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Review

by Carl Kimlinger,

One Piece

DVD - Season 5 Part 3

Synopsis:
One Piece DVD Season 5 Part 3
The mission to save Robin continues. As Luffy chases down Spandam, Lucci, and Robin, the rest of the Straw Hats go after the keys that the CP9 have. They'll need to take out each assassin and bring their key to Robin if they want to free her from her sea-stone shackles. Usopp and Zoro face off against Kaku and Jabra, who have transformed into a wolf man and a giraffe man. Nami takes on Kalifa, whose mysterious Devil Fruit powers did in Sanji. Chopper and Franky end up in a room with chubby Fukurou and kabuki-dancing Kumadori. Ready... fight!
Review:

Last volume was a horror show of delaying tactics. This volume is what was being delayed: twelve pure episodes of what One Piece does best.

Okay, if I were being completely honest, I'd say ten pure episodes. There are two holiday specials that have nothing to do with anything inserted into the middle of disc one. And that's hardly the only way that the show slows things down. Between the recaps of previous episodes and the extra-length opening song (which, since it replaces the ending credits, actually saves time… but anyway) it's a good six minutes before any episode actually gets started. Add in the preview and the folks at Toei Animation only have to provide seventeen minutes of original animation per episode. Do the math—that's 28% of the show that is habitually wasted—and the holiday specials start to look pretty innocent.

As they should. Pointless as they are, they're goofy little diversions that pass painlessly and occasionally even enjoyably. Mostly they're an excuse for the series to bring back fan favorites from arcs past and have them mix it up in a new setting. Specifically, in an ersatz One Piece version of feudal Japan. So if you want to see how Alabasta's Vivi and Cobra might deal with Buggy or how the Straw Hat crew would celebrate a Japanese-style New Year's, this is your place. Of course what happens is far less important than just seeing Vivi or Cobra or Buggy or Eyelashes the camel again. And good thing too, because what happens is really stupid (mochi heists anyone?).

No one's going to be thanking the show for those modest pleasures however. The holiday specials, light and harmless though they are, are a hideously unwelcome intrusion into the biggest, baddest, most satisfying run of action that the CP9 arc has yet seen. This is the part of the customary One Piece arc where the flashbacks are finished, the emotional stakes ratcheted properly high, the bad guys established as really bad guys, and all of the groundwork generally done, allowing the Straw Hats to get down to kicking serious butt. The action is relentless (or as relentless as the 28% rule will allow), the powers upgraded, and the justice meted out long-due and oh-so-sweet.

As a general rule, the matches have been decided by this point, meaning that each crewmember gets their own individual fight. The show isn't so rigid that there isn't some crossover and even some swapping of antagonists—lending the chain of fights a freewheeling looseness that One Piece climaxes sometimes lack—but this is at heart a linear run of character-specific martial arts set-pieces.

And there's nothing wrong with that. Not when the set-pieces are this good. Franky's match against rotund CP9 manchild Fukurou is a thoroughly odd showcase for Franky's downright bizarre set of combat skills (he's a cola-powered cyborg whose body is one big armory). Ever seen a rocket-powered fart used in combat? Well, brace yourself. Chopper's match against kabuki-dancing, hair-manipulating Kumadori—far and away the CP9's most lethally annoying member—is a grueling test of the adorable little reindeer's grit, with a hugely satisfying (yet rather troubling) denouement at the end. Nami's bid to avenge Sanji leads to a battle of indirect powers with Kalifa, who uses cleanliness as a weapon. It's a frequently hilarious battle of wits with more tactical turnarounds then all of the other fights combined. Sanji returns for a wonderfully brutal brawl with a cheating wolf, leaving just enough time for the first leg of Zoro's swordfight with a giraffe. Now that's a sight. Again, the giraffe alone is worth the price of admission. Giraffe martial arts are every bit as funny as they sound.

As ever, the show serves up action that owes as much to imagination, timing, and buildup as it does to animation prowess. That is not a drawback. The show's action inventions are balanced perfectly on the razor edge between stomach-knotting weirdness and heart-swelling cool. The show's fights have equal room for Chopper's final transformation—which turns him into a tragic and terrifying Cervidaean King Kong—and for Kalifa's soap bubble Battle Sheep (note how the sheep's horns are actually her arms and what that means for her fighting posture). As for its direction, despite juggling helmsmen over the years, the show's ability to deliver just the right blow at just the right moment, trot out just the right musical flourish at just the right turnaround, and find just the right expression for just the right happening is undiminished.

Who needs jacked up frame rates and sleek movement when you have Zoro using Usopp as a sword? (Named: Nose Storm). Or Sanji making elegantly ferocious mincemeat out of a wolf-weasel? And we haven't even mentioned Nami's army of malformed doppelgangers or the part of her battle where she's turned into a moving, fightin' Nami blow-up doll.

The structure of this set means that Funimation's supporting cast gets a big slice of the spotlight, and the extra light only shows how strong the secondary players have gotten. Andrew Love plays Kumadori with an over-the-top relish that actually improves on the original, Patrick Seitz's Franky has both gravitas and impressive comedic chops, and Alexis Tipton is great as Fukurou (her rendition of his "chapapa" tagline is hilariously committed). Alex Organ's blandly matter-of-fact delivery becomes a lethal comedic asset once Kaku transforms into a freakish giraffe-man. The principals stay strong, the script remains solid, and it helps that everyone seems to be enjoying themselves—especially Sonny Strait as Usopp-cum-Sogeking.

Extras: Solidly informative behind-the-scenes videos with Jonathan Brooks (Foxy) and Jason Liebrecht (Lucci); commentaries for episodes 289 (with Seitz and Tipton, pretty subdued) and 290 (Brina Palencia and Strait, having a hell of a good time).

If there's a problem with this volume, besides the high percentage of repeated material and the holiday specials, it's that it's only one chunk of a very large showdown. We never see the end of Zoro's giraffe-slaying, Luffy has yet to get past the frustrating opening throes of his fight with Lucci, we don't find out how Usopp is going to contribute to the rescue, and Robin is left literally under the foot of professional slimeball Spandam. But that kind of anticipation is just what makes the show the addiction that it is. The next fix, by the way, should be a doozy.

Grade:
Overall (dub) : B+
Overall (sub) : B+
Story : B
Animation : B-
Art : B+
Music : B+

+ Action galore as the CP9 arc enters its final stages; that special One Piece mixture of knock-down hilarity and knockout action satisfaction.
Long opening recaps drag the pace down; holiday specials are a waste of space; leaves you hanging at the end.

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Production Info:
Series Director:
Toshinori Fukazawa
Satoshi Itō
Aya Komaki
Yasunori Koyama
Kōhei Kureta
Hiroaki Miyamoto
Tatsuya Nagamine
Munehisa Sakai
Junji Shimizu
Kōnosuke Uda
Director:
Toshinori Fukazawa
Satoshi Itō
Aya Komaki
Yasunori Koyama
Kōhei Kureta
Hiroaki Miyamoto
Tatsuya Nagamine
Munehisa Sakai
Junji Shimizu
Kōnosuke Uda
Series Composition:
Junki Takegami
Hirohiko Uesaka
Shoji Yonemura
Script:
Shinzō Fujita
Hiroshi Hashimoto
Akiko Inoue
Naoki Koga
Takuya Masumoto
Kisa Miura
Isao Murayama
Tomohiro Nakayama
Tsuyoshi Sakurai
Michiru Shimada
Yoshiyuki Suga
Yōichi Takahashi
Junki Takegami
Suminori Takegami
Jin Tanaka
Atsuhiro Tomioka
Hirohiko Uesaka
Ryota Yamaguchi
Ryō Yamazaki
Shoji Yonemura
Storyboard:
Honehone
Masatoshi Chioka
Akitarō Daichi
Tetsuya Endō
Akiko Fujisawa
Junichi Fujise
Kentarō Fujita
Toshinori Fukazawa
Hiroshi Hara
Morio Hatano
Jong Heo
Ayako Hiraike
Mamoru Hosoda
Masahiro Hosoda
Takahiro Imamura
Eisaku Inoue
Shō Inuzuka
Megumi Ishitani
Katsumi Ishizuka
Naoyuki Itō
Satoshi Itō
Bahi JD
Hidehiko Kadota
Yukio Kaizawa
Gō Koga
Aya Komaki
Ken Koyama
Yasunori Koyama
Kōhei Kureta
Takeshi Maenami
Tetsuaki Matsuda
Shō Matsui
Wataru Matsumi
Nanami Michibata
Hiroaki Miyamoto
Yoshio Mukainakano
Tatsuya Nagamine
Yutaka Nakajima
Ryōta Nakamura
Tetsuji Nakamura
Yukihiko Nakao
Yutaka Nakashima
Masayoshi Nishida
Daisuke Nishio
Seiji Okuda
Hazuki Omoya
Makiko Orimoto
Takashi Otsuka
Munehisa Sakai
Toshihiko Sano
Hiroyuki Satō
Naotoshi Shida
Tasuku Shimaya
Junji Shimizu
Nozomu Shishido
Makoto Sonoda
Yoshiyuki Suga
Yūsuke Suzuki
Kenichi Takeshita
Yasuhiro Tanabe
Ryōsuke Tanaka
Takayuki Tanaka
Henry Thurlow
Katsumi Tokoro
Yûji Tokuno
Yong Ce Tu
Kōnosuke Uda
Yoshihiro Ueda
Ryota Yamaguchi
Shigeyasu Yamauchi
Kenji Yokoyama
Episode Director:
Tetsuya Endō
Yuji Endō
Junichi Fujise
Kentarō Fujita
Toshinori Fukazawa
Morio Hatano
Ayako Hiraike
Mamoru Hosoda
Masahiro Hosoda
Eri Hyun
Yōko Ikeda
Takahiro Imamura
Shō Inuzuka
Megumi Ishitani
Takaaki Ishiyama
Naoyuki Itō
Satoshi Itō
Hidehiko Kadota
Yukio Kaizawa
Hiroyuki Kakudō
Gō Koga
Aya Komaki
Harume Kosaka
Ken Koyama
Yasunori Koyama
Chihiro Kumano
Kōhei Kureta
Toshihiro Maeya
Shō Matsui
Wataru Matsumi
Nanami Michibata
Hiroaki Miyamoto
Kazutoshi Mori
Yoshio Mukainakano
Tatsuya Nagamine
Daisuke Nakajima
Yutaka Nakajima
Ryōta Nakamura
Tetsuji Nakamura
Yukihiko Nakao
Yutaka Nakashima
Kōdai Nakatsuka
Daisuke Nishio
Hazuki Omoya
Keisuke Ōnishi
Takashi Otsuka
Munehisa Sakai
Toshihiko Sano
Hiroyuki Satō
Tasuku Shimaya
Akira Shimizu
Junji Shimizu
Nozomu Shishido
Makoto Sonoda
Yūsuke Suzuki
Kenichi Takeshita
Hikaru Takeuchi
Yasuhiro Tanabe
Kōji Tanaka
Ryōsuke Tanaka
Henry Thurlow
Katsumi Tokoro
Yûji Tokuno
Kōnosuke Uda
Yoshihiro Ueda
Sumio Watanabe
Tōru Yamada
Shigeyasu Yamauchi
Unit Director:
Toshinori Fukazawa
Tomohiro Higashi
Eri Hyun
Megumi Ishitani
Satoshi Itō
Aya Komaki
Kōhei Kureta
Nanami Michibata
Tatsuya Nagamine
Takashi Otsuka
Tasuku Shimaya
Music:
Shiroh Hamaguchi
Kōhei Tanaka
Original Manga: Eiichiro Oda
Character Design:
Kazuya Hisada
Noboru Koizumi
Midori Matsuda
Art Director:
Tong Nian Chen
Kunihiro Chida
Jason de la Cruz
Yurino Doi
Momoko Fujikura
Kumiko Fukuzawa
Jun Golez
Eiji Hamano
Yoshiaki Honma
Guo Wei Huang
Toshinori Iino
Eisaku Inoue
Iwamitsu Itō
Michiyo Kawasaki
Shinichi Konno
Toshiaki Marumori
Takafumi Mizuno
Dhavee Morato
Hideto Nakahara
Nagisa Nishida
Minoru Ōnishi
Yū Saitō
Uli Samaniego
Yuri Sanan
Dino Francis Santos
Miyuki Satō
Tadami Shimokawa
Hiromitsu Shiozaki
Miho Shiraishi
Seiichiro Sugiura
Makoto Suwada
Midori Tanaka
Shoji Tokiwa
Natsuko Tosugi
Fumihiro Uchikawa
Tomoko Yoshida
Ryūji Yoshiike
Takashi Yoshiike
Chief Animation Director:
Kazuya Hisada
Keiichi Ichikawa
Takeo Ide
Hisashi Kagawa
Midori Matsuda
Yong Ce Tu
Animation Director:
Honehone
Majiro
Shigefumi Aragaki
Zhen Lei Cheng
Toshio Deguchi
Kentarō Fujita
Masayuki Fujita
Yasuko Fukumoto
Mami Furutoku
Huan Ge
Grand Guerilla
Yūji Hakamada
Eun Mi Han
Zi Wei He
Kazuya Hisada
Feng Cheng Hu
Keiichi Ichikawa
Takeo Ide
Kazuyuki Ikai
Takuya Imakado
Eisaku Inoue
Masahiko Inuzuka
Katsumi Ishizuka
Yūsuke Isōchi
Kimitaka Itō
Shūichi Itō
Nobuyuki Iwai
Atsuko Kawamura
Jun-Oh Kim
Yu Jin Kim
Yuki Kinoshita
Masahiro Kitazaki
Yukari Kobayashi
Noboru Koizumi
Takashi Kojima
Yūji Kondō
Kazuya Kuta
Ye Sung Lee
Shao Lei Li
Natsuko Makiyo
Hideaki Maniwa
Midori Matsuda
Kenji Matsuoka
Kiyoshi Matsushita
Yūki Minagawa
Keisuke Mori
Naoki Murakami
Yukiko Nakatani
Asako Narasaki
Keita Saitō
Sadahiko Sakamaki
Toshihiko Sano
Masahiro Shimanuki
Takanori Shimura
Takayuki Shimura
Shigefumi Shingaki
Kouji Sugimoto
Shū Sugita
Shinichi Suzuki
Masayuki Takagi
Isamu Takara
Kazuo Takigawa
Shigenori Taniguchi
Naoki Tate
Yong Ce Tu
Yosuke Yabumoto
Takumi Yamamoto
Tadayoshi Yamamuro
Megumi Yamashita
Mamoru Yokota
Kenji Yokoyama
Art design: Ryūji Yoshiike
Background Art Director:
Yoshiaki Honma
Guo Wei Huang
Director of Photography:
Hideki Chiba
Tomoya Hosaka
Hirosato Ōnishi
Producer:
Shintarō Hashimoto
Miki Kobayashi
Yoshihiro Suzuki
Satoshi Teramoto
Licensed by: FUNimation Entertainment

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One Piece (TV)

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One Piece - Season 5 Voyage 3 (DVD)

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