One Piece has just debuted on Netflix, and if you’ve finished it, you know that it’s leading into more source material pulled from the endless manga/anime. But whether or not we actually get a chance to see that in a season 2 remains to be seen.
While some studios, when making something with a big budget, may cost-sink invest ahead of launch (Amazon’s Rings of Power) Netflix…does not do that. They are notorious hard to squeeze second and third seasons out of, and nothing is safe.
However, the good news is that One Piece is starting out strong, not only reviewing well among critics and fans (which honestly, Netflix doesn’t seem to really care much about) but more importantly, it has debuted at #1 on day 1 of it’s launch on Netflix.
That’s the best start you could hope for, albeit given that Netflix has not released actual viewing hours yet, we are at the mercy of the ranking order of the chart telling us little. I will say that there is limited competition in the rest of the list right now. #2 is an odd documentary about living to be as old as possible. #3 is a British series set in Spain that only stayed on top for a short while. The rest are reality shows or things that peaked a long time ago. Still, it’s certainly better than One Piece debuting at #2 or #3.
It is beyond obvious that source material is not a problem. Netflix could make a hundred seasons of the show if they wanted to, as there are over a thousand episodes of the anime. It’s more a matter of culling what shouldn’t be filmed and deciding what should be.
Of course it’s just viewership, and enough viewership to warrant One Piece’s reportedly extremely high budget. The other complicating factor here is the strike, as in the past, strikes like this have killed shows that may have been renewed otherwise for one reason or another. Of course, Netflix is one of the prime streaming services being accused of underpaying those making its shows, and so far they have yet to strike a deal with writers and actors to change that.
A show as big as One Piece would likely normally have anywhere from 15-18 months at least between seasons. But now? It’s probably going to be at least two years, and that’s if it’s renewed at all. It’s a strong debut, certainly, but we’ll need to see how long it stays there, and the viewing hours Netflix reports after a week, and then, the following month. I’d be shocked if we heard anything earlier.
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