Monkey D. Luffy is a carefree young pirate with big dreams and a body made of rubber. He may begin his journey to fame inexplicably stuffed inside a floating barrel, but one day he plans to become the Pirate King. No self-respecting pirate king would be caught dead without a crew—or more accurately, would be killed if he didn't have one—so Luffy is on the lookout for skilled partners who will share his dream.
One Piece - Season 1 Part 1 Uncut (DVD) 2008-05-27 (from $24.49)
One Piece - Season 1 Part 2 (DVD) 2008-09-23 (from $25.49)
One Piece - Season 1 Part 3 (DVD) 2009-01-20 (from $26.99)
One Piece - Season 1 Part 4 (DVD) 2009-03-31 (from $30.03)
However, even at this early stage the series' execution is more positive than negative. Eichiro Oda's peculiar artistic aesthetic—lanky, cartoony character designs, cluttered settings, bizarre clothing, and lots of distorted angles and ominously shadowed faces—allows the series to pull off the seemingly impossible feat of being totally silly and deadly serious at the same time, setting up hilarious sight gags (Buggy's ignominious defeat) and vicious brutality (Kuro's attack on Kaya's butler) with equal aplomb. Director Kônosuke Uda soon learns to turn the flat look of the series to his advantage, using lightning pans, overlapping panes of animation, and jumpy editing to give the fights a unique energy. And composer Kouhei Tanaka backs it all up with unexpectedly catchy symphonic and modern themes that, in Uda's hands, are pure piratic bliss. In the meantime awkward flashbacks and the occasional embarrassing dramatic flourish in the music attest—along with the honing of the narrative formula—to the series' fledgling status.