Former Marine Admiral Zephyr commonly known as Z who leads a small army steals a deadly weapon called the Dynastones which possesses a tremendous amount of energy. Z is intent on destroying the 3 pillars of the New World. During a fight with Marine Admiral Kizaru on an island during his raid to steal the Dynastones, Z manages to break one of the containers that is holding one of them. This creates a huge explosion which destroys the whole island. Kizaru escapes unharmed but Z is sent flying off. He manages to be picked up by the crew of the Sunny unaware of who he is. Z’s cohorts manages to track him down and engage in a fight with the Sunny’s crew who are defeated easily. Nami, Robin, Chopper and Brook are reverted back 12 years to their younger selves thanks to the power of Ain. They narrowly escape thanks to the Coup de Burst used by the Sunny. Luffy and his crew make it their mission to thwart Z’s plan to flood the Grand Line by using the Dynastones which will wipe out all the pirates. But will they manage to defeat their powerful enemy even with the aid of the Marines?
I was hoping to have caught the 12th One Piece movie when I was in Tokyo during December 2012 but unfortunately it was being released a week after I left to go back home. I was naturally disappointed about this but thankfully after 5 months I am finally able to see the movie. It was well worth the wait and is one of the most exciting One Piece movies I’ve ever seen. Even though I liked the last One Piece movie Strong World, I felt that this movie was definitely a step up in terms of plot and excitement. I think the 3 year gap following Strong World (I’m not counting Mugiwara Chase as a full movie as it only ran for 30 mins) benefited the writers and the time allowed them to develop a worthy story for the viewers’ attention. The storyline has been well thought out with plenty of action. Some viewers might think there’s too much focus on the villain Z more than the Straw Hat crew (hence the title of the movie) but I disagree with that and I liked the backstory about him. It gave the character some depth into why he’s gone down the path of action that he’s taken against everybody. He has two loyal henchmen in Ain and Bins. As for the Sunny crew, there’s plenty of fanservice regarding Nami and Robin. Nami is incredibly cute as a child and so is Chopper. Robin is even more attractive as an 18 year old. Each member of the Sunny crew gets a chance to shine. It’s Luffy, Zoro and Sanji that are involved in the majority of the fights though the others do join in at the climax. There’s the usual comedy interplay between the Sunny crew to lighten the mood up.
The animation for the movie is of a high standard we’ve come to expect – crisp, fluid and detailed with beautifully drawn background and character art. It was a surprise to hear two songs by Avril Lavigne used in the end credits. I loved listening to Avril’s music 10 years ago and the songs used (How You Remind Me and Bad Reputation) were inspired choices and in tune with the theme of the movie.
One Piece Movie Z proved to be extremely popular when it was released in Japan and stayed at no.1 in the box office for a couple of weeks. If you’re a fan of the anime you’re certain to want to watch this movie but even if you’re not don’t despair. This is a standalone movie so you will not be dropped into a plot that’s on-going in the anime series. I absolutely loved the movie and easily give it the top marks it deserves. Looking forward to the next One Piece movie……whenever that’ll be!
Sadako’s Rating: 5 stars out of 5.
Glad to see you’re back! I’m not the biggest One Piece fan (although I really like the Thriller Bark arc) but I do respect it. It’s interesting that a lot of the film focussed on the villain. Nice to see the writer’s mixing things up a bit since the Straw Hat crew are pretty familiar if you’ve watched enough of the anime.
The reason for my absence was the website was taking over too much of my life so I stepped back from it. I’m still not sure if I’ll go back to writing around 15+ reviews a month or just occasionally post whenever I feel like it.
To be honest with you I haven’t been following the anime series at all. Very occasionally I’ll dip in and see what’s going on but it’s the movies that I’m more interested in more than the series.
Ah well, so long as you’re still around!
The anime is too long for me to follow it step by step and I just dip in and out.