RIOTUS

It’s been two and a half years since the live-action One Piece series hit Netflix in 2023, but now it’s back with season One Piece: Into the Grand Line. Following up from the end of the first season, we see the adaptation of the immensely popular and prolific manga and anime series. Here, the Straw Hat crew, led by Monkey D. Luffy with Roronoa Zoro, Nami, Usopp, and Sanji, leave the East Blue and enter the Grand Line full of adventures and new foes like the mysterious Baroque Works, as well as a new Marine Captain chasing after them – Smoker. For manga readers and anime watchers, the show goes from the start of the Grand Line through the Drum Island arc, where we meet the adorably cute reindeer Chopper.

This season gets right back into the adventure with not much catch-up, which I like; they don’t have a lot of time to waste on a lot of exposition with so much they need to fit into these eight-episode seasons. All the cast now feel a lot more comfortable in their roles than last season. While that might be the usual for most shows with one with such a huge fanbase of the original and another adaptation, there’s a much bigger shadow and maybe less wiggle room to make these characters their own. Yet here, with the show being in live action compared to drawings on a page or animation, where the characters in some ways stay a bit frozen in amber in how they are, even as the show and story progress, this show is starting to do something different.

I feel like Iñaki Godoy as Luffy on the show and in all the promotion for the series is starting already to get into the rarefied air of embodying this comic character, much like how Christopher Reeve does with Superman or Robert Downey Jr. with Tony Stark/Iron Man. Godoy is just so great as Luffy; he brings all the exuberance, silliness, charm, and drive you want from Luffy. He’s a pure character of adventure that stands out in the entertainment landscape; he’s simple in a good way. Godoy has some great scenes where he shows his capabilities in his range. He gets to show some good emotional changes as Luffy has to overcome some obstacles that have some serious effects on his usual demeanor. I feel that this season pulls off those big emotional crying scenes Oda puts in the manga a lot better this season, and Godoy did it the best.

I was impressed with Emily Rudd as Nami as well. While Nami in the live-action series is a lot less conniving than she is in the manga/anime because she’s a cat burglar and all, Rudd plays her as a character who has a bit more responsible presence in the crew. This change might feel more like the trope of the woman character has to be the steady one and carry the emotional labor, but it’s not really that, as I feel the whole crew here is a tad bit more mature than their counterparts in the earlier versions of the story. With this series being made with the past in hindsight instead of essentially making it up as it’s going along, it can really sow those seeds of where the character will end up in later parts now in the earlier parts of the adventure with Rudd pulling it off the best. It feels she understands Nami a great deal and takes the lead well in some scenes. Her scenes with Taz Skylar and Charithra Chandran are some of the real standouts in the season for me.

Speaking of Taz Skylar, I sure do like him as Sanji. He’s taken this character from a girl-crazy lover boy to an actual cool, heartthrob type of character. A lot of this season continues the rivalry Sanji has with Zoro, and those scenes are quite fun. He also has some solid chemistry with Rudd’s Nami, as I stated. Sanji is very much the “coolest” character in this show, and his fight scene work in this season is great. My guy is really out here kicking, and it’s great to see. Skylar does get some cool solo stuff to do on Little Garden and does great with his quieter, more dramatic scenes later in the season.

If there was any other actor whose character could be seen as the second main character this season, it’s Mackenyu’s Zoro. In the first season, showing Zoro taking out Mr. 7 of Baroque Works paid off more this season as his character’s reputation carries a lot of the action, driving this season. Mackenyu adds a lot to Zoro by giving him more vulnerability than just being the tough samurai. Mackenyu does well with his dry delivery and facial expressions to show his feelings about what’s going on. He also has the best action scene in the whole season with Zoro versus a large group of foes, and it’s all done in a big set. It reminds me of action scenes you’d see in Tony Jaa’s The Protector and some of the Ruroni Kenshin films. He’s impressive in each fight scene, the shoot, and changes the way you might think of some of these scenes as he’s clearly killing folks. Much as I’ve said with the other actors, I feel he’s bringing more emotional depth that feels like the character is maturing as they go on this journey.

Now my man Captain Usopp does shine in this season as a lot of his shook one nature comes further to light here once things progress to new levels of danger. Jacob Romero Gibson’s version of Usopp sometimes outshines the original for me. He’s not goofy all the time, and his struggles with his fear feel a lot more palpable here than in the show since a lot of the dangers feel much higher in stakes than they do in other versions. When you’re watching or reading a shonen series from week to week, you feel that your core characters are safe. Still, while I didn’t feel like Usopp might die, since the violence is a bit more explicit in what happens to people, Gibson’s very visual apprehension of just jumping into danger makes sense. He has a great arc in this season and has a great episode that focuses on him, where he gets to show a lot of what he can do.

Charithra Chandran’s Miss Wednesday is fun, and she brings some great energy to the show. I like Callum Kerr as Smoker. I didn’t think they could pull off this character with his two cigars in his mouth, but I need to stop doubting these folks making this show. Julia Rehwald is great as Tashigi, and I look forward to her getting to do more in the next season and the rivalry with Zoro. Lera Abova brings the right amount of mystery to Miss All Sunday and is the most threatening member of Baroque Works. David Dastmalchian is his usual fantastic as the arrogant Mr. 3, and Camrus Johnson brings the right amount of cool as Mr. 5.

I don’t want to forget the amazing team of production designers, set designers, costumers, hair and makeup people, VFX people, and all the other filmmakers who are making the world of One Piece come to life on screen. It’s one of the things that makes this show special, that it feels tactile and that people are jumping around and doing this stuff in a real space. Characters that you never thought you’d see in a live-action with their amazing abilities and devil fruits executed on screen. I feel everyone learned from the first season and improved on every metric. It all feels like One Piece, and that leads us to Chopper. A completely CG character that has to be fantastical, even for the characters in the story, and feel realistic.

Chopper is very captivating once he appears and never feels out of place or weird when interacting with the actors. He’s cute like the drawings and balances a cartooniness and an authentic animal-like feel that really shows what these folks can do. Mikaela Hoover is great at voicing Chopper and can run the gamut of emotions when playing the character. Long-time fans should be very happy, and I bet a ton of new fans will instantly fall in love with Tony Tony Chopper this season.

There’s so much to talk about with the show, even with only eight episodes, but it felt like an amazing meal crafted by Sanji himself. Everything is better this season, and Eiichiro Oda and all the cast and crew should feel great about their work. I’m probably just a One Piece mark, but I enjoyed this a lot, and I feel many others will too. One Piece: Into the Grand Line is an amazing adaptation and THE shining example of bringing shonen manga and anime to live action, and pushes the bar further.