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Review

by Rebecca Silverman,

One Piece

DVD - Season 6 Part 3

Synopsis:
One Piece Season 6 Part 3 DVD
Luffy and the Straw Hats have been separated on Thriller Bark, but even worse, time is running out for them to reclaim their stolen shadows. Zoro, Sanji, Robin, and Chopper are on the trail of those, with the help of living skeleton Brook, while Usopp tries his best to defeat Mistress Perona, who can control ghosts. Meanwhile Nami is unconscious and about to be forced to marry Absalom! Will anyone be able to defeat the Special Zombie Oars? And who is this soft-spoken giant man who suddenly appeared?
Review:

Thriller Bark is One Piece by way of Tim Burton, and as far as story arcs in the shounen series go, it's one of the more interesting. Gecko Moria, one of the Seven Warlords, is both ridiculous and frightening with his ability to steal shadows and use them to animate zombies, and while we are reasonably sure that everything will turn out all right for our heroes in the end, there's some real tension created here, particularly during the battles with Oars. The show never lets it get too scary, though, and Oars can be a very funny character at times, as well as the Nami/Lola/Absalom “love” triangle.

This set of twelve episodes picks up during Usopp's fight against Goth Loli Mistress of Ghosts, Perona. Perona finds Usopp more of a joke than a threat, and this ends up working in his favor quite well. Usopp is always a lot of fun to watch in his one-on-one battles because his particular strengths require him to rely on cleverness rather than brute strength or being able to hold a sword in his teeth, and his lack of Devil Fruit powers make him really think things through while trying to stay at least one step ahead of the enemy…while screaming like a ninny the entire time. His fight against Perona allows for all of these things. Both Sonny Strait and Kappei Yamaguchi do excellent Usopp voices and both have a lot to work with in this fight specifically, making this a pretty great segment for fans of the long nose.

Nami's role feels a bit shortchanged here, with her being unconscious for the first half of the collection. A check with the manga shows that this is nothing really new, but it certainly feels as if her role has been diminished a little. That said, Nami is the one who first encounters Bartholomew Kuma, another of the Seven Warlords, and thus gets a taste of the foreshadowing his entry onto the scene provides. She also does take a pivotal role in part of the fight against Oars at one point, so perhaps a lack of screen time does not, in this case, translate to a lack of importance.

The Oars battle really makes up the backbone of this set. Oars, a zombified monster from 500 years ago, has been animated with Luffy's shadow, giving him a sort of Luffy + The Incredible Hulk feel. He's also incredibly difficult to fight against, using Luffy's attacks (more or less) with his own inestimable strength. Every time it feels like the Straw Hats catch a break, something else happens to set them back, making the parts of the episodes devoted to Oars' defeat simultaneously exciting and frustrating. Zoro, Franky, and Sanji make up the majority of the fighting force here, backed up by Brook, Chopper, Robin, and, eventually, Usopp as more and more crew members arrive on the scene. We've seen the crew fight plenty of villains stronger than a single one of them, but Oars appears to be defying their group strength, which, while not strictly new, is certainly a cause for worry. That Moria has a large role in Oars' strategies is more worrisome, and by the time we reach the end of the twelfth episode, things look to have gotten very serious in a couple of ways.

As with all long-running series, these episodes of One Piece do suffer in the animation department. Poor Robin's figure seems constantly in flux and plenty of off-model moments are present – one reused shot has Zoro apparently sitting on air with his arm draped over the lip of a roof; others make it look like he's keeping a sword shoved down his pants. Detailed animation is reserved for major fight scenes, but even then it looks pretty shoddy, and no amount of creative zombies can really change that.

The voices, on the other hand, are really working hard. Both English and Japanese casts contain characters done better than the other language, so it is difficult to point to one that is truly better than the other. Chris Guerrero's Gecko Moria is a stand out and feels much more gleefully terrifying than his Japanese counterpart, but mostly it is down to which actor's spin on the character you prefer; for example, dub Franky has more of a bro flavor while sub Franky has a more thuggish twist.

Extras on these discs are fairly interesting, with commentary taking the form of the cast telling personal ghost stories rather than commenting on the show (a couple really are creepy) and there's a special in-the-booth with Eric Vale, voice of Sanji, that's also pretty fun. At this point, when episodes are in the high 300s, it must be a little difficult to come up with new things to say about the show specifically; regardless of why they've decided to be more creative with the commentaries, they're interesting to listen to, sort of like a radio show.

One Piece remains an epic pirate adventure in its sixth season as the Thriller Bark arc begins to wrap up. There's plenty of foreshadowing for those who know what's coming along with the tense yet goofy fighting and character dynamics that have made it fun all along. The animation is suffering, but the voices are great, so come aboard and make your dory fast – this is a fun ride.

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

+ +: Never a dull moment as the scene shifts, some parts of the Oars battle are really tense. Usopp's fight against Perona is fun. Good foreshadowing
--: Animation is lacking for most of it, Nami's parts feel underwhelming. Characters spend too much time off-model, some of the background music sounds like it belongs in Ranma ½ rather than One Piece.

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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
Satoshi Itō
Naoyuki Itou
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
Satoshi Itō
Naoyuki Itou
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

Full encyclopedia details about
One Piece (TV)

Release information about
One Piece - Season 6 Voyage 3 (DVD)

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