Why does Luffy have a 01 on his shirt? Well, a 01/10 is what this movie gets! Worst One Piece ever! Jokes aside, one thing that cannot be denied is that the setup is pretty forced. Chopper's cowardice is turned up to 11 so that he can go through a very obvious arc of becoming more courageous, which will leave him... pretty much where he already was in the series. (Seriously, did we just forget about the ass-kicking he delivered in his introductory arc?) The way he's mistaken for a king by all the animals is also more than a little convenient. (I've wanted someone tomake that kind of pun ever since I learned that the Japanese word for king is hou, (pronounced "aw",) but still.)
But beyond that, the film really isn't that bad. The story is silly for sure, but it's an excuse for wacky adventures rather than a string of action scenes, (like in Clockwork Island Adventure,) which is what I think the more lighthearted parts of One Piece should be. I can understand not liking it, especially as this film came out during the Alabasta arc, which was a lot more interesting and had a lot more going on for it, but for what it is, I find the comedy of this film pretty good with some genuine laughs in places and a delightfully silly villain. Sanji in particular had some good moments, particularly as he took offense from someone calling themself the most handsome man in the world. The humor is helped by the animation taking a step up and being much more creative and expressive than in previous film.
There's also the scene where Sanji and Zoro fight the villain's henchmen. At first I thought it was a bit weird that Zoro was fighting a guy who kicks and Sanji was fighting a guy using a sword, but it actually lead to a pretty nice moment showing that the two secretly respect each other that complemented their relationship pretty well in my opinion.
This film also made me realize how much of a mess the writing of Clockwork Island Adventure was by not being full of things that didn't go anywhere. A good example is the villain eating horns, which in stark contrast to the villain of the first film's obsession with gold actually has a reason behind it that's relevant to the plot, so it's not just a weird quirk for the sake of it, (even if it is indeed a very weird quirk).
If there is downside with the story, it's that even though it's fine for the story just to be an excuse for shenanigans, the story does feel a bit empty. The film is clearly an excuse to cash in on the marketability of Chopper, which isn't really a problem since he's a good character and Ikue Ōtani is really selling it here, (not that she usually isn't,) but they don't really do anything new or interesting with him. Most of all, the emotional investment just isn't there. I think the character of Mobambi, (yes, that really is his name,) is supposed to carry the emotional weight in the same that Tobio and Ganzo from the first film and Akisu and Boroudo from the second film did, but even by those characters' standards, he's pretty simple. Those other characters at least had the advantage of already having known each other for years, but in this film they try to immediately create a relationship between Chopper and Mobambi despite them not spending much meaningful time together and Mobambi mostly just insisting that the two are friends for no reason, and that just doesn't work. It does reassure me a bit that Luffy actually calls Mobambi out on this by saying that just being with someone doesn't make you friends and that Mobambi does try to act on that later, but it's still hard to care about the relationship of two characters who have absolutely no chemistry. Say what you will about the characters from the previous films, it's perfectly understandable not to find them that engaging, but at the very least they did have chemistry.
This is the third One Piece film directed by Junji Shimizu, and these three films have had in common that they're all very simple and not that interesting, but enjoyable enough for One Piece fans. It will, however, be interesting to see what a different director can bring to the table with the next film.
Story: 3/10
Writing: 6/10
Animation: 7/10
Voice acting: 9/10
Personal enjoyment: 6.5/10
Overall score: 6/10
