Movie Review: One Piece Film Z

One Piece Film: Z [2012]

I meant to review this One Piece movie a while back. Well, okay, a couple of years back, and I never got to doing it... and I really regret never actually getting to it. You see, after Strong World, Film: Z was the next One Piece feature that mangaka Eiichiro Oda is actually involved in writing and designing. Most previous One Piece features were just fancier retellings of old arcs. So I got the opportunity to rewatch it in the English dub since it's in the pile of anime movies, and I enjoyed it once more.

And Film Z was honestly kinda weird. Unlike Strong World or the more recent Film Gold, it didn't fit neatly within established canon as a 'filler' part, yet Film Z's storyline is perhaps the coolest and best-realized among any One Piece movies... a rarity in any anime movie full stop. Indeed, the specific characters being used for this movie makes it impossible to fit it anywhere within the One Piece timeline.

You see, most anime movies that I've seen are tie-ins to things like Pokemon, Naruto or Bleach, and they all tend to be one-shot movies that tell a simple story of establishing a new badass villain, yet also coming up with a way for our heroes to beat it by the end of the hour. Rarely do any sort of proper characterization is done, and villains tend to be cookie-cutter with a single character quirk or two.

And Film Z's storyline kind of blew me away in a good way. See, Film Z is a storyline rooted in its villain. Former Admiral Zephyr, now calling himself "Z" (pronounced "zed/zetto" instead of "zee"), is a huge powerhouse with a gigantic cannon for an arm, and leads an army of... Neo-Marines. Already in his first appearance he clashes with Admiral Kizaru, one of the most established badasses in the One Piece universe, and their relationship was of former comrades -- nay, Z actually trained Kizaru in the past. And while fighting over the movie's plot device, the Dyna Stones, the two clash not just in fancy powers, but also in ideologies. And here, it really feels a lot more significant compared to Shiki's "I was Gol D. Roger's rival, y'know?" attempt at hyping up his 'cool' factor.

And Film Z takes a pretty melancholic tone overall. Sure, we have the obligatory Straw Hat Pirates jolly happy opening scene, and Z's minions Ain (a lady with the devil fruit power of de-aging people, which she does to Nami) and Binz (a flamboyant ninja dancing around shouting mosa-mosa to cause plants to grow) are your typical anime movie quirky miniboss squad... but it doesn't detract from Z's story. Z's backstory is delivered to both the audience and the Straw Hats gradually, and while it's not something that we can root for, it's definitely something you totally buy. Both his goals and the relationship he has to the marines is definitely very well done, and honestly the movie is all about Z's story, with the Straw Hats just ending up kind of along for the ride after a faithful encounter with Z and his Neo-Marines

If anything else, it's everyone's favourite wild card, Aokiji, who ends up being the biggest developed protagonist. Z was the mentor of many marines, but he ends up going wild. The first we saw him was him fighting against Marines, stealing the powerful weapon of Dyna Stones from them. The second time we saw Z, it was him enforcing his "all pirates must die!" credo upon the Straw Hats, who had rescued him from drowning. Z's plan is a typical apocalypse scenario, but it's far less grandiose than most -- destroying the oceans of the New World to prevent piracy.

The pacing is excellent, the music is particularly amazing, there's a neat balance between melancholic storytelling and your requisite comedic beats. Best of all, the movie doesn't fall into the trap of overhyping its main villain (Broly anyone?). Z is a threat, but he not just a ridiculously strong monster dude. We get a lot of cameos from Marine figures like Kizaru, Akainu, Sengoku and Garp, but none of these felt shoehorned in, and if anything helps to add to the sense that Z is invested in the background of the Marines. Aokiji meets up with the Straw Hats in some hot springs (debuting the fact that he is missing a couple of limbs several years before he actually shows up post-timeskip) and delivers a philosophical talk about dreams, and how everyone fighting for their own dreams will lead to conflict -- Z wants to destroy the pirates' dreams, and vice versa.

Z is painted as a well-meaning extremist, and all the scenes of the Marines fighting against him are punctuated with manly tears as they go up against someone who was once a member of them, someone who was once the brightest of them all. The scenes where Z fights against the Straw Hats are punctuated as a conviction-vs-conviction battle, and we learn of his backstory (essentially a Batman/Punisher-esque story of having his family and unit killed by pirates... and his rival was admitted to the Shichibukai to boot), yet while people can sympathize with Z, he does end up with a plan that will cause a fuckton of collateral damage.

There is a rough-ish patch as the Straw Hats befriend some random ugly-faced villagers and convince their impressionable kid to become a pirate, but that's honestly not enough to really ruin the movie in my eyes. Even a couple of years after the fact, Film Z still remains one of the best and most solid stories in anime movies. I'm not going to talk too much about this movie, but the interactions that Z has with Luffy and Aokiji are all amazingly well-done, and the combination of the story and the absolutely on-point soundtrack makes this easily one of the most hauntingly beautiful anime movies... and that's not something I think I will ever say about an action shonen spin-off.