One Piece Collection 10 is here! And with it comes some unfortunate news for the Straw Hat crew – the Going Merry is no longer seaworthy! The Straw Hats also get mixed up with the thuggish Franky House, a company of ‘ship dismantlers’, looking to sell any scrap they can and even cashing in on pirate bounties. One Piece Collection 10 comes to the UK from Manga Entertainment and spans four discs, with a total of twenty-three episodes.
Set in the shipbuilding city of Water 7, Luffy and crew cash in their treasure from Skypiea in the hopes of repairing the Going Merry and recruiting a shipwright into their crew. Unfortunately, after meeting with the head of the Galley-La Company, Iceburg, they’re informed that Going Merry cannot be repaired. With a heavy heart, Luffy decides it’s time to say goodbye to the Going Merry, but first, they must save Usopp from the Franky Family and retrieve their stolen money. All the while, Nico Robin disappears after a mysterious person whispers “CP9” as they pass; what is CP9 and what does it have to do with Robin?
This release of One Piece Collection 10 is identical, in terms of content, to the Funimation release in North America, as are the previous collections. This means that we’re receiving the full uncut version of One Piece both English dubbed and in the original Japanese. The English dub included is the Funimation dub and not that of the original North American broadcast, so there’s no censored dialogue or name changes. It does, however, contain logo and credit alterations as are present in the Funimation version; this does not impede the viewing experience.
I was pleasantly surprised by the animation quality of this collection as, being a DVD only release, my expectations weren’t high. Differences between a Blu-ray and DVD release can be rather exaggerated on larger screens, so it was a delight to bear witness to near Blu-ray quality with this modest DVD title. Fans of both original Japanese and English dubs are catered for in this release, the latter more so with a total of four episodes including commentary with members of the English voice cast and two special behind the scenes featurettes. The English audio track is offered as 5.1 surround sound, while the Japanese audio is stereo only.
Extras include the standard textless opening and ending animations, behind the scenes featurettes, titled ‘On The Boat with’; the first features Brina Palencia (Tony Tony Chopper) and the second, Eric Vale (Sanji). The episodes with commentary can be found in the extras menu and are spread over the first three discs; this is available for the following episodes:
233 – Pirate Abduction Incident! A Pirate Ship That Can Only Await Her End!
236 – Luffy vs. Usopp! Collision of Two Men’s Pride!
244 – Secret Bond! Iceberg and Franky!
245 – Come Back, Robin! Showdown with CP9!
