Monkey D. Luffy and the Strawhat Pirates return in the Thriller Bark arc featured in One Piece: Collection Fifteen. In this arc they face off against zombies, meet a shadow less skeleton named Brook (who’s become one of my favorite characters), and get into battle with one of the Seven Warlords of the Seas; Gekko Moriah.

One Piece is an 1999 shounen anime series, it is produced by Toei Animation, and licensed by Funimation. It is currently available on streaming services, DVD, and Blu-Ray format in English.

The Strawhat Pirates deal with a zombie attack.

There’s nothing like a One Piece arc which brings the Strawhat Pirate crew a new member. After being introduced to the cyborg Frankie, this time we meet the skeletal Brook; the eater of the Revive-Revive Fruit, which gives the user the ability to revive from death after having died previously. Brook is a fun loving, carefree guy in search of his shadow, and inadvertently gets Luffy and co involved. The two agree to aide each other, with Brook becoming a full fledged member of the Strawhat Pirates.

Luffy’s zombie as he appears in the Thriller Bark arc.

THE GOOD: The Thriller Bark arc has several memes that compares it to Tim Burton’s A Nightmare Before Christmas, and there’s never been a more accurate anime meme at least in the last several years.The dark world and designs of the zombies, Gekko Morriah and his group, etc is very reminiscent of the film, and mangaka Oda Eichiro has stated that the film is one of his favorites. The inspiration is quite clear as the arc goes on. The zombies creepy yet charming designs are some of Oda’s best work, and the arc is fairly dark by One Piece standards, with an awesome group of finishing few episodes to top it all off.

The Strawhats vs Luffy’s zombie.

THE BAD: At most the only bad thing is the arc might be a little disturbing for the younger crowd.

The Nightmare Before the Grand Line.

OVERALL THOUGHTS: The Thriller Bark arc of One Piece is perhaps the best to date. Drawing inspiration from some fan favorite material, along with the introduction of the lovable character Brook, Thriller Bark provides fans of One Piece some dark, twisted fun deserving of at least a few re-viewings. Otaku Dome gives One Piece Collection 15 an 93 out of 100.