There is so much to discover on Crunchyroll, and I may have been foolish to dig into something so huge as One Piece right off the bat, but I was intrigued by the concept, and after watching the first few episodes I was hooked.

The first half of the season helped set up a lot of the characters, the devil fruit-enhanced Luffy, with rubber powers, the slightly cowardly Usopp, the navigator and mapmaker Nami, the swordsman Zoro, and the cook with a kick, Sanji. Aboard their ship the Going Merry, this cheerful pirate band set off on their quest to reach the Grand Line, an infamous stretch of ocean, and continue their search for the One Piece.

In the second half of the first season they return to Nami’s home island, in pursuit of her, only to discover that she’s been forced to work with some terrible Fishmen for years, as they’ve been holding her town hostage. After a long, and protracted battle (this is where I had a couple issues with the series) they free Nami (who gets her backstory filled out really well here) and continue on their journey, arriving at a remote island which was the birth, and death, place of the famous pirate who inspired Luffy.

With constant run-ins with corrupt Marines, and intriguing characters, the group finish out this season by rescuing a millennial dragon, discovering Lost Island, and battling more devil fruit baddies.

It’s fun, it’s funny, but I found that some episodes dragged out the fights for way too long. I love the character bits, and sometimes, it felt that as enjoyable as they are, they just got in the way of the adventure we were on.

The first season sees the Going Merry racing up a mountain, and plunging, finally, towards the Grand Line, but the adventure is only starting. This series runs for a number of seasons, and I plan to explore them all.

I love the style of animation at work here, and I find the story really engaging, especially the character work on our heroes. I was a little put off by how long the Arlong Empire (the fishmen) story took to finish, but I liked everything else that happened around it.

The series really takes its time with its characters, even as it’s throwing you into one action beat after another. Luffy is a goofy, and likeable character, but you can tell how each viewer would find their own character to glom onto and identify with.

And considering how long some of Luffy’s battles took, I love how quickly Nami deals with Eric at the end of the season.

One Piece is high seas adventure with lots of weird and eccentric characters, interesting designs, lots of action, and is bound to entertain young and old viewers, as the countless fans around the world will tell you.

The adventure continues for Luffy and his crew on the next season, Alabasta, streaming now on Crunchyroll. Take the adventure, or explore the streaming service and find other amazing journeys to take.