Any anime fan knows a sad reality. Practically no anime has had an acceptable live-action version. Not in the West. In Japan, there are quite good adaptations, but those rarely reach our lands. And when the ones in charge of adapting the animes are Western, the results tend to be terrible.
Why? Because what makes anime special is rarely respected. Seen as something childish and silly, there is often an attempt to turn it around. To give it a more serious, dark, or adult tone. This has given us disasters like the Dragon Ball movies or Ghost in the Shell, or the series of Mobile Suit Gundam. Because we prefer not to even talk about the Netflix movie of Death Note.
But that doesn’t mean there aren’t good live-action adaptations. Even in the West. Because an anime has managed to break that curse and be exactly what, at least part of the fans, expected. Even managing to captivate an audience that hasn’t seen the anime and has found in it an interesting, exciting, and heartfelt series. That is One Piece. A series that seems incapable of missing the mark, no matter what medium it is adapted to.
One Piece has a virtue: it knows how to be ridiculous and passionate
One Piece is a good adaptation because it dares to be everything that this kind of adaptations usually are not: faithful to the original material. It’s a bit silly, a bit absurd, and sometimes its actors seem to be dressed in cosplay. And that’s how it should be. Because the universe of One Piece is not ours, and we cannot pretend that it is.
Understanding the humor of the series, its particular aesthetic codes, and how a touch of strangeness suits it well is why the series has performed well among the audience. Not just those who follow the anime. Because the greatest virtue of the One Piece live action is how it has managed to interest even people who have never seen the anime. This is absolutely normal, given that it is an anime with over a thousand episodes to its name and, at this point, it is difficult to follow for most.
In that sense, that is the other great virtue of the live-action series of One Piece. Being an excellent gateway for the franchise. Something that, it seems, will continue to expand.
A sneak peek coming soon for a season with substance
Although Netflix had not yet announced when we could see more of this live-action series, it had said that there would be a second season. The rumors suggested that we would have to wait until 2026, but we will actually be able to do it much sooner. This 2025. And in fact, before the end of the month. Because at the live event Tadum there will be a preview of the second season on May 31st.
With the new season having started production in July of last year, it is to be expected that it should have finished a long time ago. So we shouldn’t be surprised if it ends up having a full release much sooner than we expect.
Additionally, the second season will not fall short in terms of material it will cover. Although undoubtedly for fans, there could always be more. Starting from the Loguetown arc, it will go up to the Drum Island arc. This amounts to around 33 episodes of the original anime. Fewer than the first season, which covered about 48 episodes (from the Romance Dawn arc to the Arlong Park arc), but still, a more than acceptable amount of episodes.
This does not change the fact that, to adapt the entire original work, they will need to either increase the pace or accept that it will take them many seasons. Assuming that each season adapts six arcs and that they do not adapt the arcs that are not in continuity with the manga, it would still take them another four seasons to catch up to the anime. A figure that is not outrageous, but in an era where series cancellations are rampant, it sounds difficult to achieve.
Nothing to fear here for the future of One Piece
In any case, there are few reasons to fear. The first season performed very well and the series delves into much more intense arcs and with much more defined characters than its first season. Therefore, it should have no problem continuing to maintain its momentum in the future.
Whether One Piece, the live-action series, will catch up to the manga and anime remains to be seen. Especially since Eiichiro Oda himself is already thinking about the conclusion of the story. But what is clear is that One Piece is, against all odds, one of the best live-action adaptations of an anime. And that doesn’t seem to be changing with this second season.
