It’s more wacky adventure on the high seas as the Straw Hat Pirates continue their adventures on the Grand Line. Their newest mission? Protecting Princess Vivi until she can be safely delivered to her homeland of Alabasta, preferably before Crocodile, the leader of the elite assassin group Baroque Works, can completely destroy her kingdom. With enemies on all sides, who has time for the minor annoyances, like landing on an island populated with warring giants and hungry dinosaurs?

The hijinks continue in this second installation of season two, and the enemies are getting tougher as our misfit crewmembers meet more people with both devil fruit powers and orders to either destroy the Straw Hats or capture Princess Vivi (formerly an undercover member of their own organization). Still, the crew has come a long way from being merely 5 people allied by desires that will lead them in the same direction. Now, they operate as a loyal fighting unit, dedicated to their fellows and determined to use their unique talents to seize victory. It also seems that our intrepid team is no longer holding back, as their own skills seem well on par with their unmitigated confidence.

Featured enemies from these episodes include:

Mr 5. : A Lenny Kravitz inspired villain who’s Boom Boom fruit powers allow him to toss explosive boogers at people. Unfortunately, I’m not kidding.

Miss Valentine: A go-go bedecked sadist whose Kilo-Kilo fruit powers allow her to manipulate her own body weight to both float on the breeze and land like a meteor.

Mr. 3: A man whose obvious codename is reflected in his unfortunate hairstyle, and whose Wax-wax fruit powers enable him to produce and control massive amounts of hard candle wax to incapacitate his enemies by sealing them up in it.

Miss Golden Week: Childlike in appearance, her supreme artistic control of color can be used to manipulate, or even completely control, the feelings of others.

Surprisingly, there are even a couple of solid references to past encounters from the early episodes of season one with almost two episodes dedicated to updating the viewer on the career status of two minor characters who were influenced by Luffy and crew before they left the East Blue sea: Coby, whose encounter withLuffy inspired him to follow his dreams of joining the Navy regardless of the hardships ahead, and Helmeppo the only (and formerly very privileged) son of a corrupt Navy officer who was defeated by the Straw Hats very early on in their pirating career. Still, despite the detour from our regular characters, the stories remind us that our heroes have a lasting effect on everyone they encounter, even if we may never discover the effect.

Chock-full of the signature action and humor I’ve come to expect, this latest installment of the series manages to be at once entirely approachable to newcomers, while giving those familiar with more familiarity some new situationsto enjoy.