It’s been a long time coming (I wanted to wait until I’d finished watching this season with my brother), but I can finally follow up my season one review of Netflix’s One Piece with a season two review! Huzzah!
It’s been a little bit since my review of the first season, so allow me to do a quick recap to catch you up to speed.
Essentially, despite all seeming logic, the first season of Netflix’s One Piece was phenomenal. It’s one of the best first seasons of any show ever made, and it does just about everything right. The acting is quite good, the writing is really solid, the pacing and structure of the story is just right, the visual effects are rather decent, the soundtrack is extremely good, and the practical effects and sets are mind-blowing. In a world where live action anime adaptions are usually not so great, this one stood out as now just good live action anime, but a dang good show in general.
Does the second season proudly carry that torch? Well, yeah, basically!
Season two picks up where our lovable pirate crew’s journey left off. After a pitstop at a place called Loguetown, it’s off to the Grand Line for untold adventures and antics. Along the way, our crew accidentally falls afoul of an assassin organization called Baroque Works, and they sort of stumble their way into a larger conspiracy involving the Alabasta kingdom. Some of these plot beats are just seeds that will grow in the next season, but they do provide the backdrop for the misadventures that happen in this season.
Admittedly, it’s not as strong of a plot as the first season. The first season had this excellent structure of two-part episodes that each centered around one of the crew members, while also organically moving the plot along. In season two, it feels a little more like we just sail from one situation to the next, with a little less of a solid through thread of story. Not that that’s a bad thing, it just does end up with a story that is a bit weaker than the previous season, especially since the individual character arcs here aren’t quite as solid as the backstory-focused ones from the first season.
Which, again, isn’t to say that the way that season two handles things is outright bad. There are still a ton of great character moments throughout the season. Usopp, in particular, finally gets some good moments that were a bit lacking in the first season. Sanji continues to be one of my favorites, between his witty banter, his solid fighting skills, and his really sensitive moments (a conversation with Nami near the end of the season is a moment I really love). Luffy is still lovable too.
We’ve got a lot of new faces in this season too, and most of them land quite well. Vivi is the primary one, since she joins the main cast on their adventures. She often ends up playing the straight-woman to the quirks of the rest of the crew, but it still makes her an enjoyable presence, and she ties into the central plot quite nicely. I’m excited to see her step into an even more major role in the next season.
Miss All Sunday is a new villain threat, and while some other Baroque Works assassins make an appearance (with a very enjoyable performance from David Dastmalchian as wax-spraying Mr. 3), I find All Sunday the most terrifying. She really only has around five scenes in the entire season, but she does a great job with such a commanding presence. She also just sort of whispers her lines, and yet she’s able to so easily alternate between manipulative and frightening with just a few soft words alone.
The other characters in this season are fun too, whether the various Baroque Works baddies, a gluttonous king, two different quirky doctors, a shapeshifting reindeer, and more. I will say that I don’t quite find this season’s villains as hateable as the foes from the first season (mostly since many of them are just general antagonists, not tied into our character’s arcs). Still, it’s a solid rogue’s gallery, and it all works out well.
Two supporting characters, Captain Smoker and Petty Officer Tashigi, probably could’ve used a few more scenes spread throughout the season. They are sort of a repeat of the Admiral Garp and Koby storyline from the first season, but with far less screentime and impact. Like many things in this season, it’s nothing bad at all. Just not quite as good as what came before.
You know what is just as good as the first season? The action and the effects!
On the VFX side of things, One Piece is perfectly serviceable. Some CGI-heavy scenes (like the ones with the whale) are passable, but the smaller moments of genuinely quite good. Luffy’s stretchy abilities still look solid, and Captain Smoker’s ability to turn into smoke is very cool and captured effectively.
On the practical side of things, One Piece is still the most impressive television show currently airing, and really sets the standard at an almost unreachable pinnacle. Every single episode, no matter how inconsequential, goes above-and-beyond with the set design, the costumes, the number of extras milling about, and the practical design. From Luffy’s ship, to the three-tier bar at Whiskey Peak, to the snow-covered town at Drum Kingdom, to the sprawling streets of Loguetown…it’s all really fantastic. And the more you stop and think about it, the more incredible it becomes.
And then the action continues to excel, probably even more so than in the first season. There’s a lot of great smaller fights, like Sanji taking on two Baroque Works agents, or Luffy and Vivi battling the evil king. However, nothing can compare to one of the best fight scenes in any show, which is the bar battle in the third episode. It’s over ten minutes long, includes multiple long takes, beautifully uses the surrounding set, consistently innovates with its choreography, includes a whole army of talented extras and stunt people, and continues to be entertaining from start to finish.
And because I don’t really have a better place to talk about it in this article, I wanted to mention that the soundtrack is still good too. Plenty of nice tunes, and a solid grasp of leitmotif consistency.
As you might have picked up from this review, I don’t think that the second season of One Piece is as good as the first one. However, none of that means that I find this season to be bad. It’s like comparing a chocolate chip cookie with five chocolate chunks, and one with two. One of those cookies might be better than the other, but they are both still good!
I’d recommend the first season to anyone. I really think it’s that fantastic, and it also works wonderfully as a standalone experience if you want to stop there.
However, if you’re itching for more pirate fun, season two won’t disappoint!
9/10
But hey, that’s just my opinion!
