TL;DR at bottom.
Yesterday I was at Best Buy and saw the Blu-ray on a shelf. I decided to buy it on a whim, as I'd heard of it before and remember it getting good reviews. I'm no stranger to anime, I've seen Lucky Star, KonoSuba, and two of the three My Hero Academia movies. In particular, I enjoyed the MHA movies because of their World of Ham tendencies, and everything there is so over-the-top. So I thought if this film is anything like MHA, I'm gonna end up loving this.
I watched it blind, with little knowledge of the One Piece franchise. All I know is that they're pirates and they ate some fruit that gave them powers (or something like that). Anyway, it had the same over-the-topness as MHA, so that I enjoyed. But I was really surprised at how emotional it was, especially with Uta's motivations and backstory. No spoilers, but there were some themes involving death and the afterlife. I almost cried at the ending, too.
Overall, great animation, great music, and unique story. I might actually watch the series lol. I heard it was the highest-grossing film in Japan in 2022, and I think that title is well-deserved.
Shame on me for not seeing this in theaters when I had the chance!
TL;DR: As a newcomer to One Piece, I enjoyed this film because of its heart, animation style, music, and similarities to MHA.
All spoilers must be tagged!
I've not watched the movie yet. But I've watched the anime series and also read the manga.
But some of my friends have watched it and they said it's nothing compared to the anime. Regardless, I plan on watching it in the future.
I would highly recommend you to watch the series. It has great laughs, awesome stories for every character and one of the best world building in fiction writing. If you cried at the end of this movie, then this series will take you on a ride of emotions.
If you plan on watching, I recommend you start with the One Pace project.
ALSO, VERY IMPORTANT: Next week the One Piece Live action series starts airing. If you plan on watching this anime in the future, stay away from anything related to one piece on the internet. Else you will be spoiled.
Might be a dumb question... But do i just start with the top row of videos and work my way dow
Oh wait... I see... The top row is the season collected as one movie and then each row below are seasons as episodes.