Shelf Life

Mushiboom

I think it's stipulated somewhere in the Shonen Jump contract that every story has to involve hope and friendship. Not just one, but both. No matter how much of an underdog you are, as long as you have determination, guts, and people who believe in you, you'll always, always win. Sorry, was that a spoiler alert? Even if you're killed a few dozen times, and have the moisture drained out of your body, and get pierced through the chest, you'll still be able to get by, because you have what it takes.

Needless to say, the One Piece movie does just that. It embraces love and friendship like a clingy girlfriend, and it's syrupy good fun for fans of the series. For non-fans, it's a little harder to get into, because the movie expects you to go in with prior knowledge of the series. You're not going to get any explanation of who the characters are, or how they're able to pull off their bizarre signature attacks. It can definitely function as a standalone film, but unless you're familiar with the characters, it may just come off as a madcap free-for-all that ends with love and peace.

Even with familiarity of the characters, though, the movie is a bit of a mess. It's a recap of the Alabaster arc, which probably works better if you've seen it. The story is simple enough—stop the rebel army and the royal army from wiping each other out, and get rid of the bad guy—but the pacing is anything but smooth. The battles are cobbled together, and because characters are perpetually healthy and still able to fight, they pop into random fights at will. It's also hard to ever feel bad for any of the characters, even when they're oozing blood, because every serious scene is lifted with cartoony comic relief. How am I supposed to care about the characters when they seem invincible?

In the end, the One Piece movie is really made for fans of the series. It's another chance to see Luffy and his crew whoop some butt, and learn about unity. At the same time, if you were never able to get into the series, then this will hold limited appeal to you. Remember guys, friendship solves everything.[TOP]

The scrappy youths in Freedom are blown away when they discover that the supposedly desolate Earth now has brilliant blue skies. They're even more surprised when they discover photographs of a green Earth, one of which has the message on the back, “The Earth is well.” Determined to find out for themselves, they do all sorts of rebellious things, and end up in an escape rocket back to Earth. Their destination? Florida. Personally, I don't know that I'd ever willingly risk my life just to live in a place like Florida, but I guess if my other option is a dingy moon colony, things may be different. Desperate times, desperate measures.

The one good thing is that this series has greatly improved since the first episode. While before it was a kind of boring and pointless, now the added element of suspense of what they might find on Earth really propels it forward. And, of course, there're still plenty of Nissin shout-outs. In the third episode, one of the characters holds up a giant box of Cup Noodles and says, “No one's going hungry!”

Thank goodness. As long as future food consists mostly of instant noodles, what's not to look forward to?

The only really frustrating thing about the one-episode-per-disc format is that you have to wait ages for the next installment. Just when things get exciting, the episode ends. By the time the next volume rolls around, you have to get back into it again. If they were releasing this stuff once a week, maybe that'd be fine, but with the current release schedule, it's hard to keep the momentum going.

Still, if you've got empty room on your rental queue, this isn't a bad show to get. Now that Takeru and his buddy are headed towards Earth, things are looking up. Revisiting a deserted Earth is at the core of so many science fiction stories that I'm definitely looking forward to how this particular scenario will play out.[TOP]