The long Wano Country arc has wrapped up, and the Egghead arc—billed as the final saga—has finally begun.
A live-action drama has also launched on Netflix, and even though the anime is currently in the middle of its run, there's even a project underway to remake the anime as a new series from the very beginning at present-day quality.
The comics have surpassed 100 volumes, the TV anime has aired over 1,000 episodes, and as of volume 98, cumulative domestic print circulation of the collected volumes hit a staggering 400 million copies—yet One Piece still shows no sign of its climax.
This time, I'm featuring 'ONE PIECE FILM RED,' which screened in 2022, not long after the country emerged from COVID.
'FILM RED' recorded 20.33 billion yen, the highest box office in the entire theatrical-film series, and 'New Genesis' (sung by Uta / Ado) took the No. 1 spot on Apple Music's daily chart of the world's most-played songs, 'Top 100: Global.' It was the first time in history that a Japanese song claimed No. 1 on that chart—an unprecedented feat.
'FILM RED' is the 15th One Piece theatrical film and the fourth installment in the 'FILM' series supervised by original author Eiichiro Oda. The staff is absurdly star-studded. The vocals (the singing parts) for the film's main guest character, the heroine 'Uta,' whom I touched on a moment ago, are by Ado, who shot to fame with 'Usseewa.' And directing is the hugely popular anime director Goro Taniguchi, renowned for entertainment works like 'Code Geass' and 's-CRY-ed.' The score is usually by Kohei Tanaka, but this time it's Yasutaka Nakata of Perfume—the man who made huge hits of Kyary Pamyu Pamyu. (Strictly speaking, he also handled the music for FILM GOLD.)
The synopsis: On the musical island 'Elegia,' a single singer's live concert is about to take place. The singer's name is Uta. She has always shared her songs while concealing her identity, but her extraordinary voice has been hailed as 'from another dimension' and has captivated people all over the world. Because Uta is finally appearing in public to perform live, a massive crowd of fans has gathered at the Elegia concert venue—including the Straw Hat crew. And at last, Uta appears on stage, and the concert begins.
After the first song ends, Luffy steps down onto the stage, rushes over to Uta, and calls out to her warmly. Luffy and Uta were childhood friends who spent time together in Foosha Village in their youth. Furthermore, when Luffy mentions that Uta is Shanks's daughter, the whole venue is thrown into an uproar. Then pirates targeting Uta barge in, but as Uta sings her second song, she wields a mysterious power and binds the pirates in the blink of an eye. Afterward, Uta welcomes Luffy and his crew and entertains them with her strange power.
At this point, Uta's grand 'plan' to make everyone in the world happy had already begun. And around the same time, the World Government and the Navy had begun to view Uta's power as dangerous and to move toward subjugating her. (Partially excerpted from Wikipedia.)
Now, let me introduce the score that colors the world of this story.
First is 'Chicken Race,' which plays in the scene where Luffy reunites with Uta and they replay the chicken race they often used to do.
Uta's father, who appears amid an overwhelmingly hopeless situation: 'That Man, Shanks.'
Now, let's part ways while watching the trailer for ONE PIECE FILM RED.
Quoted from the official site https://x.com/intent/follow?screen_name=OP_FILMRED
