Review Piece: One Piece DVD: Season 3, Second Voyage

Letter of Marque 
The Straw Hats sailed to Skypiea in search of adventure, but their failure to comprehend the cloudy penal code lands them in hot water with a gang of creepy-crawly commandos. By order of God, the Going Merry is commandeered by a crustacean and Nami, Zoro, Chopper, Robin are marooned on a sacrificial alter surrounded by salivating sky-sharks! Luffy and the rest of the crew are quick to mount a rescue mission, but they've got problems of their own: a dango-shaped madman with an endless supply of agonizing surprises. Throw in some angry natives, a deranged deity, the mysterious Sky Knight, and a wild pack of dancing wolves, and the Straw Hats are in for their most outrageous voyage ever!


The Good
This DVD starts off with the defeat of the White Berets at the hands of Luffy. An explosive start with the recap of the last episode from Season 3, First Voyage including Luffy's Gum Gum Fireworks attack.

There are some good bits in this DVD such as the reveal of Skypiea's history. There was that sense of discovery that really helps keep your attention though some of these episodes. Watching as Nami, Robin and Zoro wander around the island as they follow one lead after another made things very interesting since they found a link between the blue sea and the land above the clouds. Before all of this we all thought that this was literally a vacation for our Strawhat Pirates but we discover that the ground of Skypiea was once part of Jaya. This is maybe one of the most surprising moments that we get in this arc. Up until this point, it seems to have been an accepted fact that Upper Yard was just dirt in the clouds. Then the awe-inspiring moment when Nami, Robin and Zoro discover the other half of Cricket's house. Very unbelievable and a testament to the storytelling that Oda is famous for. This may be the best part of the DVD set as the full idea of what is going on at Upper Yard and why this clump of dirt is so important to the Shandorians and Skypieans.

Another great moment that can be found within this DVD set is the bonfire scene that is in Episode 166. This would be the first time that the Strawhats have been together after suffering from the ordeals of God and learning about the possibility of the City of Gold residing in the sky. It just funny to watch as Luffy and Usopp look at Robin strangely when she mentions to put out the campfire. Then the hilarity continues as Zoro and Sanji appears with the additional firewood. From there they party! What a great party it was too. Another well executed scene from the voice talent in Funimation. This is a plus for the VAs too since you can hear the voices of Colleen Clinkenbeard, Luci Christian, Brina Palencia and a few other voices of the Strawhats singing the song 'Family'. The adaptations of the lyrics were very good and executed nicely. It really makes me wish that Funimation would release a CD of all the music that they dub over because I would be one of the first to grab it for sure if 'Family' was on it.

Making his premiere as God Eneru is J. Michael Tatum. His voice has been featured on the One Piece dub as Pearl and Dalton in the past. Tatum uses his impressive range to make good use of the tones that you can hear in Eneru's voice. He is able to capture Eneru's high and mighty tone while giving off an air of flair. His voice as Eneru gave me chills during the trailer for this DVD set and hearing his voice here bring excitement to me since Eneru is going to get busy pretty soon.

This DVD also has commentary featuring Mike McFarland (Line Producer), Luci Christian (Nami) and Stephanie Young (Robin). The trio takes a look back at how far the dubbing for One Piece has came since they first started in 2007. The commentary was for Episode 166 and it sounded like they had a fun time looking back. They mention deadlines caused from having a weekly airing on Cartoon Network and having to adjust their character's voices based on what they now know about their characters after going back and dubbing from the beginning.

The packaging for this DVD set is the same as S3V1. This means that we get the thin packs that read 'Luffy Pirates' on the outside and a wood finish on the inside. As seen at the beginning of this post is the image of Luffy, Sanji and Usopp as they run from Satori which is much more impressive for the cover compare to use of stock images that Season 1 and 2 had.

The Bad

One thing that Skypiea seems to have a lot of long and drag out moments. The worst part is that each DVD set seem to (or will) have a moments of dragged out pieces. In this DVD set it was the fight with Satori and any moment with Chopper before Shura appeared. The worse of the two was the Satori parts since it sucked having one moment with Luffy, Sanji and Usopp fighting against Satori then getting pulled away for something else. It was just really annoying to watch at times.

This seems to be a common trait with most of the fights in this DVD set since we never stayed on one fight long enough to get into it. Once the action begins to heat up we are then taken to some other part of the island. This scene hopping wasn't pointless though since we were getting background about Skypiea and what was going on. In the end Oda just decided to sacrifice intense battles for world building and set up. Still this scene jumping and drawn out moments are the low parts of this DVD set. . The four episode fight with Satori felt longer then it was and that is considering that every so often we were shot to another part of the idea. It was difficult at times to stay still and watch as it seems like the fights were being dragged on and having no end in sight.

The Ugly

Satori.....This guy was a pain to watch in both dub and sub. Props to the VA for capturing the annoyance that the Japanese VA made this character sound. He was both stupid sounding and annoying. Though me dubbing him 'The Ugly' for S3V2 has nothing to do with his character design (well maybe a little bit). Instead it is mostly because anything involving him was the lowest part of this DVD set. The fight seemed really silly even for One Piece standards. Mostly every scene involving him was a bit painful to watch.

Four episodes were dedicated to this fight with Satori and most of the time Luffy, Sanji and Usopp were on the run from this 'dumpling'. Though the main reason why it took up four episodes was because we kept on going back to Nami, Robin and Zoro. Thus we had more time to listen to Satori's 'wonderful' laugh. Satori clearly has a reason to be overconfident due to his Mantra abilities but his laugh wasn't making me feel that way.

The main thing that bothers me about this fight was the feeling that this could have gone much better if Oda fully utilize all the characters present. This is mostly my thinking but if Usopp had just decided to use his slingshot to pop the Cloud Balls around Satori and use them against him then that would have distracted Satori from using his Mantra to allow Luffy and/or Sanji an opening to attack. Then everybody can go off to look for The Crow. Still if things had played out like how I wanted then we may not have seen Usopp's AHHHHHHHHH~ and in retrospect it may have been better if Usopp was responsible for searching out The Crow since it was his intellect that allowed him to find where The Crow would exit from the Ordeal of Spheres.

Overall: 3 out of 5

This DVD set is really half and half. The first DVD is a bit of a drag to get though since you have to bounce between battles and set up. Though the funny parts with Zoro swinging on the vine helps you get though and where you are discovering the secrets of this land high above the deep blue sea. The second DVD of this set is when this set really shines as everything is put together. We see that the Strawhats now have a set goal and off to light the flame of adventure. Add that to the comedy and you have a perfect way to end this thirteen episode set.

Details: One Piece: Season 3, 2nd Voyage includes episodes 157-169. Extras includes Marathon Play Special Feature and Staff Commentary.