ONE PIECE FAN LETTER

DESCRIPTION

CAST

NOVEL ActionONE PIECE novel Mugiwara Stories
ANIME ActionONE PIECE

REVIEWS

• 

  anemoiaanime

  100/100
  A love letter to Oda's creation

  When I knew a few weeks ago that Megumi Ishitani (for those who don't know, ep.director for ep1015) was going to direct a One Piece special focused on original characters I was really, really excited, expecting it to be an amazing story. Then, today, One Piece Fan Letter dropped and it delivered everything that I could've expected from it.

  

  In Fan Letter, Ishitani takes the solid foundations that Oda's been building over the ages and gives it a twist, letting us watch the events that takes place in the main story from the perspective of the average human from the One Piece world and by doing so, we get to see how some of the Strawhats actions have possitevely affected all those people around the world. This approach feels specially hearthwarming and relatable as we can feel this new characters are, to some degree, a representation of us, One Piece readers/watchers into the story itself, and by doing so, calling this Fan Letter couldn't fit it better.

  

  And, it's not only that we can see ourselves into this special, but also that we can tell how Ishitani's love for One Piece shines in her direction of the episode, she's also a fan and it tells. Every second of the special feels like she's telling us "I'm the same as you, a One Piece fan, and since I'm so too, I'll thank this story that's moved our lifes so much in your regard". She embraces this vivid world with an incredibly fluid direction, intertwining each one of these short stories slowly just so in the end they're all just the story of this little girl who just wanted to tell Nami how big of a fan of hers she was.

  

  This is an incredibly touching special for all of us that's been travelling along Luffy and the crew over the ages, and as one of those I couldn't be more grateful to Ishitani for what she's gifted us in this.

  

  From the more moving stories such of that of a young girl that's moved by Nami's adventuring into a world of monsters while still being just a regular girl without any powers or special strenght to a younger brother that having faced death at war with his older brother learns to cherish him no matter what after witnessing Luffy's efforts to rescue Ace. From a girl that's just annoyed of missing her last chance to see Soul King perform live, some kids that like to mess with her at it's book store and some guys that likes to argue over who's the strongest swordsman in the world at a bar that provides the necessary, and to this point characteristic, One Piece comic relief.

  

  Fan Letter embraces what One Piece really is from every angle, its very essence, forging everything into an outstandingly well directed and animated special and, although One Piece has established itself as what it is today obviously mainly due to Oda's excellent worldbuilding and writting, it's also gained it's legendary status within the anime/manga world thanks to all of us joining Luffy onto his journey, making it our own journey. All of this makes One Piece so special and gives Fan Letter it's soul, because it is not only the little girl letter to Nami, it is also our letter, our love letter, to Oda's marvellous creation.

  
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• 

  Wyattt

  64/100
  Ishitani would do right to sacrifice the noticeable for the substantive.

  The special begins on a recap of the Marineford War arc that moves too quickly. The sequence would be easier to process if it had been one continuous take moving horizontally. A later scene returns to the war at a slower pace but is blobby, not bloody. Outside of the level of consistency, nothing in the animation goes beyond what Masaaki Yuasa had done by 2014. After Ryuu Nakayama brought empathy to Chainsaw Man through nonstop naturalistic animation, and in the year where Midori Yoshizawa cut to a live action, all red POV shot of a mad dash down the street, it is hard to be impressed by the cutesy, endearing but not profound movement of one sweet Nami fangirl. Compositionally, the girl zooming through town on a vehicular bubble is a dynamic delight, while other shots seem literally flat. The art style itself is affectation for its own sake. It doesn't express anything about the One Piece world that Oda's art style has not already.

  Ishitani indulges in the brilliant premise, but not enough. The depth of fandom is how celebrities appear liberated from the mundanities and cruelties of one's particular life. A rowdy bar argument about who may be the world's strongest swordsman seems too detached, as if we are watching from the vantage point of someone who does not share their excitement. A shopkeep in love with Brook's music sports deep black makeup under her eyes, a Goth touch implying an inner life that is otherwise unexplored. The protagonist's love of Nami, bluntly exposited as being predicated on Nami not having big muscles or a devil fruit, is not overpowering because Ishitani does not show us the suffocation of only the powerful being free to be heroes.

  The special's best scene, which is moving as opposed to pleasant, depicts the violent backstory of a Marine in love with Straw Hat Luffy. The Marine's leg is shredded by a falling boat, a harrowing, tactile detail that makes up for the film's other depictions of war. Though it contains the film's best expression of the awe a distant role model can inspire, the heart of the flashback lies in the relationship between the Marine and his younger brother. A reverse chronological montage conveys the older brother's understandable irritation and the younger brother's heart melting sweetness. The rest of the sequence uses a star of light as a primal symbol for Love. The best images are all contained in these few minutes: blood gushing from a screaming mouth, an admiring yet bitter gaze at the back of a hero running ahead, a coward turning from what is obviously right.

  The ending is saccharine, built around the lazy device of a vague speech set to music. The climax would be more affecting if the flurry of images shown were new, and not shots that were already shown earlier. The protagonist bravely chooses to focus on the moon instead of the finger, but the depth of that choice is under-emphasized. A post-credits sequence would have been unnecessary if the final scene had properly expressed the gravity of the situation. The film as is could use a beautiful epilogue, but the one we got expresses nothing that is not already in the story proper.

  We can use all the auteurs we can get, and as few show-boats as possible. One Piece Fan Letter toes the line. Ishitani would do right to sacrifice the noticeable for the substantive.

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