D. Luffy and his pirate crew in order to find the greatest treasure ever left by the legendary Pirate, Gold Roger. The famous mystery treasure named “One Piece”.

Release Date

October 20, 1999

Creator(s)

Eiichiro Oda

Cast

Mayumi Tanaka , Akemi Okamura , Laurent Vernin , Tony Beck , Kazuya Nakai

Seasons

1

Studio

Toei Animation

Creator

Eiichirô Oda

Production Company

Toei Animation

Number of Episodes

1K+