The high flying adventures of Luffy and the Straw Hat Crew continue in this fifth installment of the third season. When we left off last the Going Merry and her crew were falling from Skypiea to the ocean below and landed, conveniently, in the middle of a Marine stronghold called Navarone. As we dive back into the adventure the Marines have the boat surrounded and targeted by massive cannons and a plethora of rifles, but when the Marines finally get aboard they find that the ship is vacant. Where the heck is the crew? Rumors begin floating around that what fell from the sky is a ghost ship but Commander Jonathon, the highest ranking officer of the group, knows better. The Straw Hats are somewhere and eventually they’ll reveal themselves. For what purpose? That he hasn’t quite figured out.

Of the entire season I loved this installment the best. Instead of battle after battle and over dramatic screams from Luffy and near death escapes by all, Fifth Voyage plays like a big screen comedy. Luffy and the crew spend most of their time trying to figure out the lay out of Navarone while stealing costumes and being mistaken for Marine crew. Nami sure can’t pick the right costumes and ends up facing a  fate worse then being caught and thrown into prison and Luffy and Sanji manage to be mistaken for world renowned chefs and end up exactly where they want to be, near the food. Sure there isn’t a whole lot going on and anyone who is into One Piece would consider this straight filler but its laugh out loud funny and enjoyable to follow.

There are only ten episodes here instead of thirteen, which makes me wonder if Funimation did this so that they could put out another filler set to close out the Straw Hats adventures in Navarone. I would have loved to see this particular arc come to a close but, whatever, it was hilarious. As always you get the Marathon Feature, which I wish was a feature on all anime, and audio is incredibly immersive giving your surround sound a full use work out. Bonus features are relatively slim for this outing including only textless opening and closing songs and trailers. Still, and I can’t stress this enough, Fifth Voyage is a perfect, almost, stand alone unit that is brilliantly funny and a must see. As always final judgment is yours. Enjoy.