Hello! Justin here and welcome to the Otaku Mind where I’m doing another Memories of One Piece. It’s been a while since I’ve done one of these and today I’m giving my thoughts on the second season of the One Piece Live Action. Sorry for the delay. I was hoping to get this done before the Mario Galaxy review, but I just got caught up in a lot of other things and fell behind on watching it. But I finished watching it this past weekend so let me give you my thoughts the second season.
So the second season picks up where we left off in the first season. The Strawhat crew has made it to Loguetown, their final stop before the Grand Line. After escaping Buggy and the Marines, the crew enter the Grand Line and we follow the story up to the Drum Island arc. Just like the previous season this live action adaption was good. Once again it’s not a panel-by-panel adaptation. It changes things up to save on time and while not everything is better, overall the changes they make are good and fit within the story. There’s a passion and love in this series from everyone. They are putting their all into their performances and are having fun playing these characters and bringing them to life. You can tell this season got a bigger budget as they were able to go to different locations to bring the world of One Piece to life as well as the amazing creatures they come across when they make it to the Grand Line. The big story of this season, was how would the show handle Chopper. The handling of Chopper was either going to make or break this series for a lot of people and I’m happy say they pulled it off here. Chopper is CGI and he looks adorable. They get his character down right and his transformations are cool. Mikaela Cooper does the voice of Chopper as well as his facial expressions and she does a good job on both fronts. She captures the emotions of this innocent child who is scared, alone, and has been hurt by the world but has now found friends who will care for him and who he in return wants to care for. My favorite scene is between him and Luffy where Chopper says he’s a monster and Luffy reveals his devil fruit power to him and says he’s a monster too. I don’t remember if this was in the manga (it’s been years give me a break) but I love it. It’s the first time Chopper has met someone who he can relate to but give him hope that he doesn’t have to be alone. Along with successfully doing Chopper there’s a lot of other animals and people they did great as well. Laboon looks good, the giants are cool, and the dinosaurs they find on Little Garden actually look better than the ones in the latest Jurassic Park movies.
Speaking of characters, let’s focus on those next. So the original cast from the first season returns to reprise their roles and each one gets their own moment here or there to shine. Inaki’s Luffy continues to be funny, endearing, and just a join to see. I have heard people complain about a few scenes where his acting feels off, but I mostly blame that on the director not giving him the right directions on what he should be feeling in this scene or not doing a retake. Overall, I think he does a good job being Luffy. Again, Inaki has done the impossible in bringing this character to life. I can see someone bringing characters like Naruto, Ichigo, Izuku, Tanjiro, Yusuke and Ed to life, but for the longest time Luffy was that one anime character I thought was impossible for anyone to do. Inaki is the real life Luffy because no matter what he throws his all into this performance. Mackenyu as Zoro is both funny and badass this season. He has hands down the best scene in the entire season, fighting and taking down 100 Broque Work agents all by himself. What makes this scene so great is that not only does he count them all but he takes them all down in different ways and during it all Mihawk is mocking him in his mind and we see it. This is great visual storytelling and reminds us who and what Zoro is chasing and how he will continue to get stronger to reach Mihawk’s level. Jacob gives us the best character development this season in the form of Usopp as he takes a big step forward to become the brave pirate he’s always wanted to be. He solidifies himself as a valued member of the crew in Little Garden. Saving everyone and beginning his journey as the weakest member of the crew to one of their most valued members. Taz as Sanji gives us the funniest fight this season when he takes on Mr. 13 (oh yeah, Mr. 13 and Miss Friday also look good here) but also shows his loyalty to Luffy and the crew in a couple of scenes as well as gives us a great emotional performance when he talks about Sanji’s mom. Emily continues to be the glue that holds this cast together on and offscreen. If there’s anyone who understands her character the best, it’s her. She gets the assignment and knows what she has to do to bring this character to life. We also see the return of fan favorite characters like Buggy, Garp, and Koby making a return for a short time but still having good moments.
Along with the established characters we get to meet all new characters. The biggest one being Vivi played by Charithra Chandran who does a good job as this character and gives Emily a much-needed female character to work off of. Other notable characters include Callum Kerr and Julia Rehwald as Smoker and Tashigi. Their chemistry is good, Julia captures Tashigi’s dorky traits and determination well, and Callum as Smoker is intimidating and determined just like in the manga. While the rest of the world underestimates Luffy and what he’s capable of doing, Smoker saw the signs long before everyone else and knew just how dangerous he would become hence his desire and obsession to bring Luffy in. I also like how they give both of them a moment to shine against Baroque Work agents in an original scene involving agents who were mentioned in the manga but never seen. For the villains we have Lera Abova playing the lovely Nico Robin who is perfect casting. Her introduction scene gave me chills the first time I saw it and reminded me of just how dangerous her powers are. She is beautiful too. This is how I always imagined Robin would look like. Deadly but still smart and beautiful. David Dastmalchian as Mr. 3 was cool. He made the character scary and charming with his strategic mind and flare for fine arts. I’m going to hold off on giving my thoughts on Crocodile since he showed up at the end. I will however, give my thoughts on Wapol played by Rob Colletti who made this character so unlikeable the moment you meet him. I do like how they expand on his story and show that he got the devil fruit from Baroque Works and the effects on his mouth were cool. Aside from all these characters we get some easter eggs in the form of Brook and Bartolomeo. Martial T. Batchamen does a good Brook laugh and I’d be totally onboard with him voicing Brook down the line. Nahum Hughes as Bartolomeo has a great look and I look forward to seeing him become the Strawhat fanboy down the line. Lastly, Mark Harelik as Dr. Hiruluk delivers one of the most powerful speeches from the series and he nails it. I have read this speech multiple times, heard it in the dub and sub, and still get emotional hearing it. This is One Piece, this is the kind of writing I hope to achieve one day with my web novel.
The action this season is great. Like I said, my favorite fight being Zoro’s fight. The choreography was awesome and love how the Strawhats work off each other. I do think they may have made Luffy look a little weak at times, but it works for this character. He’s still winning his fights and feeling confident in himself and his abilities, but he’s going to get that reality check when he goes to Alabasta.
Season 2 of the Live Action One Piece was a great following up to season one. It improves and expands on a lot of the shortcomings in the first season and cements that this Live Action wasn’t a fluke and is in good hands. Does every change work? No. Is it overall good as a whole? Yes. It still shows respect and love to the source material and I look forward to the next season which will cover the Alabasta arc. My score for the second season is an 8.5/10. If you liked the first season you’ll like the second one. Thanks for reading and I’ll see you next time on Project Nitsuj.