Film Red is the second most idiosyncratic One Piece movie thanks to its overt reliance on musical performances and the spotlight focused on Uta a new female character. It also has the benefit of bringing out Shanks who is one of the most important yet mysterious characters in the original work as an active participant. While this is not a canonical story I have found a lot to enjoy this time around and wish to share my thoughts and feelings with some openminded readers. Of course it is hard to ignore the commercial success of the movies theatrical release which proves Film Red has resonated with many thousands of people across Japan. However I will warn those who are expecting more of the same that they may not always find it here. Thus I can at least respect even in the midst of disagreement those who felt this movie struck a discordant note. Why are there such vocal viewer reactions alternatively expressing their love and hate for the end product? Its because Film Red brings together a relatively unique mix of rock opera character drama and allstar battle through a couple of daring artistic choices. Thematically speaking this movie also implicitly challenges a few of the assumptions that are common among a certain percentage of the One Piece fanbase. As you can easily imagine that approach will not sit well with everyone. For me Film Red doesnt seek to establish a new standard in terms of shonen battle spectacle but it still reflects a key part of the emotional core of One Piece. There is plenty of merit in this. From a certain perspective one of the great virtues of Eiichiro Odas manga masterpiece has to do with the value of found family and the clash between different ideals of justice in a world that can simultaneously be incredibly colorful and whimsy while also continuing to be fundamentally unfair and occasionally outright cruel. Despite all of the twists and turns of this latest cinematic narrative I would say the movie remains true to an interpretation of this idea. STORY: 7.5/10 In many fictional stories the most admirable heroes are those who simply fight against absolute evil and win. In the case of One Piece there are plenty of those situations and our hero Luffy usually has his heart in the right place but for me some of the best parts of the original story focus on the struggle of those characters who combine virtues with flaws and imperfections. Even if their motivations are ambiguous or even misguided I have always been more interested in the little stories of characters who whether important or not at least try to stand up against the world to fight for what they believe in. Sometimes they win sometimes they fail. Regardless of the merits or even the desirability of either sides beliefs there can be a lot of poignancy in those moments. It doesnt matter if youre part of the Marines Shichibukai or Yonko...your position doesnt necessarily mean all of your beliefs are right or wrong. Sure we all know that One Piece is ultimately a Shonen Jump publication and this means there are certain ethical limits. I dont expect the grand tale of Luffy and his friends to end on an unhappy note to be honest but the story has occasionally reached towards exposing a darker underbelly than what its colorful surface suggests. In the long run we trust those glimpses into a dark reality are only obstacles and a brighter future is waiting for our cast of characters. On the other hand there is also a degree of artistic value in the act of depicting what would happen in the One Piece world when the pressures are just too strong and youd rather escape from reality...both for yourself and for the sake of others or say to meet the expectations and demands of others. In a way that same sensation of tension and determination is part of what I can appreciate about Film Reds script. Predictably enough it isnt simple to make One Piece: Film Red fit into any specific part of the larger One Piece story. You would quickly find small and large inconsistencies upon looking at the chronology. Yet speaking only for myself I was able to watch the movie as a standalone project with ease. When we are dealing with an alternate noncanonical storyline as almost all One Piece movies are the screenwriter can afford to play rather fast and loose with the absence and presence of various characters abilities or locations. Is it perfectly written? No. Does it need to be? Nope. While the formal narrative is arguably the weakest link in Film Red it has also incorporated quite a few of the themes of One Piece while bringing a certain amount of fresh air into the room. I happen to find the features and consequences of that decision to be worth appreciating in multiple ways. In short Eiichiro Oda himself supervised the creation of this movie and he was getting tired of creating legendary old men. With a small number of honorable exceptions most of the One Piece theatrical entries have fallen into a rather typical methodology: Luffy and the Straw Hats run into a new and seemingly allpowerful male foe leading to a great battle where this enemy is inevitably defeated. Everyone can go home and be happy. The End. Thats all well and good but at some point its nice to add a little variety. Based on that premise the story of Film Red is less of a straightforward pirate action adventure and more of a vehicle for the exploration of a new fictional character Uta through the use of musical expression. It would not be out of line to say that the term musical battle has been applied both literally and figuratively to this production with controversial yet arguably excellent results. Specifically Uta the idol and songstress who is the undeniable center of this movie represents a concrete departure from the norm. Saying too much would be a spoiler but the first half of Film Red is essentially built to introduce us to a set of mysteries. Mysteries with a degree of useful foreshadowing as a matter of fact although not everything will be immediately clear. To be sure there are at least two big plot twists that arent even remotely hinted at in the trailers. One of them is rather typical and can be found in plenty of other fictional works yet it is still comparatively new within the context of the One Piece universe. Unsurprisingly resolving any mystery usually requires exposition. Around the midway point of the movie the pace does tend to drag. This mysterysolving so to speak does provide a number of secondary characters with a chance to shine but I agree it can feel rather heavy in the moment. That said the musical sequences were able to revive my interest whenever it threatened to drop. Now strictly speaking it would be incorrect to label Film Red as a complete musical. Theres been some hyperbole about most of the movie being nothing other than songs in the oldschool Disney fashion which is objectively inaccurate. However I can find a grain of truth in that statement. The viewers ability to enjoy this project will rely to a considerable extent on their willingness to open their hearts and minds to what the movie is trying to do. Frankly this is always more of an emotional process than a purely logical one. If that fails then the entire house of cards will crumble and youll leave the theater bored and bitter. Not my personal case yet I can understand why other folks might reach such a conclusion. Once certain narrative keys have all been unlocked Film Reds story pace speeds up during the second half and there is a largescale battle waiting at the end. Yet this time I would readily recognize that the outcome of the battle is the least interesting part. As spectacular as it is to see certain unexpected teamups and so many powerful attacks being used...the real threat is not the external enemy but an internal one. It is there that the Film Red script will play its final card and for my money the gamble was worth my investment. Naturally this will vary depending on the viewers own preference tastes and capacity for empathy. To put things in perspective here...any truly actionbased movie like the megahit One Piece: Stampede would place far more attention on the battle choreography aspect. Yet Stampede for all of its adrenaline felt comparatively emotionally shallow. I dare to say that One Piece: Film Red is almost the exact opposite. For me the relatively underwhelming combat was compensated by more of a theatrical and engaging approach to the drama. CHARACTERS: 8/10 Oh boy. Ill only discuss a limited number of individuals in detail because theres a large cast involved here and it would take too long. Ironically enough...theyre a lot but not near the level of Stampedes famously enormous list of participating pirates. That said I found even the secondary or tertiary characters to have a more convincing inuniverse reason to show up. You still need a certain amount of key One Piece figures to really sell the scale of the threat. Quite a few get their own small moment too. Is that fanservice? Sure but celebrating existing characters is fine. When it serves a valid narrative objective it actually doesnt bother me. In a perfect world Id have liked to see the Straw Hats taking on a more formal leading role yet one of the unique freedoms provided by the concept of a noncanonical One Piece movie is that the staff can afford to experiment. In other words the camera can temporarily move away from them a little bit to serve other purposes. Theyll continue getting more than enough development and a strong public profile in the main story so theres no overwhelming urgency to feature them at this point. Having said that lets talk about the more central players. Without being the deepest psychological examination ever I think the storytellings focus on the new character of Uta adds up to a fairly complex and potentially appealing characterization. From a birds eye view you could even draw a couple of contrasts with Namis and Robins arcs from way back in the day. All of which is part of why Ill honestly give Film Red a good amount of credit here. Utas motivations are tricky because theres technically three of them depending on what part of the movie you want to consider and how you interpret the meaning of these events. In this regard her status as the daughter ? of Shanks provides a common starting point of understanding. Utas background allows us to compare her with Luffy and his own aspirations. In practice this achieves the goal of successfully introducing her to the existing One Piece world. The flashbacks are quite helpful as a method of humanization in this respect. Which is vital given the twisted path the movie takes. In a few words there really isnt any other musicrelated character in One Piece with quite the same combination of positive and negative traits especially not in the movies. She can go from genuinely funny and friendly to courageous selfless selfish frustrating annoying pitiful desperate and yes endearing. As a result we can almost track Utas emotional journey as communicated through the different songs. Thats quite a novel approach for a One Piece project and in and of itself already makes her stand out. Furthermore I recommend paying a bit of attention to her facial expressions. I am not entirely surprised that people will either find a lot to love or a lot to hate in her because both evaluations can be objectively supported. If we asked ten different people we would get a significant split in terms of their judgments of Uta. Similarly my own range of emotions towards her went through a lot of highs and lows...until the end which left quite a lasting impression. With that in mind I believe the creators of the film made the right decision to focus on Uta. Rather ambitious and even risky as an artistic decision yes but youll never win big if you only ever dare to make entirely safe bets. The other new individual of note is Gordon. Even though his screen presence in Film Red is significantly less than Utas and his looks arent anything special I think Gordon was a surprisingly good fit for this story. While its easy to dismiss him especially without going into spoilers theres a reason why ageless wisdom teaches us to avoid judging a person by his or her external appearance. Next theres the significant matter of Luffy. He is still Odas eternal protagonist for the larger story of One Piece by all rights and with all the benefits this position brings but in this particular movie its going to be a little different from the usual. Luffys still going to participate in battles and remains our nominal entry point into the situation. Yet for once his normal level of importance was held back by the nature of a standalone narrative focused on gasp someone else. Imagine that. All the same he still serves an interesting role in Film Red. In a sense its another way of putting him to the test compared to the usual type of enemies he has had to deal with. You can also ask a number of questions as a result not necessarily in the strict canonical sense but as general themes. What is Luffys exact relationship to Uta? Does Luffy share her beliefs or does he maintain his own way of thinking? Can Luffy really solve every problem? What does Utas story imply about Luffys? While it would require spoilers to address those points here for me Luffys role was still more of a positive than a negative. Now Ive finally come to discuss Shanks who is the obvious elephant in the room. Most viewers will be incredibly glad to see Shanks in Film Red. In fact Shanks gets to do a lot more during this one movie than you might expect. More than what hes done in years regardless of whether or not youre up to date with the manga. This inclusion might be debatable because some other One Piece fans would prefer to keep Shanks strictly away from the spotlight until the original creator gives us all the details about him in a completely canonical work. I can respect this way of thinking despite not sharing it. Sure there is also going to be some skepticism in light of the commercial nature of anime production. After all Shanks was part of the promotional materials for the movie but he isnt the protagonist. If you havent paid any attention to the trailers which make clear he isnt supposed to be the one central figure in this new story that might be disappointing. And yet I would argue using Shanks in Film Red was a valid creative choice for two reasons. First because its naturally cool to see Shanks as an active player in the action after so long. Why shouldnt we be hyped about that? They even found a creative solution to the impossible problem posed by Shanks being in a movie featuring Luffy. Second perhaps more importantly because the movie does serve to tell us more about him. Both directly and indirectly. Theres his relationship with Uta which has value in and of itself by developing Shanks as a father figure as well as by providing us with a curious method to reflect about the meaning of his relationship with Luffy. The way he reacts or doesnt to the events of this movie can show us more about his personality. While almost the totality of the movie can never happen in the original storyline I am confident that Oda made sure to supervise how Shanks would be depicted to guarantee he would be fully incharacter here. Plus as a bonus we also get a couple of pieces of extra information about the past of Shanks that can add fuel to the fan theories about whats really going to happen with him. ART AND ANIMATION: 8/10 Film Red was a very nice looking movie for the most part. In particular the musical performance scenes are a visual highlight for anyone who cares about this medium. Outside of the minor use of 3D with mixed results I was pleased by the presentation including quite a few nice storyboards. Great job Lets get this out of the way: yes you can still find a number of less relevant sequences with preWano arc levels of animation particularly during a bunch of regular conversation scenes. It doesnt bother me but I can see why those moments could take a few of the viewers out of the experience if theyre used to the best parts of the TV series in terms of animation. When the animators put their skills and resources at work however Film Red can be a feast for the eyes. SOUND: 10/10 Perfect. No seriously. If youre going to make a movie where the use of music plays a central role in the storyline and one of the main characters is a singer then the songs should be excellent. Otherwise what would be the point of such an enterprise? Im glad to report that Film Reds creative staff made an impressive decision when they selected Ado to provide Utas seven songs. Shes great. Ados collaborations with many famous artists cover a wide spectrum of emotional expression and musical genres which bring a welcome variety to the sound of the movie and also feeds into Utas characterization by reflecting her mental and emotional state. Theyre used very well. I would say my favorites are Backlight New Genesis Tot Musica and Where The Wind Blows. Significantly even the lyrics gain a different layer when you sit down to listen to them after watching the movie. ENJOYMENT: 9/10 I like One Piece. Not as the most hardcore of fans but enough of one to appreciate Odas skillful storytelling and follow along with the storyline at my own pace. At the same time I think its good to have movies where different aspects of the world of One Piece can be explored even outside of strict canon. I welcome creators who try to do something new even if it means taking a risk and not pleasing all of the audience. The real goal of these movies isnt to satisfy every single person which is almost impossible in this age but to add new blood to the property and at least in a manner of speaking provide a path for new people to come in and to make money yes but that is already evident to anyone reading this. For me Film Red has achieved the majority of what was required in this respect. As a work of entertainment you dont necessarily need to be an expert on One Piece to appreciate this movie. In fact I have heard of former One Piece fans in Japan who came back to see this film and had a good time. If at least some of them decide to pick up the manga or the anime then this represents a net gain to the community. Even so there are specific things that will be more appealing to existing fans especially those who are less interested in the result of a battle than in the emotional fallout. As mentioned elsewhere this is less of a rollercoaster of action than a rollercoaster of emotions. If you are strictly logical and not particularly romantic in the classic sense of the term mind you then Film Red may disappoint you. In my personal case I would like to invite anyone who found anything of interest in this review to give the movie a chance. OVERALL: 8.5/10