I am a massive fan of the manga/anime series One Piece, I know that a lot of hard core anime fans consider it to be overrated at this point but i personally don't care, i love this franchise, I’ve always loved this franchise and I will always love this franchise. Though one part of it that has never really impressed me are the feature length films, usually because they work in a similar fashion to the arcs in the TV Show, just a lot shorter which means they are less developed (Hell some of the movies are literally shortened versions of the arcs in the show), also the fact that they are non-canon makes the impact they have less effective. However one of the films that I find to be interesting to discuss is Baron Omatsure and the Secret Island, the 6th feature length One Piece film, directed by Mamoru Hosoda. Now this is a man that has made a name for himself in the past few years as a talented director and is quickly becoming one of my favourite Japanese film makers. All of his films have this distinct art style to them to make them stand out in comparison to other films and his films often have a strong emotional focus as well as unique presentations of old ideas. Another reason why this film stands out is because it is a very controversial film for both critics and fans of the series for having a much darker tone than what was normally a very upbeat and light hearted series. So with all this being said, what do I think of the movie? I kinda love it.
The film takes place just before Water 7 arc of the series and has our main characters travel to an uninhabited island, apart from a vacation resort made specifically for pirates. However not all is at it seems as it is revealed the residence of the island are all a former pirate crew who use the island the lure in fellow pirates and slowly tear them apart one by one, eventually killing all of them in a sacrifice to extend their lives. Soon it's learnt that it's actually the captain of these pirates who is the only surviving member after a terrible storm, once he learned the island had a secret plant that could revive his crew by sacrificing others, he does just that. So one by one our Straw Hat Crew's friendships are tested as they are picked off one by one.
I should start off by saying if you've never seen One Piece then don't even bother watching this movie because they don't try to explain much and neither will I, so you're gonna be lost on a lot of things.
So the main reason why i like this film is because of the emotional centre of the movie being Luffy and his Nakama. Like i said before, one of Hosoda's many talents are that he knows where the emotions of the film should lie, and in my opinion the strongest emotional element that makes One Piece so great is the bond between the crew, these people who live and die with each other and would be willing to do anything for each other. And this film explores that, their friendships are tested and they have to see what things would be like if they did lose each other, especially Luffy who has to witness all of his friends die one by one. A lot of people were disturbed by the amount of physical suffering Luffy has to go through in this film but I think the bulk of it was in his emotional suffering, nothing will ever freak me out as much as seeing Luffy willingly accept death after the loss of his crew. The film explores one of my favourite aspects of One Piece and I think it did it justice and was highly affective.
Hosoda's animation style is a very subjective thing, i can easily see people being put off for his style for its fluidity but lack of detail, personally for me I very much enjoy his style, though I will admit it was a bit distracting at first, both in general and for this film. The animation for One Piece is normally the reverse of this, it's very stilted but incredibly detailed, so seeing the opposite of that was unusual to say the least. But because I am a fan of Hosoda's work, i quickly adapted and i ended up really liking the different style of animation and it made me really curious on seeing other One Piece films being done not just like this again, but also try some other different variations to see what it would look like. Not to mention the quick and fluid nature of Hosoda's work really plays well to the action scenes of this film which look incredible and really works well this the movement of Luffy's character, after all, he's a rubber man, his body is very fluid in movement so his fighting here looks more natural than ever before.
And then there is the dark tone of the film, which i personally found very welcoming. I know that One Piece is a very lightly toned anime with some mature themes thrown in but visually it was always pretty safe. And while there's nothing too dark or disturbing in this film that when juxtaposed with the original source material to make it feel out of place, there was enough to actually challenge both the characters and the audience. The entire point of One Piece is to see these characters overcome all these various obstacles and grow as people for it, and that includes having to face some darker subject material, so at the end of the film when Luffy smiles in the bright sunlight, it feels very satisfying. Though I will admit, seeing Luffy on the brink of death with a hundred arrows implanted in his body was sometimes uncomfortable to watch, but i can't really fault the film for that because it was clearly intentional, it's just seeing Luffy suffer like that felt really disturbing.
But with that being said i do have some issues with this film. First of all, even though the friendships between some of the crew were tested, a lot of them felt rushed and utterly pointless, in the end they never betrayed each other or let the other one get hurt and the characters were never in any peril because of their actions or lack thereof. So the idea of having them turn against each other seemed really underdeveloped and unecessary. Also the origin of the flower and a lot of the details on how it works were just sort of swept under the rug. Very little about how it works or how Baron discovered it was left unexplained. And there's a lot that i'm willing to believe in the world of One Piece without explanation, but even so, some explanation would be welcomed.
But even then those problems are honestly nitpicks, the film still has a strong core to it, the action is very well done and the animation is very nice. I personally find it to be the best One Piece film out of the ones that I've seen and I’m going to give it an 8/10.
-Danny
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