More than 16 million euros. That’s what he raised only in japan, “One Piece Film: Red”last foray into the cinema of Luffy and the gang of straw hat pirates. At this point -with more than 1,000 anime episodes already issued – and converted the franchise into the japanese animation gold standard, few are oblivious to what the saga means to millions of fans around the world, but there are those who dare to try to explain it: «One always hopes that their projects work well, but the reception could not have been better. It’s important because reinforces our faith in the franchise and, in addition, he tells us about the renewal among the fans. Now, almost anyone, in almost any part of the world, has access to everything that has been done around the series, ”he declares to LA RAZÓN goro taniguchidirector of the new film and guardian of the essences of the universe created by the master Eiichiro Oda.
And it goes on, about the success of the franchise in Spain, where shining from the golden times of the autonomousanime has managed to remain relevant in the age of platforms: «I think the important thing is the universality of the situations. There is drama, there are comic elements and there are pirate adventures., but there is a story in which everyone can see themselves reflected. They are twenty years of work, of shared merit, that people are always grateful for”.
an action musical
What adventure do they have ahead of them, then, Luffy, zoro, Nami, Sanji and the rest of the gang? The action of “One Piece Film: Red” begins on the high seas, where the protagonists go to the concert of Uta, a pop superstar who could well be compared to a mixture between Dua Lipa and any K-Pop “Idol”. There they will discover that she is the adoptive daughter of the mythical Shanks the Redhead, Luffy’s main inspiration for search for the treasure that gives the series its name and, here, omniscient shadow and main concern of the plot beyond the world of the series: the film is an excuse to discover a Shanks that we did not know.
Taniguchi, who advised Oda in the late 1990s and who, in fact, directed the first anime adaptation -the film, from 1998, was left out of the official canon of the franchise and important changes were made at the plot level-, explains the teacher’s involvement in the new project: «My first memory with Oda goes through his vision. He was always clear that the series should transcend strictly japanese, aspire to be a universal story. In this film he has acted as producer, and his jealousy over the product, in fact, has been more focused on music», completes the director.
A) Yes, “One Piece Film: Red”, in addition to a big adventure, where Toei’s budget investment is really noticeable, it works almost like a musical. Uta’s songs, performed in the original Japanese by the very young star Ado, are interspersed with the series’ usual impressive fights. “The musical nature of the film complicated the usual process, but it was worth trying something new, something fresh for the franchise», says goodbye to a busy Taniguchi, now pending his own transmedia project (manga, anime and joint video game).