One Piece Film: Z

i can not get enough of the straw hats
loyalty among pirates is beautiful
9/10 antagonist

i am not immune to hot sad old man propaganda…
it was cool to see a more marine centered story with some creative sea prism stone weapons, i also really liked seeing retired aokiji, his singing was nice
there were so many good outfits in this too, especially the pink ones :3

This is special, and it’s the reason why I’ve even started allowing myself to talk about One Piece in this capacity. From an animation point of view this builds on everything Strong World setup with the blend of 3D animation with 2D characters, and this time they knock it out of the park. This is a gorgeous film, it needs to be said plainly, but the design of not only familiar characters but the new antagonists were that of seasoned arcs, I appreciated the level of care that went into this, it made it feel like a real arc. Tonally this is a perfect encapsulation of the state of affairs between the marines and the new world and I practically begged for this to be canon by the time Z’s true depth was shown, the politics of One Piece are best shown like this, and the world felt like it was expanded upon in a decently familiar way, it didn’t feel like the delivery here struggled nor did the story feel rushed or under deliver. There are also a lot of great moments of action here, Z vs the admirals was incredible but that last fight between him and Luffy was peak. I was fully comfortable leaving it at that, a highly serviceable expansion of the One Piece world and story, but then the credits hit and NICKELBACK played. I’m obsessed. 4.5/5

PEAK

Peak ❤️