One Piece: Stampede Review (Spoiler Free)
I just got home from watching One Piece: Stampede in theaters with a ton of other One Piece fans here in New York. It was exhilarating.
I believe this movie was pitched and advertised as a celebration of the 20th anniversary of the anime, and watching it, it plays off that very strongly! There are tons and tons of cameos, to the point of possibly being overwhelming, but it’s something addressed tongue in cheek thanks to the premise and what the main point is for a movie to a long-running franchise: get fans pumped up and happy that they’ve been along for the ride.
Cameos are nothing new to One Piece. This series is known and loved for introducing swathes of characters and bringing them back whenever the story fancies them relevant, without feeling any bit forced or precocious about it–if anything, their inclusion usually has some sort of thematic, story-related relevance that add more layers to the unfolding world and story we’ve come to adore. This being a movie though, with the hook of a giant island hosting a “Pirate Festival,” it’s easy to throw in just about every named pirate we’ve met in the story so far just ’cause. And there’s nothing wrong with that. In fact, my theater was packed with lively fans (some a little too loud with inner thoughts/obvious observations), who cheered and clapped whenever fan favorites kept popping onto the screen without rhyme or reason but to add to cool moments. Probably the funniest, egregious ones were characters who showed up but didn’t even come with other named characters in their affiliated groups on-screen.
I say this because it’s something I noticed in the previous film penned by Oda, One Piece Film Gold. I enjoyed that movie a lot, but it had much more glaring flaws than Strong World or Film Z to me. Mainly, they had to do with popular characters showing up but having nothing to do with the plot, like Sabo or Rob Lucci, even though they were heavily publicized as relevant because of their factions’ brief conflict hinted at the end of the Dressrosa arc. Stampede avoids some of those pitfalls by at least giving more than just a single action scene or one-liner to basically all of the characters who show up here.
Having a lively crowd here is what helped improve my experience in that sense. When named characters show up and have their own cool “shout-out” scene where they can stand out and show off powers, having people audibly gasp, cheer, or even sit in silence at serious scenes, it adds a level of immersion that gets me very excited, shocked, or trepidatious, on a more enhanced level. It made the fanservice easier to accept and felt a lot closer to that sense of wanting to celebrate the characters and world of One Piece, on a scale that was much grander, obvious, and somewhat less shallow or more genuine.
One of the main antagonists makes it a big point to talk about his dream, which is getting people to express their emotions, but in a very riled-up, frenzied sort of way. The namedrop of the title is pretty amusing. The way that this character’s dream ties directly to the ambition of his co-conspirator is thematically intriguing. And if we take the events of the movie itself and how they play out, it’s possible to see a connection to creators and how they may want their creations to be consumed. I wasn’t thinking about this in the theater, but once I got out, I got a kick from comparing what that character wanted, and what the folks who worked to bring this movie to fruition probably intended for us as an experience at the theater.
Besides the experience, something I enjoyed plenty was seeing how many of these fan-favorite characters got to act around each other in an environment that forces them to interact–especially some who have never met face to face until that moment. There are also lots of stand-out moments for side characters, Strawhats, and even original characters introduced here in the film. I like the concept of Chekhov’s gun, or showing the audience a person, item, or concept, in a story that could be innocuous but eventually does have ramifications down the line. This movie had plenty of bookends introduced and brought back with a “bang,” which is something that I appreciated.
I think the only real disappointing aspect I personally encountered while watching the film was the use of CG for dust particles and a sort of cybernetic, mechanical something that occurs at some point. I understand why it was used. There is a sense of scale, wonder, and fear that comes with just how the medium was able to convey the movement and sheer size of the object. I think it would have been less jarring with maybe different color work for the backgrounds, although the color design for those scenes, in terms of characters, objects, and shading on them was perfectly fine. It’s also something I noticed in plenty of big-budget movies for recent Shonen Jump properties, including the previous Film Gold and even My Hero Academia: Two Heroes. Sometimes, you just need CG because the Big Baddie has a huge, ginormous, amorphous but threateningly solid form fit for a faux-Kaiju fight. At least Boruto: Naruto the Movie had the plus of making part of it take place on the moon.
The fights and action scenes themselves were spectacular. Of course, there were some skirmishes similar to the manga, where a burst of hype comes up at the prospect of two characters clashing even though there’s no promise of them fighting for an extended period. There were only one or two scenes like that, but the skirmishes themselves were animated sublimely, and the crowd got their doctor’s prescribed dosage of adrenaline. In particular, Zoro and Sanji fans will have some good stuff to look forward to. Other Strawhats had at least one or two great moments, though not all of them get one-on-one fights. I was particularly impressed by how this film handled Usopp, however. It was a standout performance that got me extremely emotional to the point of tears welling up. The only other scene that came close to getting that kind of reaction out of me was toward the end, with one of Chekhov’s guns finally firing off a certain devil fruit ability.
Other characters I enjoyed seeing, and was glad they had ample screentime: Buggy, Smoker, Hancock, and one particular cameo towards the rising action from someone who showed up at the of Gold who didn’t do anything in that movie. Buggy was such a scene-stealer! Shigeru Chiba will forever hold my heart in his hands as long as his raspy, squealing, exasperated voice graces my ears. The only character I kinda guffawed at was seeing Law, because he (naturally) kicks off the main story to include the Strawhats but his own crew, have already escaped and make no kind of appearance whatsoever in the film. It’s kind of (actually very) funny in an insidious way that I don’t know if Law fans care about or not. Seeing your presumably favorite side-turned-main character have a major role but the entirety of his own beloved crew shoved away to irrelevancy in one of the most bombastic, frenetic tributes to One Piece as it was, came to be today, and will continue to be–feels like a sad joke.
The score had plenty of classic One Piece tracks, like Overtaken. I found myself really moved emotionally by some of the orchestral renditions of We Are! and even its use as an insert song. When it comes to emotion, there are some really neat thematic threads that spoke to me as a fan of One Piece. Particularly ideas like Luffy being someone who got to where he is thanks to his friends; how his charisma is magnetic, and inspires people of all fields; though, most importantly, how acknowledgment that, in Luffy’s words, “[You] are never alone at sea!” It rang a tiny bit hollow when juxtaposed to Luffy’s primary threat in the movie, due to his backstory being more “simple and effective” than some elaborate tearjerker. But the core idea is very powerful, and helps bring back some really strong characterization for the Strawhats, and one Strawhat who was able to bare themselves in an emotionally vulnerable state, while Luffy accepts and defends them with all his being. It’s such a great, reaffirming moment that reinstates just how cherished and beloved the Strawhats all are by him, which is why they can also love him back just as vehemently.
If you missed out on tickets, and are a One Piece fan, I would say it’s worth hunting down some extra showings if there are any near you. Or at least rent it/get the BD whenever Funimation can get to it. I almost want to watch this again dubbed but I don’t know if I can afford to go to the theater like that. My first impression of this movie is 5 Kong Guns out of 5.
