Gentlemen, get your rudders ready!
One Piece's fourth movie that takes place some point between Alabasta and Jaya.
Desperate for cash, the Straw Hats enter a secret race only known to pirates called the Dead End Race. There, they must face the ex-Marine-turned-pirate Captain Gasparde and a bounty hunter who's after his head. However, Gasparde has a deadly scheme planned. Are all of his opponents doomed from the start?
Notable for being the first full length One Piece movie after the first three were one hour movies paired together with another Anime film.
Tropes found in the movie:
- Advertised Extra: Three of the racers were shown to be people with ties to someone the Straw Has have encountered. In this case, two Elbaf giants and a fishman who was said to be a rival of Arlong's, making it seem like the Straw Hats will interact with them. However the giants end up disqualified from the race early after mistiming a jump and crashing out of bounds from the water way. And the fishman is beaten off screen when he tries to go after Gasparde late in the film.
- Badass Normal: Shuraiya as shown in the bar brawl and his fight against Needles. He has no powers, just plain ol' fighting skills, a tendency to think on his feet and make use of whatever he can get his hands on.
- Bar Brawl: Luffy, Zoro and the bounty hunter Shuraiya gets involved in one against Gasparde's crew in the beginning of the movie.
- Bad Boss: Gasparde has no reservations for his crew and would sooner sacrifice them for his own amusement.
- Big Bad: Gasparde, a rogue marine.
- Berserk Button: Nami gets furious when Anaguma was recklessly risking his life and said he didn't care if he'd die. Usopp explains that due to spending her childhood risking her life stealing from pirates, kids failing to appreciate the life they have is a massive sour spot for her.
- Blob Monster: Gasparde ate the Candy Candy Fruit (Ame Ame no Mi), allowing him to turn himself into sticky candy syrup to nullify attacks and form solid spikes to impale his opponents.
- Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: Gasparde who not only rigged the race so that the Eternal Poses would lead the racers to a Marine fortress where they were promptly destroyed, but even betrayed the race coordinator, who was in on his plan (he handed out the Eternal Poses), by sending him directly into a typhoon.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: Played both ways with Gasparde and Luffy. When Luffy first confronts him on his ship, Gasparde easily manhandles Luffy as Luffy can't harm him due to Gasparde's Logia fruit absorbing his blows. However, once Sanji gives Luffy flour, Luffy quickly subjects Gasparde to this, since the flour negates Gasparde's Syrup powers.
- Darker and Edgier: Began the trend continued with the two films following it of the One Piece films being generally darker, more atmospheric affairs than the general series proper. And Gasparde is a more intimidating antagonist.
- Debut Queue: While she made a cameo in the 2nd film, this is Robin's film introduction as part of the Straw Hats.
- Delayed Reaction: Shuraiya was so upset that Luffy stole his food that he barely realized that Luffy's arm can stretch.
- Doomed Hometown: Shuraiya's.
- Dragon with an Agenda: Needles is one to Gasparde, reluctantly following his orders and stating that one day he'll go after him instead.
- Epic Race: The focus of this film.
- Expy: Gasparde is pretty much a Filler Villain version of Crocodile, with very similar appearance, background and powerset. Even their fight scenes play out mostly the same.
- Foreshadowing: Sanji has a conversation with Anaguma, being strangely nice to a boy. This is pointed out immediately after the fact, with Sanji agreeing and wondering why. It's because Anaguma is a girl, so naturally Sanji would be nice to her.
- Giant Equals Invincible: Subverted: there are two giants among the participants, and are among the first to be eliminated from the race.
- Heroic Sacrifice: Biera attempts this in the climax by blowing up the boiler on Gasperde's ship and sinking it. He not only manages to survive but save Luffy and Shuraiya as well.
- Inconsistent Dub: With no USA release, the UK DVD was translated by different people, and it shows:
- Gomu-Gomu no (Gum-Gum) is left untranslated, and in all caps.
- Willy is referred to as a merman instead of a fishman (two different species in the One Piece universe)
- The cover uses 'Gasparde', while the subtitles use 'Gusparday'.
- Shuraiya's name is romanized as "Shryer".
- Inevitable Waterfall: The Grand Fall at the parade start of the race. Ships are required to sail up and off it if they want to continue.
- Kick the Dog: During the final battle, Gasparde takes Luffy's hat and stabs it with his power, leaving a gaping hole.
- Luke I Am Your Sister: Anaguma turns to be Shuraiya's little sister whom he thought was killed when Gasparde raided his hometown. Turns out when she got knocked into the river during the attack. Biera, who was watching from a distance, managed to save her. She's been with him ever since. Biera manages to piece their relation together when he hears Shuraiya's last name was the same as Anaguma's real name, Adelle Biscud.
- Made of Iron: Needles proves his Badass Normal chops by continuing to fight on against Shiuraiya despite getting absolutely mangled in the process. Even Shiuraiya breaking Needles' arm doesn't slow the pirate down, who not only keeps fighting with the arm he has left, but at one point against punches Shiuraiya with the elbow of his broken arm.
- Male Gaze: Early on, when Nami's talking to the bartender we get a couple of fanservicey shots of her cleavage and butt. They're the only instance though.
- Mugging the Monster: Anaguma sneaks into the Straw Hats' ship, thinking they were the weakest and would kill a pirate as per the agreement with Gasparde to help his ill grandpa. He was wrong when Zoro found him first.
- Nightmare Face: Zoro gets freaked out by an old man who suddenly appears right in front of him.
- No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: Luffy really takes a beating in the climax due to Gasparde's Ame Ame no Mi (Syrup Syrup) Fruit.
- Oh, Crap!:
- The crew all have a collective one when they find themselves going over the Grand Fall, a waterfall that leads to a long drop into a narrow river stream.
- One of the giants when his friend tells him they didn't jump far enough to land back in the waterway, resulting in them crashing into a part of the city.
- Anaguma gets one when Luffy dares him to shoot him after the crew find him on the ship, only to find out Luffy has rubber powers.
- Near the climax, Nami notices the weather getting pretty rough as the others become worried for Luffy during his fight with Gasparde. When she goes to look out at the ocean, she remembers being told of the random typhoons in the area and quickly realizes one is about to bear down right on their location. Luffy likewise has this reaction when Gasparde points it out after the Salamander is blown up.
- Gasparde at the climax of the movie when Luffy actually manages to harm him when some of the flour Luffy was carrying gets on him. Followed swiftly by Luffy throwing the remaining bag on him and closing the distance for a beatdown.
- Revenge: Shiuraiya's motivation toward Gasperde.
- Sadistic Choice: Gasparde told Anaguma that he would help his ill grandpa if he kills a pirate first.
- More like a Snipe Hunt as it's obvious he doesn't believe Anaguma will succeed.
- Samus Is a Girl: Its revealed near the end that Anaguma is a girl after getting knocked out by Zoro. Chopper however knew thanks to his nose. This also explains why Sanji was so kind to "him" earlier.
- Small Name, Big Ego: The pirate Bigalo "The Hanged Man," who boastfully challenges the Strawhats during the race only to be one-shotted by Usopp, of all people.
- Tomboy: Anaguma / Adelle
- Too Long; Didn't Dub: Additionally, the UK Disc leaves the "Ame-Ame" (syrup-syrup) fruit untranslated, even though the name intentionally describes the fruit's abilities.
- Uncertain Doom: At the film's climax, Luffy dispatches Gasparde by hitting him with a Gum-Gum Bazooka and launching him straight into an oncoming cyclone, with the viewer's last sight of him being the flying pirate's body being snatched away by the raging winds. Given Gasparde's Super Drowning Skills as a Devil Fruit user, he probably drowned when the wind dropped him in the ocean, but he's never explicitly stated to have died, so there's a chance he's still alive.
- Wacky Racing: Well somewhat. Being a race run by pirates, the participants are playing for keeps and encouraged to get ahead by any means necessary, be it using special ships or attacking the others head on. Many ships get destroyed during the starting leg (with the Straw Hats even destroying one that was trying to ram them from behind). Still it's played somewhat jovial till they hit the open sea.
- Weaksauce Weakness: Gasparde turns out to be vulnerable to flour.
- What makes this funny is that Sanji was the one that figured this out, being a cook and all.
- Would Hurt a Child: Zoro twice in this film, the first time he didn't realize it was a child, just that there was a intruder on-board. And Anaguma attacked first. Luckily for Anaguma, Zoro didn't draw his sword. The second time was intentional to quiet the hysterical kid who was begging to go back for his grandfather leading to the Samus Is a Girl moment.
