Jul 26, 2021
Call me a cheater, but I saw this movie without seeing the whole anime first. Why? Because I heard the animation was ambitious & the story was darker/different from regular One Piece. Truth be told, I've seen a handful of episodes with my One Piece-addicted friend, & it felt like torture. I gave this film a chance in hopes that it was "unique".
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The main driving force that carried me through this journey was the art. The character designs often annoyed me because of how god-awfully ridiculous they looked; though, others may find it humorous. However, the backgrounds were nicely detailed, & the characters moved fluidly,
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especially Luffy with his noodle arms. Some creative animation techniques & odd CGI are thrown in, but they mix better than water & oil.
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So, is the story dark? Kinda. If we were to place every dark anime on a spectrum, this movie would hang on the lighter end. Something like "Kiss x Sis" is way more disturbing & will make you cry at the monitor. This, however, has very few dark themes that are honestly tame enough to belong in a kids' cartoon. I got no clue why some people think this film is so dark, unless they're children. If you've got guts, you can handle this movie better than medicine.
The overall plot is still interesting, despite any shade I seemingly threw.
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Don't even get me started about the characters. Some of them are somewhat fine, but most of them are goddamn boring or plain annoying! The character Sanji seems to only enjoy bickering with Zoro about useless shit, or flirting with Nami & Robin. Strangely, whenever he flirts, he speaks very quietly like that'll get him any attention; it comes off as stupid rather than funny.
Robin doesn't talk much; I dunno if that makes her uninteresting, because I hate how much the cast talks. There's barely ever a moment where peace & quiet exists, if you don't count the opening scene & end credits. The director somehow managed to cram dialogue into every millisecond, when visual cues or basic knowledge could've explained the situation perfectly.
For example, there's an elderly midget who's fully introduced to Luffy's crew & later faces them off; however, he feels the sudden need to introduce himself again around the end of their fight. He doesn't do it just randomly either; he says it like we're supposed to be absolutely shocked. Who does that? Imagine you meet a kid named Conner. You both start fighting for three seconds, & as you're weaving past his throws, he announces the terrifying words, "I'm Conner". Then, you realize it's unnecessary to fight a goldfish with a three-second memory span.
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Speaking of three-second memory spans, I wish I had one to forget most of the audio. As mentioned before, I hate the overabundant dialogue, & that distaste is amplified by a few things:
1) Too much yelling. Here's a tip, loud doesn't equal funny. Screaming my ears off won't make me wet myself.
2) Mega high-pitched voices that rival Alvin & the Chipmunks. Seriously, Chopper sounds like he inhaled six balloons & managed to keep the helium inside his body forever. His 100 Gecs-like voice downplays the serious tone of the dramatic scenes.
3) Voices which belong to aliens who can't comprehend normal human speech. Gappa often speaks like this: "Hello there pu. How are you doing pu? Why do I keep saying pu? None of your business pu. I bet you're mocking me pu! Pu pu pu pu!" GAAHHH, I hate that shit. Not to mention, he talks way too quietly like he's Billie Eilish—you don't have to design a unique character by making them speak Dumbass Language.
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Is the sixth One Piece movie good? It depends on your maximum level of pain tolerance. Normal One Piece fans will definitely enjoy it, seeing as they willingly suffer through the over nine-hundred-eighty episodes. (I'm kidding.)
Though, for me, this film is only decent. The story holds up fine, & the animation is brilliant. Unfortunately, I just don't like the character writing. Perhaps, I should pry my eyes open & forcefully binge the anime to slowly learn why people like the characters so much... or nah.
Reviewer’s Rating: 5
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