Customer Reviews

One Piece: Season Two, First Voyage

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

One of the inherent problems with attempting professional reviews is that you're forced to keep up with the times. Sometimes I'm forced to jump fairly late into an established franchise in effort to get reviews published while they're still pertinent. This was the case of One Piece: Season 2, First Voyage. Released on June 30th, this is actually the fifty-fourth through sixty-sixth episode of the series and it just so happens to be my first experience!

The twelve episodes contained span a pair of discs packaged within two thin packs (inside a nicely artistic cardboard outer slip sleeve). Coming in at a runtime of 320 minutes, the show wears a conservative TV 13 rating. There is no real rough language, nudity, sexual situations, and what little violence does occur is quite cartoony.

Language options are typical sub & dub meaning the choice of original Japanese dialog, English dubbed voice track, and the option of English subtitles under either.

Special features are limited to textless songs and a crop of Funimation trailers on the second disc.

I have to just come out with it- this is really a fantastic show! I apologize to fans if it sounds like I'm surprised to say this, but in a way, I am. I've had mixed emotions about many of the shonen titles that the world seems to be amazed with (Dragon Ball Z, Bleach, Law of Ueki and so on). So naturally the fact that One Piece is marketed as a massive shonen saga coupled to my having decided to finally give it a try at episode 54, the formula was looking pretty bleak. However, even after considering all of the strikes against it going in, I found Season 2, First Voyage to be an engaging adventure right from the get go, filled with a bubbly, likeable cast and some pretty slick visuals.

Speaking of, the visual style of One Piece is nothing if not unique. Imagine simple but colorful backgrounds with intentionally washed out lead character models. The pallet may look pale after viewing any one of a hundred more colorfully intense anime titles but the look of the show is easy to get used to and before long actually becomes comfortably addicting. In fact the entire feel successfully mimics the theme of the wickedly cool treasure maps that adorn the interior of each of the two thin packs.

For those wondering what's unique about this installment, our young band of pirates finds themselves on a mission toward the Grand Line only to encounter a strange little shipwrecked girl being heavily pursued by the fleet of marines (8th division). Before long their paths lead to high jinks on the high seas involving a senile dragon, a yellow frog that's bigger than a house, and a mercenary who looks an awful lot like someone out of a Dr. Suess book.

If I were to attempt to isolate a single factor that makes this show something special I would perhaps site its sense of humor. The show is funny and not just over-the-top slapstick funny either. Rather, the dialog that stems from the character interaction is authentic and genuinely witty. This is one of few shows that I can recommend the English dub track over the usually superior Japanese vocal work. Not that the Japanese audio does anything to detract from the experience, it's just that the Funimation talent nailed their character roles so spectacularly that missing it would be a shame. There were several moments where the obscenely obese Commodore had me laughing out loud (a real rarity among shonen titles or anime in general for that matter).

Additionally, while the characters do have some super-human abilities (stretchy bodies, lightening legs, and undullable blades), the show is really more of an adventure than it is a never-ending fighting tournament.

Audio work is really well done and ranks among composer Kouhei Tanaka's better pieces. The powerful swings in tempo match the bravado of the onscreen action and in case you've been living under a rock, pirate swashbuckling is pretty darn action packed.

In all I would strongly recommend giving One Piece a good once over if you found any entertainment in movies like Pirates of the Caribbean or The Goonies or simply enjoy great characters, swift adventure, and a good laugh.

Thank funimation for releaseing Season 2. Being the season that was virtually ignored by 4kids for what reasons they had. this box set also corrects a major plothole in the series set by 4kids with the Laboon arc. Overall it was really enjoyable to see these episodes for the first time with a english dub.

This series, brought to us in "uncut and unedited" form by Funimation, has been consistently excellent. They've really gotten into the groove, in terms of cranking these things out. This 2-disc set is the fifth in the series and brings us into Season 2. Finally our pirate gang makes it to the fabled Grand Line! To my surprised, more than half the episodes are ones I'd never seen before -- they'd been completely skipped over in the wretched 4kidz version shown on Cartoon Network.

Even better, this set ends on one of my favorite battles from the series: the first encounter with Baroque Works. It's a chaotic fracas with mistaken identities, bizarre characters, fratricide and squabbling, loyalty and sacrifice, idiocy and opportunism, and plenty of collateral damage.

The uncut adventure continues as Luffy and crew finally enter the grand line, alot of good episodes here as the encounter baroque works and the giant whale, as well as meet the princess of Alibaster. Looking forward to the next set!

this show is great i always wait for the price to lower for a sale b4 i buy from one the other distubutors they show up up realy fast dvd's r clean box isnt crushed

This two disk set contains the Apis Arc, also known as "The Dragon" Arc or "Warship Island" Arc, and it's the first major Filler Arc in One Piece.

What is "Filler?" a few of you might ask. Filler is a necessary evil. Most Anime is adapted from on-going Manga, Japanese comic books, and in order to keep the Anime from surpassing the Manga, Filler Arcs have to be added to the Anime. Most anime fans cringe at thought of Filler material, but I maintain that Filler is not inherently bad. Good Filler exists and I like to call that "Fluff." (You'll see me use the term it in other reviews.)

So, how Fluffy is the Apis Arc? Oh, I'd say 62% of mostly good. One Piece is usually great, but for Filler Arcs, they have to pull it back and just be good.

It's an okay story, but it takes so dumb turns sometimes. At the start of the adventure, the Strawhats are ready to head to the Grand Line, when they get sidetracked to help a little girl named Apis who is being chased by the Marines. What keeps it good is the crew's personalities, they keep the ordinarily slow pace of the arc fresh with their wackiness. For instance, Zoro gets hurt A LOT in these episodes. Plus, they do sorta bond with Apis. The bad part is, the bad Filler creates two plotholes: Luffy can talk to Dragons for no reason, and Zoro can cut Steel. If you can look past that, this arc is okay.



The first disk is entirely Filler. At the start of the second disk, with the Strawhat's entrance to the Grand Line, it goes back to following the source material with the Whiskey Peak Arc. As soon as they land on the Grand Line, the original author didn't waste any time to get back to his unique style of action/comedy and unique perspective. There's lots of action in the last disk. I don't want to say more, but we'll be blasting off into the real adventure in the next volume of One Piece.


Bottom line: Half the episodes are okay, the other half is great. That's obviously not worth the full price when we're getting something so watered down compared to usual. So, get it cheap. Ideally $10-20 including shipping.

This is my daughter's favorite anime, these disks are normally very expensive, this was a great price and shipped fast!

One Piece is a Shonen series, and while most of them tend to burdened by the same cliches. Most Shonen series are long anime series like Dragonball Z, Naruto and Bleach, and seem to get either bogged down with filler episodes or repetitive battles. One Piece's first season was much better paced than it's contemporaries. The series doesn't take itself too seriously and doesn't lose your attention. The animation is a little dated, but that doesn't hurt it's entertainment value at all. This season does contain 4 or 5 episodes that could have been trimmed down. Most of the first story arc doesn't add much and could have been chopped down to 2 or 3 episodes. Overall it is excellent and the second story arc is much better. It only contains the beginning part of the next story arc though. I recommend getting season two, second voyage with it. One Piece: Season Two, Second Voyage

this was amazing with all those milenial dragons and the sickle sickle fruit. I really thought it was amazing when all the dragons came together.

14 Episodes of pure action and adventure. You can't go wrong with this Box Set of "One Piece". The show starts off with a little recap of the last episode (which starts a trend with the rest of the episodes, because now they recap the last episode in every episode) in which they state their reasons for going to the Grand Line, than they continue a great adventure. There are more bad guys with Devil Fruit powers, and more corrupted Marines then you can handle. It's a great pirate adventure, and the only thing that stands in your way is the price. $39.99 seems a little much for only 14 episodes. This box set extras are not worth the 40 bucks. Same as all the other Box Sets. I only contribute the High price to pirates (and not the "One Piece" kind) that download this show, rather than buy it.
Over all, this box set does not disappoint. More action and more adventure. Get ready because Luffy and his Gang of pirates are coming at you again with an awesome adventure packed into 14 episodes.