In the late '90s, Gasaraki portrayed a troubling U.S. military quagmire in the fictional Middle Eastern nation of Belgistan, practically forecasting the conflicts ahead. One Piece Season Two originally aired in Japan between January 2001 and February 2003, during which time America faced tragedy and launched headfirst into two ill-advised wars in the Middle East. And in Season Two, the Straw Hat pirates are drawn into their world's own desert kingdom conflict.

The season opens following our heroes' narrow escape from Loguetown thanks to assistance from the mysterious world's most wanted man, Dragon, against Navy officers Smoker and Tashigi. Aiming at last for the Grand Line, they're quickly sidetracked by the appearance of a little girl named Apis and a run-in with the gigantic Sea Kings of the Calm Belt, where no currents flow and no winds blow, temporarily stranding the Going Merry. Upon escaping and making it to Apis's homeland of Battleship Island, the Straw Hats quest for the aptly named Lost Island to find her dragon "grandfather's" nest, with the obese Commodore Nelson and vicious mercenary Eric in hot pursuit. With proper ass-kickings distributed to all deserving, this little filler arc wraps with the Straw Hats ascending Reverse Mountain on the Going Merry and at last arriving in the Grand Line.

There's no time for celebration, however, as a giant whale bars the way forward and soon swallows our heroes, taking their adventure TO THE BELLY OF A WHALE! This proves to be a positive thing, as they get a crash course on navigating the Grand Line — in which the winds and currents constantly change — from an old man living within the whale, along with the necessary Log Pose compass to direct the ship by island magnetism to progress on their journey. They pick up a couple of ill-intentioned passengers from there and deliver them to their hometown of Whisky Peak, where at last the Straw Hats are greeted as heroes. The royal treatment is too good to be true, as the town turns out to be a front for bounty hunters in the nefarious Baroque Works organization.

The appearance of Baroque Works marked the beginning of the Alabasta Arc, which dominates Season Two. One of the two aforementioned ill-intentioned passengers from the whale turned out to be Princess Vivi of Alabasta, who had infiltrated Baroque Works years ago with royal army captain Igaram and learned of a plot to destabilize and overthrow their desert kingdom. They'd discovered that the leader of the secretive Baroque Works was none other than Crocodile, one of the Seven Warlords of the Sea (extremely powerful pirates sanctioned by the world government to fight other pirates for them) and a revered hero in Alabasta. The Straw Hats agree to ferry Vivi back to Alabasta and assist her in her cause while Igaram serves as a decoy, only to witness his ship's immediate destruction at the hands of Crocodile's right-hand woman, codenamed Miss All-Sunday, who takes a particular interest in the Straw Hats.

Further fillerish episodes follow — while bringing some overall story development, as most filler episodes still do, keeping them far from worthless in One Piece — looking back at minor characters from early in the show and bringing the Straw Hats to a prehistoric island populated by dinosaurs and a pair of dueling giants. Several Baroque Works "officer agents" show up and things get ugly.

Another detour prior to reaching Alabasta is made necessary by the Straw Hats' lack of a doctor when Nami falls ill, and so the Straw Hats come aground in the snowy former kingdom of Drum. Their search for a doctor brings them into contact with blue-nosed reindeer Tony Tony Chopper, who ate the Human-Human Fruit and gained the ability to transform between a variety of human-reindeer hybrid forms, as well as speech. While Nami receives treatment from his mentor, the elderly eccentric Doctor Kureha ("Doctorine"), the pirates learn Chopper's sad story and Luffy sets to recruiting him to be their ship's doctor. Things get messy when former Drum despot Wapol returns with archer and afro-wielding (literally) minions in tow, and only when Luffy defeats them does Chopper agree to join the Straw Hats as their sixth crew member.

Setting sail with a new furry friend, the Straw Hats finally arrive in Alabasta to find Smoker and Tashigi waiting, along with Luffy's even-more-powerful fire-wielding brother, Fire Fist Ace. Small stories play out, showcasing the suffering of the people of Alabasta, where rain hadn't fallen in three years, and introducing a wide range of characters from the rebel army Crocodile intended to see sink the nation into civil war, and Kung Fu Dugongs. You read that right. Just take a moment to imagine it. Do it. There, now don't you feel better? You're actually now a better person for having done this.

The Straw Hats and Vivi overcome hardship as they cross the perilous desert in pursuit of the big bad Crocodile, and fall into a trap in his casino, Raindinners. All hope seems lost as the Baroque Works officer agents assemble and Crocodile, who's nearly indestructible due to his body being made of sand courtesy of a Devil Fruit, sets out to watch Alabasta's fall first-hand. With only hours until the civil war commences, it's a mad race against time to get Vivi to the capital city of Alubarna to address her people.

The shit hits the fan when war comes to Alubarna as Baroque Works agents who'd infiltrated both the rebel and royal armies sabotage Vivi's efforts to save her people, and the two massive armies — the royal army alone comprised of a million men — tear into each other on the city streets. The Straw Hats stake their lives on taking down the Baroque Works officer agents, even Nami, seeing her first battle with the weather-controlling Clima Takt staff she had Usopp make her. Vivi's hopes are crushed to dust time and time again as her efforts to reach her people with her voice go ignored, and a bloodthirsty madness rages through both sides in a deeply painful portrayal of meaningless, manipulated civil warfare. After nearly dying in an earlier duel with Crocodile, Luffy arrives in Alubarna last and the final throwdowns with Crocodile end up being among the most epic and satisfying of the entire series, showing both that Luffy can be defeated and the lengths that one must go to to best one of the Seven Warlords.

A final countdown plays out to save the two armies from a time bomb, but following that, with Crocodile defeated, neither side is willing to back down. Gripped with wartime traumatic stress, a million-plus men are still set on killing each other, despite having the truth revealed and no reason left to fight. They can't bring themselves to drop their weapons. It takes something decisive to bring a happy ending to the brutal division between the men of Alabasta.

Season Two closes with the short fifth season by the original Japanese seasonal breakdown — the western Season Two follows the end of season one through all of season five in these near-hundred episodes. Most of the Straw Hats receive an additional dedicated character-development episode, all of which are appreciable. (One Piece is dedicated to developing its characters meaningfully in a way few shounen action series ever bother.) Then, with higher bounties on their head, the Straw Hats are chased by naval fleets into two more adventures. In the first, they meet the old pirate Zenny the Moneylender, who lives on a small island with a bunch of goats. In the second, they find themselves trapped in the distorted-space ship graveyard known as Ape's Concert, where they help an elderly scientist reunite with childhood friends who turned out to still be children in this other space.

Before closing my discussion of Season Two's expansive storyline, I want to take a little more time to discuss the individual characters and their appeal. I'd begun doing so in my first season review with Luffy, but changed the subject and failed to cover the rest.

Second crew member Zoro, who aspires to be the world's greatest swordsman, brings to the crew their biggest front of strength next to Luffy, with the two being evenly matched in terms of strength. He's one of the most straightforward and tough of the Straw Hats, with little sense of humor. This is offset by the absurdity of his fighting style, involving swords in each hand and a third clenched between his teeth.

Nami, the navigator, is the most level-headed of the crew's young members. Prior to joining she sailed the seas, robbing pirates and marines alike, to amass a hoard for a distressing cause that played out during the Arlong Arc, in Season One. After gaining freedom from the life she'd been trapped in, she decided to pursue her lifelong dream of making a sea chart of the entire world. Her story's the first on the show that can be called heartbreaking, a primary reason the Arlong Arc as the best part of the first season. Like most of the Straw Hats, her good sense has its limits. Despite no longer having to play burglar, she still retains her lust for treasure after joining the crew, and she can prioritize her avarice over her own safety without batting an eye.

Usopp, their sniper boy who cried pirate, is an enjoyable contradiction. His design is one of the more absurd of the main cast, with his long, pointy nose, which I suspect is intended to make the viewer think of Pinocchio. He developed into a compulsive liar over the course of his childhood, but his lies stemmed from who he wanted to be: "Captain Usopp," brave warrior of the sea, taking after the father who abandoned him. Like his fellow general-noncombatant Nami, his fights are among the most interesting on the show, by the simple fact that he isn't a fighter by nature. Unlike the ceaselessly-reckless Luffy or badass Zoro and Sanji, he constantly faces his own cowardice in his fights, and has to think his way through, using trickery and deception to wage psychological warfare against much stronger enemies, having only a slingshot and a bag of tricks at his side.

Sanji serves as the crew's token womanizer, or to be more accurate, wannabe-womanizer. While he's not exactly written off or ignored as any kind of loser, he's consistently ignored by all the women he hits on in the series, and he hits on virtually every woman he crosses paths with — most frequently Nami and Robin, whom he dotes on aboard the Going Merry. You almost have to pity Sanji for the fact that Eiichiro Oda isn't inclined to ever write a love story into the series, keeping its focus on being an epic high seas adventure that'd appeal to children and adults alike. His breakdancing combat, while it's gotten less focus than Luffy and Zoro's fights so far, is always amusing to watch, and his culinary storylines here and there add an interesting touch to the vast breadth of stories told in One Piece.

Chopper is one of the most popular characters in One Piece, and huge in Japan in general. Once he's introduced, it's hard not to see why. He's sort of the definitive mascot character in anime, typically staying in a very short, super-deformed humanoid form with a huge red hat on over his antlers and a pair of blue shorts. His outfit contorts to fit each of his increasingly absurd transformations, which get only get more bizarre when he doses himself with his performance enhancing Rumble Ball drug that gives him access to a multitude of additional transformations for three minutes. This gives his few battles so far a unique edge, like each of the other characters with their respective specialties and super powers. His backstory, which plays out over the snowbound Drum Kingdom Arc, is the second that qualifies as heartbreaking, with a past full of rejection by his fellow reindeer on account of the color of his nose, and then rejection by humanity in appearing to be a monster when transformed into his humanoid forms. There's never been a character quite like Chopper in anime before, that I'm aware of, and it's his backstory and adorable mannerisms that make him impossible not to love. You can't hate a character who gets bashful when praised and responds by shouting, "Shut up, you bastard!" at whoever's praising him.

It's worth taking a paragraph to discuss Vivi, too. She's an honorary Straw Hat for most of Season Two, and the series's third heartrending character, even if she's a pretty big cliché as the tragic princess figure. The seriousness of her cause makes for an interesting contrast with the usual absurd pirate hijinks, and she gains some valuable experiences from her friendship from Luffy and his lot, her giant pet duck Karoo along for the wild ride. Her perspective is critical to the dramatic heft of the Alabasta Arc, and you want nothing more than for her to save her people as she watches them cut each other down on the streets of Alubarna.

And lastly, we get to Nico Robin, the newest Straw Hat, formerly known as Miss All-Sunday. She joins the crew at the end of the Alabasta Arc, but receives relatively minimal development in becoming a major character late in the season. With the few episodes she's gotten much focus in, however, she's quickly proven herself to be another very interesting character who rounds out the oddball Straw Hat crew well. As an archaeologist, she provides an intellectual edge previously lacking in the crew. She's also twenty-eight, by far the oldest of the Straw Hats, and has been on the run from the navy since she was eight — a tragic backstory just waiting for further development in future episodes, no doubt. In her adulthood, however, she provides a cool, calm counterpoint to the rest of the crew, spending most of her time lost in a book and ignoring the others. Her Devil Fruit power is the first aptly describable as adding a bit of an acid trip element to the series: having eaten the Flower-Flower Fruit, she has the ability to extend multiple copies of her arms from any surface or person she wants. While she was a villain, this ability made her virtually untouchable, as she could just pop her arms out of any opponent threatening her and completely immobilize them, or even turn their own weapons against them. You'd think that this has an incredible amount of potential for abuse, and it probably does, but so far she hasn't done a whole lot with the power as a member of the Straw Hats. Her Season Two character arc rests largely on gaining the trust of her new crewmates, who understandably weren't so keen on welcoming a former enemy into their ranks.

The animation in Season Two is consistently of the same excellent, fluid quality as all of Season One, making for a very pleasant, colorful experience that ages well. Season Two brought in one new opening and several new endings. Toward the end, Folder5's "Believe" was discontinued for The Babystars' "Hikari E" ("To The Light"), which is a much, much better song, returning to a musical style not unlike that of "We Are!." The season brought in seven new endings, as for a while, the show changes endings roughly every 12-13 episodes. After Maki Otsuki's "RUN! RUN! RUN!" comes TOMATO CUBE's "Watashi ga Iru Yo" ("I'm Right Here!"), a very upbeat pop song with a suitably energetic accompanying animation. After Robin's debut as Miss All-Sunday comes Suitei Shoujo's funky "Shouchi no Suke" ("That's a Fact!"), which has a wonderful, sultry sound to it that suits her character's debut well, with an appropriate accompanying animation that makes me think a little bit of Yu Yu Hakusho's "Rolling Star" ending animation. From there, the show returns to its upbeat pop themes with AI-SACHI'S "BEFORE DAWN," which accompanies a closing animation bringing Vivi and Karoo into the Straw Hats' adventures. And after Chopper joins the crew, he gets his own focused ending theme for a while in "fish" by The Kaleidoscope, which has a fantastic low-fi indie rock sound going for it. Bonus points from me, as a huge indie rock lover. As things got serious in Alabasta, Takako Uehara's "GLORY -Kimi ga Iru Kara-" ("GLORY: Because You're Here") took over as a more dramatically toned song set to Vivi and Karoo facing their overwhelming task in the desert at night, backed by their new pirate friends. As the Alabasta Arc moves toward its climax, Janne da Arc's "Shining ray" is the ending, returning to upbeat rocking pop music with still-painted artwork of the Straw Hats, and Vivi and Karoo now gone from the endings. The seventh and final of the new endings, Ruppina's "Free Will," brings a gentle, dreamy feel to its animation, which centers on Robin curled up in the crow's nest, with cuts to stills hinting at her tremendous hardship as a child, and then using her arms to wake up the sleeping Straw Hats to see a meteor shower. To say the absolute least, there's a tremendous amount of memorable music to enjoy in Season Two, elevating an excellent season even higher.

So, this was a ridiculously long review. This is what happens when you try to cram a good near-hundred episodes of content into a single discussion. But the fact that One Piece warrants this much discussion speaks for itself. I've never seen a show quite like it before — an incredibly long-running shounen action show, to the point at which undertaking watching it is an overwhelming task, let alone trying to discuss it. There's few series, anime or otherwise, out there that do what One Piece does. It's an adventure still absolutely worth falling headfirst into, and I'm looking forward to bringing you a review of the next season already, daunting a task as writing about that will be as well. What are you waiting for? Go buy One Piece or catch it on Funimation's site. Watch it. That's an order.