One Piece: Season One, First Voyage Review
Ok, so I just finished watching all of One Piece: Season One, First Voyage. I watched the entire thirteen episodes dubbed and I'm actually really surprised at how good it was! All the voices seem to fit the characters really well and it sounds like the voice actors actually know how to act. :P Even the extras were done really well.
The only voice I'm not a huge fan of is Luffy's. It's sort of raspy and a little annoying... it's the only voice that doesn't sound natural at all. On the plus side, I got used to it really fast and it started to kind of grow on me. ^^;
The translations are really good too. I'm glad that everything sounds really mature; the characters swear (mildly) and sound like real people. None of the insults that are thrown around sound childish or plain stupid. It's really good. I'm not sure how the subtitles are; I don't know if they're the same as the spoken dialogue or if they're more accurate translations of what's being said. Either way, I'm sure it's good.
I usually hate re-dubbed opening sequences too, but I'm amazed at how good a job FUNi did at dubbing We Are. The lead singer actually sounds like the original vocalist in the Japanese version and the lyrics actually make sense. And none of it sounds out of tune! XD The same goes for the dubbed ending sequence, Memories. I hope that they decide to release CDs in the future with the original and dubbed openings and endings. :3 I'd definitely buy those.
The video quality is also really nice, as is the audio. I'm not an expert on that sort of thing, but I'm really satisfied with it none-the-less. The menus (as well as the box art and DVD slip covers) are really, really well designed. It's obvious that FUNi gave One Piece the attention that it deserves. It's really easy to see what you have selected too; no confusion as to whether you have "English" or "Japanese" selected for audio and subtitles. The sound playing on the menus doesn't get irritating at all either, as FUNi used background music tracks. Smart move, as the music in One Piece is really good.
The only thing that I'm not happy with is the lack of special features. For a $50 box set that only includes thirteen episodes, I would have expected a lot of additional content. As it is, the box only includes commentary on the first episode alone (even though the back of the box eludes to there being commentary on all episodes), and textless version of the opening and ending songs. That's pretty bare bones for $50. There's also a trailer for One Piece: Season One, Second Voyage, among trailers for other FUNi series, but that's hardly considered bonus material. Hopefully FUNi will decide to add more special features in future sets.
All-in-all, as a die-hard One Piece fan, I think every penny I spent on this set was well worth it. Even a casual One Piece fan would be very satisfied with this set, despite the lack of special features. :3 However, it might be worthy to point out that there's over 300 episodes in the series; $50 per every thirteen episodes is going to put a pretty big dent in your pocket and it really might not be worth getting into if you're on a budget and not absolutely crazy about the series. (There's always the 30% discount at Amazon for pre-ordering the sets though, which makes it a bit more affordable. XD)
The only voice I'm not a huge fan of is Luffy's. It's sort of raspy and a little annoying... it's the only voice that doesn't sound natural at all. On the plus side, I got used to it really fast and it started to kind of grow on me. ^^;
The translations are really good too. I'm glad that everything sounds really mature; the characters swear (mildly) and sound like real people. None of the insults that are thrown around sound childish or plain stupid. It's really good. I'm not sure how the subtitles are; I don't know if they're the same as the spoken dialogue or if they're more accurate translations of what's being said. Either way, I'm sure it's good.
I usually hate re-dubbed opening sequences too, but I'm amazed at how good a job FUNi did at dubbing We Are. The lead singer actually sounds like the original vocalist in the Japanese version and the lyrics actually make sense. And none of it sounds out of tune! XD The same goes for the dubbed ending sequence, Memories. I hope that they decide to release CDs in the future with the original and dubbed openings and endings. :3 I'd definitely buy those.
The video quality is also really nice, as is the audio. I'm not an expert on that sort of thing, but I'm really satisfied with it none-the-less. The menus (as well as the box art and DVD slip covers) are really, really well designed. It's obvious that FUNi gave One Piece the attention that it deserves. It's really easy to see what you have selected too; no confusion as to whether you have "English" or "Japanese" selected for audio and subtitles. The sound playing on the menus doesn't get irritating at all either, as FUNi used background music tracks. Smart move, as the music in One Piece is really good.
The only thing that I'm not happy with is the lack of special features. For a $50 box set that only includes thirteen episodes, I would have expected a lot of additional content. As it is, the box only includes commentary on the first episode alone (even though the back of the box eludes to there being commentary on all episodes), and textless version of the opening and ending songs. That's pretty bare bones for $50. There's also a trailer for One Piece: Season One, Second Voyage, among trailers for other FUNi series, but that's hardly considered bonus material. Hopefully FUNi will decide to add more special features in future sets.
All-in-all, as a die-hard One Piece fan, I think every penny I spent on this set was well worth it. Even a casual One Piece fan would be very satisfied with this set, despite the lack of special features. :3 However, it might be worthy to point out that there's over 300 episodes in the series; $50 per every thirteen episodes is going to put a pretty big dent in your pocket and it really might not be worth getting into if you're on a budget and not absolutely crazy about the series. (There's always the 30% discount at Amazon for pre-ordering the sets though, which makes it a bit more affordable. XD)