The Last Airbender How It’s Done

One Piece season 2 is here, and it’s a perfect demonstration for Avatar: The Last Airbender on how live-action remakes should be done. Both these shows are remakes of beloved animated series brought to the screen by the same streaming platform. However, Netflix has seen significantly different reception from one live-action show to the next. One Piece, which premiered its first season in 2023, was a pretty instant hit, and that fact really kicked up hope that 2024’s Avatar: The Last Airbender would be just as good. Unfortunately, it fell a bit flatter.

One Piece season 1 did the impossible by earning a 93% critic score on Rotten Tomatoes. Perhaps even more impressive was its 95% audience score. It’s no easy task to impress anime fans, and after several terrible failed attempts from Netflix (looking at you, Death Note), One Piece opened up a new world of hope. However, when the live-action Avatar: The Last Airbender premiered, that hope dwindled. It certainly isn’t the worst series of its kind, but the 62% and 70% critic and audience scores on Rotten Tomatoes, respectively, prove there is room for improvement.

Thankfully, Avatar: The Last Airbender‘s blunders did nothing to hinder One Piece‘s continued success. Season 2 arrived in March 2026, and it is, somehow, even better than season 1. This new installment boasts an impressive 100% critic score on Rotten Tomatoes, while audiences continued with their 95% approval rating. It’s pretty definitive proof that one of Netflix’s live-action remakes is just better done than the other.

One Piece Is A Better Live-Action Adaptation Than Avatar: The Last Airbender

Neither One Piece nor Avatar: The Last Airbender would be easy shows to adapt into live-action, and it’s worth noting that the latter series could have been a lot worse (just take a look at the live-action movie from 2010). Still, there’s a clear winner between these two projects. In fact, One Piece is the standard against which all live-action remakes should be set.

The original One Piece anime is over the top, even by anime standards. The art style is loud and unique, and the story structure and lore are entirely ungrounded. Netflix might have been tempted to tone all of this down for its live-action remake. However, showrunners Matt Owens and Steven Maeda instead went to great lengths to preserve all those delicious details from the original show. Netflix’s One Piece isn’t just a remake of a popular anime series—it’s a celebration of the art, color, culture, and world Eiichiro Oda created in all its outrageous glory.

Avatar: The Last Airbender Missed The Point Of The Animated Series

When considering everything that One Piece did right, especially as it caught its stride in season 2, it becomes painfully clear where Avatar: The Last Airbender went wrong. The latter Netflix series is visually lovely, and the performances from its cast are truly great. In many ways, the live-action Avatar appears exactly as it should. However, it’s not the celebration of the original series that it should be. Instead, it’s a watered-down recreation.

Netflix’s Avatar: The Last Airbender worked a bit too hard to tone down the childish fun of the original series. There is charm, but the cheesy camp has been whipped away to sit within a more realistic landscape. The world itself becomes darker and more mature. This itself might have been forgiven. However, this shift in maturity was contradicted by the baffling simplification of Avatar‘s character arcs. The original series is beautifully profound for a children’s show, yet, in an effort to broaden the viewer base, the live-action show whiped away any nuanced development.

Future Live-Action Remakes Should Take Notes From One Piece

Avatar: The Last Airbender and One Piece are two very different animated shows with one thing in common—they are both all about the heartwarming development of their characters. In truth, this is common in anime itself. These are character-driven stories, and while we all love the spectacle, it comes to nothing without those painfully profound character and story arcs. The worst live-action remakes are the ones that forget that.

Netflix’s One Piece keeps its characters at the front and center and uses its cinematography to pay homage to the art and creativity of the original series. It works because it maintains a very careful balance. This will be no easy thing to replicate, but any future live-action remake would be smart to make the effort. Perhaps Avatar: The Last Airbender can capture something similar with season 2. For now, at least, One Piece remains king.