By: Matthew Lee
But the film is
basically telling the exact same story both the numerous print volumes and
several hundred episodes of the television series have told countless times
already, and for those growing a little tired of shonen (think 'boy's own')
manga and its refusal to do anything different the movie could well come over
as frustratingly hollow.
Strong World sees yet another new villain pop up to plague Oda's
nautical universe, the villainous captain Shiki (Naoto Takenaka hamming it up
in his guest voice role), sworn to vengeance against the peaceful nations of
the World Government for the loss of his legs. When Shiki runs into the
rubber-limbed hero Monkey D. Luffy and his ship the Thousand Sunny, he takes a
shine to Luffy's curvaceous navigator, Nami. Overcoming our heroes, Shiki
kidnaps Nami in the hope she'll reciprocate his feelings, and dumps the rest of
the crew on a floating archipelago crawling with genetically enhanced fauna to
keep them out of the way of his master plan.
It's a great start,
even for the jaded viewer. Cutting straight from Shiki's initial demonstration
of his power to the crew of the Sunny fighting for survival against
successively weirder members of the island menagerie means Oda's rock-solid
design work and Toei's limber, sweeping animation (lots of curves and
stretching) all but leaps off the screen. As ever, when the protagonist
frequently demands to know what the hell is going on it's clear Oda isn't
taking the story too seriously.
Indeed Strong World plays shonen manga's
traditional air of self-mockery to the hilt, with every new shiny object,
hideous monster or display of deadpan machismo in the face of terrible pain
greeted with double-takes and shrill yelling all round. No matter how much of
the franchise you've sat through there's still something decidedly entertaining
about this - the cast's wide-eyed awe (and subsequent wide-eyed panic) feels
perpetually childlike rather than childish. Even several years down the line
Oda still manages to imbue even the simplest story with some sense that
anything could happen.
The problem is, as the
film rolls on you start to realise nothing will: at least nothing meaningful.Strong World hits every single plot
beat in the shonen rulebook with frustrating predictability. The villain seems
practically unstoppable, even though we've seen the protagonist barrel through
every obstacle he's ever faced up until this point. The women on the team
rarely get to contribute anything beyond anguished introspection and possibly
dressing up in skimpy outfits for the audience's gratification.
At some point, the
villain reveals himself to be even more powerful than had previously been
suggested and beats the good guys to within an inch of their lives, whereupon
they find the werewithal to defeat him pretty much through the spirit of
friendship, male bonding and sheer force of will. And on, and on, none of it
anything that hasn't been done to death years ago. No matter how accomplished
the production values are, how inventive the art design or how good-hearted the
film is on the whole if you've seen more than a handful of the big commercial
names in the Japanese animation industry you've seen Strong
World already.
There's plenty to
enjoy, if you can turn your critical faculties off - few mainstream shows have
the same matinee charm, where it's frequently a guilty pleasure just to see
what the monster or villain of the week is. After ten films, Oda and director
Munehisa Sakai have a solid understanding of how to scale that up to
widescreen, and the key set pieces are a treat for anyone's inner child. The One Piece cast are a good deal more
appealing than their peers, too - after so long writing them Oda rarely misses
a beat with their trademark quirks and tics, simplistic or otherwise, and
there's an odd restraint to them even when the action's at its loudest.
But if you scratch the
surface, as it were, there's simply nothing there. Strong
World is a fun little ride, while it lasts, and for some it will
undoubtedly be just what they're looking for. Yet artistic flair and
professionalism can't make up for a complete lack of depth, any lasting
continuity or any real emotion beyond a juvenile yelp of glee. Ten films in and One Piece might as well be back at the
start, and as such it only rates a cautious recommendation.
