To attend Uta’s concert, which is a global star, the straw hat pirates set sail for the Elegia Island. After Uta has sung her first song (“New Genesis”), Luffy follows her on stage and discloses that he knows her because she is “Red-Haired” Shanks’ foster daughter. Shanks was in Luffy’s neighborhood 12 years ago where they met but upon his return from a journey without her one day, he stated that she opted to become a musician.
Though she has reached an unprecedented level of fame, Uta warmly greets Luffy and they are right back to their kid stuff, competing in the same games from when they were young. However, over time, her fans on the island seem like something is wrong with them, as trauma and bitterness seep out of her and we learn that she ate a Devil Fruit.
Luffy and his gang have to stop Uta without really hurting her among Celestial Dragons, Demon Kings, the return of legendary pirates on this island among other forces.
Goro Taniguchi directs a movie that is equally musical (in a distinct promotional aspect for Ado, composer Yasutaka Nakata & plethora of their collaborators), Shonen (with action having quite prevalence) and tribute to the franchise since it features some fan-favorite characters. All of these three aspects are clearly leading towards fanservice/satisfying the audience but also quite organically placed within narrative except probably too many songs which one could argue would be one of the best things about direction in this movie.
Additionally, it is worth noting that, despite the PG13 aesthetics of the franchise, Taniguchi has managed to embed some very piercing remarks about music industry and more specifically pop fandom through metaphor. Thus Uta eventually appears as a girl pushing her fans out of reality and turning them into zombies who feed upon anyone she sees as her enemy. In that perspective, their case resembles those of the numerous pop idols living in this world while the way they choose to live under drugs and worship respectively are just another mirror of the same thing.
Essentially, what one can see here is exactly how pop stars’ lives look like outside their songs as well as their fans.’ Her adoration (their devotion) led them through drugs and herself (her), thus bringing about a kind of separate world where only they dwell; such isolation has made them ignore real life which also evolves in the similar direction. The overall comment is that Uta’s attitude stems from an experience with abandonment by her foster father because she feels that its ultimate meaning cements everything even if at most partially explains why she does not want to “give up” on something false forever (Ezaki 9).
The movie is richly layered with more readily understood fairy tale-like remarks, which underscore the value of friendship and comradeship, the victory of good over evil, as well as how sometimes perception is wrong.
This is, however, a Shonen anime first. The character design by Masayuki Sato always remains between child-like (which are not actually detailed) and funky but wonderfully executed in movements of numerous characters that appear throughout. Therefore, its animation by Toei (Sato being also chief animation director) at some points can be mind-blowing due to constant motion on screen that is really stunning even when observed as “calm” and battle scenes. This aspect is linked to the regular music video scenes that might be a bit too many though are also some of the best moments in this film because they are part of the action too.
Consequently, it becomes a real visual feast when combined with motley and funky yet pretty bright coloring along with exceedingly intricate background that is part of the action almost all time and almost constantly moves. The movie ‘One Piece Film: Red’ is essentially a follow-up of perhaps the most successful anime franchise ever and a film that will please all enthusiasts of action amines, even those who have little knowledge about the initial ones.
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