One Piece Movie 10 – Strong World – Review
I definitely had the wrong expectations going into this movie. I remember watching the initial trailer and seeing ships falling from the sky, Navy HQ going into chaos and a heavy orchestral score in the background for suspense. I also can’t forget the bad-ass title, Strong World, to round-up the awesomeness factor this trailer was producing for this movie. After the string of One Piece remake movies during the last couple of years, I was excited and eager for an original One Piece movie once again.
So with all the above I was expecting major battles with Warlords, Whitebeard Pirates, the Straw Hats, and just strong dudes in general … it is called Strong World after all. As with all trailers, they do a good job in hiding the real story, for better or for worse.
Everything in the trailer happened within the first five minutes of the movie, so all my expectations and wishes were quickly thrown out the window and I was left in a lost state of mind figuring out where this movie was heading. I would have to sit through and hope all turned out well.
Nami is definitely the star of the movie. Next to the central plot line of Shiki’s main ambition regarding East Blue and the crazy buffed animals brewing about on his floating islands, Nami is the central focus of the story. I loved her character in the movie as she is at the same level as she was during the Arlong Arc in terms of character maturity. It was during the Arlong Arc I really came to love One Piece because of Nami’s performance and she is as good here as she was back then. Since Nami takes center stage though, the other Straw Hats take a back seat, most noticeably Franky and Robin to my dismay. Having Nami in a bikini in high quality for a good part of the movie is never a bad thing though, so all is well.
Biri the huge duck bird of electrical death was surprisingly a good addition to the movie. Sure he can’t talk, but he provides some pretty memorable moments and sure as hell spices up the very, very short aerial fight scene with Luffy and him against Shiki.
Shiki the Golden Lion was okay as the main villain as I suppose the steering wheel lodged into his head limited his range and ability to become interesting as a villain. Not to mention the steering wheel has caused him to become absent-minded and break into dance now and then. His dance and random antics with his lackeys Indigo and Scarlet I really couldn’t care for and neither did Nami, producing wasted time to provide shoddy comedy to the movie. Shiki is not memorable in any sense, he just happens to be a legendary pirate in name. He does indeed put a good hurting on the Straw Hats though, but character-wise he is substandard, below those of the ordinary villains in the TV series in their respective arcs.
The fight scenes are nowhere near as epic as those in the TV series; mainly because Shiki’s ability isn’t as interesting as it could have been despite what he’s able to do with it. I was not impressed with the majority of his tricks. The aerial combat and Luffy’s final finishing move were pretty awesome though.
So, how does Strong World stack up to the entire One Piece movie catalog? My personal favorite One Piece movie still has to be Movie 6: Baron Omatsuri and the Secret Island for its gritty and dark undertones and just plain refreshing originality in a One Piece movie. Strong World definitely comes right after in second place. I still wish it was what I hoped it would have been, the title Strong World meaning something completely different from what I had initially thought. What I did get though still stands on its own quite well, Nami being a central focus and giving a good performance one of its strongest qualities.
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Tags: Luffy, Nami, Shiki the Golden Lion
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