As expected, the story continues to make small changes to the events outlined in the original work. Being a product with limited screen time, it covers key events from Luffy and his friends' adventures. This means that inconsequential or filler events were not adapted: such as the brief visit to the island of rare animals (One Piece fans will know which island I am talking about).
After the production of the first season, the second season began immediately; the One Piece live action had to continue the show. While Eiichiro Oda's manga continues to progress slowly toward its final arc, Iñaki Godoy has finally reached the seas of the Grand Line, so the anticipation to see how this adaptation continues only grew.
Although the first season broke the supposed curse of anime live actions, the path ahead for this story will not be easy. And now that the "East Blue" is behind us, the extravagance of the world of One Piece will soon make itself known.
The opening of this new chapter of the story takes us into the Grand Line. With the dream of finding the great treasure hidden by Gold Roger, Luffy and his crew must cross the Reverse Mountain and reach mysterious waters. A vast ocean full of islands and more ruthless enemies, where the rules of nature change completely.
The rubber boy whose dream is to become the new Pirate King gets involved in rescuing an entire kingdom by facing a dangerous criminal organization.
Each episode progresses as best it can at a rapid pace, which makes the story and the bonds developed therein seem unnatural, as if the time spent traveling from one island to another was rushed.
And although Netflix may take creative liberties to summarize the story, the quality of this compared to the original work may generate controversy.
One Piece fans know very well that Eiichiro Oda is an author who does not take the luxury of removing characters from the work for narrative reasons, but that tendency has left loose ends throughout his manga, so this live action might take the liberty to fix those narrative gaps by adding or removing characters whose participation is necessary or unnecessary.
Therefore, more than an adaptation, this series can be seen as a live-action remake of One Piece.
I must say that the second season of "One Piece" (2026) has taken practical effects to a new level, limiting itself to showing things faithful to the original material like the "Devil Fruit" abilities in characters such as Captain Smoker and members of "Baroque Works" It has also changed events difficult to translate to live action like the part with the whale Laboon.
I believe it was a wise choice to simplify the absurd and be precise with the story's continuity: omitting giants or changing the fantastical elements would strip the work of its essence.
But I think the time has come when the production of the series reaches the limit of what can be faithfully adapted, and the example of this is the new character joining the Straw Hats crew: with notable prosthetic makeup and very demanding CGI, bringing to life a recurring character like Tony Tony Chopper may require much more budget than estimated.
Recently, in an interview, it was confirmed that this series will have an estimated ending around season 5 or 6, so it will not be able to cover the manga's story entirely (which was already expected), meaning there will surely come a point when the series will take an independent path. What will happen? That remains to be discovered along the way. Netflix has a treasure in its hands, and it depends on them to make the most of its full potential.
I will gladly wait for the premiere of the third season to see how far Iñaki Godoy will go in his journey portraying the best pirate I know.
Rating: 78/100
Originally posted through scrobble.life/tv.