In general, most shonen spinoff movies are either recap movies of the previous arc or are rather unremarkable, but occasionally entertaining, side stories that cannot surpass the original. That doesn’t make them bad movies, but they are not such ravishing movies. One Piece: Film Z is one of those rare exceptions.
The account of Film Z is quite simple: a rogue Z, who is a former Marine Admiral, robs the Marines of a weapon called the Dyna Stones to seek revenge against the new world. His justification is that it would also eliminate the One Piece, which most pirates exist for, although it would harm the innocent people who reside in the New World. The Straw Hats get drawn into this conflict by coming across Z’s unconscious body in the ocean after a fight and taking him to safety. Z is hospitable but turns hostile and attacks them after realising that they are pirates. The rest of his crew comes in and beats them easily. One individual used a Devil Fruit ability to de-age the faces of Nami, Chopper, Robin and Brook by 12 years (to no effect for Brook) almost successfully but not before they escaped. Their former crew members were transformed into children and the Straw Hats embarked on a quest to locate Z and return their juvenile crew members.
The core idea isn’t anything too special. As a general rule of thumb there is nothing extraordinary from a shonen movie perspective about a baddie who tries to take a McGuffin and do some baddie stuff. However, with respect of how well Film Z which is a shonen film is made that is what is unique about it . It does have some repetetive language during exposition and the plot does slackens around the middle but for the most part it does not get lost in the unnecessary particulars and keeps forward the motion. Luffy himself is also kind of different. Usually among the typical glorious heroes, Luffy does not have the inclination of rescuing the world or anything of that sort, he just aims at returning his friends back to normal and taking his revenge on Z for defeating him earlier in their fight., which keeps things more grounded and makes him more fun to watch than other heroes. So this goes out to the other Straw Hats too. The nurseries begin with all the straw hats aboard the inch the Thousand Sunny having fun and exchanging angry words. This has always been one of the most enjoyable features of One Piece. The panoply of antipodes of personalities works quite well together and therefore the crew in its haul is very entertaining to watch.
As time goes by, the movie gets more and more sinister, but it retains a modicum of humour and fun. Even the most hysterical moments including face-offs have more laughable gags, for example Luffy carrying a big piece of meat behind his back as a snack and Sanji’s ability called “Sexy Fire”.
The most significant part of the movie is Z himself since Z is always part of the Straw Hats. Z’s intense hatred for pirates has nothing to do with a sense of justice as it is personal in nature. Whatever the reasons are, pirates took nearly everything away from him, and murder and violence itself seems reasonable in some extent. That does not justify Z’s approach, nevertheless it makes things a bit more bearable. The picture even spares us the troubles of constructing Z as an unidimentional villain by atleast offering us some scheme of his former career in the Marines. It also helps to explain the reason why so many people in the Marines did respect him while he was still a Marine. In contrast, his subordinates Ain and Binz lack any vividness apart from their slavish devotion towards Z and are more or less present in the film in order to provide Zoro and Sanji with some fighters.
The film also makes some connections to Z and Luffy as well. Their fight styles are diverse anyway and so are their lifestyles. Neither one or the other is not afraid to chase crazy dreams and pillage even their enemies’ dreams which put obstacles on the way. However, in the case of Z, it is understood that he appreciates this consciously or subconsciously and that one day he will also have to answer for his actions. Almost at the end of the movie, the viewer is even keen on the character development of Z.
Leave it to One Piece to include a lot of nice battles as well. Usopp engaged in a Davy Back Fight and managed to take down a bunch of enemies to defend and impress his buddies. Since Z, Sanji and Luffy are the main brawlers, they are the only ones dueling other characters. However, every member of the Straw Hat Pirates gets at least some action and displays their post-timeskip skills and these are all great. The choreography in the fight sequences is top notch with copious usage of computerized camera work in fighting to maintain the high adrenaline pace of the combats. The conflict is very interesting with the last encounter spanning the two fighters hurling various attacks at each other with barely any of them landing through Haki enhancement combat which is even more vicious than any of the punches that could have been landed.
The animation in Film Z is what fans hope the other One Piece will be like. Bright colors, characters always on model and excellent action. The majority of the action scenes contain some fair share of CGI work, but primarily as background and enhancement of the 2D animation rather than as a substitute to it. Shots from afar sometimes tend to lack some clear detail, but it is inconsequential. What is also commendable is the level of detail. Most of the background Marines are actually minor characters who have appeared within the main series at various points (mostly Enies lobby and marineford). It is an insignificant detail, but I like the fact that those characters are known from the main one. The music is for the most part composed of new songs, featured in the film, and though it is not out of context within the series, it is pretty good. The most spectacular song and probably the best song in the anime are the Open Ocean Guide, which is simple the characters sing a couple times in the movie. Whenever the song is played, it gives a feeling of upper nobility that it the song is worth listening to even devoid of the film. One more example that dubbed version of a song can far surpass the original Japanese version in quality.
The quality of the Film Z’s dub is virtually the same as the quality associated with the dub of the main series: it is decent most of the time, great when it has to be. There are some instances that the Japanese version is better, but the dub is so good that this alternative and the original are both valid. Jeremy Schwartz does a fine job performing Z, especially considering that he hasn’t done much anime before anyhow.
In a nutshell, One Piece Film Z is as the shonen movies are supposed to be. It constructs a standalone narrative but retains the overall standard setting of the franchise. Z is awesome and the movie has achieved a great mix of action, comedy and character growth similar to the anime series. This is not to say that this has reached the heights of the best One Piece, but it is still quite a good film.
Watch One Piece Film Z on Kisscartoon
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