One Piece Movie 01

If I had to pick a One Piece movie from the first 5 to checkout it would be this one. It is so interesting to see what the writers thought would matter or how the world reacts to stuff in this movie since it was made while they were still in the East Blue (pre-Sanji even). The core characters feel very nostalgic and maybe even a little off since there was so little material to base off of yet.

The main plot in itself is a "we have Gold Roger at home" thing. They make a new legendary pirate up and the straw hats try to ... find his treasure. Its honestly not bad since its only 50 minutes and not the standard 90 minute movies. This shorter time does mean that the main villains are just written terribly and have 5 minutes of screen time or less.

I really cant even say much more since it doesn't have much content in itself. If you love One Piece and are unsure of the movies, I would say to at least check this one out from the first 5 to see how weird it feels.

I've only recently started One Piece and decided to watch all the movies along with the anime-- as best to the place where they fit in as I can.

This first one was okay. Like, there was nothing about it that was really bad... But there was nothing impressive about it either. I wouldn't say the whole "personal connections/ambitions/whatever else is more valuable than material things" lesson was a bad moral to go with, necessarily. Interesting choice for an anime centered around pirates. But even that isn't super worth analyzing, because 20 episodes is still deep enough in for me to know by now that ... Luffy isn't your average pirate.

I guess my point is, I went through all the Naruto movies as well, and there were certainly some rough patches there. But sometimes, the rest of the movie being extra fun or lighthearted can make up for a weak story, and I'm not sure I'd even describe this one as that sort of standalone anime movie. It probably would have been better off if it was just shortened into a filler episode. I kind of would have expected the very first movie to have some weight behind it, but this really didn't. Makes it a little easier to understand why I had to go wading through pirate sites to even find a place to watch it. (I couldn't believe something One Piece related had never been officially licensed. Like, if One Piece hasn't been successful enough to get the whole sweep, what is?!)

You know what? There was one moment that sticks out in a positive way. I really liked seeing the final fight, where Luffy showcases every single one of his Gum-Gum moves that the anime's shown so far. He's got a bit more fighting versatility than I give him credit for sometimes. So that was neat.

This is a very typical Straw Hat Pirate adventure, which makes it pretty boring.

Movie 1 is definitely the first One Piece movie. It doesn’t do anything interesting, and besides its cell animation novelty, it’s really not worth your time.

The animation is probably its most interesting quality. It’s nice to see the Strawhats in cells, but I can’t say much more than that. The colors are okay. The OST is fine, it’s the same as the main show’s. There’s barely any interesting fight chore, save for the main Luffy Fights the Main Bad Guy fight. Poor Zoro barely gets a few sword swings in. Character ... design is definitely One Piece. One of the characters, Golass, is an extremely racist depiction of a North American indigenous person, in both design and personality.

This movie just feels like two episodes of filler smushed together. The main arc is extremely One Piece--follow your dreams, no matter what they are. And that’s fine I guess, but I already get that from the main show. The villains are extremely one-note, as are the grandfather and grandson the Straw Hats meet on this island.

The Strawhats themselves are meh. They mostly just do the same thing that they always do, and while they’re still charming and funny here, the plot they’re given to play with is so bare bones that none of them really shine--save Usopp, whose interactions with the villains I enjoyed. He didn’t save the movie by any means, but I laughed at his bits.

Unlike the other One Piece non-canon material I’ve seen, I just can’t see much value in movie 1. It’s just there. It exists. Watch it if you want. I guess Gill Bastar cameos?