One Piece Anime Filler Arc Review - Uta Arc

One Piece anime, Episodes 1029-1030

So this is a bit of a different filler arc, huh? Filler arcs was where I first reviewed One Piece's anime and I ended up sticking with it and probably never letting go when the adaptation of Wano came along. And... and we do have a two-episode filler arc to build up to the epic Film: Red, something that's... interesting? The specific canonicity of Film: Red, or even the events that preceded it, are all stil up to debate (and at the time of me watching this, I haven't watched the movie yet) but... but I do like to think that the events of 1029 and 1030 are canon. It's the sort of thing that Shiki's existence, his interactions with Roger and his escape from Impel Down are all canon, but the events of Strong World (probably) isn't. 

And starting off with episode 1029, we get the beautifully animated showcase of the present-day Straw Hats while Luffy naps... and then we cut to young Luffy's time in the Goa Kingdom. This is particularly interesting, though, because this is actually the earliest we've seen Luffy. This is definitely before the Luffy/Ace/Sabo flashback-story, and before the events of chapter one for the simple reason that... we actually get to see Luffy meet Shanks for the first time. It's a cute meeting, with Shanks thinking that Luffy is a cute 'sheriff' and Luffy still under the impression that he has to protect his town from the evil invading pirates. It doesn't last wrong and we're straight into Luffy being buddies with Shanks and company in the next scene, but it's neat. 

Of course, though, the focus of this episode is still Uta's bonding with Luffy. From them bickering like little children do ("I'm seven, he's five!") ("His voice will cause all the IQ of the Red-Haired Pirates to drop!") to them just... hanging out with each other and Luffy making friends with Uta, it's pretty sweet to watch. We also get to see a fair bit of Uta and Shanks' interactions, as well as Uta's own monologues about how she wants the world to be her stage -- that she wants everyone to listen to her. It's not super in-your-face, but she is also very protective/possessive of Shanks. I do love that they're not going the 'distant, ignorant parent' route here because at least in 1029, Shanks' interaction with Uta is friendly. Perhaps like many dads he's not the best (there was a moment where Uta is obviously begging for attention), but at least he's trying and not entirely dismissive of Uta. 

Episode 1030 is a bit more interesting, though, because the onset of it seems to just be Luffy being how he was at the beginning of chapter one -- just some brat who keeps egging Shanks to get on his ship, and we get to see his young friendship with Uta bloom a little more. We get cameos from the Lord of the Coast, we get to hear Shanks actually talk a lot, we get Uta and Luffy both restating their respective dreams...

...and in a surprisingly heartbreaking scene around halfway through the episode, the Red-Haired Pirates return back to the town and everyone just forlornly walks down the pier without addressing Luffy, and then Shanks tells Luffy that Uta's gone off to 'be a singer'. But tears down Luffy's eyes, and him subsequently running away from Shanks and getting into trouble with some bandits... yeah, Luffy assumed the worst happened for sure in that scene. Some amazing voice-acting and lighting. Oh, and Benn Beckman does something cute, too, bringing Luffy back to the village after getting his ass beaten up by bandits. 

We get a bit of fanservice as we get to see everyone in East Blue as kids while news of the kingdom of Elegia having been burned down by Shanks spreads all across the world.

The end of the flashback sequence has Luffy maturing a bit and telling Shanks how he wants to be strong, and... and it's overall a very well-done insertion of the Uta story into the flashback segments of Luffy's chapter one story. Of course we do have the typical prologue to the movie itself as our pirates find the plot hook and sail off to Elegia, but the real meat of the story is definitely the flashback stuff. 

And... and as someone who recently went through all of the movies, some of them even having tie-in anime arcs, I've always found it rather disappointing that every single one of them except for Zephyr didn't actually have their backstory told on the movie itself. Shiki had the 'chapter zero' which was a bit of an excuse, but Gild Tesoro and Douglas Bullet both felt flat because the (actually pretty good on paper) backstories prepared for them had maybe 30 seconds to one minute of being addressed on the movie itself. So it's definitely nice that instead of focusing on some random Smelt-Smelt Fruit or Chain-Chain Fruit punk that has no relevance to the movie, we're actually sitting down and having Luffy's interactions with Uta, and her childhood dreams, be at the forefront of these episodes. 

Random Notes:

• There's music in these episodes. I don't know enough about music to care to even attempt to review these, but they're pleasant! Film: Red reportedly went all-out in terms of bringing in musical talent, and as a music glutton, I am all for it. 
• He has a very short scene, but that scene when Garp tells Luffy that he has to be the 'strongest marine' has some rather... interesting inflections and facial expressions. Is there a reason that Garp really wants Luffy to be a marine other than him being a marine himself?
• There's a completely pointless scene of Luffy fighting over fruit with a monkey in 1029, but it's cute?
• Also, episode 1029 establishes that Luffy can't swim well even before he ate a Devil Fruit, so it's a nice bit of 'well, nothing of value was really lost that day'. 
• Hands up, how many of us thought Beckman was going to do a burst of Conqueror's Haki when we zoom in to his eyes?