One Piece Collection No. 3   Starring (voice): Akemi Okamura, Hiroaki Hirata, Ikue Ohtani and Kappei Yamaguchi Distributor: Manga Entertainment RRP: £34.99 MANG6012 Certificate: 12 Release Date: 23 September 2013

Madcap, sixteen year old, Monkey D. Luffy finds that, having eaten a piece of magic fruit, his body has become extremely elastic and almost impervious to harm. With this new found gift Luffy decides that what he most wants to do is run away and become a pirate and find the fabled One Piece treasure of Gold Rogers...

One Piece (Uncut) Collection 3 sees the on-going release of a show that has topped six hundred episodes and doesn’t look like stopping. Produced by Toei Animation, the show premiered in 1999. This four disc release collects together episodes fifty-four to seventy-eight, so no matter what you think of the show the box set represents good value. The series was adapted from the original manga by Eiichiro Oda.

The box sets do not represent discreet seasons as this collection straddles both season one and two. The setup is pretty easy, with our heroes, the Straw Hat pirates being constantly chased by the Marines, in a constant Stop the Pigeon format.

The first episode opens with the introduction of a new character, Apis, who escapes from the Marines and finds herself in the company of the Straw Hat, unaware that she has sought refuge with pirates. As is usual for the series this creates the reason for a three episode chase full of slapstick comedy. The next four episodes see the gang get involved with a dragon. By now you get a feeling for the show as you get a series of three to four episode stories, linked together with the constant flight from the authorities, in the shape of the Marines.

A new story arc begins with episode sixty-three, Enter the Grand Line, which also marks the start of the second season, a season which is concluded within this box set. The whole season was directed by Kōnosuke Uda. This protracted tale involves the Straw Hat Pirates getting stuck in the belly of a Whale. Along the way, in-between the comedy we get to learn a lot more about the world of One Piece.

The show is presented with both an English 5.1 Surround Sound dub and the original Japanese stereo audio track, with English subtitles. The set does contain a number of extras, including commentary tracks from the English dub actors on episodes sixty-one and sixty-seven; it’s all fluffy stuff, fun to listen to once.

The show has used quite a number of music tracks in its opening and closing sequences and disc two has the textless openings sequence ('Believe') and the textless closing ('Run! Run! Run!'). Disc four contains another textless openings sequence ('Believe') and the textless closing ('Shouchinoskue!').

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Charles Packer