The very first piece of animated One Piece that was ever released, this OVA precedes the anime by well over a year, all the way back in 1998. Featuring the first og gang, the only characters from the canon series are Luffy, Zoro, and Nami, although it's very clear that a massive amount of both story and character design came from the manga aswell. Oda was closely involved in the development of the OVA, drawing most of the original designs, and probably had something to do with the core storyline. The production of this OVA was done by a completely different studio than Toei, and it was released during an anime festival for the 30th anniversary of Shonen Jump. (Fun fact, an OVA for HxH was originally released here aswell!) None of the main characters share voice actors with their corresponding characters in the upcoming anime, although some of the voice actors did go on to work on the anime much later on. For example, the voice actor for Zoro here also voices Bellamy of the og series. At the time, the anime as we know it was probably nothing more than a contract that hadn't even been signed.

The animation of this era is always fun to look at, and this OVA had some fun action sequences, along with a pretty stellar soundtrack of an ominous atmosphere. While I can't say I'm in love with any of the designs, (except for maybe Medaka's mini suit of armor,) it's pretty cool to point out and catch some of the creative similarities. I particularly like how this studio did Luffy's attacks, with the rubber sound effects and more realistic physics. All in all this is a decent relic of the franchise with some fun elements, albeit lacking some substance, if nothing else it's some more One Piece to watch!