Stream It Or Skip It: ‘One Piece’ Season 10 on Hulu, Another Exciting Entry In The Long-Running Shonen Series

One Piece Season 10 (now streaming on Hulu) finds the long-running series chugging along nicely as it pulls into the station of one of its tenth filler arc, and the first filler arc after the show’s lengthy time skip. It finds the Straw Hat Crew, helmed by Monkey D. Luffy (Colleen Clinkenbeard), arriving in the Maubeugemour Sea, part of the New World, where they face off against the Neo Marines and Marines.

The Z’s Ambition Arc, as it’s called (pronounced “zed”) is the beginning of the overarching Dressrosa Saga, the second of the series’ massive second half. If you haven’t been keeping up the entire time, this is a terrible place to start, but it’s an exciting time for One Piece fans looking for the English dubbed version.

ONE PIECE – SEASON 10: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: The sea is angry, but it’s rife with a fleet of battleships, one lead by a young woman named Ain (Lauren Landa). She beckons to the darkness as a storm brews, awaiting who she refers to as “Master Z.”

The Gist: Now that Luffy and his crew of pirates, the Straw Hats, have arrived in the New World, they find themselves in the Maubeugemour Sea. It’s a dangerous place where all sorts of bad weather happens, from hail from hell and a ton of snowfall. Though they survive the weather, they end up finding that the food they dine on while celebrating their win against the elements is gone. While the crew looks for where the food could have gone, they happen upon a tiny young woman named Lily Enstomach (Kara Edwards).

Lily is taken aback when she’s discovered, and mounts a counterattack against Luffy and the Straw Hats. No one can believe their eyes when they see that Lily can turn into a giant woman. Luffy ends up tossing her into the sea, but Sanji (Eric Vale) rescues her before she drowns. It’s revealed that Lily is actually a giant, but she ate a Devil Fruit that turned her into the small girl she is now.

Her father, Panz Fry, is a cook in the New World who’s been sent off to prison for stealing food from the World Government. She wants to save him, of course, and Luffy obliges. Meanwhile, trouble brews with the Neo Marines, as it looks like there are bad actors looking to kill Lily’s father. Though Lily is obviously safe to help, will it be worth it to go find her father if she has such dangerous company after her?

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? One Piece is your classic shonen series with a dash of Naruto, a splash of Dragon Ball Z, and a pinch of Yu Yu Hakusho for good measure. It’ll seem more than a little familiar for anyone who’s ever enjoyed a shonen epic.

Our Take: Even though this arc is technically supposed to be filler until the anime can catch up to the next manga story moment, it definitely doesn’t feel like it. Meeting Lily and getting to know her back story is the highlight of this episode, but it’s the signal that something new and much bigger than Luffy and his crew is coming. It’s difficult to even call this arc filler as it still brings so much to the table. The production values are there, the great writing is there, and it feels like it belongs in this lengthy, sprawling story.

It’s going to be interesting, however, to see how the Straw Hats balance working alongside Lily and leveraging her unique powers while working to find and free her father. Her background is quite unique, especially since she used to be a giant and now travels in such a small form. And the question has to be asked of her father – is he captured as a giant, and how has he remained captive? This first episode introduced some exciting new concepts and also gave us plenty of questions to ask about the new characters, but those answers likely won’t come for a while.

Sex and Skin: Nothing here. The only really racy content you can typically expect from One Piece is the cleavage on characters like Nami or Nico Robin, after all.

Parting Shot: With the Straw Hats reunited at the end of the episode and Lily in tow, the crew sees Marine ships sailing their way. They’ve captured Lily’s father, which prompts Luffy to rally the entire team to set him free. They set sail to do just that.

Sleeper Star: Kara Edwards gives Lily a sweet and innocent voice that perfectly matches her sprightly character. Her ultra-feminine sound with Disney princess-like tone give Lily an adorable personality that makes it easy to root for her, even when it seems like she might be an enemy at first.

Most Pilot-y Line: “I’m so sorry, Dad,” Lily says while she thinks she’s going to drown, as even in what she believes are her final moments, she still wants to save her father. “I don’t think I’m going to make it. Dad, I’ll save you, no matter what it takes! Just wait for me, okay?”

Our Call: STREAM IT. One Piece Season 10 is another exciting entry in the long-running shonen series. It’s the start of another dizzyingly long saga that’s just as engaging as the rest of the show’s been thus far, and it shows no sign of slowing down, even as the cues continue to get even more outlandish. We can’t wait to see what ends up happening with Lily and her father.

Brittany Vincent (@MolotovCupcake) has been covering video games and tech for over a decade for publications like G4, Popular Science, Playboy, Variety, IGN, GamesRadar, Polygon, Kotaku, Maxim, GameSpot, and more. When she’s not writing or gaming, she’s collecting retro consoles and tech.