One Piece: Heart of Gold

- Well this is meant to be a prequel to the new movie "One Piece Film: Gold" and to be honest i don't think that i need it. Story: -The Story is very simple. New girl appears and we are going into an adventure to find a piece of gold \o/ In the adventure, exists a villain called Mad Treasure (Horrible character btw) that will be trying to get to the gold before the StrawHats, while being in their way. Art: -I actually was pleasantly surprised with the art. Taking into account the anime series of One Piece that the art usually is really not that good :/ This specialhad some really beautiful art and fluid animation. Sound: -The sound was very average, dont recall having something special about it, just the usually One Piece Soundtracks. Character: - The characters was what it really failed for me. I think that the only characters that it needs to be mentioned are the villain called "Mad Treasure", Olga and her father... and i really didn't enjoy any of these characters. - The Villain was really bad. In the beginning the episode i remember that he said that he likes treasure hunting because of the excitement... and ended up using the StrawHat crew to pass the traps. Why? Because he is a villan and needs to be a bad person -,-'' - Olga was that generic character that appear from time to time, that in the beginning of the episode don't trust people and in the end of the episodeend up being friends with the StrawHats. - Olga's father was a simple character.. Just there so that in the beginning of the episode Olga started with hating him and liking him in the end. (Never saw something similiar.. really original...)

If you watch it, don't forget to watch whats after the credits of this show otherwise you'll probably miss the entire point that this special offers. Just thought id mention that first before my review since I almost missed it too. The show itself feels more like a filler episode rather then a movie or a special. The characters are somewhat mellowed out of the normal reactions as there are no surprises or things to expect. It lacks the story aspect making it hard to enjoy. The new female character the show is centered around is also a bit repetitive, almost reminds me of a luffyknockoff, you may get bored of the show early. You wont miss much if you don't watch it. There are two possible scenes from which I can tell that seem to be related to the next upcoming movie. This special doesn't feel like a movie, or even a episode, its probably closest to being a very long and dull teaser.

No spoilers This is a very long teaser of One Piece: Gold. It kinda follows the silver mine arc. Production quality is good, there's nothing to say about it. The story itself however... It sucks so much for something labelled as One Piece. The crew is behaving normally except for the fact that their interactions together are pretty bland. It's like someone who's not familiar with the show watched a few episodes and decided to write the dialogues. Sure, it seems as usual but it has this quickly done and fake feeling. A new character is introduced (a child) and is one of the most annoying characters I've seen in OnePiece. I literally skipped some "sentimental" parts because I was too annoyed. And the whole story revolve around this unlikable character. The bad guys seemed interesting at first because their goal wasn't money but rather excitement for adventures. Yet as the story progresses, they are being pictured as guys who don't care about their friends and would do everything for the money. I insist on this because the scenario insisted on this. Then you have a long and poorly written dialogue about the values of friendship between luffy and them while they fight. My eyes were rolling the whole time. Sure, in One Piece, you get those same dialogues about friendship but there is always a good reason for them to happen. Here, it's as if the authors thought: "oh yeah, we almost forgot, dialogue about friendship, where should we put that ? there ? yeah, whatever". The only character that I liked (the dad), behaved like a normal One Piece character. Just the right screen time and a good balance between comic and dramatic actions. One last thing, the fights were god awful. Luffy and his crew has been training for 2 years and they get that much difficulty to beat a bunch of low pirates ? The Zoro from baroque works could have beaten all of them alone. In the end, if you're expecting One Piece quality in terms of story, just skip this one. If you haven't anything left to watch about One Piece then, you might enjoy it.

---SPOILER FREE--- When a special is being advertised as something 'that leads to..' a movie then one cannot help but imagine that there should be something in the special that corresponds to some of the elements that have been witnessed in the trailer. The only commonality that I perceived in One Piece Heart of Gold and One Piece Film: Gold, however, is the fact that both titles have the word 'Gold' in them. From a story point of view, it was surprisingly mediocre. That is not to say that all of One Piece stories are very intricate and detailed. Most follow the same ol tropes thatfans have been watching/reading, but what makes One Piece stand out is the humor and characterizations. This movie sadly is mediocre at best when it comes to story and humor. The only saving grace is the trademark quirks of the Straw hats that successfully add a tinge of humor to an otherwise dry scene. All in all, it didn't make any sense to me as to where One Piece Film: Gold would lead the crew. Hopefully, when the movie comes out, it will put this Tv Special in some perspective. If not, then it really was just a waste of time.