6.6 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 3.5 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
Said to be comparable to the Ancient Weapons of old, the Marines' trump card, the "Dyna Stones," have suddenly been stolen by a group of renegade vigilantes. The terrifyingly powerful man responsible, former Marine Admiral "Z", now stands in the path of Luffy and his Straw Hat Pirates. Can the Straw Hats defeat "Z" and his crew, or will the New World meet its end at the hands of this mad man?
Starring: Mayumi Tanaka, Masashi Hirose, Kazuya Nakai, Akemi Okamura, Kappei YamaguchiAnime | 100% |
Foreign | 99% |
Action | 41% |
Adventure | 31% |
Comedy | 26% |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.78:1
English: Dolby TrueHD 5.1
Japanese: Dolby TrueHD 5.1
English
50GB Blu-ray Disc
Two-disc set (1 BD, 1 DVD)
DVD copy
Slipcover in original pressing
Region A (locked)
Movie | 3.5 | |
Video | 4.5 | |
Audio | 4.5 | |
Extras | 1.5 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
No, this is not the Academy Award winning 1969 political thriller by Costa-Gravas, though my hunch is there’s very little overlap in the Venn Diagram detailing the intersection of fans for that famous film and this new anime featuring the One Piece gang. One Piece is the longrunning brainchild of Eiichiro Oda and has reportedly become the bestselling manga of all time. That has translated into a wealth of franchise opportunities, including the film series, of which Z is the twelfth installment. Oda oversaw this production, and it retains the panoply of totally weird and outlandish characters that have become one of the franchise’s hallmarks. It also exploits a relatively recent timeshift in the One World universe, pitting the motley crew of heroes against a kind of manic mercenary former marine named Zephyr, who goes by the nickname Z.
Z is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of FUNimation Entertainment with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.78:1. Much in line with FUNimation's release of Strong World, this presentation is bright and bold with gorgeously saturated and varied colors, and nicely sharp and precise line detail. There's some nice looking digital rendering in some of the battle scenes, and the extremely inventive character designs continue to be a highlight.
Z features both the original Japanese language track as well as a very good English dub in Dolby TrueHD 5.1. In typical One Piece fashion, this is a frequently noisy affair, filled with bizarre songs and lots of sound effects, all of which sound clear as a bell and are frequently nicely placed throughout the surround channels. Voice work is very strong in both languages. Fidelity is excellent and there are no problems to discuss.
One Piece is one of those franchises that just kind of beats its fans into submission with a rapid fire display of weird characters, outlandish situations and bizarre interactions. Z is actually relatively straightforward, offering an easy to understand villain who ends up being a bit more nuanced than might initially be imagined. The animation style here continues to be One Piece's most distinctive calling card, and the good news is that inimitable style looks great on this Blu-ray. Recommended.
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