One Piece Film: Red Review
One Piece Movie: Pink will debut in North American theaters on Nov. 4, 2022.
Shonen anime movies are sometimes formulaic one-off adventures. Cease me in the event you’ve heard this earlier than: the primary solid enters a brand new location. It’s revealed that the brand new location is dwelling to a “well-known,” extraordinarily highly effective character who has by no means been talked about earlier than. Shonen protagonist comes into battle with stated character, besting them with a brand new approach. The primary solid leaves the situation victorious. All the things ends hunky-dory. Blah. This system generates snazzy clips however flattens tales into their most broadly interesting type. In brief, it’s form of boring. One Piece Movie: Pink, however, shakes issues up by combining shonen tropes with musical parts, making for the perfect One Piece film of the final decade. In contrast to earlier entries, Movie: Pink has holistically captured One Piece’s essence.
One Piece is, after all, about Monkey D. Luffy’s journey to turning into King of the Pirates. To realize this aim, he and his crew, the Straw Hat Pirates, journey the ocean to discover a legendary treasure often called the One Piece. Alongside the best way, the Straw Hats take part in action-packed shonen battles and an distinctive quantity of hi-jinks. These hi-jinks are what give One Piece its attraction, with the sequence typically leaning nearer to an journey comedy than a standard shonen. Movie: Pink is without doubt one of the solely motion pictures to wholly embrace that concept. Jokes are made at inopportune instances and, in moments {that a} lesser movie would rely upon motion for, Movie: Pink opts to throw in one other joke or a musical quantity. This film understands One Piece.
In Movie: Pink, the Straw Hats attend a live performance for a reclusive celeb named Uta. Like many One Piece characters, she’s a triple risk. Along with being a singer, Uta can also be Luffy’s estranged childhood buddy and daughter of the well-known pirate Shanks. The movie opens with Uta serenading a stadium and continues to dole out often scheduled earworms.
If you’re weaving in a personality that’s particular to a standalone film, there’s all the time a threat that they’ll really feel shoe-horned in, however Uta’s inclusion is pure. Actually, it appears like Uta has all the time been a part of the One Piece mythos, with the added bonus of giving extra depth to Shanks and Luffy. It’s good to have a personality from Luffy’s previous that seen him as an equal, matching his aggressive drive and infantile idealism. In the primary sequence, Luffy is commonly initially disregarded as too juvenile, however not so relating to Uta. It’s refreshing to see the idealistic a part of him matched by one other character.
All of Uta’s songs, in the meantime, have lyrics that mirror One Piece’s core beliefs. For instance, the primary theme, New Genesis, is concerning the present period of oppression and strife being overturned. New Genesis additionally draws lyrics from the traditional One Piece music Bink’s Sake. It’s a considerate alternative that makes the entire film really feel genuine to the supply materials. Utilizing music as a automobile, Movie: Pink is ready to embrace much more of One Piece’s tenets than its predecessors. The songs additionally act as simply digestible, catchy shorthand for Uta as a personality, catching us up on her offscreen improvement. The trade-off is that the movie does require viewers to have learn the primary sequence to know a few of the nuances of the songs. Many lyrics are laced with double meanings that may have bigger implications for One Piece’s predominant story, and whereas that’s enjoyable for hardcore followers, it could be much less so for many who aren’t absolutely caught up.
One in every of Uta’s finest qualities is her versatile singing voice, offered by Japanese pop star Ado. Every music has a very completely different vitality, which permits Ado to indicate off her implausible tonal vary. In New Genesis, she feels hopeful, as if the longer term is shut and she will attain it. On the flip aspect, Ado’s tone can change into clearly pissed off and taunting in songs like Fleeting Lullaby. Her voice is without doubt one of the most essential points that heightens Movie: Pink to the perfect of the One Piece franchise.
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Shanks was launched in One Piece’s first chapter as Luffy’s idol and an early paternal determine. He’s one of many few pirates that has been round so long as Luffy himself. Regardless of that, he stays an elusive determine. Movie: Pink was marketed as probably altering that, giving Shanks a bigger position than he’s had prior to now. It’s true that he has a presence, but it surely nonetheless doesn’t reveal all that a lot about him. It’s a supporting position that catalyzes Movie: Pink’s predominant occasions whereas teasing that there’s extra to come back. Clearly, they couldn’t give away a giant thriller in a film, however it could’ve been good to get extra info for considered one of One Piece’s most mysterious gamers.
The Straw Hat crew would not get a lot display screen time, which has been a constant problem throughout the movies. Crew members like Chopper and Robin get one-liners and little cool moments, however that’s about it. As normal, the main focus feels extra on Luffy than anybody else, however Movie: Pink is admittedly distinctive in its supporting solid decisions. Films like One Piece Stampede and One Piece Movie Gold typically felt just like the solid was chosen by recognition; because of this, supporting characters appeared extra like compelled fan service than significant story decisions. In Movie: Pink, everyone seems to be believably on the island for a purpose, and appearances are designed by in-universe character decisions, fairly than a committee trying to promote merch.
