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Our first look at One Piece season 2 reveals what the Netflix live-action show’s biggest challenge in adapting the rest of the anime will be. While One Piece season 1 was great both as a new series and as an adaptation of one of the most popular manga of all time, it only scratched the surface of what One Piece is. The Netflix live-action adaptation has over 1000 chapters left to cover, and while we can assume they will not cover the entire story, there are a lot of big moments from the manga that are not that far away.
From the mysteries surrounding Enel to the mission to save Nico Robin, I hope Netflix’s One Piece continues long past Arabasta. Although the show made some big changes to the source material, most of them made sense in the context of the adaptation. I’m not worried about the creative decisions One Piece will make going forward, but I am interested to see how the live-action show will navigate its most difficult challenge – how to portray the more fantastical, larger-than-life characters from the manga.
Chopper Is The First Of Many One Piece Characters The Netflix Show Will Have Trouble Adapting
Things Don’t Get Easier After Arabasta
While I think live-action Chopper looks great, the fact that the Straw Hats’ newest member has been the center of attention since season 2 was confirmed illustrates how important it is for the show to get those difficult characters right. Unfortunately for Netflix’s One Piece, Chopper is the first of many characters that will require a lot of VFX or at least heavy prosthetic work to jump from the pages of the manga to the screens. One Piece didn’t have an easy time crafting Chopper, and things should only get more difficult from here.
Looking at Luffy’s crew only, we have yet to meet Franky, a cyborg with some very interesting proportions; Brook, a walking skeleton; and Jinbe, a large fish-man. Even if One Piece doesn’t run for long enough to include some of those other Straw Hat pirates, we also have villains and supporting characters who might require extensive VFX work to be created. That is not to mention how Chopper will always be around the rest of the protagonists once he joins the crew unless One Piece‘s future seasons find ways of writing him out of certain scenes and episodes.
One Piece season 3, which is all but confirmed but has yet to be officially announced, is set to cover the Arabasta arc.
I would love to see what characters like Gecko Moria, Bartholomew Kuma, and Magellan would be like in live-action. One Piece author Eiichiro Oda has a very unique style, especially when it comes to the proportions of the characters. The One Piece universe has a wide range of species and classes, meaning that the live-action characters cannot all look the same. Of course, not every design from the manga can be accurately recreated in live-action for a number of reasons.
Chopper’s First Look Has Me Hopeful About The Future Of Netflix’s One Piece
I’m Excited To See What Other Key One Piece Characters Will Look Like
I loved our first look at Chopper – he looks as real as possible for a CG reindeer with humanoid features, and his features seem to be a good mixture of classic early manga Chopper, pre-time skip anime Chopper, and the current version of the character. It will probably take some time for anime fans who are used to either the Japanese voice or the American dub of Chopper to get used to his voice in One Piece season 2. That said, I thought that Mikaela Hoover’s version of Chopper sounded great based on what we heard.
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With all eyes on Netflix’s version of Chopper, One Piece creator Eiichiro Oda finally spoke about the beloved pirate’s live-action debut.
Netflix’s One Piece has also done a good job with the prosthetics, costumes, and practical effects when creating the characters. The fish-men in season 1 all looked amazing, and Arlong felt menacing despite the smaller, more realistic proportions compared to his manga counterpart. If the show continues to find a good balance between visual effects and practical solutions, I think One Piece‘s future seasons can pull off challenging characters like Chopper in really interesting ways.
7/10
- Release Date
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August 31, 2023
- Network
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Netflix
- Showrunner
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Matt Owens
- Directors
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Tim Southam, Marc Jobst, Josef Kubota Wladyka
- Writers
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Tiffany Greshler, Diego Gutierrez, Allison Weintraub, Lindsay Gelfand
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Iñaki Godoy
Monkey D. Luffy
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