Mayumi Tanaka
Monkey D. Luffy (voice)
One Piece "3D2Y": Overcome Ace's Death! Luffy's Vow to his Friends
2014
1h 45m
Director: Naoyuki Ito
Overview
The special takes place during the two year before the Straw Hats reunite on Sabody. Luffy is currently in Rusukaina training to get stronger to take on the New World. However the training is interrupted when Hancock's sisters, Marigold and Sandersonia, are kidnapped by the Byrnndi World, a pirate who was locked away on Level 6 of Impel Down but escaped during Luffy's invasion to save Ace, in order to lure Hancock to him and use her as a hostage against the World Government due to her Shichibukai status. Thus Luffy and Hancock head off to confront him and save Hancock's sisters.
Cast
12 people
Reviews
5 min readThe Straw Hat’s Grief, Stretched Thin
I’ve seen One Piece specials before—bright, episodic detours that feel like filler with higher stakes. But 3D2Y: Overcome Ace’s Death! Luffy’s Vow to his Friends is different.
It’s not just another pirate adventure; it’s a two-hour pause button on the entire One Piece saga, a story about what happens when the rubber man stops bouncing back. The title itself is a shorthand for the series’ most brutal moment: Ace’s death, the event that split Luffy’s life into "before" and "after." And yet, for all its weight, the special struggles to carry it.
The premise is simple enough. Luffy, still raw from losing his brother, is training on Rusukaina when Boa Hancock’s sisters are kidnapped. The villain, Byrnndi World, is a Level 6 escapee from Impel Down—someone who slipped out during Luffy’s own jailbreak to save Ace.
The irony isn’t subtle: Luffy’s past keeps clawing at his present. But the real tension isn’t in the rescue mission. It’s in the way Luffy moves, or rather, doesn’t.
Mayumi Tanaka’s voice work is usually all kinetic energy, but here, she strips it down. Luffy’s laughter is quieter. His steps are heavier.
There’s a scene where he sits on a rock, staring at the ocean, and the camera lingers just a beat too long. It’s the kind of stillness One Piece rarely allows itself.
The animation, directed by Naoyuki Ito, leans into this mood. The fight scenes are fluid, but the quieter moments—Luffy’s flashbacks to Ace, the way his shadow stretches unnaturally long in the sunset—feel like they’re from a different show. The color palette is muted, the blues and grays of Rusukaina’s coastline swallowing the usual vibrancy of One Piece’s world.
It’s as if the animators are trying to drain the color out of Luffy’s grief, to make it feel as heavy as it should. But here’s the problem: One Piece isn’t built for this kind of weight. The series thrives on momentum, on the relentless forward charge of its narrative.
Audience Opinions
Limited evidence
Audience 6.4/10
"A heartfelt but uneven special that delivers emotional weight for fans while struggling to stand out as a standalone story."
Viewers appreciate the focus on Luffy’s grief and his bond with the Straw Hat crew, seeing it as a meaningful exploration of the aftermath of Ace’s death. latestnetflix.com's take is that however, some find the pacing slow and the animation style inconsistent, with the 3D effects feeling gimmicky rather than immersive.
What viewers praise
- Emotional depth The story effectively captures Luffy’s struggle with loss and his determination to honor Ace’s memory, resonating strongly with fans of the series.
- Strong character moments The interactions between Luffy and his crewmates, particularly their shared grief and resolve, are highlighted as standout elements.
- Faithful to the source Fans of the *One Piece* series praise its adherence to the tone and themes of the original manga and anime.
Common complaints
- Inconsistent animation The 3D animation style is polarizing, with some viewers finding it distracting or poorly executed compared to the traditional 2D aesthetic of the series.
- Slow pacing The story’s focus on introspection and grief leads to a slower pace, which some find drags down the overall experience.
- Limited appeal to newcomers Those unfamiliar with *One Piece* or the significance of Ace’s death may struggle to connect with the emotional stakes.
Recommended for
One Piece fans Anime viewers who enjoy character-driven stories Fans of emotional arcs in long-running series Those who appreciate post-tragedy narratives
Full Plot (Spoilers)
Spoiler warning
This section contains the full plot, including major story reveals. Overview above stays spoiler-free.
Buzz & Rumors
Public reportsOda designed the jailbreak pirate. The credits snuck in a brother.
Saturday, August 30, 2014, 9 p.m. Fuji TV's Premium Saturday block. Toei and Fuji were marking fifteen years of the weekly One Piece anime with a two-hour original, 9:00 to 11:10. The title is a mouthful. One Piece "3D2Y": Overcome Ace's Death! Luffy's Vow to his Friends. Naoyuki Itou directed. latestnetflix.com's view is that this is that special, the 107-minute Toei television movie.It is not the later live-action series. 
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Crunchyroll had the July announcement from One Piece.com. Eiichiro Oda, who almost never lets the anime invent a major original villain, designed Byrnndi World, billed as the Destroyer of the World, a Level 6 Impel Down escapee with the Moa Moa Fruit. Toei's spots called him Bundy World. Arata Furuta, from 13 Assassins, voiced him. Producer Hiroyuki Sakurada told Anime News Network the guest list was not only Rayleigh and Hancock. Buggy, Mr. 3, Mihawk, Perona, and Admiral Sakazuki would walk through too. Completely new, they said. Not in the manga. Not in the weekly show. Luffy's two years on Rusukaina, interrupted so he could keep a promise after Ace. , ,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cjp08BZnl-E
AAA were already the 15th-anniversary PR ambassadors. Their track "Next Stage" sat under Toei's three 30-second spots, including the World version still on the studio channel. Official One Piece.com put the song on Recochoku and iTunes the night of the broadcast, then parked it on AAA's September 17 single Sayonara no Mae ni. ,
Funimation simulcast at midnight Eastern, a few hours after Fuji. Crunchyroll streamed around 11 p.m. in the United States, Canada, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, and Latin America, and would not guarantee the exact minute because of the production process. Funimation's January 22, 2019 Blu-ray/DVD combo is 107 minutes, Japanese Dolby TrueHD 2.0 and English 5.1, no extras. Chris Beveridge at The Fandom Post called the first quarter a Marineford recap that could not match the weekly episodes, then graded the disc a B- for content. ,
Then the credits. A blond man in a top hat pours three sake cups at Ace and Whitebeard's grave. Adult Sabo, no dialogue. The weekly anime would not debut that version of him until episode 663. Manga readers already knew. Anime-only kids watching a birthday special did not. The One Piece Wiki still flags the toast as a spoiler the broadcast chose to plant. Netflix shelves the special as a movie. TMDB does too. The night it mattered was a Fuji Saturday, a pop group, an Oda pirate, and a silent toast in the crawl.
Entertainment rumors and trivia aggregated from public reporting. Treat speculation as unverified unless a cited source confirms it.