One Piece: Collection 35 Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.5
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		0.5
Overall		4.5

One Piece: Collection 35 Blu-ray Movie Review

One Piece: Collection 35 continues the action-packed adventure. Based on the beloved manga created by Eiichiro Oda, One Piece: Collection 35 includes episodes 843-866. The series continues to showcase the vibrant animation from acclaimed studio Toei Animation (Dragon Ball Z, Digimon Adventure). Produced by Yoshihiro Suzuki (GTO: Great Teacher Onizuka, Fatal Fury: The Motion Picture), One Piece: Collection 35 provides plenty of spectacle for series fans. Released in North America on physical media and via streaming by Crunchyroll, the anime series is one of the most acclaimed of all time. The series is the longest running and most popular anime in the history of Japanese anime.

The journey continues as the Straw Hat Pirates encounter new adventures and missions. The Straw Hats are now alongside the Fire Tank Pirates, and Vinsmokes. The heroes attempt to escape from the large island and the perils in the way. Both Chopper and Brook are on a quest to retrieve Sunny from the Big Mom Pirates. Meanwhile, Sanji, Chiffon, and Pudding all decide to race together towards the epic goal of completing Big Mom’s Cake. Luffy also fights an epic battle against Katakuri in the Mirro-World. Luffy also fights Katakuri and uses the foresight ability.

The cast of characters are essential to the anime production. There is such a wonderful cast and the various characters play meaningful roles in the series. The crew includes Monkey D. Luffy (Mayumi Tanaka), Nami (Akemi Okamura), Sanji (Hiroaki Hirata), Tony Tony Chopper (Ikue Ōtani), Usopp (Kappei Yamaguchi), Franky (Kazuki Yao), Roronoa Zoro (Kazuya Nakai), Brook (Yūichi Nagashima), and Nico Robin (Yuriko Yamaguchi). The characters certainly add something special to the production and the journey each character embarks on is something that is of essence to the series. One Piece became a mega popular anime in part because of the Straw Hat Pirates and the immense fandom of these lovable characters.  

Luffy remains the wonderful lead protagonist. There is so much to appreciate about Luffy and his role on the series. Luffy is so endearing, charming, and wonderful. The heart and passion of Luffy for adventure, fun, and action-packed whimsy is endearing. The character is one of my favorite characters in the entire history and pantheon of anime. The stretchable gummy-fruit ability is something special and specific to Luffy. Sanji is an incredible character, too. As is Zoro. The entire ensemble cast does something fun with the series.

The characters certainly are essential to the production. There is so much charm to the entire cast of characters. The ensemble is expansive – providing so much wonder throughout. There is so much to appreciate about the characters. The cast of voice actors have a lot of fun with their respective roles, too. The results speak volumes and add so much to the production.

One of the key strengths of the anime series is the character design work done by Noboru Koizumi (One Piece: The Curse of the Sacred Sword, One Piece Special: Adventure in the Ocean's Navel). The designs certainly work well and add a lot to the production. The character art makes a wonderful and vivid impression. The designs are beautiful and well done throughout. The vision of the manga is well maintained.

The animation is one of the most beautiful and artistic qualities of the series. One Piece has fantastic animation direction by Keiichi Ichikawa (One Piece: Heart of Gold, One Piece: Episode of Sabo). With incredible animation, the series looks wonderful. The art style adding to the majesty and grace of One Piece. The results certainly are terrific and are one of the key reasons for audiences to love the series.

The cinematography by Hirosato Ōnishi (One Piece: The Desert Princess and the Pirates: Adventure in Alabasta, Digimon Adventure) is well-done. The visuals are vibrant, colorful, and engaging. There is immense beauty in the animation style. The style of top- notch. The cinematography vibrant and wonderful. The end results are fantastic and add to the beautiful sense of world-building. An incredible canvas for the anime series.

One Piece features a terrific score composed by Kōhei Tanaka (Galaxy Express 999: Eternal Fantasy, Project A-ko: Uncivil Wars) and Shiroh Hamaguchi (One Piece Special – Adventure of Nebulandia, The Princess and the Pilot). The music is essential to the production. The original score and themes are of vital importance to the anime. Tanaka does a terrific job and the score certainly is a step above most anime productions. The score is exciting, engaging, and full of thrills. The score even creates memorable elements that are of great wonder throughout the series. The music is a perfect backdrop for the action scenes.

Featuring scripts written by Shoji Yonemura (Pokémon Journeys: The Series, Digimon Fusion), One Piece: Set 35 also provides a fun sense of adventure and whimsy for the series. The cast of characters have terrific dialogue and the storytelling is essential. The writing works perfectly – adding so much. The efforts of the scriptwriting impresses in spades.

Director Toshinori Fukazawa (Digimon: Data Squad, Toriko) continues to do a terrific job with the anime. As chief director, Fukazawa is a talent. The anime series is exciting, fun, and action-packed. The anime manages to be a terrific cultural milestone. The manga is well adapted and the anime brings out the greatest aspects of the manga. The series has been the most popular anime in Japanese anime history and continues to be a rewarding gem for fans.

One Piece: Collection 35 Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Released on Blu-ray by Crunchyroll, One Piece: Collection 35 is presented in 1080p MPEG-4 AVC encoded high-definition in the original television broadcast aspect ratio of 1.78:1 widescreen. Wonderful animation is at the forefront of the production. The series has crisp and detailed animation throughout. The visuals are outstanding and provide so much beauty to the production. The line art and background art are superb.

The video quality looks outstanding in high-definition. The release benefits from being a native high-definition presentation. Some of the earlier sets (from the earlier seasons) were upscaled from standard definition to high-definition. The native high-definition video quality is all the better and makes a robust impression. The quality "pops" with incredible depth and detail in the video.

One Piece: Collection 35 Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The release includes a nice selection of lossless audio options: English Dolby TrueHD 2.0 and Japanese Dolby TrueHD 2.0 (with English subtitles). The lossless audio is engaging throughout and adds to the presentation quality. The release sounds crisp and clear. The audio dynamics impress in spades. A wonderful presentation. The original Japanese language audio is robust, too. The audio offers up engaging detail and crisp refinement. The score is similarly well reproduced and plays a meaningful role in the audio presentation.

One of the best qualities of physical media is the lossless audio encoding. Streaming video services only provide lossy (non-lossless) audio quality. For home theater enthusiasts and audiophiles alike, the high quality of lossless encoding can make a nice difference for fans.

One Piece: Collection 35 Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Disc 2:

Special Feature –

 Textless Opening Song "Hope" (HD, 2:32)

Disc 4:

Special Features –

Textless Opening Song "Hope" (HD, 2:32)

Textless Opening Song "Super Powers" (HD, 2:32)

The box-set comes packaged in an oversized clear DVD case. The box-set is designed to fit alongside the other DVD and Blu-ray collection sets released. The set features somewhat standard packaging, and doesn't have as much showiness or swag as some other sets. A standard Blu-ray case or steelbook packaging would have been preferable. The results here are underwhelming and could be much improved.

Unfortunately, the One Piece box set has a somewhat sparse supplemental package. The release could have used more impressive bonus features. The set could have used some audio commentaries, behind-the-scenes, cast/crew interviews, making-of featurettes, and more. Alas, the set doesn't offer many on disc supplements. In an era of streaming also being an option, some anime fans prefer to stream if the package isn't as packed with bonus features.

One Piece: Collection 35 Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

One Piece: Collection 35 provides plenty of action-packed adventure and entertainment for fans of the long-running anime series. As the longest running and most successful anime series ever produced, it always amazes how passionate the fanbase is. The enormous fanbase always brings love for the epic anime. The series features terrific animation and wonderful production values.

The Blu-ray provides a wonderful high-definition presentation and lossless audio. The release has a somewhat sparse supplemental package. The release comes with a nice o-card slipcover, too. The packaging is somewhat standard but will fit nicely alongside other box-sets in the collection line. Enthusiasts who have been collecting these sets won't want to miss out on another great set. Recommended.