One Piece Film: Strong World (ONE PIECE FILM STRONG WORLD (ワンピース フィルム: ストロング ワールド) Wan Pīsu Firumu: Sutorongu Wārudo) is the tenth movie in the One Piece franchise, and the first movie in the series that Eiichiro Oda, the One Piece creator, personally oversaw the production. Oda also created the original concept for the story, created over 120 pages of rough drawings, and designed the costumes and creatures for the movie. The film is directed by Munehisa Sakai, and the script is written by Hirohiko Uesaka. Music was composed by Kouhei Tanaka and Shiroh Hamaguchi. The TOEI Animation produced and distributed the movie. Unlike previous One Piece movies, the events of this film are considered as canon to the series story. It's also the first movie that Oda placed his name in the movie's credits.
The opening theme song for the movie is titled "Fanfare" by Mr. Children. The song was also used in the trailers for the movie in Japan. Oda personally offered them the opportunity to create the movie's theme.
The Strong World movie was originally released on Dec. 12, 2009 at 188 screens in Japan. 103 of which sold out throughout the entire release weekend. This made the average intake per screen at ¥5,520,000 ($62,2000 USD) and set a nationwide release record for Japan. The first weekend release gross was ¥1,038,000,000 (approx. $11.7 million). This beat out the entire box office gross of the series precious film One Piece: Episode of Chopper Plus: Bloom in Winter, Miracle Sakura (2008), which earned ¥920,000,000 ($11 Million). Some media attribute this first weekend swell to the fact that theaters were also giving away special limited edition copies of One Piece: Volume 0 manga. The movie continued to top the box office on the second weekend of December 19 and 20 and set a new record for TOEI Animation. The movie only lost it's number one ranking by the third weekend and slowly fell in both rank and screen numbers. It had dropped to sixth place by the sixth week and only fell off the top ten rankings by the following week. One Piece Strong World would eventually have a box office gross of ¥4,700,000,000 ($53 Million).
Plot
The Straw Hat Pirates were on their journey in the Grand Line when news arrives that the East Blue is being tormented with a terrible crisis. With this hitting close to home for many in the crew who are originally from the East Blue. They decide to put their adventure on hold to return. Before they could leave, they are approached a flying pirate ship commanded by the Golden Lion Shiki, a legendary pirate who once faced off against both Whitebeard and Gold Roger. After abducting Nami to be his navigator, Shiki hurls the Straw Hats down to the floating islands on Merveille. Now separated from each other, it becomes a battle of survival while surrounded by Shiki's menagerie of powerful creatures. Even if Luffy can reunite his missing crew. He then must decide if he's to abandon Nami or face off against a living legend, who challenged the Pirate King, and his 5,000 strong crew.
Points of Interest
- In July 2010 a sample DVD of the movie was released for reviewers, but it was downloaded online and pirated across the internet for fansubs of multiple languages. All the pirated versions of the movie had a large "SAMPLE" text in the top left corner of the screen.
- On Oda's request, certain scenes were added to the DVD/BD release of One Piece Film: Strong World. He also personally designed all the Straw Hats' costumes. The round-style hat even later became the standard for Chopper in the post-time skip era.
- This movie marks the third time in the One Piece films that Nami has played the role of the damsel in distress that needs to be rescued by the rest of the crew. The first time was in One Piece: Clockwork Island Adventure, and the second was in One Piece: Episode of Chopper Plus: Bloom in Winter, Miracle Sakura. One Piece: Clockwork Island Adventure (Movie 2): In this movie, Nami is abducted by Honey Queen when she tries stealing the first pirate ship of the Straw Hat Pirates, the Going Merry. The pirate Bear King tries to make Nami his bride. One Piece: Episode of Chopper Plus: Bloom in Winter, Miracle Sakura (Movie 9): For this film, it's a complete retelling of the Drum Island arc from the canon manga, but many events were changed to fit in the new ship and crew members. The main plot still revolves around Nami being deathly ill for the majority of the movie and the struggle to find a doctor for her.
- In this movie, Nico Robin's eye color were give her original brown from the manga. All the previous anime productions have colored her eyes blue.
- The fish-man character Kitajima is voiced by Kosuke Kitajima. He's a multiple Olympic gold medalist in swimming at both the Athens 2004 and Beijing 2008 Olympics. The character was also named after him.
- Strong World is the first time most of the Straw Hats have ever been seen to use guns. Sanji did hold one in Volume 13 / Episode 67 but never fired it.
- One of the earliest teaser trailers for the movie before it had a title showed Nami leaving a letter in their ship marked with a mikan, and Nami was shown among the crew when they burst into Shiki's meeting.
- The bartender from the movie One Piece The Movie: Dead End Adventure (2003) makes a return appearance as the bartender in Merveille bar.
Other Media
DVD Release
One Piece Film: Strong World BD JPN (Aug 2010)The DVD/Blu-ray release for the One Piece Strong World movie was released on Aug. 27, 2010. The DVDs were released with new footage that wasn't shown in theaters. This was on the request of Eiichiro Oda that these particular scenes were added. The FUNimation company, that officially distributes the series in the U.S., has announced they plan on releasing ONE PIECE FILM: STRONG WORLD in November 2013.
Upon the release of the DVD and Blu-ray of Strong World in Japan, there was a limited edition version released in both formats to celebrate the anniversary of the series. It has two separate discs that contain special footage from the movies release, full & teaser trailers, TV commercials, and other specials. The price for this version was ￥ 6,825. It's also packaged with several swag items. These were a Tone Dial voice key holder, Strong World playing cards, and a bendable Gum-Gum pencil.
Strong World Specials
In anticipation for the release of the Strong World movie. There were several specials released that tied into the movie's events. The first was a special TV arc to the anime about Little East Blue, then a special edition of One Piece manga that was labeled as Volume 0, and these events were later animated in a special release as One Piece Episode:Zero.
Anime TV Special
A TV special a four episode mini arc that was added to the regular anime series, and was the direct prequel to the events of the movie. In the time line it was set a few weeks before the events of the movie. The episodes began into the beginning of the Impel Down arc and the first episode aired on Oct. 15, 2009. The episodes were all titled " A Special Presentation Before the Movie! ".
In the TV special, the the crew come to a small island where most of the inhabitants are from the East Blue, home sea of the first five Straw Hat Pirate members. The villagers called the island Little East Blue. The island was later attacked by the pirates Largo and Colt, who were trying to capture an escaped animal from Shiki's islands. The giant beetled, named Boss, was serving as protector of the island.
~Special Presentation Before the Movie!~
- Ep. 426 - A Gold Lion's Ambition on the Move!
- Ep. 427 - Little East Blue in Danger!
- Ep. 428 - The Fierce Onslaught of the Amigo Pirates!
- Ep. 429 - Luffy vs. Largo - The Battle is on!
One Piece Volume 0: Strong World
The Volume 0 was first published in Shueisha's Weekly Shonen Jump magazine #49 on Nov. 30, 2009. The events within told about 25 years before the start of the One Piece manga's story, the clashes Shiki had with Gold Roger in the past, and had various prominent cameos of One Piece regular characters.
The Japanese movie audience also received a free copy of Volume 0 for the first 1.5 million ticket holders.
One Piece Film Strong World Episode: 0
The Strong World Episode: 0 is the animated version of the Volume 0. It was never aired as part of the regular anime series, but released as a special OVA. It was released in late Apr. 2010 in a limited run of 3,000 copies.
One Piece Film Strong World Anime Comic
One Piece Film: Strong World Anime Comic is an anime comic that was created as a special promotional comic that uses still frames from the One Piece Film Strong World, the tenth movie in the One Piece series. This two volume anime comic is published by Shueisha's Jump Comics. Both volumes were released on December 3, 2010. One year after the film was released to theaters.
One Piece Movie Chronology
- One Piece: The Movie
- Adventure Of Spiral Island
- Chopper's Kingdom on the Island of Strange Animals
- Dead End Adventure
- The Cursed Holy Sword
- Baron Omatsuri and the Secret Island
- The Giant Mechanical Soldier of Karakuri Castle
- Episode of Alabasta: The Desert Princess and the Pirates
- Episode of Chopper Plus: Bloom in Winter, Miracle Sakura
- One Piece Film: Strong World
- One Piece 3D: Straw Hat Chase
- One Piece Film: Z
- One Piece Film: Gold
- One Piece: Stampede
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