Film entries in established anime series tend to follow a specific formula. The series’ heroes, and sometimes their villains if a film is going for full fanservice experience, find themselves in a new location never heard of before in the series’ world, they come into conflict with the film’s villains, and it all ends in the main character taking out the big bad in a giant action set piece, oftentimes using a fancy film-exclusive power up to get the job done.
The characters and audience then get to go home happy after the ultimately low stakes affair as nothing mattered in the film because, like going to a WWE house show, it usually isn’t canon. Every now and then film entries matter because they are canon, like Demon Slayer: Mugen Train or Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero. And then, even rarer than that, an anime film in a running series ends up mattering because of just how truly special it is. This last category is where One Piece Film Red finds itself.
One Piece Film Red, for the record, is not canon, at least in terms of its events. The character of a popular pop diva named Uta, from my understanding, is actually canon to One Piece proper, but it stands to be seen how much of her portrayal from the film will make it to canon if, or when, she appears in the main series fully.
Oh yeah, for context clarification, I am not a fan of One Piece. I don’t mean that in that I hate the series, just that like many others, the sheer daunting size of the work has been a successful bulwark keeping me at more of an arm’s length from taking a deeper dive into the work.
That does not mean I entered this film completely blind. I started the series a while back so I know things like Luffy’s backstory, the general premise of the series of a colorful cast of pirates, some who have superpowers from eating Devil Fruit, the vague concept of Haki, and I am acquainted with and follow so many One Piece diehards that I know many of the key characters, and even some of the key plot developments in the series, just via cultural osmosis.
This level of, I guess one could call preparation, did come in extremely handy while watching this movie. Outside of some early stage setting in the form of a narrator explaining how the world is full of chaos, death, and suffering in the Great Pirate Era and Uta hearing the anguished calls from various fans of hers to do something about it, the film just hits the ground running. Mere minutes into it we are already whisked away to the start of Uta’s first ever live in person concert on the island of Elegia. Luffy and all of the Straw Hats are there and dressed to impress, with particular shoutouts to Usopp dressed as a member of KISS and Jinbe rocking an Elvis-inspired look.
Things at the concert are unfortunately not entirely all good vibes and happy times as there are some unscrupulous pirates lurking in the crowd trying to kidnap Uta for various nefarious means. A fact that is kicked into overdrive after Luffy excitedly storms the stage after Uta’s stellar opening number “New Genesis” and reveals to everyone in attendance and watching around the world that Uta is actually a childhood friend of his and the daughter of Luffy’s mentor, the legendary pirate Shanks.
This leads to just a deluge of named characters to just appear out of the woodwork, and it honestly got to a point where I started to get overwhelmed a bit, because most of these characters were in the giant blind spot of things I didn’t know about the series, so I can imagine this moment just completely blindsiding people going in completely, utterly blind. Trust me, it is a minor issue worth just barreling through, because the resulting film is absolutely worth it.
For you see, it ultimately doesn’t matter how many characters the film throws at you. Everyone who is in the film does actually organically appear and are utilized to some degree. It isn’t just merely a parade of forced character appearances because they are fan favorites. In the end, however, this is Uta’s film. She is the star through and through, and has an incredible story. There is also some good character moments in here for Luffy and Shanks, mainly told via flashbacks, as well.
One of the big reasons I love Uta so much is they just don’t stop building her character. Every moment she is on the screen it is being utilized to tell her story. In fact she herself sometimes tells it to us directly via her songs. You see, unlike pretty much every shonen demographic anime film, which are usually action-heavy punches and explosions affairs, One Piece Film Red is actually…an action musical. Replete with all the musical fixings such as some awkward line transitions into songs, and most importantly to the development of Uta, giving out narrative details via the lyrics.
There are seven songs in the film, all of them sung by Japanese singer Ado. Ado absolutely blows it out of the park. Her vocal range seriously needs to be heard to be believed. No two songs in the film sound the same, and each one instantly became ear worms. I am not kidding, I immediately went and bought the film’s soundtrack after finishing this film because the songs are just that damn good.
Complementing the amazing music is some truly stellar visuals. Respected anime director Goro Taniguchi, probably most famous for directing the phenomenal Code Geass franchise, masterfully crafted genuinely one of the most beautifully animated works of anime I have ever seen with One Piece Film Red. The action scenes are crisp and fluid, with a few scenes causing my mouth to go slack-jawed. The crown jewel of the film’s audiovisual festivities without question, however, are the musical numbers. The pure synergy between the music and animation leads to some sublime nigh music video-like scenes.
There is some CGI usage in the film, and yes it does stand out, but it is used a utility not as a crutch. There is a lot of dancing in the film, and many of it is complex continuous shots, which makes the use of CGI not only excusable, but practically expected on my part. 2022 has been filled with several just genuinely gorgeous anime films, and it is to my complete and utterly pleasant surprise that, for me, the most beautiful one so far has been One Piece Film Red.
Performance wise you are going to get just absolutely loaded casts in either Japanese or English. The credits are just sheer lists of some of the best in the business regardless which side of the planet they are from. Uta’s voice actresses, Kaoru Nazuka and Amanda “AmaLee” Lee, have the most important job being the film’s far and away star, and they absolutely kill it. Mayumi Tanaka and Colleen Clinkenbeard more than keep up with their already well established legendary portrayals as Luffy as well. Seriously I still cannot believe how neither one have destroyed their voices doing that role with how impactful their line readings are.
More than anything else, I think one of my biggest takeaways from One Piece Film Red is it made me, if even for a sliver of the true experience, “get” One Piece. One of the biggest selling points friends and colleagues who have tried pitching the series to me is how well the franchise handles emotional character arcs and scenes. The story of Uta is, for now at least, just contained to an excellent two hour film, but it was rending at my heart by the end of it. I laughed, I almost cried, I bopped my head to the music, and cheered with hype during the climax. That feels, to me, like the full franchise experience all in one piece of media.
One Piece Film Red comes to cinemas in the US and Canada on November 4th in both sub and dub options.