|
|
|
|
 |
|
The Series:
The adventure on Skypeia, the floating
island, comes to an exciting end in One Piece Season Three Voyage
Four.
With most of the crew either out of action or captured by Eneru, it's
up to
Monkey D. Luffy to combat the villain.
The only problem is that Eneru is a god, and a powerful one at
that. Of course nothing as simple as a
god is going to stop Luffy from saving his friends, and aiding the
people of
Skypiea who were nice to him. It's an
epic battle as the rubber boy matches off against a lightning god, one
who has
more than a few tricks up his sleeve.
I'll skip the basic recap, if you're not sure who Luffy and his
companions are,
check out my reviews of the earlier sets.
Things are looking bleak for the straw hats as this
collection starts. Most of the crew has
been knocked out of commission by either Eneru or one of his captains
and he's
taken Nami captive. Usopp and Sanji try
to rescue their navigator, but Eneru makes quick work of them with his
powerful
lightning attacks.
Eneru also reveals his ultimate plan at long last.
He's going to use the flying ship he's
designed, powered by his electricity, and destroy all of Skypiea. Naming the ship Deathpiea he starts his
attack on the defenseless island while the inhabitants flee in terror. There's one thing the mad god didn't count on
however, and that's Monkey D. Luffy. The
leader of the Straw Hat Pirates manages to get aboard Deathpiea and
challenges
Eneru. Being made of rubber, Luffy is
immune to Eneru's lighting attacks, much to the villain's chagrin, but
lightning isn't the only thing that electricity can create. It can also generate heat, and when Eneru
uses that ability to melt a part of the solid gold hull of Deathpiea
Luffy
falls for into the trap. He punches the
liquid gold ball that's about six feet in diameter which then
solidifies around
his hand. It's pretty hard to fight with
a giant gold ball weighing you down, but that doesn't stop Luffy (as a
matter
of fact, nothing really does.)
The Skypeia storyline has been a lot of fun, and this
collection is no exception. While it
doesn't have the emotional impact that the Alabasta saga does, it makes
up for
that with a quicker pace and a lot of unique and fanciful
villains. This
story is filled with wacky, far-out ideas and the way Skypiea works is
right up
there with the best of them. Strange, unpredictable, creative,
and
bizarre, this next port of call for the Straw Hats is going to be
another
unique experience for the group.
The adventure also wraps up in a very satisfying way.
The final two episodes are a lot of fun,
especially the quick getaway that the pirates make when they leave. I especially enjoyed the misunderstanding with
the natives and the manner in which they manage to get back down to the
Blue Sea. When
all is said and done, this is another
fun and wacky One Piece adventure.
As I mention in every review of this series, 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 (183-195) 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:
Like the other volumes in this series, 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 items are clean animations and a series of
trailers.
Final Thoughts:
So far One Piece hasn't
disappointed. After nearly 200 episodes
(this collection ends with episode 195) the show is still creative,
absurd, and
immensely enjoyable. They managed to
wrap up the latest adventure in a nice neat package while leaving
things open
for the next sure-to-be-amazing saga. This is a fun and exciting
collection
that comes Highly Recommended. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Special Offers
|
|
|
| DVD Blowouts
|
|
|
| Special Offers
|
|
|
|
Buy: