In One Piece we have just finished the epic Thriller Bark Saga where we experienced and endured an intense battle between Luffy and Gekko Moriah one of the Seven Warlords and soon after we were introduced to the fearful Bartholomew Kuma, yet another Warlord set out to stop the Straw Hat crew.
In this volume an exciting new adventure awaits! The Straw Hats now have a new addition to the crew and set sail and aim to arrive at their next destination – Fishman Island.
In typical One Piece fashion – the crew is interrupted on their relaxing cruise on the Grand Line – as Nami (the master navigator) senses something wrong – it’s a sea snake current storm. The crew battle it out with the storm with the Thousand Sunny until they make it out the other end. After settling in they realise where they are, they’ve made it to the Red Line (Half way around the Grand Line) and reflect on their journey so far. From here they need to decide which direction to go next to reach Fishman Island, but are suddenly attacked by a Sea King. With one hit by Luffy – a surprise comes out of the Sea King’s mouth – a beautiful mermaid called Keimi and Pappug her starfish master (As you can imagine Sanji goes a bit whacky at this point). We then find out that Keimi’s friend Hatchan has been kidnapped by a person called Duval and the Flying Fish Man Gang. Nami cuts a deal with Keimi, that they will help her out as long as she shows them the way to Fishman Island.
The next few episodes revolve themselves around the mysterious masked man Duval who has captured Hatchan (a familiar character from the One Piece world) and Duval’s hatred towards the straw hat crew, which has a lot of light comedy and is a nice break from the serious nature the show has had of late. Lets not forget – we get to see Franky’s secret weapon on the Sunny – it’s something that will have you in awe!
From here we are now in the Saboady Archipelago Arc! Say that 10 times fast, I dare you…We are lead to this mysterious bubble island by Keimi, as it’s the key to reaching Fishman Island (which is undersea). In order to reach that destination they have to get the Thousand Sunny coated with a special resin. The crew have one promise they need to keep – do not disobey the Celestial dragons (who are cruel sadistic rulers of Saboady that derive from the bloodline of the creators from the world government). After meeting Shakky an old friend of Hatchan they soon learn that Saboady is a bit more dangerous than originally thought. There are some infamous characters currently on Saboady Archipelago with 11 people exceeding 100 million berries. When you enter the Grand Line you have a choice of 7 routes to take, which eventually lead to the red line and Saboady Archipelago. So there are 7 dangerous pirate crews that have gone through just as much trouble as the straw hats to get to this point.
We are then introduced to the possible leaders of the next generation of pirates, such as Eustass Kid, Trafalgar Law, X Drake, Basil Hawkins and Jewellery Bonnie just to name a few – which I’m sure you’re excited to meet – I’ve heard a lot about them and currently they are exceeding expectations!
After the introductions are done – The Crew continue searching for Rayleigh, the man to assist them in coating the Thousand Sunny with the waterproof resin. During the escapades, Keimi gets kidnapped and put up for auction. It’s now up to Luffy and the crew to save her from the clutches of the evil Celestial Dragons!
Just to take a quick paragraph with some personal background on me and One Piece. I first started watching One Piece in my late teens and I instantly got hooked, I made it all the way up to Skypiea arc back in those days as I could watch about 10 episodes in a row.. What can I say, I had an abundance of free time.. but for what ever reason out of touch of this brilliant anime. Now 10 years later – thanks to Madman – I’ve had the pleasure of going through the series from the start and have had my 3-year-old daughter along for the ride. With doing this review – we are now up to date (collection-wise) and I can’t rave about this series enough. I’ve talked to a lot of friends and they shun it away because of the amount of episodes to catch up on – but I say do yourself a favour – invest the time! You can learn a lot of life lessons from One Piece!
This collection – was yet another exciting ride in the wide world of One Piece, we are introduced to the next generation of pirates and I’m really excited to see where the rest of the Sabaody Archipelago arc will take us. I hope we have a similar outcome to Enies Lobby and the straw-hat pirates set things right and destroy the evil power of the Celestial Dragons.
This Collection comes with some fantastic extras, which includes: Villains and Fish Men – a sneak peak behind the curtain, which I found really captivating and some good insights from the director, along with a textless opening of
‘We Are’ the 10th anniversary version by Hiroshi Kitadani – turn it up loud and dance around! Yet another flawless release from Madman! Highly recommended, if you’re a One Piece fan, you’ll love it! If you’re not, or don’t have any idea what One Piece is.. What are waiting for? Buy the dvds now all 32 of them and watch them until your eyes bleed! You won’t regret it!
A review copy was provided by Madman Entertainment to the author for the purpose of this review.
