One Piece: Strong World
Director: Munehisa Sakai
Producer / Creator: Eiichiro Oda
Studio: Toei Animation
U. S. Distrubutor: FUNimation
U. S. Release Date: Nov. 19th, 2013
Format: DVD / Blu-ray / Feature Film / 113 minutes
Genre: Shonen, Action, Adventure, Fantasy
Age Rating: TV 13
Overall Personal Garde: B+
Synopsis:
When the Straw Hats catch wind of trouble in the peaceful waters of the East Blue, they quickly set a course for home! But before they reach their destination, fate leads them into the deadly path of Golden Lion Shiki. This gravity-defying madman needs a navigator, and he wants Nami! Shiki scatters the Straw Hats across the far corners of a floating island filled with ferocious, genetically-mutated monsters, and issues Nami and ultimatum: join his crew – or her friends die!
Big mistake. Luffy kicks his attack mode into Third Gear and begins a brutal rampage across the beast-ridden island. It’s all hands on deck in Monkey vs. Lion. Winner gets the navigator!
Commentary:
Strong World is the 10th feature film for the franchise and it is also far and way my favorite one so far. It has been some time since I have seen a One Piece film that has as much feeling and remains true to the essence of the One Piece series. Eiichiro Oda did a great job with this one. It is well contained and has a fun and also contains some rather dramatic sub plot meaning. Of course at the heart of the film is the “don’t mess with my friends” Luffy thing that moves it forward, but that is at the core of everything One Piece and at time it is rather tired and worn out. In Strong World that plot device didn’t come across so worn out because they had so much else going on and there was a rather fanciful world that they got to fight their way through.
Strong World is also showing the more serious side of Luffy that has begun to exhibit in the series. It is rather nice to see the overtly goofy captain become a little more grounded. For One Piece that biggest problem I every had with it was the fact that Luffy was so over the top goofy that it was hard to watch. The animation was above par for a One Piece film and the overall flow of the film stayed rather consistence. It always helps when the pacing fits well with the subject as it does in Strong World .
Overall Grade: B+
Not being a big fan of the One Piece series it is sometime very hard for me to enjoy the films. Strong World offers up a solid fun story with plenty of action and some new wild characters that help hold it all together. This rich little film does wonders for the franchise in my eyes and gives me reason to take a closer look at the series as it is today. If Strong World is representative of the direction Oda wants to take the characters then I am on board, but if this is just a fluke and they all end up become more of a silly caricature of their former selves then you can certainly count me out. I sincerely hope that they move closer to the full bodied riches of the cast in Fairy Tail.
For all you big fans of One Piece I believe you will really enjoy Strong World and for all those fans of anime just looking for something fun and full of action then you will really like this movie. So, jump on in the water is fine!
