Netflix’s 3-Part Fantasy Series That’s ‘Stranger Things Meets One Piece’ Is One Of Its Best

Fans of both One Piece and Stranger Things need to seek out another underrated Netflix series that should have been just as big as these genre-blending projects. It is easy to see how One Piece became a huge hit for Netflix when the live-action anime adaptation arrived on the streaming service in 2023. After all, Eiichiro Oda’s One Piece was already one of the most popular manga and anime franchises in history before the show was even released, and the quirky misadventures of Monkey D. Luffy and the Straw Hat Pirates had massive mainstream crossover potential.

It would have been a little tougher to predict just how massive the Stranger Things franchise would become when the show first started life in 2016, but its potential as a breakout hit was always there. Stranger Things had a nostalgic setting and soundtrack, a unique blend of genres including small-town mystery, horror, sci-fi, and character drama, and a killer cast of both outstanding newcomers and well-established talent. Compared to more niche, underrated Netflix shows like Everything Sucks, the series was an easy sell.

However, the success of both One Piece and Stranger Things makes another similar show’s inability to win over as big an audience tougher to countenance. Based on the comic book series of the same name by Jeff Lemire, Sweet Tooth was a post-apocalyptic fantasy show set in a world where most of the human population has been wiped out by a virus. At the same time, human-animal hybrid babies have become increasingly commonplace, and the show sees one such hybrid, the deer-boy Gus, search for his mother in the wake of his dad’s death.

Sweet Tooth Nails The Same Balance Of Peril And Whimsy As Stranger Things And One Piece

With a stacked cast that included Will Forte, Rosalind Chao, Amy Seimetz, Kelly Marie Tran, and Aliza Vellani, Sweet Tooth captured the same blend of darkness and sweetness that animates the stories of both One Piece and Stranger Things. While some of the shows that became big in the wake of Stranger Things’ success, such as the It prequel series Welcome to Derry, ramped up the horror quotient of their stories to stand out, Sweet Tooth took another approach.

Like the later movies Riddle of Fire and Bookworm, Sweet Tooth told its inventive, unpredictable story mostly from the perspective of a naive child, but still introduced some dark and mature narrative themes despite this. Show runner Jim Mickle was previously best known for the pitch-black neo-noir thriller Cold in July and the grim horror movie We Are What We Are, which made Sweet Tooth’s delicate balance of peril and whimsy all the more impressive.

Sweet Tooth Never Became As Big As Stranger Things And One Piece (But It Should Have)

Fittingly, a lot of live-action Chopper fanart and edits by One Piece fans used to be made using footage from Sweet Tooth, which just goes to show how much the great comic book adaptation nailed the wholesome vibe shared by Stranger Things and One Piece despite its dark story elements. Sweet Tooth was deservedly critically acclaimed throughout its three-season run, winning eight Children’s and Family Emmy Awards and earning a whopping 34 nominations.

Perhaps because of its odd tonal balance, the show never became as big a mainstream success as One Piece or Stranger Things, even though Sweet Tooth arguably managed to maintain a more consistent tone than the latter, infamously uneven series. Luckily, all 24 episodes of the adaptation can still be binged on Netflix, meaning viewers who have not yet seen Mickle’s fantasy show can find out what the fuss is about. Poignant, funny, occasionally unsettling, and always enthralling, Sweet Tooth deserves a place in the pantheon of great all-ages entertainment by Netflix alongside One Piece and Stranger Things.

Release Date

2021 – 2024-00-00

Showrunner

Jim Mickle

Directors

Jim Mickle

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