EMN Marathons Lineup - One Piece
Series
One Piece
Year: 1999
Synopsis: One rubbery boy teams up with as many misfits as he can in his attempt to become King Of The Pirates.
EMN Notes: I love this series. It's very important to me and I've gone over why in the EMN One guide. A big reason this was our first Marathons channel was because it's a long series with a lot of arcs that were dubbed that we just wouldn't have room for on EMN. Sure, we have up to Drum Kingdom on the main channel, but the dub goes up to Fishman Island. That's years of stuff including some of our favorite arcs! It's always a fun time, and since it's so breezy and colorful and exciting it makes for a good little marathon.
Movies
Baron Omatsuri And The Secret Island
Year: 2005
Synopsis: The Straw Hats land on an ex-pirate's island resort, but it's hardly the paradise it seems to be when the crew members start vanishing.
EMN Notes: Mandy and I have seen many Mamoru Hosoda films. His style is extremely recognizable, and so when we learned he made a One Piece movie we had to watch it. It's a very unusual film, certainly well-made and with great depth, with Hosoda's trademark animation style all over it. It makes for a very interesting experience, seeing these characters reinterpreted in this way in a much darker story than one would immediately expect. Of course, One Piece has always been about variation of tone, but still, this movie is dark in color and theme. It's excellent, though, so it goes here.
Chopper's Kingdom on the Island of Strange Animals
Year: 2002
Synopsis: Chopper is separated from the Straw Hats and lands on an island of sentient animals where he is worshipped as a king.
EMN Notes: It's fun when One Piece movies focus on individual members of the Straw Hats. This one was done clearly because Chopper is something of a mascot character (or rather, grew so popular that he became one) but hey, I'm a huge Chopper fan so that's okay with me. His whole arc of grappling with his dual identity and inability to find a single place that accepts him is so good, and while this movie isn't particularly deep it is a fun little romp that lets him be in a place with a bunch of funny animals. Not bad!
One Piece 3D: Straw Hat Chase
Year: 2011
Synopsis: A thirty-minute CGI film where the Straw Hats go on a breakneck adventure for treasure.
EMN Notes: This is a mini-movie, a proof of concept, a fun experiment. It's basically a little thrill ride. It does the job! If you want to see the One Piece crew in 3D CGI, here you go. It's nice, it has fun setpieces, and the characters aren't terrifying-looking. It's a good way to kill half an hour and add a little variety to the marathon.
One Piece Film: Gold
Year: 2016
Synopsis: The Straw Hats visit a grand casino ship run by the flamboyant Gild Tesoro that promises to be paradise, but there's more to their streak of good luck than meets the eye.
EMN Notes: I love so much about this movie. The haunted/corrupt casino is an idea I've loved since reading about Morte Calon in Jing: King of Bandits. The luck-manipulation power is such a fascinating one to me. The glitz! The glamor! This movie speaks to me aesthetically, musically, and I love Gild Tesoro as a flamboyantly evil villain. I understand peoples' complaints of him ultimately feeling underbaked in comparison to Shiki or Z, but I don't care. This movie has it all for me and therefore holds a special place in my heart.
One Piece Film: Strong World
Year: 2009
Synopsis: The first prisoner to escape Impel Down, Shiki the Pirate, takes Nami hostage in an attempt to wage war on the World Government.
EMN Notes: Mandy streamed this one day, making it the first One Piece-related thing I had seen since I was a kid who stopped subscribing to Shonen Jump. I won't pretend it was an immediate 'hey, look what you've been missing, fall in love again now' moment, but it definitely laid the groundwork by being a surprisingly creepy and cool story with ghost ships and it also introduced me to Franky whom I love. I should watch this again some time as now I'm familiar with the series in full I feel like I'd get much more out of it. As it stands, it's just a super neat film that slowly worked me back into enjoying One Piece.
One Piece Film: Z
Year: 2012
Synopsis: A disgruntled ex-Marine starts his own faction in order to eradicate piracy once and for all.
EMN Notes: This is probably my favorite One Piece movie. Sure, Gild Tesoro is uniquely tailored to my tastes and Stampede has a lot of personal significance, but I've seen Film Z many times and it hits me right in the heart consistently. Z is such a fantastic antagonist, tragic and understandable but extreme in his methods, and the climax is heartrending and spectacular. It's such a fun film, too, with great character moments and interactions one wouldn't expect. It's a shame it's almost-but-not-quite-canon. It'd be fun if Zephyr was mentioned in the manga some time, perhaps with a tweaked backstory. I just really like him.
One Piece: Clockwork Island Adventure
Year: 2001
Synopsis: A group of pirates steal Luffy's ship and his navigator, and the Straw Hats have to go to the island with the most-expensive watch in the world in order to get them back.
EMN Notes: This sounds like such a cool idea for a One Piece movie. I've yet to see it, but if it's anything like a Jing: King of Bandits heist I'm going to bet it's pretty darn cool. I've always been fascinated with clockwork and especially clock towers, so a One Piece movie with thieves and clockwork has me all kinds of intrigued.
One Piece: Curse of the Sacred Sword
Year: 2004
Synopsis: Zoro goes off on his own to a mysterious island containing a sword spoken of in legend.
EMN Notes: A Zoro-focused story is really cool. It reminds me of when Lupin does things like the Fuma Conspiracy. True, the ensemble cast is the fun part of these properties, but when each individual member gets a chance to shine that's something special too. Everyone has their own favorite Straw Hat, and with Zoro's popularity it's just fun to see him be a cool swordsman on the side, doing his own thing while the Straw Hats do theirs. Until they inevitably come back together, of course.
One Piece: Dead End Adventure
Year: 2003
Synopsis: The Straw Hat Pirates enter a mysterious death race called DeadEnd.
EMN Notes: Death races are such a cool gimmick to me. I love Death Race 2000, I think Twisted Metal is fun, and I at least really liked the racing portions of RedLine. This movie promises to be pretty fun too! It is funny that Stampede would come out many years later and also do a big Pirate Race but hey, they're different enough. I'll take a million pirate races if it means we keep getting fun movies with wacky casts doing pirate shenanigans. Really, I just can't get enough!
One Piece: Stampede
Year: 2019
Synopsis: All of the Worst Generation are invited to a great festival for pirates where they race for the grand prize - a mysterious new treasure once owned by Gold Roger.
EMN Notes: When they announced this movie was coming to US theaters, I had just caught up with the manga. Mandy and I were sitting in a locally-owned diner for breakfast when we checked and tickets were for sale. I bought them immediately, and when it finally released we went to the theater and had an incredible time. It was so cool to see all these characters that I had only just met realized fully on the big screen in a gorgeously-animated breakneck piece of work. It was an absolutely thrilling adventure and I have very very special memories of that day. The moment it came out officially on home media the next year we grabbed it and added it to EMN. It'll always be one of my favorites as a result.
The Mega Mecha Soldier of Karakuri Castle
Year: 2006
Synopsis: The Straw Hats find a treasure chest containing an old woman who promises them riches untold, including a golden crown, if they return her to her home on Mecha Island.
EMN Notes: I'm surprised I've yet to see this movie. You'd think it'd be one I'm all up on as the premise is fun and a mechanical or clockwork island is exactly the kind of thing I love. I don't often hear this one brought up in talks of great One Piece movies, but I. have the feeling that when I finally get to it I'll at least enjoy it well enough.