Lego One Piece is a half-hour, two-episode production that essentially functions as a clip show retelling the events of the two Netflix live-action One Piece seasons, and reviewer Grant Jones finds it a rare case where form and function line up pleasantly. Writing for Anime News Network, Jones notes that the special has several audiences to satisfy at once — Lego fans, anime and manga readers, live-action viewers, and a wide spread of ages within each group — and that it is built to welcome people who only count themselves a fan of one of those things.
The key to that accessibility is its framing device. Usopp recounts the crew's earlier adventures to Chopper after the latter joins the Straw Hats, which lets the special recap prior events while also doing character work: it highlights Usopp's habit of exaggeration and gives Chopper room to react with childlike enthusiasm. Jones argues this conceit also justifies any liberties taken with the retelling, since the story is presented as the narrators' own version of events, and it fits neatly into existing lore for fans who have only followed the manga or anime — the crew would plausibly have told their newest member about their past.
Not everything lands. Jones describes the special as not the best work Lego has produced, carrying a boilerplate level of charm, comedy and action with only a few sensible chuckles and passable fight sequences, and he notes that half a dozen other Lego multimedia projects have matched or bettered it. He also questions how many layers of adaptation the material can bear, describing the project as a Lego cartoon adaptation of a retelling of a live-action remake of an anime and manga, and says there is an inescapable sense that some of the shine has been lost along the way.
Those are, in the reviewer's view, minor complaints. He calls Lego One Piece a short and enjoyable watch that may not always be faithful to its source but is honest about it, worth seeing for the novelty and unlikely to poorly serve either long-time fans or newcomers looking for an entry point. The review awards an overall grade of B+, with an A- for the dub, a B for story, a B for animation and a B- for music, crediting the special as fun and brief with a framing device that works within the story and is easy for newcomers, while faulting it as run-of-the-mill Lego content that is not as funny as it could be.
Sources: Anime News Network.