One Piece lore talk?

One Piece Gold. A film that I have been curious about for a while. Why? Because it feels like one of the most unique One Piece films to come out. Especially since it once again shows how vast and wide the One Piece experience is or what the possibilities are. Especially since there is no clear idea when One Piece Gold takes place. But Luffy, Ussop, Nami, Zoro, Sanji, Franky, Brook, Robin, and Chopper are all there.  It just exists somehow and it works. The grand line is insane with desserts that absorb people’s energy and giant elephants that are big enough to have nations on top of them. It’s One Piece, a world that is full of possibilities and One Piece Gold indulges in all of that. 

Especially since One Piece Gold takes place in a ship that is in an actual country. The country of Gran Tesoro. A country that is made out of literal gold. Physically impossible? Yes. Does it matter? Oh hell no. What an interesting sort of setting. A literal casino on a ship. What isn’t so cool about that? Especially when the country itself is explored to see how it physically works. Or the leader Gild Tesoro’s own devil fruit power that is keeping him at the top of the show itself. Also, lots of good and charismatic showmanship towards it too. What a great foundation to build this film off of.

The Story of One Piece Gold

This film starts with the Straw Hats being their usual poor selves and finding themselves in front of this weird, gold casino ship. So of course they enter and want to get as much gold dust as they could. Which leads them to fighting against the Long Long Pirates who want to be on their way out. Especially since the Long Long Pirates are also poor and need to make money to leave. Watching and making this into a bigger show, Gild Tesoro and a woman named Carina see a new target in the straw hats. A new set of pirates for him to enslave into his service.

The beginning of this film is just unsettlingly fun. As in, the Straw hats engage in a lot of interesting gambling and activities that you just want to see them take part in. Baccarat, one of Gild’s subordinates, gives each of the Straw Hats luck to achieve everything they achieve. Then of course, Baccarat can take the luck away. Which is what happens. In almost one swipe, Luffy and the Straw hats go into debt and have 24 hrs to make the money back. Which involves some desperate looking plays with help from Carina who knows Nami. Two thief girls are at the back of this film until the shonen battle stuff at the end of the film.

Gild and the quest of gold

As I’ve stated before, the One Piece films seem to interrogate one thing about One Piece’s world. This one interrogates the riches of the world itself and how it affects people. Gild used to be a part of a poor family that never helped him pursue his dreams. He also had a relationship with a slave named Stella that he tried to save and it didn’t work out for him. So what could Gild do? Get as rich as possible to get in touch with the Noble’s of the One Piece’s World the Celestial Dragons. It all makes sense as he gets more and more overboard.

Which is a simple yet excellent backstory for someone in this film. Especially with his devil’s fruit power making it more obvious by him having control over everyone that has gold dust on them in the Gran Tesoro. Especially since that leads to a horrible class system we barely get hints on until the middle of the film. Nothing about this film is rushed or forced into it like Z and Gild is actually a character that fits into the realm of One Piece. This is what happens when people get their dream of being a performer and having an infinite amount of gold. Their goals get corrupted in some relatable ways too. Fun times all around for sure. 

Thief girls and a plan

I did not see any of the connecting bits to One Piece Gold, but I like the fact that Nami just has a movie (girl)friend. They have a lot of fun with each other. Especially when they steal each other’s wallets when they first run into each other. And that sort of dynamic with Carina and whether or not she wants to betray Gild and/or Nami. The conclusion of the movie is even more fun because of this fact too. Just a lot of creative tension throughout the film because the girls also come up with some sort of plan and it looks like it fails at first. Especially the part with Luffy and Frankie working together. Why? Because we know that Luffy and plans just don’t work together.

The concluding point where Nami’s plan actually does come into play and everything is saved from the gold dust is great. It shows how well connected the straw hats are to each other because they know what to expect. So many creative fun elements are put into display from the effect happening onto there too. It gives the chance for all the straw hats to show off their strengths from Nami’s planning to all the others helping in the heist that occurred to Luffy doing his shonen action stuff too. A perfect combination for everyone to have at least one shining moment throughout the film whether it’s for comedy or not. 

Gold is a gold mine

Visually, One Piece Film: Gold is a little monotonous with gold everywhere. But that is the point, right? Tesoro has so much gold and he wants to push it on as many people as he can. It works in theme with the film. I also really like the art design and details of not only our cast in their new outfits, but the other characters too. Some really cool scenery and characters throughout the film. Solid action scenes too. The only thing really bothering me are some of the cg moments in the film. They don’t really mesh well with everything else and that is the only flaw of it honestly.

At the point of watching Gold, this was only the third One Piece film that I’ve watched, but its become my favorite. I don’t know what it is, but yeah, One Piece shonen jump films are just way too good. They are just full of creative things that even if they don’t matter in the end, the experience is still good. Especially since this is a major improvement from Z. It does a lot of the same things, but in a much more efficient package that you will remember for a long time. So many cool moments and main villains with a different sort of charisma than you will see anywhere else. It’s kind of amazing. Highly recommended.