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Released by: Animation Video Languages: Japanese Audio (2 CH) w/ English/Chinese Subtitles. Contents: One Piece TV Episodes 1 - 52 Region: 0 Item: No Clue. # of discs: 5
Purchase Information: Paid: $55 shipped Ordered From: Florachanxxx on ebay
Comments/Info by: Rich
Packaging: The One Piece 5 DVD Set is contained in a very nice, professional looking Gatefold set with good, sturdy disc holders inside. Unlike many of the Manga International/Anime Cartoon Gatefolds which I have bought in the past, these gatefolds actually hold the discs and don't let go when you close the flaps or put it down somewhere. The cover, shown above, is a really well suited cover for the show. The inner flaps and back contain assorted pictures of characters, and the inner part, where a majority of the DVDs are held, is a giant map of the Great Sea Route. Overall, Very nice. While it's a little disappointing the DVDs don't match the case covers (like Manga International's) it's a fair trade off for a gatefold that actually holds the discs properly.
Content: One Piece is a long running anime series on Japanese TV, as you likely already know, and is currently well over episode 100 in it's native land. The show itself is a show that just about anyone who isn't trying to be overly macho could appreciate. It's great for kids and adults a like, and although a bit on the violent side at times, it's nothing too aggressive or crude. In fact, the best thing I could relate this too is the Bugs Bunny Cartoons that have long since been censored and, in many ways, butchered, to be appropriate for today's youths. The reason for comparison is simple, there's lots of drinking, lots of fighting, lots of themes, and lots of humor mixed into the show that gives a fairly honest look on what this style adventure would have in store, and keeps the entertainment level high while doing it. The show is about a kid named Luffy, or as this bootleg set calls him, Roof (some may know the translation of Rufi too, either way though - Roof isn't too horrible a translation...compared to some.) who sets out to become the Pirate King, the pirate amongst pirate, and peruses the great treasure, left by the great pirate Gold Roger, One Piece. The biggest standout in this show is the addition of Devil (Demon) Fruit, which gives special powers to the person who consumes it, the main character, Luffy, eats the rubber fruit and thus becomes a man made out of rubber, the downfall is that he now cannot swim. The show is fully interconnected and there are very few fillers per-say, as each episode is a well-formed continuation of the previous, the may many prefer their anime to be. So far I've only seen about nine episodes and can safely say it's a show well worth watching, and I am looking forward to watching the rest. This set contains episodes 1 - 52, which make up the first two seasons, I guess you could say (the op/ed change after episode 26.), and should give you a good taste of what's in store for the ending, granted there ever is one (on episode 100+, as mentioned before, and still going strong.). A second set probably will not be released until another 26 to 52 episodes are available on DVD in R2, unfortunately for us, they just recently released episodes 53 - 56.
Subtitles: Surprisingly good. I was a little worried about this set, despite the early praise it got from distributor's and web board goers. While still hovering on the Engrish level, the show is almost never difficult to understand, and the subs use grammar and punctuation quite often and quite well. The subtitles use a font that I haven't really seen on a HKDVD before, somewhere between the size of the Anime Cartoon/Manga International and Anime Studio font size, they hit a stable medium and manage to be easy to read and NEVER run off the screen, it's time for MI to take some notes. These are, of course, original subtitles, and aside from episodes 1 and 2, they maintain a fairly good quality throughout (I've only done a short spot check into the later episodes, but they all seemed to maintain this same quality.) Episodes 1 and 2 are still above average for HK Subs but lack puncutuation that is present in the later eps. So, what are the problems in the subs? Gender confusion and a few incorrect articles, but nothing major. It will occasionally say "he" instead of "she", "we" instead of "them", "us" instead of "you", but this isn't really as big of a deal as it seems. Aside from this, the show maintains a healthy level of explicit language, that never pushes it too far, and is actually quite fitting. It also uses different terms for Baka, so you aren't stuck reading "Idiot" every time it comes up (some are fairly interesting choices though, such as "Stupid head."). Other errors include the names, Roof for Luffy, Suron for Zoro, and Naomi (though it reverts to the correct spelling, Nami, by the end of episode 7.) for Nami. I haven't seen what they call Usopp yet, but hopefully it'll be decently translated. Overall, however, they are very easy to understand, and many jokes are translated through quite well. The occasional swearing, as those who suffered through the horrible Tales of Eternia set know, actually adds to the humor of some situations. Good subs, definitely good competition for Manga International as well.
Video: It's pretty good. Now don't get me wrong here, the show looks outstanding (DVD Quality) 85% of the time, however, during the heavy action scenes, or fast movement segments, the scenes will many times become a pixilated mess. This seems to die down as the show progresses, I spot checked a few episodes on DVD 3 and the occurrences of this seemed to be way, way down. This is only a minor complaint and doesn't really detract too terribly much, but it is there and worth noting. Very nice most of the time, but with flaws that just can't be ignored. Another small problem was a few black box blips that appeared during episode 8. However, unlike Manga International releases where the entire screen blips for a second, this occurred over one of the character's faces, in a way this is more distracting, if you notice it, but it's still not a big deal. Many of these problems are likely from the DVD's inherently low bit rates, around 3 ~ 4 mbps for most episodes, while it would seem this would cause it to look worse than it does, they did a good job for the most part - colors are fully intact and picture is both sharp and clear, unfortunately it's not as nice to the faster scenes. The quality of this set is steady throughout the set, improving bit by bit in every episode (usually it's the other way around.), I did spot check the last few eps, and yes, they are all of the same, high quality. Overall, this set has good video, not quite up to MI standards, but still quite good. It should also be noted that there are no logos or e-mail addresses.
Audio: 256kbps 2.0 channel Dolby Digital mix at 48 kHz Japanese Audio. There have been no problems to speak of yet, no snaps, no crackles, no pops, nothing. The track is sufficiently loud and extremely clear. There is no background humming, as in some AS and MI sets, and it's overall just really good. Nothing exceptional but no flaws to speak of, it's great.
Menus/Chapters/Extras: Very nice menus that use the theme song as background music. Play All, Chapters, Subtitles are the options on discs 1 - 4, with disc 5 containing Play All, Chapters, Subtitles, and Extras. Each disc uses a different background but with the same music, the background image is very sharp and clear. The chapter select screen allows you to pick the episode you wish to watch and is very professionally setup and well rendered. Subtitle menu gives you the typical choices, Chinese or English, with a static background and nice font. The chapter stops occur at the beginning of each episode, which is a little unfortunate - as all the op/eds/pres are intact and require fast forwarding to skip and/or get to (if you want to watch the preview for the next episode, that is.) Another nice thing worth noting, the next episode previews ARE subtitled, and subtitled quite well. The op/ed change on around episode 27. Disc 5 of this set, as mentioned above, contains an Extras section. Included in this section are the Season 1 credit-less opening and ending, and the Season 2 credit-less opening and ending. These are both encoded at a much higher bit rate than their episode counterparts (the op/ed attached to the eps themselves). Needless to say, it is VERY nice to have these extras.
Overall: This show comes highly recommended. It's long, interconnected, and very entertaining. The video flaws are forgivable, the audio perfect, and the subtitles are more than sufficient This is a very well made set, makes a fairly nice shelf piece, and will likely get a good amount of replay in the years to come (this set will likely last a while as the US doesn't seem to like picking up long series'.) As with any HK DVD, don't expect perfection, in fact, expect the exact opposite. Mentioning this, despite the flaws on the set itself, it still comes highly recommended.
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Page created on 2-03-02. |
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Page Last Updated on 2-03-02. |
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