The season's uncut home video release generally received positive reviews from critics due to its humor, fight sequences, characters and music. The Arlong Park storyline has been highlighted as the strongest of the season, although David Brook less favorably described these episodes as "melodramatic" for Blueprint Review. Commenting on the animation, several critics applauded the series' accuracy to the manga's art style, but noted that moments of limited animation betrayed the low budget of the series. Both John Sinnott and Neil Lumbard rated the season "Highly Recommended" when writing for
DVD Talk, with Lumbard describing Luffy as "easily one of the most endearing, comical, and fun characters in anime history". Writing for
Anime News Network, Carl Kimlinger awarded the first 26 episodes "B" ratings, but found the "emotional core" of the Captain Buggy episodes to be underwhelming and commented that the early episodes of the series did not match the standard that would be set by later episodes. Writing for
Starburst, Julian White claimed that the series was "likely to give you one helluva migraine" and awarded 6/10 to the first 26 episodes.
IGN's David F. Smith awarded the first 13 episodes 7/10, also commenting on the slow pace of the episodes but conceding that "you might just call it a convention of the genre". Nefarious Reviews rated the season "Medium" saying that "the early episodes don’t give a good first impression, but once the longer story begins,
One Piece stretches it’s creativity to give a good opening season with promises of so much more adventure". David F. Smith writing for
IGN gave the uncut home video release a 7/10 saying that "
One Piece is a pretty good time. It's a colorful, funny, action-packed kids' adventure show, and Funimation's wrapped it up in a well-produced package at a price that can't be beat." == Home media release ==