Tentacle-Free Anime: "One Piece Film: Gold" (2016)2016 was an incredibly busy year and this year hasn't been much kinder. But several awesome things have happened so far, recently I moved to a new home with my girlfriend into one of the more historic and hip areas of our city. It's been hands down one of the most exciting things to happen in awhile. That has nothing to do with the movie we're about to review however, so let's just jump right into that, shall we?
I don't believe we've talked about One Piece in all these yet, have we? Well, that's not for a bad reason. It's pretty damn long. Still going 20 years strong and I hear the full story is only 65% told. Whatever deal you made with Mephisto, Eiichiro Oda, I don't envy it. But then again, I'm sure you're also insanely rich with just how popular this long shounen has become.
Okay, so that last part about the robot might be a bit unique to this film, but the rest is essentially the same. It happened with DBZ, Naruto, Bleach, you name it. And because there is an entire decades old genre built around these kind of stories I hold them to a bit of a different standard than most. Only because these kind of series are out to give you fun characters with can-do attitudes and a story built loosely around giving us viewers reasons to watch an awesome, yet gratuitous fight scene. So does One Piece Film: Gold deliver? Definitely. It does. I found this to be an incredibly fun film, despite my lack of knowledge of the place most our heroes are currently in the overall canon – such as I don't know how Sanji or Robin can fly now, nor do I know why Zoro is missing an eye. One day I will find out. Though you will get a better experience out of the film if you've been keeping up with this massive universe, I don't think you'd get a better story. One thing Film Gold does well is allow anyone to really jump in and just have a good time without too much fuss over who is who and what is what. As long as you have even some basic knowledge of the characters and know that hey, there's been a time skip at some point before this and now things are different, you'll probably do just fine. So let's discuss the characters. We won't get into each specific one, but just know I loved everyone in this film. Luffy, Nami, Robin, Sanji, Zoro, Usopp, Chopper, Franky and Brook. While everyone gets a moment to shine, the real stand outs from the Straw Hat Crew in this film are Luffy, Franky, and Nami. After botching their job to cut off Tesoro's camera so that the rest of the crew can succeed in stealing Tesoro's treasure, both Luffy and Frank – who make quite a great team I might add – are thrown in a dungeon made of gold where they convince other prisoners to help fight back against Tesoro. And then there's Nami, who gets another sad backstory in this film that's akin to the focus we get on her backstory in the Arlong saga all those years ago – man, who remembers that? I do like Nami's backstories though, because they tend to bring out the best in her character. Although I say that as someone who sadly doesn't have near the experience with the show as so many other people do who've kept up with it. For now, this is my assessment of her. The addition of Carina, Nami's old friend and fellow treasure hunter makes for a great third party in this cat and mouse game between Tesoro and the Straw Hats. She adds a reason for the whole adventure to kick off when the group attempts to steal Tesoro's money. And Tesoro himself is an interesting villain. With his obsession with gold and thirst for power, his ideologies that everyone below him is his property to do with as he pleases, is honestly quite topical of current American politics at the time of the film's release. Not that I'm saying it was intentional, however upon originally seeing this film last year in theaters, I did lament on Facebook that it was like watching the Trump Family vs. America the movie. The world of Grantesoro, the autonomous casino city our heroes find themselves at, is really cool, to be perfectly honest. I think it would be very interesting if a place like that existed here on Earth. Though it would definitely be a hotspot for the seedy underbelly of crime when there's a place to run to where the government essentially allows you to do whatever you want. Obviously, this setting is supposed to be Las Vegas on a grander scale, and it certainly feels like that, but it also feels like its own unique thing all at the same time and that is definitely something One Piece generally does in spades. You actually are able to feel the pain and suffering these people go through under the tyrannical rule of Tesoro, and though we get an incredibly interesting backstory for Tesoro in this film, I like that in the end he chooses to be evil. Sure, bad things happen to him, but ultimately he embraces the gold-obsessed maniac within him and lets it loose as the film goes along. Also, thanks to Tesoro, I can't actually call this film tentacle-free. Oddly enough, there's a crap ton of golden tentacles in this movie, but nothing sexual happens. I wonder if they're supposed to be symbolic of Tesoro's depravity as a dictator? I'm probably looking too closely into that. Sadly however, with all its perks, this movie does have its flaws as well. Sure, the fights are spectacular, the animation is pretty top notch for what it is, and there are some great characters. There are a few things that can get easily swept under the rug if you're not looking for them that I do feel should not go unnoticed. Going back to that whole “Luffy inspires others” cliché that him and so many other shounen heroes hold a trademark to, some of the cruxes of this story do take that to an extreme that even I find shaky when you stop to think about them. In a lighter version of this, there are a few kids who are slaves and trying to gain their freedom by selling flowers. Well, one of these kids who plays a decent supporting role in the film is completely enamored with Luffy and his willingness to fight back against Tesoro throughout the film. Except, this kid never really sees Luffy do anything to fight back against Tesoro until the very end of the film. Even in Luffy's one chance to step in and help the kid out personally he decides instead to sit back and watch innocent slaves – one of them being this kid – get beaten up for no good reason. In a more extreme case, those other prisoners I mentioned earlier are inspired by Luffy and Franky to fight back against Tesoro. But they've been trying to fight back and failing in their prison. The only thing that changes when Luffy and Franky arrive are the fact that these two have super powers and thusly can get them out of that hell hole. In fact, during one of the big moments of the movie, Raise Max, one of the prisoners, is so inspired by Luffy's courage that he jumps into a giant rotating fan that would – by all accounts – rip him apart instantly the second he hits it, and with the help of the others is somehow able to force it to stop moving. The best part however, is when he decides to do this, we get three flashbacks of Luffy's courage that inspired Raise Max and all three of them happened literally seconds before they were called back to. It's insane. And finally, the whole cat and mouse game between the Straw Hats and Tesoro as the former attempt to steal his grand treasure – that's said to be 20% of the world's wealth mind you, so what the hell makes the famous One Piece this entire series is about so special? - while the latter readies himself to execute Zoro crescendos with a big back and forth of double crosses and outsmarting the other party that holds no logical conclusion when you stop to think how many ungodly variables took place in the story that would not have let our characters actually outdo the other in a grand chess game where Zoro's own life is actually weighed in the balance. Ultimately, this movie is a real fun one, it's not, however, a very smart one. Asking you to simply accept certain things as they are rather than what they ought to be for a deeper experience. This is a shounen movie all the way through and if that's what you're in it for, this is a good 2-hours to go with. Finally, I'll discuss just briefly one of the prequels of the movie. One Piece Film: Gold episode 0 ~ 711 ver. Yup, that's the official title. Don't ask me why. But essentially it's a 10-minute short that takes place just before the beginning of the film and shows what our heroes are doing before they make it to Grantesoro's. This in my mind is the better of the two adventures. In 10-minutes it gives us everything I know One Piece to be. A very silly, fun time with a group of friends who are out to get into a lot of kooky misadventures. This time we get a silly adventure on their current ship, the Thousand Sunny, as they pass the time. Yeah, we get a lot of fanservice with Nami and Robin, I'll admit to liking what I saw, but the best part is honestly the sumo matches between Luffy and Usopp, and Luffy and Franky for the better half of the story. As the group attempts to cobble together a small stage show in hopes of earning some money to gamble their life away at Grantesoro, what follows is a series of fun interactions that really goes along way to show how much of a family our heroes have become. I really do love these characters. One day I hope to cover the series in full. I'll keep telling myself that anyways. Final Score: 3.5 Successful Slave Revolts out of 5 P.S. - Yes, in the episodes section near the top I did point out that there are two prequels. And yet we only discussed one. Well the other prequel, a pseudo-film in its own right One Piece: Heart of Gold which takes place before both of these adventures we discussed is over an hour long so I'll discuss it in its own review down the line. For now, until we meet again! Seen the movie? Is it pure gold or one piece of crap? Let us know in the comments! |
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