One Piece season 1 finale: Did cliffhanger reveal Smoker?

One Piece season 1

Today, the entirety of One Piece season 1 dropped on Netflix, and it feels already like there is a great tease for season 2!

(Of course, there are some spoilers ahead — exercise some caution here.)

In the closing minutes of episode 8 a.k.a. the finale, we see the back of a man’s hand and a very familiar coat. The character you are seeing here is almost 100% Smoker, a formidable adversary for Luffy from the original manga. He is a Marine who will square off against our lead, provided of course that a season 2 happens. This was clearly the producers daring Netflix to make more and honestly, we can’t blame them. Think about just how much material is out there and it is clear that there is room for SO much more.

As for whether or not we’re going to get more, that is where at least a little bit of the mystery lies at this given moment in time. Netflix has not confirmed anything, but it feels like reception to One Piece season 1 has been reasonably positive with most viewers and critics so far. We know that manga and anime are notoriously hard to adapt to live-action, in particular to Western audiences. We know it’s easy to just look to Cowboy Bebop as one example of something that did not work but in reality, that is just one in a really long line of failures when it comes to these adaptations. If this show continues to succeed it is bucking a trend, and we do think that the creative team deeply cares for this material.

We just hope, in the end, that both diehard and new fans alike watch the show, especially since promotion is tough amidst the SAG-AFTRA strike.

Related Get some more news about a possible One Piece season 2 at Netflix

What do you think about the events of the One Piece season 1 finale, including the big cliffhanger?

Be sure to share right now in the attached comments! Once you do just that, remember to come back for some other information that is coming up in the near future.

(Photo: Netflix.)

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