Director: unknown
Writer: unknown
Going back to the case of a One Piece movie having more than one prologue or preamble, since Film Gold also had a TV special that tie into it, Heart Of Gold, but – as a memory jog – we’re just covering featurettes and OVA this time.
And this actually takes place after that special but before the events of Film Gold itself, like Film Z’s Glorious Island OVA it was also released on smarthphones, and it really doesn’t tie into the movie it’s supposed to, it’s just so happens that the Straw Hats are on their way to the Gran Tesoro ship-city.
And once again, on top of barely connecting with the film is advertising, what actually happens in the OVA is…. stuff, as the crew mucks about, Sanji barbecues meat, everyone tells what they are going to do once they arrive at the Gran Tesoro, they play volleyball (and by that i mean Robin and Nami play volleyball, technically Franky and Chopper also do, but the focus is not on them, for the obvious reasons).
At least it tries a bit hardert than Glorious Island, as they found themselves with just a measly 100 berry/bely coin, and Usop comes with the idea of a show to rack up money for them to spend or bet in the casino… or at least that was the idea.
Anyway, the show is a sumo version of the Kintarou japanese folktale, for some reason, or at least that’s the idea, but it degenerates quickly into a slapsticky fight only to turn into a more serious sumo face-off, them completely forgetting it’s supposed to be just sumo, and Nami using the power of “tsukkomi fist” to avoid that the boneheads completely obliterate the ship. I guess this was supposed to be rehearsal and they were gonna try to get some money by doing this show, but it doesn’t matter. I don’t even remember sumo happening in any shape or form in the movie, frankly.
Animation is good as you’d expect, i really don’t have anything to say i haven’t repeated ad nauseam in the reviews of the other featurettes and OVAs, it’s what you expect from the TV adaptation of One Piece (mostly), there’s not even some odd “mistakes” to point out, and it’s pointless to forcefully nitpick – on this regard, at least – a 10 minute OVA, so i’m not gonna bother with it.
Keeping up with the “tradition” of Glorious Island (and really, the TV series from a certain point on), the most stand out feature is the fanservice, alongside Sanji BBQ’ing ananas, but at least there is more of a narrative structure in this case, something that doesn’t make this complete fluff. And you get to know where that sumo get-up for Luffy (also a costume in World Seeker) comes from.
It’s better than Glorious Island, i can say that for sure, do with that what you will.
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