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Jan 11, 2013
*Minor spoilers ahead*
A nice if uninspired update of a classic One Piece Arc.
As most One Piece fans will attest, the Arlong/Nami back story arc was when the show first entered the world of greatness.
I was very excited to see an update with new Animation. The original was comprised of year 2000 tv animation, so while it still had a sumptuous art style its more basic animation could have really used a modern update. In addition the arc itself was not long, so a edited down definitive version was def possible.
So was this update a success? Unfortunately not really
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First good points.
The story retains its power, what Nami had to suffer was monstrous and to see all that suffering come to boil and then to a head with Arlong still feels transient.There is a story change that improves the story slightly, dropping the contrived method to keep Luffy incapacitated used in the show to drag out the fight a bit. The characters are the usual top notch cast you have come to expect.
However there are some significant down sides compared to the original arc.
While the animation is technically improved, it loses a lot of its sumptuous art style, become bland to look at. For that reason the animation is far more enjoyable in the original.
The editing severely damages certain parts of the story. Trying to rush through and not having time to dwell on all the emotional and epic upheaval going on, it feels like watching a summary of the original arc rather then a definitive version. As soon as an important event occurs we are rushed onto the next one.
The flaw wouldn't be so bad if not for its biggest critical flaw. The voice acting.
In the modern day part of the story it is not as bad. While not as well acted as the original (possibly because they are rushing through it) it stands up to anime's high standard ok.
However the voice acting in flashback parts is quite bad. The children are voiced by their adult versions putting on kid voices and their mother says her lines without much feeling. This is in contrast to the original in which they had diff actors for the kids and performed their horror and sorrow beautifully. The mother had feeling in the original and the pivotal scene was well better directed in the original. This version in essence destroys the pivotal scenes of the arc.
Ultimately, while an enjoyable throwback to old school One Piece, this is a shadow of the real Nami arc. People new to One Piece should not watch this version they should watch the proper version in the tv show.
Bottom line the Nami arc is one of the best One piece arcs but this version of it does NOT do it justice.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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Dec 22, 2012
A mere shadow of the godliness that is One Piece.
This is a retelling of the Arabasta arc, the final arc of the Crocodile Saga from the One Piece tv show. The arc in the show is one of my favs, scoring a rare 10/10 for me and I was expecting great things from this movie, expecting the definitive version with upgraded Animation.
I saw the relatively low score on this site and was puzzled. i soon realised upon watching, this is a train wreck of a movie that has little resemblance to the Arabasta arc.
There are two huge problems with this movie. The first, the lesser
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of the two problems, is the technical failures, referred too in other reviews.
Trying to squeeze so much into episodes worth of Anime into a movie was too much for the creators. The directing and editing is poor. It's like the director is given a list of story events to cover and reels them off, paying no attention to the perfect way they are presented in the tv show. The events are quickly rushed through, the fights suck. The animation is not improved from the show. In fact it just looks shinier, the detail is worse. The voice acting is still good but is poor compared to the tv show. Each scene is rushed so no time for the characters to match the impressive acting in the tv show.
It assumes you have seen the arc before. Any new people will be confused by most of the stuff going on. If it was an original film the screenplay would render the film a total confusing mess. Key events that would allow the arc to make sense are cut out. Key events left in still make no sense. Plot holes abound because of this lack of attention.
The second and more critical flaw is the lack of heart and emotional resonance, which is in abundance in the tv show version. Everything happens so fast there is no time to build up the tension and all the emotional and epicness is lost.
There is no sense of Vivi's suffering and horror at seeing her Country tear itself apart. They ruin many epic Poignant fights. No danger and overload of desperation during Usopp and Choppers fight. No sense of ascension and achievement during Zoro's fight with Mr 1. Luffy's first fight with Crocodile loses the poignant annihilation he receives at Crocodile's hands. Crocodile's character doesn't feel even slightly threatening, unlike the tv show in which he feels like an unstoppable juggernaut for most of the arc. Crocodile's below par voice acting contributes to this, unlike his fabulous acting in the tv show, it lacks the eloquent menace you normally get from Crocodile.
It is sheer travesty that Luffy's final fight with Crocodile is reduced to a pathetic whimper. Most of the right lines are said but the bad directing and editing kill the emotive and epic symbolism of him defeating a Warlord of the sea through sheer willpower. One Piece is the king of Shonen battle because it transcends the genre to become one of the best drama's of all time. That is not present in this movie.
I could go on and on but will just mention one more. The ending, where the crew show they are Nakama to Vivi by showing their marks of friendship, does more accurately reflect the arc of the tv show. But without the Vivi Character development with the Straw hat crew present in the show and the years of suffering, loss and perseverance Vivi has gone through, it lacks all meaning. It's like the ending of the Shawshank Redemption without the character building earlier on in the movie.
If they made the movie 2 and a half hours and made it true to the original then they could have beaten these problems. As this film stands now, it's just a reminder of how bad one of the greatest Animes of all time could be if directed wrongly.
Don't bother watching this, it will just make you weep how badly One Piece is destroyed.
Reviewer’s Rating: 3
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Oct 6, 2011
*This review makes reference to my thoughts on the original tv show also and also contains some minor spoilers*
Having just watched the Wolfs Rain OVA I have to say I was very impressed.
I am not a big fan of the original tv series. It was slow, padded out with too much filler and apart from the odd few stand out moments it never fulfilled it's potential or made up for it with a great end like for example Speed Grapher did. I couldn't give it any higher then 6/10.
The OVA is very different. This was the Anime I was expected to watch when I watched
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the tv series. An emotional roller coaster, it beautifully portrays all the main characters struggling through what feels like hell, a desolate wasteland world on the brink of death, desperately trying to take this one and only chance to open paradise. However The Noble Darcia is back and determined to create his own version of paradise. The OVA is absolutely brutal and blood thirsty, the dramatic action is thick and fast and really makes your head spin, I never knew what hit me.
Has tinges of End of Evangelion but rather then being a rip off it makes the story it's own. Beautifully directed,sound track used masterfully to increase the emotional resonance and superb voice acting, it also has some iconic imagery and one of the most awesome antagonists in Anime history.
This OVA is so good, even I loved it after being meh over the tv show. If the tv show was as consistent as this it would have been at least a 9/10
It's still important to watch the tv show first to get the full impact of the OVA, but this OVA gets a huge thumbs up from me :)
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Aug 8, 2010
This is without doubt the WORST anime i have ever seen.
Please never watch this, it will suck your soul away :(
Reviewer’s Rating: 1
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Aug 7, 2010
Now this anime is one i don't think i will ever understand the fascination with. I have reached ep 65 so its not a complete review, but how many eps should it take for an anime to get good? Considering how popular this show is, i think its time to balance it out with a negative review.
Ok, its pretty well established in the anime community that the first 19 eps or so are garbage.
But they are not garbage because they have no story and a basically filler episodes. They are garbage because some of the characters are so annoying they want to make you
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pull your eyes out. The cow and egg baby are horrid and the main character, tsuna, his japanese voice acting is more annoying then shinjis dub voice from evangelion. These eps are so bad they make naruto filler eps 136-220 look good! :(
Ok, now thats out the way, to the real review.
Most people are like watch from ep 20 where the first story arc is. However that too is a let down with boring, short and badly constructed fights. Its also just bog standard shonen fare that you have seen a million times before in high school fighting shows. Then after this short arc...more horrible filler.
To be fair, the second arc is ALOT BETTER, and i would recommend just watching as much of the beginning as you can cope with, and then jumping to ep 34.
The fights are alot better, story picks up and becomes a more solid shonen fighting show.
However it still in no way matches the hype. In NO WAY, can this show even come close to Naruto, One Piece, Dragon ball or even Bleach.
The fights so far are no where near as good as the above shows. Storyline wise its ok, better then bleach and dragonball but no match for naruto and especially one piece.
However its lack of emotion, character development and drama seals its fate. Because the start is so bad i feel nothing for any of the characters and the main character kills the show dead. He has to be the worst main character ever.
Even Bleach has better character building and emotion then this and Bleach sucks in that area.
I know there are alot of people who hate the Naruto anime, and thats fine. But if any of those ppl like Reborn then i honestly think they are not using any logic. Naruto CRUSHES Reborn with ease. Narutos fights, story, characters and especially emotional scenes destroy the first 65 eps of Reborn.
And to compare Reborn to the king of the shonen fighting animes, One Piece, is like comparing The Empire Strikes Back with Attack of the Clones.
I know its possible that Reborn goes super after the Varia arc but how many eps can an anime stay mediocre?
Even Bleach got good from ep 15, Naruto was good from ep 1 and went thunderous after ep 19. Naruto Shippuuden is wasting some of the potential the show had but is still fabulous. Dragonball was great from the off, Dragonball z started with one awesome fight and One Pieces first season is still prob the 2nd or 3rd best one piece season with amazing character development.
For reborn to start off with filler is crazy and even the varia arc is not up to par.
Reborn might have been the 5th legendary long running shonen fighting anime, but alas it was not to be.
Reviewer’s Rating: 5
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