While I will try to keep this spoiler free the spoiler warning is in effect.
The world is enraptured by a sensational new pop idol called Uta who has become a symbol of hope for all the regular people caught up in the pirate age, the Strawhats being among the crowd.
Luffy upon seeing Uta, immediately recognises her and jumps up on stage, revealing to the entire world that she is the daughter of Red Haired Shanks.
Pirates want to kidnap her to get to Shanks while the Marines think her influence is way too powerful to be allowed to live.
Uta with her songs are able to turn the tide against any assailant, even Big Mom's pirates and she is able to have some valuable catch up time with Luffy.
But once Luffy brings up that he's a pirate, Uta's demeanour changes as she takes Luffy's crew away and demands Luffy quit being a pirate using ever more violent means, it starts unravelling after Trafalgar Law and Bartolomeo step in to save Luffy that the situation they are in is more dangerous than they originally thought.
You can tell immediately that this was a joy to work on from the animation right down to singer Ado's incredible performances making for an absolute flawless cornucopia of colour and music.
The film isn't as high on the epic set pieces set by the last One Piece movie Stampede but it more than makes up for it with Uta being the most twisted villain One Piece has ever made equal only to Doflamingo and its Uta's ever deteriorating mental state that makes the songstress even more terrifying in context.
I deliberately didn't watch the dub as the song numbers blend so much better in a Japanese dub track than the awkward switch between Japanese songs and English speaking dialogue.
Final Verdict: The lesson here is never bet against One Piece, even if you think they are passed their best, they keep surprising you with more spectacular stories and for what looks like a fan fiction plot is actually the best One Piece movie to date.
Depending on who you ask, localisation is a very dirty word amongst anime fans as it can make or break a franchise, with some of these decisions having consequences that still affect the series to this day.
Not all of this is censorship, keep that in mind.
10. Jelly Filled Donuts
A classic anime meme, as Pokemon's Brock calls rice balls, donuts; this is not an isolated case as other food gets edited around in Pokemon. Pretty low on the list as it's the official meme of Lost Pause.
9. Allowing Central Park Media to License MD Geist
I've brought up this story before, so I'll keep it brief. CPM liked this anime too much and kick started the ultra violent era of anime, this has always given older fans a bitter pill to swallow compared to younger generations of fans.
8. Next Dimension/Shadow Realm
Death was hard to sell for any network, especially when it had to be on TV. This was more the Ocean dub of Dragonballz as Funimation played it more straight seeing as death is merely a slap on the wrist anyway, Yu-Gi-Oh was much worse for it, particularly in Season 1.
7. Painted Bikinis
Tenchi Muyo's run on Toonami came with some strange forms of censorship, the weirdest one being the clearly MS paint job bikinis, although this had a more beneficial effect as early internet otaku sought out the uncut version, I know I did.
6. Naming HoroHoro Trey Racer
Shaman King despite being localised by 4Kids kept a fairly unchanged cast naming until you get to the whole Trey Racer moment, the funny thing about it is, it's used as a nickname as his actual name is kept, wouldn't mind digging up a back story for this.
5. Making Big Cheese a Rat
Tell me, what animal this is below.
If you said fox, you are right, if you say rat, you are as blind as the people at Saban. I know they had very little to work with but seriously?
4. Making Uranus and Neptune Cousins
A classic bit of early censorship, only it just made the whole thing creepier in context when it was more obvious that these two were much closer to the point it couldn't be ignored.
3. Giving One Piece to 4Kids
How and why this decision was made is still a mystery, the aftermath has caused it to slip behind other Shonen Jump powerhouses over the years but on the other side it made the series more adult back in Japan to avoid a repeat of it happening ever again.
2. Renaming Pretty Cure, Glitter Force
The sad thing about this one, it was already in English as Pretty Cure is the English translated title anyway, the Canadians got it right why didn't Netflix? Glitter Force is a stupid name and because of this disaster, Precure may never see localisation ever again.
1. Inserting American Political Commentary
This is an uncomfortable trend that started in the height of the Trump administration, Funimation were the main culprits for this. Within a few of their dubs, first noted in Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid, the dubbing team would go off script to bring up a political subject or something woke which has no context in the anime at all and was never referenced in the original script. Basically they've taken Japan's property and inserted political propaganda that has nothing to do with Japan, this is the type of bullshit I expect from Russia!
This is also why I don't watch dubs anymore.
Some big names are going to start dropping so keep an eye out for your favourites.
60. Full Metal Alchemist
A series that can make you feel every emotion going and every action has weight to it, the only reason it's not higher is the treatment the original series gets.
59. One Piece
The ultimate pirate adventure that seemingly never ends, a shonen classic through and through.
58. Gurren Lagann
The epic that went one step beyond and broke the very cosmos, and it feels oddly human in it's message.
57. Medabots
With better treatment this could easily go further but I best remember it as the first dubbed kids TV anime in the west not afraid to be proud of it's Japanese background. Not to mention Metabee is awesome.
56. Restaurant to Another World
A series that showcases fantasy characters eating in a real world restaurant, it's easily the best anime about food and the interactions between it's stellar cast of characters, I only wish this was longer.
Food is a glorious thing and the Japanese take pride in it. So today's list is part one of a double list which showcases the best and worst cooks of Anime starting with the best cooks.
Honorable Mentions to the cast members of Yakitate & Yumeiro Patisserie which only missed this list due to only covering bakery, along with Ranma 1/2 whose great cooks only cook specialty dishes and nothing else.
Extra: Honorable Mention to Blue Exorcist's Rin Okumura whose cooking is his only talent.
10. Hayate from Hayate the Combat Butler & Sebastian from Black Butler
Tied for 10th but only because they're both on this list for the same reasons. As butlers both Hayate & Sebastian need to be proficient in cooking as well as all their other household tasks. Although it makes me laugh as to why they need a team of servants when both butlers can do all the tasks alone.
9. France from Hetalia Axis Powers
Comes with the stereotype believing the French are the best in the world at cooking, as an Englishman I disagree.
8. Miss Howmei from Nadesico
Despite the fact that Akito is the main character, it's Miss Howmei who steals the show when you hear her backstory in wanting to give soldiers their last meal and has an encyclopedia of spices at her disposal to make sure it's possible.
7. Shinji Ikari from Evangelion
Not so much the original but the rebuild movies show off his great cooking skills in more detail showing that there is more to him than just a whiny emo little snot rag.
6. Makoto Kino from Sailor Moon
Pretty much her best trait outside her tough outer appearance, here's hoping this is still the case come reboot.
5. Sasami Jurai from Tenchi Muyo
Turns cooking into such an art form that she slips into the role without even being asked to, and considering that this is a harem series it's often the one who cooks the best that would get the first kiss. Ryoko & Ayeka beware.
4. Sunako Nakahara from Wallflower
Considering she's being trained as an elegant lady and she's really a crazed girl into the occult and morbid horror who'd be more at home with the Addams Family than a mansion of pretty boys, she's the best cook in the entire series.
3. Satsuki Yotsuba from Negima
At a school of over 3000, she's the best cook to all students and staff alike and commands total respect from even the most abrasive of characters such as Evangeline.
2. Sanji from One Piece
Luffy can pick good crew members, a showcase in how good Sanji really is, is shown in the filler arc G-8 in which Sanji defeats a team of top level navy chefs using the leftovers of the food they just cooked.
1. Pretty much the Entire cast of Toriko
The only thing that makes the plot of having to hunt down the rarest food ingredients is to have them owned by the greatest chefs alive, and like everything else in Shonen Jump it's blown up to epic proportions.
You lucky, lucky people I just finished another anime and this one is a film, One Piece Film Z.
We start off on an island where a guy going by the name of Z sporting a heavily weaponized arm steals some high powered explosives from the marines and proceeds to blow up a Volcanic Island while battling a Marine Admiral.
Cue later on and the Strawhat Pirates are having a party when they bring Z onto their ship when he's floating in the ocean. Sadly not being very grateful to Luffy proceeds to destroy him and his crew upon hearing that they are pirates with some crew members getting younger thanks to a female subordinate of Z having the power to make people 12 years younger leaving Robin, Nami and Chopper in dismay while Brook simply enjoys having a fuller head of hair.
Upon the second Volcanic Island, Luffy with advice from a former Admiral and enemy named Aokiji has a rematch with Z only to lose again and that island blowing up as well. Apparently Z plans to blow up the three major Volcanic Islands in order to create a chain reaction that destroys the New World and everyone with it, Pirates, Marines and Civilians. The story comes to a climax on the final island where Luffy settles the score with Z once and for all.
Now this is not entirely a typical One Piece film as the villain has a lot of depth to him, rare when you consider most One Piece film villains to be 1 or 2 dimensional with very little reason to care for them, but with Z you do sympathize with his cause and you do get a sense of why he feels so strongly about his beliefs that he'd want to cause wide spread devastation. I wish I could say the same about the rest of the film. Don't get me wrong it's a good film but lacks a strong story to go with it's strong villain. You get a sense that this is all been done before and while the initial payoff at the end is a good one you feel that the experience is as typical as every other One Piece film before it and that's a real shame.
Dubbing is top quality, and despite my disdain for anything Avril Lavigne does in anime since the whole "Make 5 Wishes" incident, she does do a decent cover of "Bad Reputation" and "How You Remind Me", a rare choice of Western Music in an anime.
Final Verdict: It's a One Piece film and behaves like one, it's got a lot going for it but fails to take full advantage of it's greatest strengths. Still a fairly decent watch.
