news culture One Piece Red: An animated film intended primarily for fans?
One Piece, the river saga imagined by Eiichiro Oda, continues its epic on paper, on the small screen, but also in dark rooms with the release of a new animated film. One Piece: Red arrives in cinemas on August 10, 2022 and promises its share of revelations during a concert led by a new character… Uta.
Summary
- One Piece Film: Red in a nutshell
- A candy for the fans
One Piece Film: Red in a nutshell
There’s no need to introduce One Piece, but for those few latecomers, here’s some essential information about one of the world’s most popular manga. One Piece is originally a shonen scripted and illustrated by Eiichiro Oda. Pre-published in Weekly Shōnen Jump from July 1997, the manga is still in progress with no less than 102 volumes for a total of 1054 chapters (end of July 2022). One Piece depicts a universe of piracy and narrates the adventures of Monkey D. Luffy, a young rubber man since he accidentally swallowed a devil fruit, and who aspires to become the King of the Pirates.
Faced with the success of the paper work, it was adapted into an animated series by Toei Animation in October 1999 and currently has no less than 1026 episodes, making it one of the longest anime ever broadcast on Japanese television. Alongside the series, 14 films were made between 2000 and 2019. One Piece Film: Red, by its official title, is therefore the 15th feature film of the franchise and dwells on the character of Uta, the most famous singer in the world. For the first time in her young career, the famous diva with prestigious family ties within piracy will perform live during an exceptional concert, but nothing will happen as planned.
A candy for the fans
Previous One Piece movies have always been optional, and ultimately had little, if any, impact on the franchise’s universe. One Piece: Red continues on this seaway. None of the much-promised revelations are essential to understanding the plot. None of the events depicted really upsets the universe of Eiichiro Oda. According to the Japanese author, the elements presented are indeed “canons” and integrate the lore of the saga. The few pieces of information revealed during the 115 minutes will above all speak to fans who will discover certain facets of emblematic characters… including Shanks dit Le Roux, no more and no less.
One Piece: Red is aimed primarily at fans, although this film can be seen by a wider audience, simply initiated into the universe of Eiichiro Oda without knowing all the corners of it. Personally, I only read the first 30 volumes and saw One Piece: Stampede (2019), and I had the majority of the keys to understanding the plot and the relationships between the characters. However, a totally neophyte audience could quickly find themselves floating offshore without an anchor point close at hand to cling to.
The fact remains that this new feature film directed by Gorō Taniguchi and produced by Toei Animation studios is a sour candy intended for unconditional fans of the license. Better still, One Piece: Red takes risks and fully assumes to place the character of Uta at the heart of the story, even if it means putting Luffy in the background. For 115 minutes, the saga becomes a singing and dancing fresco, a musical adventure rich in inventive and catchy clips carried by an energetic virtual diva determined to change the world to the sweet sound of her voice.
For the rest, One Piece: Red plays the fan service card totally assumed with its countless characters, often secondary in the plot, and its improbable unions between the forces of the Navy and the crews of the Emperors of piracy. The presence of Shanks Le Roux alone justifies making the crossing, and the same goes for the debauchery of means granted in order to concretize the long-awaited “meeting” between the latter and Luffy. Visually speaking, the Toei film ensures the spectacle and dazzles us during ever more epic and celestial fights. With Red, the wind of a new era is blowing on One Piece.
