Anime Blu-ray/DVD Combo Review: One Piece Collection 27
One Piece Collection 27 packages together One Piece Season Eleven Voyage Two and One Piece Season Eleven Voyage Three. This set includes four DVDs and four Blu-ray discs. Between the two sets included in this release, there are 26 episodes included.
Episodes can be watched with either the English dub or with the Japanese audio with English subtitles. It should also be noted that in addition to watching episodes or using the “Play All” option, there is also a marathon feature, which allows you to watch all the episodes on a disc back-to-back without interruption. In the marathon feature, the opening credits only play once, there are no next episode previews.
One Piece Collection 27
English Publisher: FUNimation Entertainment
Format: Blu-ray/DVD Combo
Release Date: August 10, 2021
All of the episodes that are included in this set are from the Dressrosa Arc, and there are several plots going on at the same time throughout this set. The fight at the colosseum is the plot that seems to get a lot of the focus in these episodes. Luffy (who is fighting under the name “Lucy” ) becomes the crowd favorite. Luffy’s fight culminates with a battle with Chinjao, who has a grudge against Luffy’s grandfather, Garp. Their fight covers three episodes, which includes seeing the backstory for why Chinjao has such a grudge against Garp. But, not surprisingly, Luffy ends up winning the match and becomes the winner from Block C.
The rest of the colosseum fights focus on the D Block, and primarily on the female fighter, Rebecca. Her past as the granddaughter of the disgraced King Riku is revealed, and we see how much the people of Dressrosa hate her because of her grandfather, and how they keep booing her and hoping that she’ll lose. I swear, the spectators in the colosseum really annoyed me whenever they would do this to her. Speaking of the crowds, it really hit me just how often crowd shots were being reused in the colosseum scenes. It’s kind of annoying as a viewer, but it makes sense from a production perspective, because that meant the animators had a little less to animate (which would help keep down production costs and time for production). A relationship between Rebecca and the toy solider is also revealed during these episodes. Cavendish, the stuck up “beautiful boy” pirate is also in the D Block, and something interesting is revealed about him near the end of the D Block battle. I should mention that the D Block battle starts in Episode 651 and doesn’t finish until Episode 666. In part, it takes so long because of the intercutting between the plots involving the various characters.
Bartolomeo, the winner from the B Block, figures out that “Lucy” is really Luffy. However, this isn’t necessarily a bad thing for Luffy, because it turns out Bartolomeo is a Luffy “fanboy”… actually, he’s a “fanboy” for all of the Straw Hat Pirates, but at first, it seems like it’s only Luffy. Because he idolizes Luffy so much, he’s not going to turn him in. At first, this was kind of an interesting twist, but by the end of this set, Bartolomeo’s “fanboy” antics started getting a little old and a little annoying.
There’s one more thing I need to mention before leaving the colosseum. Luffy gets a big surprise when his childhood friend, Sabo, appears before him. Luffy had thought that Sabo died, so this was quite the shock. Sabo makes it clear, though, that he needs to make sure he gets his hands on the Flame-Flame Fruit. Luffy decides to hand over his “Lucy” disguise to Sabo, because he knows the fruit will be in good hands with him. This frees up Luffy to join up with Zoro and Kin’emon to try to infiltrate Doflamingo’s palace. As they try to get there, they are intercepted by Violet, the mysterious girl that Sanji encountered in the previous set. We learn in this set that she is the daughter of Riku and the aunt of Rebecca. She’s just starting to help them infiltrate the palace when the set ends.
Speaking of Violet, at the beginning of this set, Sanji relays the truth about Doflamingo that he learned from her. Unfortunately, by the time Sanji’s message gets to Law and he figures out what Sanji is trying to tell him, it’s too late. Law is intercepted by Doflamingo and the Marines (led by Fujitora). This turns into a three-way battle between Doflamingo, Law, and Fujitora.
Nami, Brooke, Chopper, and Momonosuke are aboard the Thousand Sunny, and are attacked by Giolla from the Doflamingo Family. She has an annoying devil fruit ability that allows her to alter the shape and appearance of any object. She usually distorts things into abstract art. The crew aboard the Thousand Sunny are transformed by Giolla, and it takes some time for them to take her down and return to their normal selves. They eventually make it to Green Bit, where Law is fighting with Doflamingo and Fujitora. They have taken Giolla prisoner, and they also re-acquire Caesar. Law tells them to flee to the next island, and after some debate and a call to Luffy, he tells them to head to that island. After they leave, Law is taken down by Fujitora, and the two of them take Law back to Dressrosa. Doflamingo shoots Law in front of Luffy, but amazingly, he’s still alive. Fujitora intends to arrest Law, and he makes it clear that he’s not necessarily on Doflamingo’s side. So it looks like things could be shaping up for a confrontation between Doflamingo and Fujitora at some point during this arc.
Meanwhile, Usopp and Robin have been captured by the Tontatta people. Usopp sees a statue of Noland the Liar, who is considered a hero to the Tontattas. Usopp lies and claims that he is a descendant of Noland, and that his name is Usoland. While this lie gets Usopp and Robin out of immediate danger, this plan backfires on Usopp when it’s revealed that the Tontattas are launching an offensive against Doflamingo today, and that they expect Usoland to lead them. Franky, meanwhile, learns about the situation with the toys on the island from the toy soldier. The two of them join up with Usopp, Robin, and the Tontattas because the toy soldier is also part of the plan to attack Doflamingo. We see the start of the Tontattas plan by the end of the episodes in this set.
Phew! The Straw Hats are separated once again, but this time, it seems like there’s a lot more going on and a lot more moving pieces than normal in a One Piece arc. So far, I’m enjoying the Dressrosa arc, but there’s a lot to try to remember and keep track of. I may have missed some plot points that happened in this set, but I think I hit on most of the important ones. From what I understand, there’s still about 80 more episodes left in this arc, so it’s going to be interesting to see how the story continues and lasts for this many more episodes. Just as long as it doesn’t feel stretched out or becomes tedious, I think it’ll be fine.
When it comes to the bonus features, both the first DVD and the first Blu-ray Disc don’t have any. The second DVD doesn’t include any bonus features, but the second Blu-ray Disc does. The second Blu-Ray has “FunimationCon 2020: One Piece Panel – Part 2,” which is hosted by Josellie Rios, the audience development strategist at FUNimation. Included in the panel are Colleen Clinkenbeard (the English voice for Luffy), Mike McFarland (one of the ADR Directors and the English voice for Buggy the Clown), Anthony Bowling (one of the ADR Directors), and Kyle Phillips (one of the ADR Directors). Josellie’s questions during this panel focused a lot on the ADR directing aspect of the series, so it made me wonder why Colleen Clinkenbeard was there. Colleen managed to get a little bit in near the end of the panel, but by the time I was done, I felt as if perhaps Joesllie needed to broaden her questions a little bit more so Colleen could have been included in the discussions more. In addition to this feature, there is also a textless version of the opening song, “Wake Up!”
There are no bonus featured on either the third DVD or on the third Blu-ray Disc. The fourth DVD doesn’t include any bonus features, but the fourth Blu-ray Disc does. The first bonus feature is, “Toei Animation and FUNimation Present a One Piece Livestream Watch Party.” It’s hosted by Justin Rojas and Josellie Rios and includes interviews with Colleen Clinkenbeard and Mike McFarland. This feature runs for about an hour and does not include the actual episodes that were watched during the watch party. It’s simply the interview portions of the show. You get to hear Colleen and Mike answer questions from the hosts and from participants watching online. There were at least a couple of One Piece trivia contests that Colleen and Mike were part of as well. This is a decent bonus feature and was worth watching at least once. This disc also includes two different textless versions for the opening song, “Wake Up!” The only difference between the two is some of the shots at the end of the opening have been changed. Outside of that, they’re rather similar.
If you’re a One Piece fan who wants to own the series on home video, but don’t want to spend the time and money to track down each individual set that’s been released, these Collection sets are a good way to go.
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