The dub is a piece of crap. About 99 percent of it anyway. (Zolo/Zoro/whatever he's called is the only well-dubbed character of the bunch. As for the rest of it, terrible. "4Shame" (aka 4Kids) really destroyed a really promising show with that whole rap theme in the beginning; to think originally they were working with the original Japanese opening theme music to mold an English opening theme for it too . . .)

Anywho, the basic story is good: A young boy named Luffy vows to become the King of the Pirates and find the legendary treasure "One Piece". However, after swallowing the "Devil's Fruit" called Gum-Gum Fruit, Luffy gains a rubbery body and loses the ability to swim. However, he refuses to give up his dream and sets sail to make his pirate crew, fend off enemies that stand in his way, and reach the Grand Line to become King of the Pirates.

The style of the characters is really wacky and appealing to me - it's different and it has that cartoony feel to it. The flow of the story reminds me of Dragonball Z, but the character development is crucial. Luffy's determination is the story's main point . . . he wants to be King of the Pirates and he won't allow anyone to stand in his way of achieving his dream. But over time, it gets rather annoying. And Luffy's a total idiot who doesn't seem to realize the seriousness of some situations. Other than that, the story's fun to follow as the characters grow closer into a true-blue pirate crew.

If you want to check out One Piece, stay away from the dub; it's absolutely horrific. Try to see the Japanese version instead or read the manga version.

Three stars (the dub made it lose a star).

Now, I'm not the typical whiney anime fan (or any type of anime fan for that matter) who won't watch a dub; but 4kids really screwed this one over.

They subtracted plot important lines and replaced them with idiocy, added lines where there never should have been any, rewrote the music to have goofy little diddies where there should have been a true dramatic moment...you name it, they did it. And that "hip" pirate rap at the beginning of each episode is the most horrendous thing to ever cause your ears to bleed.

Now, that that little warning is out of the way, on to reviewing the show itself.

The main plot is really rather simple: The Pirate King, Gold Roger, hides his huge fortune and before he is hung says that anyone who finds it gets his treasure and his title. Rufi (Lufi, Luffy, Rufy, etc.) wants to become King of the Pirates so he decides to gather up a pirate crew and search for the treasure.

Simple plot aside, though, the characters are what really make this show. Aside from just plain nifty abilities (Rufi is made of rubber and Zoro can hold, and fight with, a sword in his teeth) they all get a good amount of character development. Even the necessary animal sidekick gets enough development that he really is just another character(with a different body)than some marketing ploy. I even recall a dog in one episode getting some emotional flashbacks.

If the series loses points for anything it wouls its formulaic tendacy and the fact that this tendancy has been going on for some time. However, even with this formula the vilains are imaginative enough that you find yourself saying, 'Sure, I've seen Rifu pound some 80+ other villains but I haven't seen him pound *this* one'.
Also, keeping with "shounen" tradition the fights rae ridiculously long and what should be terminal injuries are shrugged off like scratches. However (and view vary as to whether this is positive or not) instead of straight pounding like, say, DBZ, the fights are broken up by talking, or talking about the fighting, or by the heros going off to fight someone else before returning to finish off the main villain.
It also, like most entertainment, has that one chick who caries a weapon and talks tough but never really gets any of the big fights.
Another problem is that at the beginning the show is really hardly animated. At times it's almost like watching a colored comic book with voices. This improves as the series goes on but it never really reaches what I'd call good animation (though I suppose I could go easier on it, it is television after all).

If you enjoy any form of pirate fun One Piece is worth checking out. Just heed my earlier warning; the Japanese version is the way to go.

** I had to add that last half a star after seeing the latest arc(Water7/Enies Lobby). I probably shouldv'e done it long ago. This series is the greatest.