One Piece Film Z
Just got back from the movie. It was so fucking good. I enjoyed Strong World despite the somewhat weak script and the weakass overhyped villain mostly because of the animation and the art. But Z not only corrects all the problems I had with Strong World, but surpasses it in every single way. Great direction, amazing music, solid villain, outstanding cameos, and fight after fight after fight TO DIE FOR.
The difference between Z and Strong World is that while Strong World felt like an average filler-tier side story with movie-tier production values and a really great cinematic touch in the opening and ending set pieces, Z is a ONE PIECE MOVIE from start to end. There are no leisurely scenes of the crew getting to a village in a new island and just chilling, and there's a lot less of the usual slow build up to a single climatic fight. Instead the entire movie is high kinetic action and major dramatic beats bridged by scene after scene of stuff which any One Piece fan would love to see.
Instead of introducing completely new characters and framing a film around the main characters interacting with them, this movie creates a very compelling original character, and then frames the movie around both Luffy's crew and all the Marine characters reacting to this character as a major event. It makes it much more exciting, and the stakes feel great.
I enjoyed the story, was blown away by the art and animation, and the direction is fucking amazing. The action in particular is really exciting and thrilling to way. Everything feels so fast, and yet there's tons of impact. The ending was pretty surprising too. I didn't expect it, but it was done really well. If Oda is going to keep improving on each movie he produces, I can't fucking wait for the next one.
Animation - AA+
Music - A+
Direction - AAA+
Story - A+
Overall - One Piece Anime of the Forever
