One Piece Film: Red

Plot

The Straw Hat Pirates arrive at Elegia to attend a concert by Uta, and Luffy greets her during the show because she is the daughter of "Red-Haired" Shanks. Displaying the unusual ability to conjure anything she wishes and trap anyone opposed to her, Uta implores Luffy to quit piracy and stay in her concert forever. The Straw Hats resist, and Uta traps all of them except Luffy, who is rescued by Trafalgar Law and Bartolomeo.

The Five Elders ruling the World Government deem Uta's power a great threat to the world, and Marine Fleet Admiral Akainu orders a convoy of battleships led by Admirals Kizaru and Fujitora to go to Elegia and subdue her. Luffy's group meets Uta's guardian Gordon, who explains that Uta hates pirates after learning about the suffering they have inflicted on her fans. Uta then confronts Gordon, and shows that she plans to use the song "Tot Musica" as a trump card in case her plan meets resistance, despite Gordon's pleas.

Luffy's group comes across Koby, Helmeppo, and Blueno, who explain Uta's power: she has eaten the Sing-Sing Fruit, and everyone who heard the concert is trapped in a dream dimension known as the Sing-Sing World. While this dimension normally ceases once Uta falls asleep, she is keeping herself awake and hastening her death by consuming a poisonous fungal called wake-shrooms; if she dies, the Sing-Sing World will be cut off from the real world forever. In the real world, the Marine fleet arrives at Elegia to find the concertgoers all sleeping, and Uta controls her victims' bodies to remove the Marines' hearing blockers. The Five Elders know that Uta has no more than two hours left to live, and 70% of the world's population will be trapped if she dies.

Koby's group helps the trapped pirates free themselves, and the Straw Hats head towards the castle to find a weakness in Uta's power. In the library, Nico Robin discovers that there is a way to make the worlds converge if a demonic being known as Tot Musica is summoned and then defeated in both worlds. Uta resumes her concert in the Sing-Sing World, but her audience begins to resist the idea of living in her world forever. Growing more unstable, Uta transforms all of them into inanimate objects. Luffy goes to confront Uta, and she claims that Shanks abandoned her on Elegia after destroying and plundering it. Uta decides to kill Luffy in the real world, but is stopped by Shanks and his crew.

Shanks tries to help Uta, but Akainu orders for the Marines to fire on her without regard for the concertgoers, forcing the Red-Haired Pirates to go on the defensive. A despairing Uta summons Tot Musica and continues attacking Luffy, but Gordon intercepts the blow and reveals that it was Tot Musica that destroyed Elegia in the past. Shanks had taken the blame for it, and left Uta behind so she could pursue her dream without being associated with a wanted criminal.

Production

Development

Gorō Taniguchi previously directed the 1998 OVA, One Piece: Take Down! The Pirate Ganzak!, at Production I.G when he was employed at the studio. It was the first animated adaptation of the One Piece manga, released before the broadcast of Toei Animation's anime series and had limited screenings in Japanese theaters. Oda stated that Taniguchi was "the first person to ever animate Luffy". After the first announcement of the film in November 2021, Taniguchi said that he wanted to express a One Piece that had never been seen before and that he would show it in One Piece Film: Red.

According to Shinji Shimizu, a producer of the One Piece anime at Toei Animation, One Piece Film: Red is the One Piece film that Eiichiro Oda most actively participated in the development of. Oda is the executive producer, character designer, and also script reviewer of the film. He also said that the film will be different from the previous One Piece films, saying its animation will primarily be in 2D but in some scenes will be in 3D CGI to make it more impactful.

The script for the film was developed by Oda, Taniguchi, and Tsutomu Kuroiwa for over two years. After finishing, Oda praised the final script saying, "It's fantastic!" Tsutomu Kuroiwa, the screenwriter, assured that One Piece Film: Red would be a great movie that would touch many hearts.

Music

The film score was composed by Yasutaka Nakata, and the theme song for the film is "New Genesis" performed by Ado and produced by Nakata. Ado also performed six more songs as insert songs featuring Mrs. Green Apple, Vaundy, Fake Type., Hiroyuki Sawano, Yuta Orisaka, and Motohiro Hata in each and Toei Animation and Ado released their respective music videos on YouTube. The album Uta's Songs: One Piece Film Red, containing all the vocal songs from the film was released on August 10, 2022, while the score album published by Avex, containing 47 tracks, was released on October 28, 2022.

Marketing

Ado performed seven songs featuring Yasutaka Nakata, Mrs. Green Apple, Vaundy, Fake Type., Hiroyuki Sawano, Yuta Orisaka, and Motohiro Hata in each, and Toei Animation and Ado released video songs on YouTube for the movie's promotions; these songs are also featured in the movie as the singing voice for character Uta. Since the theatrical release of the film in Japan, there have been multiple giveaways to the theater audience, including different manga and databook by Eiichiro Oda which were printed in millions of copies and were giveaways for most of the weekends since the release. The One Piece anime's regular episodes' releases were put on hold for three weeks and the film's three tie-in episodes were broadcast after the film's release in Japan.

Release

The film had its world premiere in Nippon Budokan, Tokyo on July 22, 2022, and was released theatrically on 495 screens in Japan on August 6, 2022, by its distributor Toei Company. It had its IMAX screenings in Japan in 27 theaters, which is the first time for a One Piece film. It is also available in MX4D, 4DX, and Dolby Atmos.

Pathé Films released the film in French speaking regions, subbed and dubbed in French, In France, the film premiered in Le Grand Rex, Paris and 481 screens on August 6, 2022 and was released on August 10, 2022, in 631 screens. In Belgium, Luxembourg, Switzerland (French-speaking region) and Swiss German regions it will be released on October 13, 2022. On August 10, 2022, it was also released in Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria, Mauritius and Mali. In Djibouti, the film was released on August 11, 2022 and on August 12, 2022, the film was released in Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Republic of the Congo, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Guinea, Niger, Senegal, Togo and Madagascar.

In Taiwan, the film was released on August 19, 2022. In China, the film premiered at Beijing International Film Festival on August 21, 2022. In Hong Kong and Macau, it was released in Cantonese, subbed and dubbed on August 25, 2022. In Thailand, the film had fan screening from August 16 to 21 and was widely released on August 25 by distributor Japan Anime Movie (JAM) Thailand.

Odex distributed the film in Singapore, Philippines, Malaysia and India. In Singapore, the film was released on September 29, 2022. In Malaysia, the film released on September 22, 2022. In the Netherlands, the film released on September 8, 2022. In Philippines, fan screenings on September 17 and 18, 2022 and was released on September 28, 2022. In Indonesia, CBI Pictures announced limited premiere release on September 16 to 18, 2022. In India, the film was released on October 7, 2022, by Odex and PVR Pictures. In Germany, the film was premiered on October 11, 2022, at Berlin and was released on October 13, 2022, in Germany and Austria by Crunchyroll. In Romania on October 14, 2022, in Romanian sub and dub.

In select MENA countries, Front Row Filmed Entertainment released the film on November 3, 2022, with English and Arabic subtitles. In Spain on November 4, 2022, was released subbed and dubbed in Spanish and Catalan by SelectaVisión, In U.S. and Canada, it was released on November 4, 2022, and in Australia and New Zealand, it was released on November 3, 2022, by Crunchyroll. Film Red became the first One Piece film to be distributed under the Crunchyroll brand after Sony Pictures acquired Crunchyroll in 2021 and merged it with Funimation in 2022.

Reception

Box office

The film was released on weekend and became a box office hit in the country. On its opening day, the film had box office revenues and admissions of ¥1,232,095,230 and 869,407 respectively. It is the biggest opening for a One Piece film ever, the third film in Japanese history to make over 1 billion yen on opening day, the best Saturday opening ever for IMAX, and also the second biggest opening day of all the time in Japan. In its second day, it had ¥1,022,141,800 and 710,145 box office revenue and admissions respectively, totaling to ¥2,254,237,030 and 1,579,552 in the weekend. This makes the film the best opening weekend for August in Japan, the biggest weekend box office of 2022 so far, the highest ever opening weekend for distributor Toei Company, the second-biggest two-day opening weekend for a film in Japanese history, and also the second ever film in Japan to gross more than 1 billion yen two days in a row.

In 8 days, the film has already surpassed 5 billion yen on 3.6 million admissions, making it the second fastest film to reach that box office record of all the time in Japan. In 10 days, the film became the highest-grossing film in the One Piece franchise after it earned more than 7.06 billion yen (US$52.97 million) with over 5 million tickets sold in 502 screens and overtook One Piece Film: Z total box office revenue in Japan. In 13 days, the film had grossed more than 8 billion yen ($60.31 million) with over 5.7 million admissions. It is the second-fastest film in Japanese box office history to reach 8 billion yen after Demon Slayer: Mugen Train. As of its 3rd weekend, the film grossed ¥9,281,365,450 ($67.59 million) with over 6.65 million admissions. It surpassed Detective Conan: The Bride of Halloween and Studio Ghibli's Arrietty. In 20 days, the film grossed over ¥10 billion with over 7.2 million admissions. The film became the second-fastest film in Japan to reach the 10 billion yen milestone surpassing the mark 5 days ahead of Hayao Miyazaki's Spirited Away, and the 41st film in Japan to ever pass this mark. As of its 4th weekend, the film ranked first place and grossed ¥11.454 billion (US$83.32 million) with over 8.2 million admissions.

In 26 days, the film grossed over ¥12 billion (US$87.26 million) with over 8.6 million tickets sold. The film is the second fastest film ever to reach ¥12 billion and it overtook Top Gun: Maverick as the second-highest-grossing film in 2022 in Japan which Japanese box offices track as December 2021 to November 2022. As of its 6th weekend, the film grossed over ¥13.87 billion (US$100.48 million) with 9.94 million admissions making it the highest-grossing film of 2022. As of 38th day in Japanese theaters, the film has grossed more than 13.94 billion yen on the back of more than 10 million tickets sold. It is the 21st film to ever breach the 10 million tickets sold and the fourth fastest film to do so in Japan. As of its 7th weekend, the film grossed over 14.9 billion yen (US$103.8 million) on 10.72 million admissions, making it the seventh top-grossing anime film of all time in Japan after surpassing Makoto Shinkai's 2019 film Weathering With You (14.19 billion yen).

Critical response

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 95% of 38 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 7.7/10. The website's consensus reads: "It may not be the best entry point for newcomers, but One Piece Film Red offers everything fans of the franchise will be looking for." Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 69 out of 100, based on eight critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews. Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A" on an A+ to F scale, while those at PostTrak gave it an 88% overall positive score.

Music chart

The film's main theme song "New Genesis" by Ado, topped Apple Music's Global Top 100 charts, making it the first for a Japanese song, and the number one song in the world, beating out songs from Beyoncé and DJ Khaled.

In August 31, Oricon reported that Ado has three of the tracker's digital rankings for three consecutive weeks which happen for the first time ever in Oricon's history. Also, she is the first artist ever in Oricon's history to have five songs in the "Top 5 Streaming Chart" doing so for the past two weeks. These five songs from the film ("New Genesis", "I'm Invincible", "Backlight", "Fleeting Lullaby", and "Tot Musica") had been dominating the top five "Weekly Streaming Chart" in two weeks and its the first time ever that each song in the top five had reached over 10 million plays over the last week. Furthermore, the album Uta's Songs: One Piece Film Red has been in the top place in the "Weekly Digital Album Ranking" for the past three weeks. As for the main theme song, "New Genesis", it has been the number one in "Weekly Digital Single (Single Song) Ranking" for over the past four weeks and it marks the second time a solo female artist has topped the charts for a month after LiSA's "Homura" did so for 13 weeks back in late 2020 / early 2021. This is its 12th week at number one (106,916,252 plays) and is the 4th fastest song in Japanese history to reach 100 million plays.

On September 7, 2022, Ado broke another record after Oricon reported that she had three of the tracker's digital rankings for four consecutive weeks on which she is the only artist who had ever done so.