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Nami: Luffy, the Lost Island
sank!
Luffy: I know, and
now we're gonna find it!
Nami: *sigh*
Underwater... no map... It's insane! Count me in.
Monkey D. Luffy, the man made of rubber who dreams of being
King of the Pirates sails on into the second season of One Piece. Filled
with all of the silly humor and
colorful characters that made the first season so enjoyable, this set
is just
as fun as the ones that preceded it. So
sit back, relax, and let Lufffy and crew take you (at last!) to the
Grand Line.
Series background:
When Gold Roger, the King of the Pirates was executed, he
used his last words to tell the world that he had hidden all of his
treasure:
"You want it, you can have it. Find it! I left everything the world has
to
offer there!" This started the Great Pirate Era: the seas are filled
with
men looking for adventure, riches, and most of all Gold Roger's
treasure: the
One Piece.
Of the many looking for the One Piece, few are as unlikely
to find it as Monkey D. Luffy. This young boy has vowed to become King
of the
Pirates, but he doesn't have a ship, or even a crew. He sets off to sea
in a
barrel, and it is only by luck that he's taken aboard a pirate ship.
While Luffy may have none of the skills that a pirate would
need, like how to navigate on water (or dry land for that matter) he
does have
a powerful advantage: he's eaten a Gum-Gum Devil Fruit. This magical
object has
turned his body to rubber. Not only does this make him invulnerable to
bullets
and most physical attacks, but he can stretch his arms great lengths
and use
his first as powerful weapons or turn himself into a human slingshot
and launch
his body through the air. Along with his unwavering resolve to succeed,
this
makes him a formidable opponent.
In the first season Luffy set off from his home in an old
barrel and started to gather his crew.
He now has a real ship and the people to man it:
Zoro (translated as Zolo in the manga) a
pirate-hunter who wants to become known as the best swordsman in the
world,
Nami, an attractive thief who acts as navigator and dreams of mapping
all of
the oceans of the world, Sanji, a cook and master kick-boxer who's
greatest
desire is to find the All Blue a sea that contains every type of fish
in the
world, and Usopp, a youth who's good with a slingshot (and telling tall
tales)
who has dreams of becoming a great pirate also.
Together they're searching for the One Piecew!
This set:
After a narrow escape at the end of the last set, nothing
stands in the way of the pirates making it to the Grand Line. Nothing that is, except a young girl. Found out in the middle of the sea in a row
boat, Apis was a captive of the Marines until she managed to escape
during a
storm. While it's slightly out of their
way, Luffy agrees to take the girl home to Warship Island. Once there they discover why the Marines
wanted her: she knows the location of a
Millennium Dragon. An immortality potion
can be made from their bones, and the Marine commander will stop at
nothing to
get some.
As the Marines are coming back to Warship
Island and will certainly
discover the
dragon, the Straw Hat Pirates decide to take the ancient dragon back to
his
home on Lost
Island.
The only problem is that, well... it's lost. This
leads to a cat and mouse chase with the
Marine fleet and eventually a show down with the commander and his
ships.
After they straighten that out, it's off to the Grand
Line! They crew follows the only path,
through a river that runs, impossibly, up the side of a mountain. They speed down the other side and right into
the mouth of a waiting whale, just like Pinocchio.
This isn't any normal whale however; it's
Laboon a very faithful animal who is trying to find the pirate ship
that it
followed into the Grand Line.
Navigating the Grand Line is a bit more difficult that Nami
thought it would be. First of all, the
islands are all filled with magnetic ore, making a regular compass spin
around
and around. The only way to navigate is
with a 'log pose' an instrument that looks like a compass inside of a
globe. It will point to the nearest
island, and by
going from island to island a crew can navigate the grand line.
Managing, with great difficulty, to get to the first island,
Whiskey Peak, the crew receives a warm,
and
unexpected, welcome. That's because the
town there is really part of Baroque Works, a secret criminal
organization and
they have plans for Luffy and his crew.
This is another excellent group of shows. I'm
so glad that FUNimation is releasing this
in 13 episode chunks rather than 4 or 5 shows per disc.
Once you get into the groove of the program,
it's very enjoyable and really easy to sit through an entire disc
(Especially
if you use the 'marathon play' option.)
There's really little difference between the second season
shows and those of the first. If you
enjoyed the earlier sets, this collection will tickly your funny bone
too. What makes this show better than
several
other Shonen Jump-based anime is that this one doesn't take itself
seriously at
all. With tongue planted firmly in cheek, Luffy and his friends walk
through a
strange and unusual world that's almost comical
While the show is really entertaining, the animation style
cuts a lot of corners. The show airs for
over 40 weeks a year in Japan,
and creating an animated show that often is grueling.
So a lot of short cuts are taken. It's
not unusual to see the camera panning or
zooming in and out on static images to give the illusion of motion, the
backgrounds
(and foregrounds for that matter) are pretty sparse.
They also repeat a lot of footage at the
beginning of every episode, with these recaps sometimes taking over 3
minutes. That's a lot especially when
you're watching the shows one after another.
It should also be noted that this is the uncut version of
the show. Though it is aimed at kids, there is some swearing. People
called
"ass" and "son of a bitch", but nothing worse than that.
People do get killed too, and when blood is spilled it's red. The show
isn't
very bloody though, and I had no problems letting my 6th grader watch
it.
The DVD:
This set contains the next 13 episodes (54-66) on two DVDs,
each in its own thinpak case. The two
cases are held in a nice slipcase.
Audio:
This set offers the original Japanese track in stereo as
well as an English dub in either stereo or 5.1. While the 5.1 dub was
nice
during the battle scenes, I preferred the original language track. The
voices
just seemed to fit characters better and made for a more enjoyable
viewing
experience. The English voice actors did do a good job however and
people who
like watching in English shouldn't be disappointed.
Video:
The full frame video looked pretty good overall. The colors
were bright and solid and the blacks were nice and inky. The image was
generally sharp too. The only real problem was a more than average
amount of
aliasing. Diagonal lines are often jagged and when the camera pans
across a
scene, fine lines tend to shimmer a bit. There's also a bit of cross
colorization, but it wasn't distracting.
Extras:
I was a little disappointed that the bonus items were so
meager. There's a "Marathon Play" option, which lets you watch the
show without the opening and closing credits, which is really cool. I
wish more
anime would offer something like this.
Unfortunately the only other bonus item commentary on one
episode by the
English crew that was uninspiring.
Final Thoughts:
Having followed the adventures of Luffy in Shonen Jump for a
while now, I know that the best is yet to come.
This set is another highly enjoyable romp. While
there are lots of fights and plenty of
action, it's a show that doesn't take itself seriously and places a
premium on
fun more than anything else. Highly
Recommended. |
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