It is ‘One Piece‘ all the way for long-running Funimation release on the anime world. The opening episode of ‘One Piece’ declaration ‘It’s the great pirate era’, says it all.

Now some more on the series itself. Monkey doesn’t always mean a monkey business. Monkey D. Luffy is the case in point and a pirate by ‘profession’. He has his targets clear (the elusive One Piece treasure and to be the greatest pirate) and can do anything to get that. Now comes the twist in the tale, Luffy has eaten the devil fruits that give the person some powers. So what does Luffy get? Well, a body that feels and behaves as if made up of rubber!

To take the story further, we have a guy who will be crowned the pirate king if he finds the ‘One Piece’ and the only way to do this seems to be to recruit others. This brings in other characters like Zoro (pirate hunter), Nami (thief-bout only for pirates), Usopp (marksmen with many remarkable talents like lying, cowardice but a nice slingshot skill) and Sanji (a cook) who is as good in the kitchen as in the battles.

The show brings about fights, laughter, lot of action and a great plot all in one package. In America though, it didn’t have a great beginning as in the Japanese version. This happened mainly due to the tampering of the original version in America. This wasn’t appreciated by Fans and resulted in a disastrous performance. But to the show’s and fan’s relief Funimation stepped in bring relief for both.

Funimation has a remarkable style of its own when it comes to anime. Their content, presentation and even their pool of voice actors is unparalled. The best part about Funimation version of ‘One piece’ is that they are trying to preserve as much originality in the new version as was in the Japanese one. Little, to no meaning is lost in the dubs and translations. This is something the audiences really appreciate and have aptly rewarded also.

Let us also talk of the voices behind the characters. Luffy is given voice by Colleen Clinkenbeard, who no doubt is one of the best in the business. Others who are equally good are the likes of Luci Christian, Christopher Sabat, and many more. They all give this show a charm that is unique not just content wise but also in terms of the audio.

What else is unique about the Funimation version? There is a feature called ‘Marathon Mode’, which plays all episodes on the disk non stop. This is a pleasure viewing because it entitles no recaps and both opening and closing sequences come only once. So anyone can enjoy non stop six episodes one after the other without the botheration and time wastage of recaps. Considering that ‘One Piece’ is long, it helps in covering the entire season quickly.

Presently season one is available in four sets but a little more remains for the season to be completely covered. But now that ‘One Piece’ is available in the format which was much desired by the fans of the show, all the wait is worth the watch!