"One Piece Film - Red" is a movie to coincide with the 25th anniversary of the "One Piece" anime, releasing not long after the 1,000th episode was broadcast. That's exciting for long-time fans of the franchise, but perhaps overwhelming for everyone else - I had already seen a couple movies and had my fill of the characters, content to never see them again. And yet, my interest was piqued due to the guest director on the new movie: Goro Taniguchi. He directed and wrote one of my favorite series in "Code Geass," and has elsewhere proven himself to be a reliable showrunner. Apparently, he had history in the early days of the "One Piece" anime, so this was a bit of a homecoming for him. For him and him alone, I figured I'd sit through "Red" for the heck of it. Another new element is the songs, which I'll get into later. The lead new character for the movie is a popular singer, much like the vocalist idols Japan was known for. This followed a welcome trend of anime movies being full-out musicals with modern pop-song sensibilities. Even if I wasn't a big fan of the franchise, the performances might be fun enough to make the movie worthwhile.You can imagine my surprise when I had a big, stupid smile on my face in the movie theater. "Red" is entertaining and great fun, while still having enough dramatic weight to keep me emotionally engaged. The director's sensibilities can be seen in the opening monologue, showcasing the world of "One Piece" from the perspective of the innocent bystanders. While pirates and the Navy battle it out for supremacy on the high seas, civilians of nearby towns and islands often get caught in the crossfire, suffering injuries or loss of loved ones, their homes burnt to the ground and their limited wealth stolen. It's a difficult and hopeless life, and people grow increasingly desparate for help, or at least an escape. The analogy rings particularly true to modern day viewers anxious of inflation, unaffordable living conditions, poor job security and uncertain futures and safety, which I'm sure the writers were conscious of. One glimmer of light is Uta, a talented and world-renowed pop-star, and she's about to give her very first in-person concert. Naturally, Luffy and his crew are taking a break to attend. As the music starts, the grey, dreary colour palette cuts to a bright and vibrant stage, contrasting the two worlds. After a showstopping first performace, Luffy blurts out that he was childhood friends with Uta, since she happens to be Shanks' daughter! I had to read the Wikipedia to remind myself that Shanks isn't Luffy's dad, but was the guy that gave him his most prized possesion in his straw hat, but anyway. The announcement briefly shocks the audience, who largely hate pirates (and aren't sure how to take Uta being the daughter of one), and another wrench gets thrown when other nasty pirates come out of the audience to kidnap Uta for a ransom. But Uta isn't helpless, using technology and a devil fruit to power a few tricks, and it turns out she might have a nefarious reason for holding the concert in the first place. Naturally, a lot hinges on Uta being a popular character here, and it that sense, the story's a success. Her design is unique without looking a garishly wacky as Eiichiro Oda's other characters. Her confidence and history with Luffy make her immediately appealing and fun whenever on screen, and there's enough dramatic heft to her backstory to make her sympathetic. Again, her plans and motivations convey common themes from the director's other work: if given the chance to make the world a better place, what sacrifices would make it worthwhile? We might not ever see Uta outside this movie, but I imagine she'll remain a fan-favourite for many. Ironically, the weakness in "Red" is that it tries too hard to be a "One Piece" movie. There are cameos and appearances from a lot more franchise characters than I expected, most of whom I know nothing about. The movie does just enough to explain them in case an audience member is lost, but it still feels like the movie was made for dedicated fans first, unlike the more univresal "One Piece Film - Gold." Like most shonen anime, the movie quickly gets a case of having far too many characters, the majority of which have no purpose to the plot, and look so bizarre they resemble a five-year-old's drawing of a witch hiding in their closet. Again, the writers seemed aware of this issue and deserve some credit trying to fix it; in the action scenes, they try to find reasons to use each character's unique abilities to justify their needing to be there.
In the case of the Straw Hat pirates, Luffy, Nami, Robin, Zoro and the rest are as loud and obnoxious as ever, and interestingly, get put off to the sideline for most of the movie, either tied up and unable to do anything, or else going covert to uncover a plan for the rest of the side characters to use to defeat the big threat. This choice to use them sparingly makes it more meaningful when they do join the fight. Part of the charm of "One Piece" is its ability to make even the silliest characters look cool in battle, and the Straw Hat crew is the coolest of them all. The movie might still be better if it didn't rely on ANY of the legacy "One Piece" characters, including the main cast, but they earn their screentime. For production values, the movie is a bit mixed, which was strange given it released on some IMAX screens in North America. Most of the movie doesn't look any better than a modern television episode of the franchise. The frequent concert sequences are a different story, generously lasting the entirety of a song, spinning the camera around and utilizing fun choreography. When those concert scenes use 2D animation, it's quite impressive, but it inconsistently relies on 3D animation for Uta in some dancing shots, a common low-budget cheat used in dancing scenes for anime. A shame, as it feels as though just an extra month of rotoscoping those 3D scenes would have allowed 2D animation to be used throughout. While the marketing is a little coy, there are ultimately a lot of action scenes, especially near the end, and there are a few beautiful moments of abstract "sakuga," however brief. Otherwise, color design is great, but I think I've already stated that "One Piece" and its legacy characters feature some of the ugliest character designs in the history of anime, so opinions on whether the movies "look good" will always vary. The biggest strength of the movie has to be the music. Uta sings, not just one song, but at least seven or eight, with great emotional range from happy to sad to angry. Each one is a J-POP blast, and totally worthy of topping the music charts; in fact, these might be the consistently best vocal songs I've heard in an anime. Even if you don't care for the story, you'll probably enjoy the "concert experience" of the movie. The English dub is solid, featuring the usual returning cast, with an inspired choice of casting Amanda Lee as Uta, a voice actress better known for her song covers on YouTube. Her performance is spot on, helping significantly in Uta's appeal, but strangely... the songs in the dub are still the original Japanese versions. They're still excellent, but other anime musicals had recently made great strides in translating songs in English ("Belle" and "Sing a Bit of Harmony" come to mind), and Lee's voice would have been a great match to replace the Japanese track. Even if you're one of those people that insist "the Japanese is better," surely it's only a positive to have both versions to choose from? I assume this was a case of Funimation (now just Crunchyroll) not having the time or money to replace the music, or a licensing requirement from the Japanese side, but I do hope Lee is given a free license to sell her own covers of the songs, or that they'd at least be included as a bonus on the Bluray. "One Piece Film - Red" throws in a lot of the best and worst that the franchise is known for, but smart direction helps to put even the flaws in its best light, and the new musical elements elevate it to something even new fans can enjoy. It's still kind of silly and juvenille, but I was pleasantly surprised to discover "One Piece" could be this good.