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[Kyuur]

Episode of East Blue is out now on Crunchyroll and Funimation for subscribers. Excellent whether you're a fan of the series who wants to revisit the classic moments from the beginning of the series or someone new who wants to get a taste for what the series is all about before diving into the 3rd best selling comic of all time. It covers the most important events and story arcs from the first 100 chapters of the manga or first 54 episodes of the manga in just under 2 hours of runtime with all brand new animation.

Via Funimation's Blog:

Episode info
“Episode of East Blue”
Runtime: 106min
The words that Gold Roger, the King of the Pirates, uttered just before his death excited the masses and the world has entered a Great Pirate Era! There is a group of young pirates who are about to set sail on the Grand Line. Monkey D. Luffy, a rubber man. Roronoa Zoro aka “Pirate Hunter.” Usopp, a sniper. Sanji, a seafaring cook. And “Cat Burglar” Nami. They, the Straw Hats, all place a foot upon a barrel and make their vows before their next journey across the great ocean. Luffy shouts “In order to be the King of the Pirates!”
A decade ago in the Windmill Village…
A little boy Luffy was enthralled with a pirate boss Red-Haired Shanks. But a group of mountain bandits shows up and makes fun of the pirates. “Why didn’t you fight them?!” Luffy yells out angrily but Shanks says that it’s nothing worth getting mad over. At that time, Luffy snatches the Gum-Gum Fruit from a treasure box and eats it and as a result, his entire body becomes rubber and he loses the ability to swim for the rest of his life!
A few days later, Luffy is surrounded by the mountain bandits again and Shanks comes to help. “No matter what the reason, anyone who hurts my friends has to pay!!”
Shanks and his pirate crew are incredibly strong and they beat down the mountain bandits. Higuma, the head of the mountain bandits, runs away kidnapping Luffy and heads for the sea. However, they encounter a local Sea Monster there and are attacked. Luffy is in a desperate situation… But again, Shanks saves the day. He outstares the Sea Monster and chases it away but in exchange, he loses his left arm…
When Shanks leaves the village, he leaves his straw hat with Luffy.
“Come bring it back to me someday! Once you’ve become a great pirate!”
10 years later, Luffy has grown up strong and he sets out for an adventure on a small boat. He again encounters the local Sea Monster for that fateful day. However, Luffy takes it down with a single blow of Gum-Gum Pistol. Luffy’s journey to become the King of the Pirates now begins!

Just finished watching it myself, really captured everything that hooks people into the series.

 

[Docpan]

Ive wanted to get into One Piece for many years but never knew how. The first few episodes are just too old and boring. Is this a good start for newcomers who know nothing?

 

[Thores]

I can't wait to shove this disc into my Nintendo Switch

Edit: oh I guess I blinked and it wasn't in Gaming anymore

 

[Shin K Dash]

Man that poster really captures the best moments in that arc.

(Still can't believe their gonna try to make this into a live action... -_-)

Luffy laughing at everyone's misery ����

He's savage

 

[Order]

Luffy laughing at everyone's misery 😂😂

 

[chrisPjelly]

Didn't they already make an Arlong arc remake? Wouldn't this be like the 3rd time they animated this part lol.

 

[Brazil]

Fuck yeah! I've been waiting so long for this.

Time to fire up the ol' Crunchy.

 

[Rynocirator]

One Piece has a lot of retellings

Ive wanted to get into One Piece for many years but never knew how. The first few episodes are just too old and boring. Is this a good start for newcomers who know nothing?

Yeah it's a good place to jump in, probably one of the 1st arcs to demonstrate how special One Piece is.

 

[Aaronrules380]

Ive wanted to get into One Piece for many years but never knew how. The first few episodes are just too old and boring. Is this a good start for newcomers who know nothing?

It's a heavily abridged version of the first 44 episodes (Kinda, it actually skips one 5 episode arc entirely)

Honestly if you want to get into One Piece I'd recommend just reading the manga. The special has a lot of the key moments, but lacks a lot of the surrounding context. It does deliver some amazing animation moments for people already familiar with the material though

 

[Big One]

Ive wanted to get into One Piece for many years but never knew how. The first few episodes are just too old and boring. Is this a good start for newcomers who know nothing?

It wouldn't be bad but you're still not exactly getting the full experience. Just watch the first 50 episodes of the show, and if you don't like it, One Piece isn't gonna be for you.

 

[Giolon]

Ive wanted to get into One Piece for many years but never knew how. The first few episodes are just too old and boring. Is this a good start for newcomers who know nothing?

Based on the poster, this should cover around the first 45 episodes of story. This is probably a decent introduction, unless they truncate too much. Honestly though, like any shounen, the anime is 90% cruft, 10% awesome and character development. If this special just takes the 10%, it could be an amazing intro.

 

[Aaronrules380]

Didn't they already make an Arlong arc remake? Wouldn't this be like the 3rd time they animated this part lol.

Yeah, episode of Nami was a full special devoted to Arlong, this one had just like 20-30 minutes or so devoted to Arlong stuff

 

[BobLoblaw]

Episode of East Blue is out now on Crunchyroll and Funimation for subscribers. Excellent whether you're a fan of the series who wants to revisit the classic moments from the beginning of the series or someone new who wants to get a taste for what the series is all about before diving into the 3rd best selling comic of all time. It covers the most important events and story arcs from the first 100 chapters of the manga or first 54 episodes of the manga in just under 2 hours of runtime with all brand new animation.

Nah. I'm good. The old animation is light years beyond the shit Toei churns out these days. Thanks, though.

 

[Kyuur]

Ive wanted to get into One Piece for many years but never knew how. The first few episodes are just too old and boring. Is this a good start for newcomers who know nothing?

It would be good to see if the story beats and style resonate with you. If you liked it, I would probably recommend to read the manga from the beginning since it does skip over a fair bit of context and stuff that comes into play later. The anime has become quite a slog due to how they produce it.

Nah. I'm good. The old animation is light years beyond the shit Toei churns out these days. Thanks, though.

They do quite well here since its a special and not the weekly churn out. Its been a while since I watched but I would wager that almost everything in here is animated better than what they did before (maybe not Episode of Nami, haven't seen it).

 

[Anteater]

and zoro still hasn't lost to another swordman like he promised

 

[BatDan]

I appreciate this special for including moments that the anime originally cut out (including Luffy's very first scene where he stabs his own face to prove how tough he is)

Maybe someday we'll get the ideal One Piece adaptation.

To anyone starting out, go with the manga. It's way better, and it's easier to get through 86 volumes instead of 800+ episodes loaded with terrible padding.

 

[Chase17]

I enjoyed it a lot. Though Jimbei not making the end credits scroll was a big blow.

I probably wouldn't recommend it if you weren't already a fan of the series though. Lots of jumping around/missing context (though they do a good job of getting the highlights).

 

[Brazil]

I enjoyed it a lot. Though Jimbei not making the end credits scroll was a big blow.

Soon.

 

[Aaronrules380]

Nah. I'm good. The old animation is light years beyond the shit Toei churns out these days. Thanks, though.

Some of the animation in the special is actually amazing. Don't think it's the same as the shit they dole out on a weekly basis for the normal episodes. Toei can deliver good animation for stuff like movies and specials

 

[Nightwing123]

Awesome I'm going to watch this right now thanks for sharing the news.

 

[Chairhome]

Awesome! My son is pretty into One Piece but it has always seemed too daunting for me, this will be a good starting point for me, though I know I'll miss a lot.

 

[Aaronrules380]

One major highlight from the special animationwise

https://mobile.twitter.com/AnimeAjay/status/901513031401836549/video/1

 

[BobLoblaw]

They do quite well here since its a special and not the weekly churn out. Its been a while since I watched but I would wager that almost everything in here is animated better than what they did before (maybe not Episode of Nami, haven't seen it).

Some of the animation in the special is actually amazing. Don't think it's the same as the shit they dole out on a weekly basis for the normal episodes. Toei can deliver good animation for stuff like movies and specials

Alright, I'll watch. This better not break my heart guys. :\

 

[Big One]

Tbh another good way to get into One Piece is watch one of these movies: Strong World, Film Z, or Film Gold.

They contain some spoilers but these movies solely got a lot of people in Japan into the actual series (anime and manga). They're really good standalone movies that capture the spirit of the series in a small package. Also they're well-animated and have high production values similar to the recent Dragon Ball Z movies.

 

[farisr]

I had been wanting something like this to get my friends into the show since Episode of Nami came out as that glances over a lot of things (understandably).

This also makes me want a Hunter X Hunter 2011 esque adaptation of One Piece even more.If they get started on one now, they'll probably make it in time for the story to be done alongside it. LOL.

 

[Aaronrules380]

I had been wanting something like this to get my friends into the show since Episode of Nami came out as that glances over a lot of things (understandably).

This also makes me want a Hunter X Hunter 2011 esque adaptation of One Piece even more.If they get started on one now, they'll probably make it in time for the story to be done alongside it. LOL.

LOL I'm not so sure. I really doubt we'll even get so much as a One Piece Kai until the series is already over with anyways

 

[aadiboy]

They've already retold various East Blue Saga segments several times already, what the hell is this movie going to bring to the table? It's basically going to be a glorified clip show with how much they need to cover and gloss over.

 

[Aaronrules380]

They've already retold various East Blue Saga segments several times already, what the hell is this movie going to bring to the table? It's basically going to be a glorified clip show with how much they need to cover and gloss over.

It has some pretty hype animation, and the only special that redid any of east blue was episode of nami, which only covered arlong

 

[thiscoldblack]

Luffy laughing at everyone's misery 😂😂

Damn. It can't be undone now.

 

[zulux21]

LOL I'm not so sure. I really doubt we'll even get so much as a One Piece Kai until the series is already over with anyways

depending on how much longer it goes I could see them doing the hunter x hunter 2011 treatment to it.

I mean as it stands you could do that and make like 450 episode no problem which is almost 10 years. So if Oda says he is going into the final arc, it's likely you could start a new version of it with new animation and at least 2 manga chapters per episode.


that being said specials like this are easier, and more likely to get older fans to watch as well.

 

[Pappasman]

I watched this last night and enjoyed it for what it was.

I got into One Piece earlier this year with the manga and just recently fully caught up. I'm in love with the series now and thought the manga was one of the best I've read. The few episodes of the anime I've seen looked absolutely awful, but this special looked pretty good for the most part and had a couple of really nicely done scenes.

 

[BHK3]

Didn't Episode of Luffy and Episode of Nami do the exact same thing? Merry had a bit too didn't it? I've swear I've seen the arlong fight animated like 4 different ways now. Where the hell is the Enies Lobby(we got a little bit of it from Episode of Merry right?) and Thriller Bark retelling?

Just renanimate everything post Sabaody at this point and do everyone a favour.

 

[Wood Man]

The crying arc

 

[BatDan]

The crying arc

That's every arc.

 

[Gentleman Jack]

Luffy laughing at everyone's misery 😂😂

Damn if you take the context out of it Luffy is a fucking heartless tyrant.

 

[Maximo]

That was tight wish every episode looked like this.

 

[brawly]

One major highlight from the special animationwise

https://mobile.twitter.com/AnimeAjay/status/901513031401836549/video/1

Now I hate the current animation in the anime even more.

 

[Banzai]

Will watch. Hope they do a sequel of sorts.

 

[Nightbird]

One major highlight from the special animationwise

https://mobile.twitter.com/AnimeAjay/status/901513031401836549/video/1

Holy crap, good animation and great choreography? From Toei?

Looks like I need to watch this.

 

[Kingpin Rogers]

Have they brought One Piece over to the UK crunchyroll yet?

 

[dan2026]

To be honest, abridged as it was, this is a decent way to get into One Piece.

It was quite well done. You get the lowdown on the first five crew mates quite nicely.

They should do more of these. The current anime series is kind of awful in comparison.

 

[PhantomKnight]

Have they brought One Piece over to the UK crunchyroll yet?

No, it's not available. I really don't understand why One Piece is still unavailable in the UK.

 

[_Ryo_]

How do they fit like 54 episodes of content into a 106 minute film? Surely the pacing has to be fucked beyond belief.

I will watch it but I expect it to move much too fast, and give me a migraine.

 

[Ventilaator]

How do they fit like 54 episodes of content into a 106 minute film? Surely the pacing has to be fucked beyond belief.

I will watch it but I expect it to move much too fast, and give me a migraine.

Yup. I thought the special that was just about Arlong lost all of the impact that the story had because of the much faster pacing.

For this one, they don't have time to actually tell any of the story, they'll just list all of the things that have happened and then whoops out of time. Can't see this being any good on it's own for people who haven't seen the series before.

 

[Kaizer]

Will have to check this out later. It's a shame the weekly anime can't have this quality to it. I wish the anime would go seasonal & air in cours so that they could cut down on the padding & stretched out scenes typical of a regular episode of One Piece.

 

[NHarmonic.]

Watching Arlong Park for the first time is one of the best experiences of my life, regarding media and storytelling. There's a reason one piece has survived 20 years of continuous success and acclaim, and it seriously starts there.

It's the test, if you don't care for this characters after that then the show isn't for you.

 

[farisr]

So I just skimmed through this (as I plan to watch this with a friend next week) and it is basically 20 minute segments covering the origin of each character in the crew with a bit of action thrown in. I'd say combine this with the full Episode of Nami special (in place of the Nami segment in this) and you have a really good summary and foundation to get people into the show, especially those who may have trouble with the older animation and some of the slower pace of the first few arcs with not much action.