Summary
One Piece Season 2 wastes no time getting back into the thick of the action in “The Beginning and the End”, with no sophomore slump in sight. There are lots of familiar — and not so familiar — faces, but the pacing keeps everything manageable.
Here’s an interesting thought. The first season of Netflix’s live-action One Piece adaptation only adapted the first major story arc and completely left out a bunch of stuff, condensing 100 chapters of the manga into just eight episodes. It was a tiny drop in the seemingly limitless ocean that functions as the setting of this buccaneering adventure, something immediately apparent in the Season 2 premiere. “The Beginning and the End” is full of colourful introductions, production design that I continue to marvel at, and endless reminders that we’ve only scratched the surface of what’s really on offer here.
The new starting point helps, obviously. Monkey D. Luffy is now captain of the Straw Hats, a fully-fledged crew after they liberated Nami’s hometown from Arlong and set sail on the Going Merry in search of the Grand Line. The world’s their oyster. Sure, most of the conflict in this particular episode takes place somewhere we’ve already visited – albeit briefly – and involves characters we mostly already know, but that’s fine as an introduction, and indeed something of a mission statement, since there are enough big boss fight-style encounters in this episode alone that it’d qualify as a season finale in most other shows.
New Faces
The opening of One Piece Season 2, Episode 1 is all about establishing some new threatening faces, as if there aren’t enough to be going on with. If you recall, Roronoa Zoro took out Mr. 7 in Season 1, a member of the Baroque Works, so “The Beginning and the End” begins by welcoming three more Baroque Works agents into the fold. Meet Mr. 5, Miss Valentine, and Miss All Sunday.
It’s the latter who’s most noticeable. She swaggers through the assault on a Marine base in Shellstown like it’s no big deal, using the power of the Flower-Flower Fruit to make the Marines sprout additional appendages so they can fondle themselves to death. It’s quite the introduction, but also a reminder of the stakes at play here, since the Baroque Works are after the Straw Hats to enact revenge for the death of their compatriot, and keep themselves from ticking off their boss, Mr. 0.
The Open Water
The big overarching plot of One Piece Season 2 remains the same. Luffy is looking for the Grand Line so he can find the titular One Piece and become King of the Pirates. But that’s quite a long quest, and requires a few detours, which is obviously how this second season is going to be structured.
For instance, the Going Merry is running pretty low on food and supplies, and Sanji’s culinary magic can only go so far. That means they need to make a stop. The nearest island is Loguetown, which also happens to be the largest Marine hub in the East Blue and the place where Gold Roger was executed, thus beginning the Great Pirate Era. Only Usopp seems to recognise the danger here; Sanji needs more food, Nami needs more clothes, and Zoro needs more swords. Luffy, meanwhile, wants to enthusiastically brush up on his pirate history by visiting the site of Gold Roger’s execution. So, that’s that, then.
We briefly saw Gold Roger being executed in Loguetown in Season 1. We see him again in a flashback, making Garp promise to take care of his son. More on this later.
Loguetown
The bulk of the action in the premiere is, naturally, set in Loguetown, which is a real triumph of production design that also serves as a nexus for a few emerging subplots and character dynamics, some old and some new. There’s a lot of hustle and bustle on account of a festival being thrown for the 22nd anniversary of Gold Rogers’ execution, which has the Marines on high alert and has attracted more than a few unsavoury types. Tasked with keeping the peace is Smoker, a Marine introduced at the very tail end of the first season.
Smoker’s right-hand woman, Tashigi, is actually introduced while Zoro is sword shopping, trying to barter with a jaded shopkeeper named Ipponmatsu. Tashigi is a katana expert, enough to identify Zoro’s sword as the Wado Ichimonji, one of the 21 Great Grade swords. She also gives him a brief rundown of the Sandai Kitetsu, a cursed sword that nobody dares wield, which Zoro nonetheless claims as his second blade with a flamboyant display of how his will is stronger than its curse. Impressed by the display, Ipponmatsu also gifts him a third sword. And not a penny spent!
Zoro doesn’t know that Tashigi is a Marine, and Tashigi doesn’t know that Zoro is a pirate, but they’ll both find out about the other by the end of the episode.
Old Faces
Naturally, Luffy’s presence in Loguetown causes quite the stir. His good-natured enthusiasm looks like it’s going to make him the victim of an obvious rogue – and an even more obvious down-the-line major character – named Bartolomeo, but he actually ends up walking into a trap laid by Buggy the Clown and Alvida, both of whom are out for revenge after their previous encounters.
Alvida has levelled up since their first encounter by eating the Slip-Slip Fruit, which makes her more or less impervious to being hit, and allows her to knock Luffy out and lock him in seastone handcuffs that negate his powers. She and Buggy plan to publicly execute him, which causes enough of a commotion to lure the rest of the Straw Hats, not to mention Smoker and Tashigi, to the execution platform.
Cue the season’s first large-scale action set-piece, which is great fun. There’s also a pretty significant character moment here, since Luffy, up on the execution platform, faces his own death unflinchingly, and Buggy just so happens to be struck by lightning before he can deliver the killing blow. None of that seems like a coincidence.
More For Later
A flurry of closing scenes in One Piece Season 2, Episode 1 set up a few angles to keep an eye on as we go. Firstly, there’s the obvious rivalry between Zoro and Tashigi. They get into a bit of a fight during the escape, but Zoro leaves her alive despite getting the upper hand. She’s determined to find him, which she and Smoker are setting out to do, but Miss All Sunday also makes her a brief pitch to join the Baroque Works.
We also see Smoker get the upper hand over Sanji and Luffy, but he’s compelled to leave the latter alone by a man in a black robe who was glimpsed multiple times throughout the episode. My One Piece lore is a little rusty, but I do believe this is Monkey D. Dragon, Garp’s son and Luffy’s father, who is on the run from the World Government. Something to keep an eye on.
With the Straw Hats all safely reunited, they set sail and arrive at Reverse Mountain, the entrance to the Grand Line, with several dangerous, vengeful parties hot on their tail. How’s that for a premiere?
RELATED:
