10 Anime Moments One Piece Season 2 Will Struggle To Replicate

Summary

• Season 2 of One Piece faces the challenge of adapting outlandish storylines faithfully to live-action.
• The show’s popularity ensures a decent budget for season 2, promising to showcase Smoker’s Devil Fruit powers.
• From giant whales to dueling giants, the show must navigate difficult fantasy moments in the upcoming season.

One Piece has been portraying its source material effortlessly so far, but with season 2 set to dive into more outlandish storylines, there are some anime moments that it may find hard to capture. Despite not sticking to the anime or manga timelines to the letter, One Piece season 1 put all the original joy and attitude of artist Eiichiro Oda’s story on screen in a way that felt more faithful than perhaps any other live-action anime adaptation. If any team could find a way to put the anime’s crazier moments into live-action, it would be this one.

One Piece season 2 is being filmed and many additions to the cast have been announced, helping to confirm which storylines season 2 will cover. In season 1 of the Netflix live-action show, Iñaki Godoy’s bubbly Monkey D. Luffy and company barreled through the East Blue saga. This saga’s Loguetown arc is as good as confirmed to open season 2, with the next episode’s title a Loguetown reference. It follows that the anime’s next storyline, the Arabasta saga, will come next, inviting in fantasy moments that will be tough to adapt but could break new ground if done right.

10

Smoker’s Devil Fruit Powers In Loguetown

Loguetown Arc

Loguetown was the place of Gol D. Roger’s birth and execution, marking an important location for the Straw Hat Pirates to visit and explore in One Piece season 2, entailing numerous, hard-to-adapt fantasy moments. The Loguetown arc is the last arc in the anime’s first saga, the East Blue saga. Luffy’s main antagonist in this arc was Smoker, and with Smoker already cast for One Piece season 2, Smoker’s Devil Fruit transformation must be coming up soon. The Marine Smoker will be portrayed by Hollyoaks actor Callum Kerr and will experience a fantastical power-up in his fight with Luffy.

One Piece season 2 began filming in July and is expected to wrap in December, with editing also underway, but no release date has been announced.

One Piece proved its popularity on release, accumulating almost 40 million views in under two weeks, so it shouldn’t have had trouble securing a decent budget for season 2. With the show’s second season renewed just two weeks after launch, it seems like there could be enough faith in the show to grant it the resources to display Smoker’s Devil Fruit powers with panache. Despite this, showrunners Matt Owens and Steve Maeda still face the task of depicting Smoker’s swirling clouds of power convincingly through painstaking CGI or practical effects.

9

Crocus And Laboon The Giant Whale

Reverse Mountain Arc

Crocus is one of the One Piece characters to expect in season 2, with his place in the Reverse Mountain arc providing some moments that may be hard to put into live-action. Clive Russel is confirmed to play Crocus in One Piece season 2, so Gol D. Roger’s old doctor will certainly be running through at least some of his canonical storylines in the Netflix show. One of these involved a giant whale called Laboon – Laboon swallowed the Straw Hat Pirates in the Grand Line, presenting a difficult scene for the live-action show to create.

In the One Piece anime, the Reverse Mountain arc transpired in episodes 61-63.

With every live-action episode representing maybe 5-7 anime episodes, it seems like season 1 may have adapted roughly 44 anime episodes, leaving season 2 to get into Laboon’s story around its third episode. The Netflix show will face a challenge showing a realistic giant whale swallowing Luffy’s crew, and Luffy drawing the Straw Hat Pirates logo on its face. Whatever the show does with Crocus and Laboon’s story, it is sure to be surprising.

8

Ms. Wednesday’s Duck

Whisky Peak Arc

The Whisky Peak arc followed on from the Reverse Mountain arc, ushering in ample anime highlights that would provide any live-action adaptation difficulty in filming. One in particular stands out as an intriguing fantasy moment ripe for converting to live-action, but not without its own set of challenges. The crew met Miss Wednesday in this arc in the anime, who rode a giant duck called Karoo. Animatronics and CGI are two ways that the show could tackle Karoo, but how it will turn out is anyone’s guess.

Miss Wednesday provided an antagonist for the Straw Hat Pirates during this arc before the plot thickened somewhat, but her noble steed was a highlight of the storyline. Wednesday’s mount, Karoo, was one of the fastest modes of transport available in the Arabasta Kingdom. Karoo’s size and speed will both render him a hard anime feature to bring to the Netflix show, but he could end up being one of the best parts of season 2.

7

The Huge Mountains On Whisky Peak

Whisky Peak Arc

Whisky Peak was located on an island containing gigantic cacti-shaped mountains that towered above the town, which would necessitate some interesting creative decisions from Maeda and Owens. The Whisky Peak arc is also known as the Cactus Island arc. This is for the good reason that the town called Whisky Peak was surrounded by huge, spherical mountains covered in graves that made them resemble cacti. This would present a challenge for directors.

Netflix will likely turn to a green screen and illustrations to assemble the mountains on Cactus Island, but it may take some detailed work to show any of this close up. The tempestuous weather around Cactus Island will also be an anime element that the Netflix live-action show will probably bring to season 2. Overall, the environment of Cactus Island stands to provide a few obstacles for Kaji Productions.

6

Dorry And Brogy Dueling On Little Garden

Little Garden Arc

There is one moment from the Little Garden arc, in the Arabasta saga, that will likely provide the Netflix live-action show with a key plot point that will be hard to adapt. Set after the Whisky Peak arc, Little Garden is named after the island that the Straw Hat Pirates find themselves on, where they encounter two dueling giants called Dorry and Brogy. This clash of the titans may find One Piece hard-pressed to represent the anime faithfully.

Nonetheless, Dorry and Brogy have already been cast, so they must feature in a prediction of the storylines of One Piece season 2. The Little Garden island was stuck in the prehistoric era and Dorry and Brogy were just two of its mammoths. Dorry will be played by Werner Coetser and Brogy will be played by Brendan Murray, but the Netflix show will have to use scaling technology to make them appear bigger than season 2’s other actors.

5

Dinosaurs On Little Garden

Little Garden Arc

David Dastmalchian will play Mr. 3 in this arc, but the dinosaurs on the Little Garden island may end up being the real high point of this part of the show, despite the obvious difficulties of including them. The crew encounters Baroque Works members on this island who each provide their own unique adaptation challenge, but putting live-action dinosaurs on screen remains just as trying as ever. The show could use a combination of CGI and animatronics here.

“Four fully animatronic snails that are roughly the size of house cats were created” for the One Piece season 1 transponder snails (via IBC365). Therefore, it’s perfectly possible that animatronics will be used to create dinosaurs in the Little Garden arc. The arc is already confirmed via the casting of Mr. 3, but it’s uncertain how the show will choose to tackle its prehistoric island and the various larger-than-life obstacles it presents.

4

The One Piece Fan-Favorite Chopper

Drum Island Arc

Along with Monkey D. Luffy’s Gear 2 and Gear 5 transformations in the anime, Chopper is a fan-favorite feature that will be hard to adapt into a live-action show. Due to Chopper’s importance, it’s very likely that he will enter the show at some point, and there’s a good chance that he may join season 2. Tony Tony Chopper ended up joining the Straw Hat Pirates as doctor, after Crocus rejected this position in the Reverse Mountain arc, but it is his unique appearance that will make him hard to adapt.

Chopper was a small, toddler-sized reindeer that had eaten a Devil Fruit, like Luffy. This enabled him to transform into human-reindeer hybrids of differing sorts, depending on his situation and requirements. Head of Prosthetics Jaco Snyman commented that he was “looking forward to working with Tony Tony Chopper” and that “the character would be mostly prosthetics” (via Gamespot). This fascinating glimpse behind-the-scenes into the live-action show confirms that challenging though it may be, planning for Chopper is well under way.

3

Daz Bones’ Devil Fruit Abilities

Arabasta Arc

Daz Bones, otherwise known as Mr. 1, may present some difficulties to showrunners if included in One Piece season 2. The Baroque Works villain was a former bounty hunter and a major villain during the Arabasta arc, presenting the Straw Hat Pirates with some strong opposition. Mr. 1 was a formidable opponent even without his Devil Fruit, but it is Bones’ Supa Supa no Mi Devil Fruit transformation that will challenge showrunners.

The Arabasta arc was shown in episodes 92-130 of the One Piece anime.

Daz Bones’ consumption of the Devil Fruit is a good example of how One Piece started to up the ante near the end of the Arabasta saga, starting to show more Devil Fruit transformations. These imaginative moments saw the consumer of the fruit develop magical abilities that helped them fight. In the case of Mr. 1, the Devil Fruit allowed parts of his body to become metal weapons, making his muscle-bound body even more dangerous.

2

Crocodile Turning Into Sand

Arabasta Arc

Crocodile is one of One Piece’s best villains, but his transformation in the One Piece anime may be difficult to put into the Netflix show. The One Piece live-action show will face an uphill battle to adapt Crocodile’s high-powered Devil Fruit transformation. Along with Daz Bones, Luffy, and Chopper, Crocodile’s transformation makes for one of the signature One Piece moments, defining the supernatural prowess of its characters. Luffy actor Iñaki Godoy teased Crocodile’s appearance on X:

This X post from Netflix France shows Luffy enjoying some time in the sun, near some kind of fake crocodile. If anything foreshadows the classic One Piece villain’s appearance in the Netflix show, this does. Crocodile eating the Suna-Suna no Mi Devil Fruit allowed him to change his body into some kind of sand-like substance. This meant that he could absorb damage and escape physical trauma in battles, whilst remaining elusive. The Netflix show may have to use CGI to create this effect, in its attempt to adapt Crocodile.

1

Ace Vs. Smoker

Arabasta Arc

One Piece will probably display the fight between Ace and Smoker that happens in the Arabasta saga, but it won’t be easy to make fit for live-action. Luffy’s adopted brother, Portgas D. Ace appeared for the first time in the One Piece anime in the Drum Island saga, but he really shone in the Arabasta arc. Ace helped Luffy and his crew out, and faced Marine Smoker in a memorable Devil Fruit showdown that would be a highlight of One Piece season 2.

With talk of Blue Beetle actor Xolo Maridueña playing Ace, it’s only a matter of time until the casting of Ace is announced. Although Ace doesn’t have the biggest role in the Arabasta saga, he is a crucial figure in the series overall, so his inclusion in One Piece season 2 seems inevitable. Ace and Smoker’s fight sees them both use their Devil Fruit powers to wild effect, creating a smoke and fire tornado above the streets. If this does appear in One Piece season 2, it won’t have been quick or easy to put on screen, likely requiring ample CGI.

Source: IBC365, Gamespot