So, it's finally time to cover the tenth One Piece movie, Strong World.
Unlike the previous films, this one was written by Eiichiro Oda himself, the story apparently being one that he originally intended to depict in the manga, yet never got around to doing it. So with Oda being involved, there was a lot of hype for the film, and the bonus chapter (later animated as an OVA) that covered the backstory and tied the film into the manga canon only added to that. I'm looking forward to a story with the classic One Piece humor, sense of adventure, action, and of course, the emotional moments too. And apparently the story lends itself to Ship Tease very easily, if a good chunk of the fan art I've seen for the film is any indication. We'll see about that.
Anyway, time to begin the blog!
Strong World: Part 1
The film opens at Marineford, where alarms are blaring and marines rush about. Watching the activity, Vice-Admiral Garp comments that there's only one man he knows that can pull off a stunt such as this. A giant structure passes overhead and approaches a fleet of Navy battleships suspended in mid air. Garp and Fleet Admiral Sengoku say that the culprit is a pirate from the days of Gold Roger, Gold Lion Shiki, who escaped imprisonment by cutting off his own legs. Shiki himself appears on a lighthouse balcony on board his ship, declares that this is a warning, and with a single hand gesture the fleet of battleships fall from the sky, wreaking devestation on the bay and city below. Marineford's cannons open fire, but they are unable to touch Shiki's retreating ship. As it leaves, Garp is left wondering if Shiki has come back to get revenge on the world.
The scene changes to Luffy, outfitting in his definition of "adventure gear", trudging through a jungle forest. He comes out to a clearing and surveys the view: all around him are floating islands covered with trees and ruins. Stating that he has to hurry up and find the others, he breaks into a sprint and launches himself over a cliff edge and in to free-fall.
On the next island Luffy finds himself being chased by a series of gigantic, monstrous animals. First by a flattened alligator, which gets pummeled by a land-dwelling octopus, which gets several of its tentacles sliced off by a praying mantis, which in turn gets suplexed by a bear with sloth-like arms. Watching this, Luffy comments on how strange the island's wildlife is, just in time to see the bear charging him. He tries to use Pistol on it but gets smacked back into the forest. Deciding that he'd better not underestimate these creatures, Luffy finishes the bear by activating Gear Third and smashing it with Gigant Pistol.
On another, autumn-themed island, Robin, Franky, and Brook are walking through the ruins of a half-sunken village when a horde of army ants stream out of the decaying structures towards them. Bypassing the petrified Brook, the ants make their way towards the other two, but are distracted by a giant, elongated shark leaping out of the water, which they immediately attack and devour in seconds, leaving nothing but the skeleton behind. Franky's comments that Brook was ignored because he was all bones touches a nerve, and Brook dashes through the horde, cutting them down with his Hanauta Sancho Yahazu Giri (Three-Pace Hum Notched-Arrow Slash) fencing technique. It's true that he's all bones, the living skeleton says, but only because he wants to lose weight! As the three leave the ruins, Robin observes how the islands' wildlife has evolved in ways never before seen. The only law is survival of the fittest.
We are then treated to a rather nifty opening sequence that uses lots of match cuts that introduces each Straw Hat and what they are currently up to, all set to a very up-beat, surreal music piece that uses recordings of a radio announcer as "lyrics". Zoro and Chopper are being ambushed by a giant horned monster in on a snow-covered island. Robin, Franky, and Brook continue their trek through the autumn forest. Sanji and Usopp are on an island covered in flowers and cherry blossom trees. Luffy is snacking on one of the land octopus's severed tentacles. And Nami? Well...
Nami is seen lounging in a pool within a greenhouse located on another snow-covered island. After swimming a few laps she exits the pool and is greeted by music blaring as Gold Lion Shiki, a man with long blond hair wearing ragged Japanese-style clothing, swords in place of his lost feet, and a piece of a ship's steering wheel lodged in his head, Dr. Indigo, a lab coat-wearing blue-haired mime, and a gorilla in a pink suit jacket named Scarlet, dance their way down the stairs to greet her. Her only reaction to the performance is to turn her nose up at them. Shiki asks "Baby" if she's made her decision, and she roughly asks to be let free. Indigo starts miming out something, his shoes making farting noises the whole way through. Shiki shouts that he doesn't understand him, so Indigo says that he wanted to show him something. While this performance is going on, Nami gazes through the greenhouse's panes, wondering how things have come to where they are.
Flashback to one week prior, where the Thousand Sunny is sailing along. The East Blue Straw Hats are in a bit of a somber mood thanks to a newspaper article on the mysterious destruction of numerous villages and towns in their home sea. As they discuss the issue, a large shadow is cast over them, and they all look up to see what they at first think is a flying island, but soon realize that it is actually a flying pirate ship. While the others marvel over this sight, Nami tells Luffy that they need to change their course, as a storm is coming. Luffy decides that they should warn the flying ship as well, and begins waving his arms and shouting in an effort to get their attention. An orange seashell drifts down from the flying ship to the Straw Hats, and the crew recognizes it being a Tone Dial from the sky islands.
On the bridge of the flying ship, Shiki retrieves the Dial and replays the message: Nami warning them of the storm and to how to avoid it. He asks his own navigation team, but they say that there are no signs of any storm forming. But of course, one does whip up right in front of their eyes, and the ship just barely has enough time to follow the Sunny's lead. Once they're safe, Shiki shoots the head navigator for his failure, and takes note of the skill of the woman on board the ship below.
So Shiki himself pays a visit to the Straw Hats on board their ship. Luffy and the others are of course startled at seeing a man fly, but Shiki formally introduces himself, and thanks Nami for her warning. He then explains his power; he ate the Float Float Fruit, which allows him to levitate himself and any other non-living object, which he demonstrates on a set of Zoro's dumbbells. As a sign of thanks, he invites them to visit his base, but Luffy says that they're going to go to East Blue instead. The others are surprised at this sudden declaration, since that isn't something that can be done easily, but Luffy says that they can't just stand by when their hometowns are in danger. Shiki declares that he's liking the Straw Hats more and more, and offers to give them a ride to East Blue.
And so the Sunny leaves the sea and takes to the sky, in the wake of Shiki's own ship. They eventually reach Shiki's base, and the sight of islands of different climatic types floating in the sky together is an awing one for the Straw Hats. Shiki declares that this is Merveille, a land perfect for adventurers such as themselves. And with that, he snatches up Nami and drops the Sunny out of the sky, the Straw Hats along with it, all while gloating over getting their navigator. Nami and Luffy of course scream out each other's names and he tries to reach out and grab her back, but Shiki foils him by rotating the Sunny so that the crow's nest smashes into the group, scattering them across the sky.
Back in the present, Indigo prances over to Shiki, declaring that he's created a new evolution. He throws down a bird cage containing a large, cowering yellow bird which electrocutes Shiki and his two henchmen as soon as it leaves its cage. Nami asks what was meant by "evolution", and Shiki explains that the animals on Merveille evolve faster than normal thanks to a plant called IQ. After twenty years of research, Indigo created a serum called SIQ, which accelerates the process even more, resulting in the monsters that currently inhabit the islands. Nami thinks this is horrible, and Shiki says that she'll come around once she understands everything and joins his crew. He ominously adds that he'll make sure that she'll want to join him.
Meanwhile, on the cherry blossom island, Sanji is bellowing his lungs out calling for Robin and Nami, much to Usopp's dismay, since his shouts draw one monster after another. After having to escape from a giant caterpiller, Sanji defeating a giant blue six-legged, twin-tailed saber tooth tiger, and Usopp's nerves getting shot, they are attacked by a group of small bull creatures that slam into the ground with the force of cannon balls, leading to the ground giving way and the two falling into a lake on the island below.
On the snow island, Zoro and Chopper save a little girl from a Tyrannosaurus-like dinosaur. When she wakes up the three are riding a wooly mammoth through the snow. Chopper asks what she was doing, but the girl doesn't say. Zoro says that they should just focus on getting out of the snow, as he's tired of it after wandering through it for days. The girls says that it only takes half a day to leave, and sure enough, grasslands and forests are visible lower down the mountain. Zoro's lack of direction strikes again. The girl says that her name is Xiao, and that her village isn't very far away.
Sanji and Usopp wake up inside a rowboat moored at a dock. They're in a small town filled with straw-roofed houses and people going about menial tasks. Usopp's surprised to see people living here, and that they all appear to have feathers growing out of their arms. In his own unique way, Sanji observes that there are no young women or men visible. An older woman goes over to them and says that they're lucky to be alive after falling out of the sky. Sanji asks about the feathers, but the woman says that nobody really knows why they have them. It is then revealed that everyone here lives under Shiki's rule, and all the young people work for him, leaving everyone else in a dreary state. On top of that, a giant telesnail crawls through the village, transmitting everything back to Shiki's palace.
Having finally gotten out of the mountains, the mammoth that Zoro, Chopper, and Xiao are riding suddenly goes wild, bucks them off, and runs off. Xiao explains that her village is surrounded by trees called Daft Greens, which emit poisonous spores. Humans can withstand them, but animals hate the stuff and stay as far away as they can. Even Chopper is forced to plug his nose up to withstand them. When the village is reached and Xiao is reunited with her mother, it's revealed that Xiao was looking for an IQ plant in order to save her grandmother, who's been afflicted with Daft Green poisoning, and covered in green rashes. While cross with Xiao, her mother thanks Zoro and Chopper for finding her daughter. They learn that Shiki had stolen all of the IQ plants, and that all of the villagers hate him and wish that they'd go back to the sea. Once outside, Zoro suggests that they take a rest before going back to looking for the others.
Meanwhile, Sanji and Usopp stagger up the town's main path, drained from a lack of sleep over the past week. Sanji plops himself down at the bottom of a set of stone steps. He looks up, Zoro looks down, and the only thing they have the strength to say is "Oh. You."
There's the first chunk or so of the film out of the way, onto the critique.
Well, the film's start is a pretty strong one. Immediately we're thrown into this world full of intense color, vibrancy, and danger. The opening sequence with Luffy running through the forest lets you know right from the beginning that this is going to be an experience. The animal designs are worth talking about. Some of them are based off of mythological creatures, like the saber tooth being inspired by the nekomata, or punny, like the army ants being decked out with spears and helmets, and having music reminiscent of military marches playing. The way they move and are animated is very fun to see, and it really goes to show how much fun and creativity Oda has when it comes to monster designs.
Artistically, I don't think it's a stretch at all to say that this is the overall best looking One Piece movie. The backgrounds and scenery are absolutely full of Scenery Porn. I especially love the panoramas of each island's environments. The colors are bright, the animation fluid and expressive, it's really all you could ask for from a One Piece production.
The animation director and character designer (after Oda, of course) is Masayuki Sato. According to some of the film's promotional materials, he was chosen for the job after Toei searched their ranks for someone who could handle the animals' complex animations as well as emulate Oda's art style as close as possible. The result is that the characters, while not quite looking exactly like their manga counterparts, still look pretty damn good. Luffy, Nami, Sanji, Robin, and Franky I feel look especially good. Nami's even got some neat little gradiant shading in her hair. Stylistically, the film uses the manga colors instead of the normal anime ones. Meaning, that everyone with darker skin normally (Zoro, Usopp, Robin, and Franky) are just as pale as everyone else, and Robin has brown eyes instead of blue. Even Franky's hair is a slightly lighter shade than normal. For me it was a bit weird at first, having started watching the anime and only picking up the manga around the end of Thriller Bark, but it is a nice homage to Oda's work. It's my wish that even after this movie, Sato will do some key animation (he apparently did some for One Day) or even do directing work for the main series.
Content-wise, so far there's not a whole lot to the story, since we're still establishing the setting. Nami getting kidnapped is hardly a new plot-hook (Movie 2, Thriller Bark), but here, the focus is on Nami the navigator, as opposed to Nami the fanservice icon (Thriller Bark...ugh). That right there is a sign that things will be different in that regard. And I'm glad for that, since when treated properly, her character has given us some very emotional and memorable scenes. I think I would have appreciated it a bit more if the motive for the kidnapping was a bit more than a whim, but the movie's still young, and the details of what Shiki's full plan is and the foreshadowing with Shiki claiming that Nami will join him by her own volition hasn't been touched on yet. Plenty of time for more stuff to develop.
Shiki himself is, as I mentioned during by entry on the Episode 0 OVA, very fun to watch, helped by the performance of Japanese actor Naoto Takenaka. The dance scene and the bridge scene shows that he's a classic Oda villain; amusingly quirky, yet ruthless at the flip of a switch. Indigo is pretty amusing to watch too, and it helps that he's voiced by Ryusei Nakao. It's funny too, since Indigo is very much a lighthearted, cartoony counterpart to another villainous scientist that Nakao voices, Mayuri Kurotsuchi. Scarlet's...just kind of there for now, and doesn't seem to have a speaking voice, which is a shame, as he's voiced by Banjo Ginga.
The Straw Hats, well they're the Straw Hats. Luffy's Luffy, their interactions are natural, and it's just really great to see them all together after having been separated in the current series for so long.
I do think I should be keeping a tally of how many more times Say My Name is invoked, however. I have a feeling that it's going to crop up quite a fair bit, especially in a movie with Nami at its center.
