Review, One Piece: Stampede (2019)

The fourteenth and the latest One Piece animated film titled One Piece: Stampede was released to celebrate the 20 years of the series. It’s not just an anniversary celebration but also a statement of the manga and anime’s history, and the franchise’s legacy.

Stampede is totally a celebration of the franchise, why? Because the movie is simply made for the fans who accompany the anime and the manga for 20 years. Therefore i want to give a short notice, if you are not the fans of the franchise or following the series, this movie might be nothing for you.

The latest installment of the movie sees Monkey D. Luffy and his Straw Hat Pirates crew heading to a Pirates Expo, where a lot of pirates take part for a trssure hunt. In the expo also, Luffy meet a lot of people from his friends and old enemies. However, something happens behind the scene of the expo which may endanger all pirates.

The main point of this movie is the crossover of a lot of characters. Rather than just being a movie about the Straw Hats and a group of enemies, this is a movie about many characters from across the whole series, from the Worst Generation, the Shichibukai, the Marines, the Revolutionary Armies and many more.

One Piece Stampede — Monkey D. Luffy. pic: TOEI Animation

The movie brings in many beloved stars from across the series in a big action-packed thrill ride. In short, you can say that throw every popular character into one movie, that’s what One Piece: Stampede has done.

This time, Luffy and his crew should face Bullet, the villain of the movie who was once the crew of Gold D. Roger. Bullet is very well-developed, his character has a strong background and reasoning about what he does.

Bullet is really powerful and he emanates a sense of fear that is not that far from the likes of Kaido or Big Mom. The way he strikes other character makes him feel like a genuine threat and is sure to please those who enjoy strong powerful villains in the series. It takes a great effort to take him down. From marines, pirates, and revolutionary army have to cooperate to take him down.

They certainly strike a huge amount of damage over a series of attacks and have some cool combination moves, before Luffy give his final gomu-gomu attack. And what the series has done really well is every character has a time to shine.

Every character is constantly unleashing their flashy moves as it turns showing a series of each character’s attacks. But, dear anime fans, isn’t that what you want? To see your favourite characters executing their signature attacks and being in the limelight is what shounen anime is about. This is where the film shines. It knows its fans and it knows what the fans want.

Moreover, the movie has a fantastic visual direction paired with the jaw-dropping animation made this movie an absolutely stunning visual spectacle. Also, another thing to add is it is funny. Basically, One Piece should be humorous, right?

One Piece: Stampede is a total celebration to its beautiful legacy, and a romantic love letter to the fans that accompany the anime and manga’s long history. If you are not really following the series, the movie might be just an ordinary movie, but for the fans, it might be a reason to fall in love again with the series.

One Piece: Stampede is a beautiful rollercoaster from beginning to end that succesfully capitalizes the fans’ heart to get hyped about the series’ journey and also the future of One Piece. A little bit of spoiler, my favorite moment is the ending when you can see a glimpse of Hiken no Sabo and Hiken no Ace together.

Our Score (8/10)

Title : One Piece: Stampede
Production : TOEI Animation
Director : Takashi Otsuka
Screenplay : Takashi Otsuka, Atsuhiro Tomioka
Voice Actors : Mayumi Tanaka, Kazuya Nakai, Akemi Okamura, Hiroaki Hirata, Hiroshi Kamiya