Netflix ‘One Piece’ Season 2 Review - Adventure Without Awe

One of my biggest pet peeves is the trope where we are led to believe that a character, in a dangerous situation, has died, only for the show or film to reveal that they are very much alive. This false alarm is annoying mainly because it exists for cheap sentimentality. The characters look shocked, the supposed victim bids a sad goodbye, and the audience is asked to weep for the soon-to-be-deceased. What do you know, the person we thought would die ends up getting rescued or something! At such moments, I yell at the screen, "Why create unnecessary drama over a whole lot of nothing?" I am now convinced that any show or movie that deploys this trope is just ill-conceived. It's a sign that the filmmakers are utterly unimaginative.

One Piece, the live-action adaptation of a popular manga, is one such series. In its second season, Monkey D. Luffy (Iñaki Godoy) gives a sentimental smile before his (apparent) beheading and is directly hit by explosive ammunition, but in both cases, he emerges without a scratch on his body. In the latter scenario, we get a line that winks at this lack of logic, though what's the use of this self-awareness when you are not improving anything? Even a soldier and a giant at first appear dead, but then they are revealed to be alive. Unsurprisingly, then, I was not too worried about Nami's (Emily Rudd) fate when she got sick.

I wish I could say this is the only problem with One Piece. Season 2, alas, is filled with more sentimental hokum, like sobby backstories. There is a whale that misses her pirate companions and a reindeer who, in memory of his one and only friend, keeps a pirate flag safely inside a chest. Call this another pet peeve—scenes that try to squeeze the tear ducts relentlessly. It's not enough that the whale makes sad whale noises; tears have to roll down her face. It's not enough that the reindeer's friend is dying; he has to be provided with a poisonous mushroom soup prepared by the naive reindeer himself so that, on top of pain, we can get a layer of guilty feelings. These extra steps that One Piece takes to turn its drama mawkish didn't sit well with me. I felt as if someone from behind the camera was feeding me loud emotional cues—a sign that indicates to me that the creators don't have complete faith in the story they are telling.

Another major issue with One Piece is that, for an adventure epic, it's devoid of a sense of wonder, astonishment, and giddy thrills. When the ship of the Straw Hat Pirates, the Merry, goes upwards and then down into a whale's belly, we don't feel exhilarated. Rather, we are curiously at a distance from the events on screen, and that's because a part of our brain processes the images as artificial, as works of CGI. The viewer is never immersed when watching One Piece. We go to a cactus island called Whisky Peak, a prehistoric island with dinosaurs and giants, but we are never filled with awe—we don't excitedly jump in our seats. In fact, with the addition of creatures like a T. Rex, it seems as if the show were overcompensating.

And yet, if we stick with One Piece, we do so due to the colorful characters on the screen. I am not just thinking about Luffy and his crew (including Charithra Chandran as Nefertari Vivi), but also the villains like Mr. 9 (Daniel Lasker), Miss Goldenweek (Sophia Anne Caruso), Miss All Sunday (Lera Abova), Mr. 3 (David Dastmalchian), and Miss Valentine (Jazzara Jaslyn). Each of them is memorable; they have a presence.

There is also some pleasure in watching a hero like Luffy, who—at least most of the time—never loses his childish casualness, his unserious demeanor, even in the face of extreme danger. Here is a boy who goes with the flow, who teaches you to play with obstacles and tackle them with a smile. Luffy's optimism and his love for his friends, as well as strangers, make him a captain worth following. Moreover, the camaraderie these Straw Hat Pirates share with each other is so warm, so infectious, it injects a sense of liveliness into this material. This liveliness is what makes you feel as if you are on an adventure. In other words, One Piece owes a debt to its wonderful actors and characters. This also means they deserve better.

Final Score- [4.5/10]
Reviewed by - Vikas Yadav
Follow @vikasonorous on Twitter
Publisher at Midgard Times