“One Piece Movie 10: Strong World” is a taste of how awesome “One Piece” can look in HD! Featuring awesome anime production and a storyline that sucks you in, the film also features one of the cruelest antagonists featured in a “One Piece” film.  “One Piece Movie 10: Strong World” is highly recommended!
Image courtesy of © 2013 FUNimation. All Rights Reserved.
TITLE: One Piece Movie 10: Strong World
YEAR: 2009
DURATION: 113 Minutes
BLU-RAY INFORMATION: 1080p High Definition, English and Japanese DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1, English Subtitles
COMPANY: FUNimation
RATED: T for Teen
Release Date: November 19, 2013
Originally created by Eiichiro Oda
Directed by Munehisa Sakai
Script by Hirohiko Uesaka
Music by Kouhei Tanaka, Shiroh Hamaguchi
Character Design by Masayuki Sato
Art Direction by Takeshi Waki
Anime Production: Toei Animation
Featuring the following voice talent:
Mayumi Tanaka/Colleen Clinkenbeard as Monkey D. Luffy
Akemi Okamura/Luci Christian as Nami
Hiroaki Hirata/Eric Vale as Sanji
Ikue Ohtani/Brina Palencia as Tony Tony Chopper
Kappei Yamaguchi/Sonny Strait as Usopp
Yuriko Yamaguchi/Stephanie Young as Nico Robin
Kazuki Yao/Patrick Seitz as Franky
Cho/Ian Sinclair as Brook
Banjou Ging/Bryan Massey as Scarlett
Kousuke Takasjima as Kitajima
Naoto Takenaka as Golden Lion Shiki
Ryusei Nakao/Sean Schemmel as Dr. Indigo
Wasabi Mizuta/Lindsay Seidel as Xiao
Yasuhiro Takato/Josh Grelle as Billy
Aiko Kaitou/Lauryn Clarkson as Eva
Hiroshi Naka/Brian Mathis as Monkey D. Garp
Hisako Kyouda/Linda Young as Xiao’s Grandmother
Mika Doi as Xiao’s Mom
When the Straw Hats catch wind of trouble in the peaceful waters of the East Blue, they quickly set a course for home! But before they reach their destination, fate leads them into the deadly path of Golden Lion Shiki. This gravity-defying madman needs a navigator, and he wants Nami! Shiki scatters the Straw Hats across the far corners of a floating island filled with ferocious, genetically-mutated monsters, and issues Nami and ultimatum: join his crew – or her friends die!
Big mistake. Luffy kicks his attack mode into Third Gear and begins a brutal rampage across the beast-ridden island. It’s all hands on deck in Monkey vs. Lion. Winner gets the navigator!
“ONE PIECE†is a popular anime series based on the popular manga series serialized in Shonen Jump by Eiichiro Oda. Suffice to say, “ONE PIECE†is the highest selling manga for Weekly Shonen Jump and its popularity has extended to various anime (via the TV series, OVA and films) and video games in America and also worldwide. The series is so popular, the episode count currently in Japan is at over 600 episodes, with over a dozen films and both manga and anime series are still ongoing and as popular as ever.
“ONE PIECE†is an adventure anime about a 17-year-old boy named Monkey D. Luffy who gained enormous strength (and stretching abilities) after eating a magical demon fruit. He eventually teams up with a group of pirates and have the name “The Straw Hatsâ€. Luffy’s driven to one day obtain the most sought out treasure known as “One Piece†and eventually become the King of the Pirates.
Having a successful run for well-over a decade, now, the tenth animated “One Piece” film titled “Strong World” (2009) will be released in the United States on Blu-ray and DVD courtesy of FUNimation.
“Strong World” was a major success in Japan earning over $22 million during its first eight days, surpassing Hayao Miyazaki’s “Ponyo” and “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince”, but in Japan, Toei gave out “One Piece” Vol. 0 manga’s to moviegoers, adding to the film’s success.
The film was also a winner of the “Excellent Animation of the Year” at the 34th Japan Academy Prize and also nominated for “Animation of the Year”.
The Straw Hat Pirates consists of:
Monkey D. Luffy – A 17-year-old guy who is the captain of the Straw Hat Pirates and dreams to be a pirate king by getting his hands on the “ONE PIECE†artifact. When he was young, he accidentally ate a devil fruit which made his body rubbery and can stretch and blow up. An airhead of sorts, loves to eat but always believes and fights for his friends.
Roronoa Zoro – A 19-year-old skilled swordsman. A skilled and very strong fighter. Wants to be the greatest swordsman in the world.
Nami – The navigator of the group. The main female crew member and really good at weapons.
Usopp – A 17-year-old marksman. A talented inventor and artistic. Known by his long nose, his marksmanship with slingshots and weapons are great.
Sanji – The chef of the crew. A skilled fighter that uses only kicks in battle and is passionate towards Nami.
Tony Tony Chopper – A reindeer with a blue nose. Ate a devil fruit known as human-human fruit which makes him human in someways but keeping his reindeer look. Able to speak to humans, walk upright and also able to have transformations to become a huge beast. But his talent is his medical skills as he was trained by the Doctrine to become a doctor. Has very low self-confidence because he had been treated badly not only by his kind but also by humans and has not really had a friend but the Doctor and Doctrine.
Nico Robin – The former Vice President of Baroque Works who became member of the Straw Hat Pirates. Has the ability to use her body parts and project them elsewhere and other mysterious abilities not yet known.
Franky (aka Cutty Flam) – A cyborg who can rebuild his body using pieces of metal and his dream is to build a ship and become its shipwright and sail to the end of the world.
Brook (aka “Dead Bonesâ€) – A musician and a skeleton who was resurrected by the Revive-Revive Fruit. An excellent musician and fencer.
For the tenth “One Piece” film titled “Strong World”, the film begins with Luffy in a mysterious jungle being chased down by various huge monsters.
Meanwhile, we see Nami swimming in a pool and being greeted by three mysterious individuals and she explains why she was separated from the Straw Hat Pirates.
The film begins with The Straw Hat Pirates sailing in the ocean while trying to escape from the Marines, who have been busy capturing pirates.
Meanwhile, we see a floating island which is a pirate ship. With Nami’s excellent navigation abilities, she notices that a major storm is coming their way and warns the pirates flying the pirate island ship. The airship belongs to Shiki, a pirate who has the power to manipulate anything inanimate with whatever he touches.
And as Shiki appears to come down to show his gratitude to the Straw Hat Pirates by offering to touch their ship, the Thousand Sunny and have them fly to a safer area than deal with the stormy waters and to also show the Straw Hat Pirates his home and the various places that he has in levitation.
And as the Straw Hat Pirates are happy to meet a kind pirate, Shiki shows his true colors and kidnaps Nami and blasts all members to different areas.
With Nami in possession, he kills his previous Navigator and wants Nami to be his navigator and anyone who works for him will get a wish. Meanwhile, with various groups separated, Sanji and Usopp encounter a race of humans (with feathers on their arms) and find out that Shiki has taken all the men and have them working for him, while the women and children are under surveillance. If they do anything against Shiki, they will be killed.
Chopper and Zoro manage to meet a girl named Xiao from the village and she goes to take them there.
Meanwhile, Nami finds a way to escape from Shiki through a grate underneath the pool she is swimming and escapes with a huge duck with electrifying powers and she manages to reunite with Luffy who has escaped and defeated huge animals from the area.
The group learns that Shiki has planted poisonous plants around villages to repel the animals from coming near the village but unfortunately, it keeps the people stuck in their village and anyone willing to go near the plants end up with green splotches on their skin and will need a special antidote which Shiki has taken the majority of it all for himself in the snow region. So, people are dying with no chance to get an antidote and are held against their will by Shiki.
In another area, Nico Robin, Franky and Brook notice many pirates congregating in an area. They find out that Shiki intends to destroy the nearby village and kill all the people and will plan to attack East Blue, the home of where Nami and other Straw Hat Pirates are from. And that all pirates in the area are planning to join Shiki’s army.
As Shiki comes to retrieve Nami, the Straw Hat Pirates try to fight against him but his power is too devastating and manages to encase all members in rock. Shiki threatens to kill them unless Nami bows to him and becomes his navigator. Nami agrees to become Shiki’s navigator if Shiki doesn’t kill her friends and doesn’t destroy her home.
With no choice but to join the powerful Shiki, the Straw Hat Pirates are determined in rescuing their friend but also to prevent them from destroying the East Blue. But can they do it?
Find out in “One Piece Movie 10: Strong World”!
VIDEO:
“One Piece Movie 10: Strong World” is absolutely gorgeous in HD! Colors are absolutely vibrant, the overall production for this animated film is the best I have seen of a “One Piece” film (granted, only two films have been released in the U.S. so far). But to see the animation this vibrant and colorful, backgrounds so detailed and seeing the characters shaded and also different outfits unlike the TV series, I was absolutely thrilled with the picture quality of this film.
I saw no problems with artifacts or banding during my viewing of the film.
AUDIO & SUBTITLES:
“One Piece Movie 10: Strong World” is presented in English and Japanese DTS-HD MA 5.1. Both soundtracks are crystal clear and feature very good use of the surround channels during the more action-intensive scenes. Voice acting in Japanese and English are well-done and while it’s not the most immersive soundtrack I have heard from an anime film, it’s still a very solid soundtrack with crystal clear dialogue and animation.
Subtitles are in English.
SPECIAL FEATURES:
“One Piece Movie 10: Strong World” comes with no special features.
EXTRAS:
“One Piece Movie 10: Strong World” comes with both Blu-ray and DVD.
Finally, a new “One Piece” animated film has been released in the U.S.A.!
And what a magnificent film “Strong World” ended up being!
So far, whenever you watch an animated film for a major series, they typically are non-canon and while created with a higher production value when it comes to animation and background art, for “Strong World”, there is great emphasis on production but also storytelling.
With showcasing the main antagonist Shiki, this is one of the most troublesome antagonist that I have seen in an animated film. Not only does Shiki defeat the Straw Hat Pirates twice, he nearly kills them. But of course, as with all “One Piece” films, the result of who wins is quite predictable but it’s how the Straw Hat Pirates overcome their challenges and obstacles is what I find exciting.
Another positive about this animated film is its production quality. Characters are more detailed, better-shaded, show much more emotion and those hardcore moves that we see Luffy pulling off, we see a lot of those powerful moves in this film.
Let alone the vast world that was created utilizing different weather, many people and beasts featured, you can tell that a lot of time went into producing this animated film and I was not only entertained but just watching this film, just seeing “One Piece” looking so vibrant and colorful, it’s an amazing feeling to watch the Straw Hat Pirates in HD! And also, did I mention that we get to see the Straw Hat Pirates in different clothes this time (several times throughout the film)!
As a fan of the manga and animated TV series, for this popular hit series, surprisingly unlike “Naruto”, “Bleach”, “Dragon Ball Z” and other long series, “One Piece” is in an unfortunate position because there are so many episodes and instead of releasing the films in chronological order, FUNimation has chose to release the tenth film which is a few years ahead of where the company is on their DVD releases.
But at the same time, it’s not a bad thing as people have access to the manga series which is not too far off from the Japanese releases and the Japanese version of the series is being simulcast online.
Another interesting situation with the release of “One Piece Movie 10: Strong World” is the fact that Mr. Children’s (one of the longtime hit-making rock n’ roll bands in Japan) “Fanfare” is nowhere featured in the film, due to rights issues.
As for the Blu-ray, “One Piece” looks fantastic in HD and as mentioned, definitely the best “One Piece” animated film I have seen on Blu-ray thus far. The lossless soundtrack is immersive during the action-scenes and while not the most immersive soundtrack I have heard from an anime film, the soundtrack is very good.
As for special features, surprisingly, there are none. FUNimation has always included audio commentary for their “One Piece” TV series DVD sets but there are none for this Blu-ray release. So, if there was any negative about this release, it’s the lack of special features.
Overall, “One Piece Movie 10: Strong World” is a taste of how awesome “One Piece” can look in HD! Featuring awesome anime production and a storyline that sucks you in, the film also features one of the cruelest antagonists featured in a “One Piece” film.  “One Piece Movie 10: Strong World” is highly recommended!
