Anime Review: One Piece: Strong World
One Piece: Strong World was provided as a review sample by Funimation.
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One Piece is the multi-media behemoth that has captivated the hearts of many around the world. The story of Luffy D. Monkey and his crew of pirates has been gracing the pages of Shounen Jump for almost 17 years.
Strong World is the tenth film based off the adventures of the Straw Hat Pirates and it was written by the creator of One Piece, Eiichiro Oda, in honor the 10th anniversary of the series.
Story
In usual anime movie fashion, Strong World features a villain looking to take over the world. This time around it is Shiki the Golden Lion, looking to use the super-strong creatures he is creating to bring the World Government to its knees.
Fortunately for humanity, the Straw Hat Pirates get entangled in Shiki’s scheme after Shiki kidnaps Nami and tosses the crew onto his archipelago of floating islands, where they must fend of the ferocious fauna of these floating islands.
Since Strong World’s story was penned by Oda himself, the story for this movie actually fits into the one piece universe. It is not your usual throwaway, stand-alone anime movie made to get fans of the series into the movie theater. The end result of having Oda write story is that the movie is a rather enjoyable extension of the One Piece universe. There is a good mix of action and comedy, which is a hallmark for the One Piece series.
That being said, the film clocks in just shy of two hours and the story does feel long at some points of the movie. I couldn’t help but feel that the movie would have been a bit more enjoyable had they they trimmed it down 10-15 minutes. There is quite a bit of exposition at the beginning of the film and also some slower pieces, like the story of the villagers living under Shiki’s oppressive rule, sprinkled in throughout the movie.
Animation
The animation is awesome and there are several great visual moments in the film, like when you see the massive formation of islands in the sky or when the Straw Hats Pirates are being hunted down by the varied and voracious animals of those islands.
Audio
The voice acting is great in both English and Japanese. It is worth noting that Funimation’s release of this film marks the introduction of the character Brook in the Funimation video releases of this series. The voice actor for Brook does great job at capturing the perverted skeleton's personality. I am sure that fans of the One Piece series will look forward to hearing him in the upcoming story arcs of the anime series. The soundtrack was good, but none of the track were very memorable.
Final Verdict
One Piece: Strong World is a great movie that can be enjoyed even by those who are not up to date with the show’s massive run of episodes. I have only seen a few episodes of One Piece, but that did not stop me from enjoying the film. However, I imagine that a true One Piece fan would enjoy the film in a deeper way.
One Piece: Strong World was provided as a review sample by Funimation.
Posted 24 May, 2014 - 18:48 by SentaiSeiya |
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