Review: FUNimation's One Piece Stream Site

 Well, I thought I would get around to writing my first review on Anime Vice. It is sort of a different approach to a review of an anime. The topic at hand will be reviewing FUNimation's airing of subtitled One Piece episodes on their website.  


My very first experience with One Piece, sadly enough to say, was actually when it first aired on Cartoon Network and was being dubbed by 4Kids. I had heard things about One Piece in the past, but never looked into it much. Watching on TV I thought the series was 'cute', but there were just so many plot holes and everything seemed so weak and childish. Something really didn't seem right. It was maybe a year later that I finally looked online to find out more. I discovered some sites that had pirated Japanese episodes for fan subtitles. 
 
I was astounded at what I was seeing. The changes were so dramatic it was as if I was watching a completely different show. What4Kids did to that series could only be considered an anime equivalent of a war crime. Why even bother with the series if you were just going to change everything? From that point on fan sub websites were the only source I could find that had the real One Piece episodes. 
A few years ago 4Kids lost the rights on the dub and the FUNimation company stepped in to redub the series from square one. It was exciting, but from what I had seen. FUNimation was keeping some edits to the series. Just no where near as extreme as their predecessor. I really wanted to give this series a chance, but Cartoon Network took it off before it could go through a single story arc. 
 

New Era 

It wasn't too long ago that FUNimation started something that was like a blessing to US One Piece fans. On their websites they were streaming brand new episodes directly out of Japan with subtitles. They were also uploading the early seasons offering both dub and subtitles. I was unsure about the site at first, but thought I should give it a fair shot if it could mean properly supporting the anime. This is my review. 
 
Episode Selection 
It can not be denied how impressive it is that FUNimation is airing brand new episodes, subtitled, an hour after airing in Japan. This tells me that they really want to get people to stop pirating episodes online by giving the audience what they are looking for. You can sort episodes by Most Popular, Most Recent, and Show Order. Further, you can select to show only the Sub or Dub episodes. 

Where things fall apart are in the huge gaps that are present on the site. The list of missing episodes stretches from Episodes 14-53 and 104-390. That makes a gap of 325 episodes total missing. They do seem to be adding three episodes to the gap between 104-390 each week, but for some reason don't seem to be touching the14-53 gap. At this rate, just to fill that later gap at a rate of three episodes a week will take about 96 weeks. These gaps take up some of the most epic and enjoyable story arcs in the series. 
 
Missing Story Arcs
Don Krieg Arc / Arlong Park Arc / Loguetown Arc / Jaya Arc / Skypiea Arc / Davy Back Fight Arc / Water 7 Arc / Enies Lobby Arc / Thriller Bark Arc 
 
Most of my favorite episodes are in these missing story arcs. It's difficult to give up on fan subtitle sites when there are these massive gaps that wont be filled for almost two years.
 
Dub/Subtitle Quality 
I haven't focused too much on watching the new Dub work, but in the few episodes I have watched. It seems pretty solid. For some odd reason though. On all the Dubbed episodes. The title songs have been redone with English lyrics that match the rhythm of the original Japanese openings. Even in the English dubs of Narutoand Bleach the Japanese songs were untouched. It seems like a pointless alteration. Either way, my interest has more been viewing this site from the perspective of someone who used to only get these episodes from fan subtitle sites for years. 
 
To get to the point, the subtitles are not that bad. In fact, it can be pretty good. For the more exuberant Japanese fans. They even keep the Japanese Honorifics (san, chan, sama, ect.). I have noticed some minor grammatical mistakes at times and there are some inconsistencies. One example would be the name of the military force in One Piece. The subtitles always refer to them as "Navy', but their ship sails, uniforms, and hats all say in capital letters, "MARINE". The word "NAVY" never actually appears in the series. In defense of the subtitles. In the Japanese version everyone is saying "kaigun" which translates as "Navy". Just from the perspective of an English speaker, it's confusing for the subtitles to say one thing and the uniforms say something completely different.
 
There is also an odd inconsistency that I only found in the more recent episodes so far. The character Bon Clay has been playing a major role in the series recently. His personal combat style has always been known as Okama Way Kenpo. It's something he repeats before using an attack. Much in the same way Luffy says "Gum Gum-" or Zoro's "Santouryu". "Okama" is the Japanese term for male homosexual or male transvestite. Whenever Bon Clay uses the term, the subtitles replaces it with "Oh Come My Way Kenpo". At first I thought this was some sort of over sensitivity issue, but it must not be. The series is not shy at all about the frequent use of the words "queer", "gay", or "fairy" when the word "okama" is used to describing someone. In some cases the term is literally used as "Kama" when describing a location, such as the "Kamabakka Kingdom" or "New Kama Land". (Gia might like Kamabakka Kingdom. It's an island of all men in drag. Including the animals. lol) 
 
It makes me wonder why when they are talking about Bon Clay's move set, why not just call it "Okama Way Kenpo" rather then just make up something that he's not even saying? 

Edits
I'd like to talk about any edits, but in an odd way I can't. That's because the episodes that would look to have the most heavy edits are missing from the site. I can say that they aren't cutting out the smoking and drinking. They don't appear to be making any real dramatic edits in blood or fan service scenes either from what I have been able to see. So, that's a big plus. 

Video Player
The video player is a bit cumbersome at times. There are scenes i just enjoy and I want to watch it over again. I try to go back, but it freezes as it tries to rebuffer that moment. Other players from sites start right up. 
 
Image quality is really good. In the later episodes it's much better. Far better then the quality you can find on most fan sub sites, where image quality is sacrificed over expediency. It's nice to watch old episodes just a little clearer and easy to read subtitles.
 
What is surprising is the lack of commercials. I can watch several episodes without a commercial ever appearing. In all honesty, since I am watching these for free. I wouldn't mind commercials in each episode. This could be a blessing, because the when commercials have appeared. They can tend to pop on screen abruptly and occasionally cut off dialog. The commercials aren't long, and if FUNimation could incorporate them into the episodes better that would help. 
 

Final Verdict: 3/5

I know I'm going to sound harsh in the rating, but I give FUNimation's One Piece site a 3 out of 5. They put in a superb effort, but it's those gaps in the story that really hurt matters. I would love to cast away fan subs sites completely and watch One Piece on this official site exclusively. It makes it hard to recommend to a new watcher, because there is so much missing; and it makes it difficult to convince another fan sub watcher who can get those episodes elsewhere. *If they could fill in those gaps faster. The site would get a 4 or even 4.5 out of 5, and there would be no excuse to watch the series on any other site.
 
Closing comment: If FUNImation would start airing the Detective Conan anime series subtitled and with the proper names the way they are with One Piece. I would write them a love letter. 

-Kristoffer Remmell (FoxxFireArt) is a freelance graphic artist, writer, and over all mystery geek.