So I recently watched a bunch of the One Piece movies that I'd never gotten around to seeing before.
One Piece: The Movie - A cute little diversion, but mostly pretty forgettable. On a meta note, I kind of enjoyed how the video I watched was so low-quality and pixelated, hearkening back to the old days of fansubs (and it probably is from the old days of fansubs)
Clockwork Island Adventure - A step up from the last movie. Pretty good outing for the Straw Hats, but nothing exceptional either. And I'd wish they'd done more with Honey Queen. Maybe give her an actual fight with Nami rather than just, "LOL, tricked you into a bottle!"
Chopper's Kingdom on the Island of Strange Animals - Another cute movie that I actually enjoyed more than I thought I would. The Chopper stuff is whatever, but I did like how they played with the audience's expectations by having Zoro fight the bad guy kicker and Sanji fight the bad guy swordsman.
The Cursed Holy Sword - Honestly, this one didn't do much for me. Looking back I don't even remember that much from it. I didn't really care about Zoro's relationship with the filler character and the movie just felt like it dragged on. There were some good things though like Luffy and Usopp getting lost in the caves and the short old lady who becomes crazy tall when she gets excited.
The Giant Mechanical Soldier of Karakuri Castle - I really enjoyed the first half of this movie. A leisurely-paced treasure-hunting adventure, that, honestly, would be great to see more of in this series. The second half started to lose me though when it just became another action-y "Stop the villain's evil plan" thing. One really smart thing they did though was give some foreshadowing for Gear Second. Also, happy to see that our very own Foolio worked on the sub for the version that I watched.
Episode of Chopper Plus: Bloom in Winter, Miracle Sakura - I'm of two minds about this movie. On the one hand, I have no idea why this movie was made. What was the point of setting it later in the story so we could have Robin, Franky, and Gear Second? Robin basically assumes the role of Vivi and doesn't do anything. Franky has one scene where he fights some of Wapol's men with Zoro, but doesn't really do anything. And, yeah, there's Gear Second which I know is there for the kids and drooling fanboys, but why? Were they so scared of losing the audience if they didn't have the new characters or Luffy's power-ups? But then why adapt Drum Island at all? Why not just make another new story? Oh, and the animation. Just…what?
But, on the other hand, the movie still mostly succeeds with the story beats and as a condensed retelling of Drum Island. Chopper's backstory and the finale with the cherry blossom tree are as emotionally triumphant as ever.
And, with that, I've watched every single One Piece movie except for the 3D Straw Hat Chase thing, which, yeah, no. Maybe I'll watch it someday, but it's pretty damn low on my priority list for One Piece content.