I have seen and reviewed One Piece Film Red, which was released on August 6, 2022.
Before I go any further, I would like to conclude that it was a disappointing film. I was planning to attend One Piece Film Red twice because of the visitor’s benefit, but I decided not to go see it.
GOOD POINTS
The visuals were very good. The illustration of the One Piece TV series has been getting better recently, and I have nothing to complain about this movie either. Also, the scene at the end where Luffy shows off his Gear 5 to defeat the boss was very good fan service. Also, as a fan, I was very satisfied to see the battle scene of the Red-Haired Pirates, which I have not been able to see so far.
BAD POINTS
We all know that One Piece is a great series but in this film, it feels like you’re being shown a long music video by Ado. Maybe it is inevitable because the theme of this movie is singing, but there are frequent Ado singing scenes.
Ado is a singer who became famous on the Internet and is quite famous in Japan, although she does not show her face. Although she sings beautifully, One Piece fans may have gone to the theater to see the movie rather than hear her perform, which was incredibly disappointing.
I think it is a very enjoyable movie for the fans of Ado.
CHARACTERIZATION
UTA, the main character of the movie, was introduced as the daughter of Shanks. However, this setting was unreasonable. Shanks is a very important character from the first episode of the manga One Piece. Such a character has a daughter as an afterthought, and she and Luffy were childhood friends and spent time in the same village. It is very strange that Luffy suddenly says that “Uta” is his childhood friend. I thought the setting was a bit unreasonable.
Also, it’s hard to tell who are the enemies. I think One Piece is a work in which it is clear who is friend or foe, and it is interesting and moving when Luffy defeats the evil boss. However, this movie was different. First of all, the director of One Piece Film Red is Goro Taniguchi, who worked on the Code Geass series. Because of that, the enemies in this movie are not easy to understand, and although Luffy and Shanks defeat a boss-like monster at the end, it is not very clear. I have watched the entire Code Geass series, and it is one of my favorite works, but I don’t think that One Piece fans are looking for a worldview like Code Geass in this One Piece movie. One Piece fans want to see Luffy and his friends defeat absolute evil in the end. They don’t want to see battles with enemies that are hard to tell if they are friends or foes.
CONCLUSION
Therefore, I thought that the reason why “One Piece Film Red” was not good was due to the director’s selection. Goro Taniguchi’s Code Geass is a work that makes you think about various social issues and what real evil is. However, I don’t think One Piece is the kind of thing I am looking for. One Piece is a work that faithfully reproduces the three main principles of Weekly Shonen Jump: friendship with friends in an easy-to-understand story, striving to defeat evil, and finally defeating evil and winning. Lastly, it was a disappointing film, unlike what One Piece fans are looking for.
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