Rating summary
| Movie |  | 3.5 |
| Video |  | 4.5 |
| Audio | | 4.5 |
| Extras |  | 1.5 |
| Overall | | 3.5 |
One Piece: Film Z Blu-ray Movie Review
Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman October 3, 2014
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.
Zephyr’s motives aren’t entirely clear right off the bat, and when he’s discovered by Luffy after Zephyr was involved in a battle, it almost seems
as if Zephyr is not going to be the villain, but the latest bizarre character to join this gaggle of neo-pirates. That of course turns out not to be
the case, and one of Fire Island’s “natural resources” turns out to be the key.
Z is big, noisy and often surreal in the best One Piece
manner. It may not always hang together extremely well, preferring instead to employ a kind of vignette quality, but Zephyr has an interesting
story and the animation continues to be weird, wacky and frequently wonderful.
One Piece: Film Z Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality
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.
One Piece: Film Z Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality
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: Film Z Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras
- Patrick Seitz at Sakura-Con 2014 (1080p; 19:14)
- In Theaters Commercial Collection (1080i; 2:14)
- Promo Video (1080i; 1:32)
- U.S. Trailer (1080p; 1:39)
One Piece: Film Z Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation
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.
