One Piece: Umi no Heso no Daibouken-hen

One Piece: Adventure in the Ocean's Navel (2000) is an early TV special that expands on the world of One Piece with an original story. While it carries the charm of Eiichiro Oda's world, it struggles with pacing, animation quality, and overall impact compared to later specials and movies.

One of the biggest draws of this special is its adventure-driven narrative. It follows the Straw Hats as they explore a mysterious sea formation called the "Ocean's Navel," encountering new enemies and treasures along the way. This setup aligns well with One Piece's spirit of exploration and discovery. The special also captures the personalities of the crew effectively, particularly Luffy's carefree attitude, Nami's intelligence, and Zoro's battle prowess.

But despite its adventurous premise, the execution feels underwhelming. The animation is inconsistent, with some scenes appearing rushed or lacking detail. This is understandable given its release in 2000. The antagonist and side characters introduced in the special are also forgettable, lacking the depth and charm of Oda's canon villains.

Moreover, the pacing is uneven-certain moments feel stretched out unnecessarily, while others rush through important developments. The fights, which are typically a highlight of One Piece, don't carry much weight or excitement.

While Adventure in the Ocean's Navel has nostalgic value for longtime fans, it ultimately feels like a filler episode stretched into a TV special. It lacks the emotional stakes, creative fights, and strong character moments that make One Piece so beloved. Later TV specials and movies, such as One Piece: Strong World or One Piece: Episode of Nami, would surpass it in quality and storytelling. Unless you're a die-hard fan looking to watch every piece of One Piece content, this special is largely skippable , but worth a shot to watch it.

RATING 8/10.

This is the first TV special of everyone's favorite pirate Anime. Aired after the Loguetown Episodes.

The story talks about a group of pirates lead by Captain Joke, who invaded a place called the Ocean's Naval. They trespassed in an ancient temple that holds a gem that is said to grant any person on what they desire. Unforchanitely Captain Joke's crew abandoned him and went to claim the gem. But when they got close to the gem, it awaken the 4 guardian monsters of the temple. And since then the Ocean's Navel has been over run by the monsters since then.

10 years later on board the Going Merry, Nami was yelling at Luffy for not fishing right. Right until something was caught on the fishing line, which drew the ship to a large rock in the middle of the ocean. Nami went to check what it was. It was a chest which contained nothing but a skull, which had writing on it about the Naval Gem. After opening the chest, a large hole began to appear in the middle of the ocean next to the rock isle. So our heroes decide to journey on down to search for this gem that Captain Joke tried to steal. Only to discover that the Ocean's Naval is a wet and scarce place with the 4 aquatic monsters roaming the place with all the locals hiding in fear. As well as a laughing talking bat who gives out info on what they must down in order to get the gem. Will they be able to defeat the guardian monsters and restore peace to the naval itself? Like the first movie, it's more like watching a 2 parter episode. Contains a good use of CG animation and some humorous scenes to lighten up the story. If it were longer, there probably would of been more to tell about some of the side stories mentioned in this 50 minute TV special.

But nothing gets better than the laughing bat.

Overall, it's pretty cool for the first TV special. I'm sure other One Piece fans will like this one. Only available in easy to find fan subs.