One Piece Movie 04: Dead End no Bouken

Well this is the 4th One Piece move that was made and IMO it is still the best.

story: The story follows the straw hats pirates while they are on a Island and in need of money, they soon find out that there is a great pirate race. That alone should be good enough to catch anyones interest. The whole movie is amazing and the enemy is one you can hate.

Art: The only reason that I didnt give this a 10 is because One Piece is art style is a little differnt to other animes but it is true to itself and is even better.

Characters: Great ... characters, if you follow the series I dont need to say anymore, if you dont then all I have to say is you will never see better characters than this group.

Enjoyment: I love this movie, it is the best out there and I have seen it many times and each time it still makes me smile.

Overall: Best anime movie I have ever seen.

STORY: As you probably are expecting since it's a One Piece movie, the story is original and whacky, revolving around a Pirate Race where everything goes. Besides all the issues you could expect from a movie story such as rushed presentation and such, the story does look interesting and even has a nice twist.

ART: It's One Piece with all it's might. On the other hand, it's One Piece with all it's might, which might not make you happy due to it's particular, peculiar and bizarre art style and design. Nontheless, the art is very refreshing and original, you can't deny that. It also features enhanced ... animation in comparison to the anime, although it's not that great. One thing I could mention is the backgrounds and the sea, as well as the ship movements, all that is awesome.

SOUND: The sound qaulity itself it's nice, with a couple of nice new battle tunes and as always the brilliant voice acting of really great seyiuus like Mayumi Tanaka, Kazuya Nakai and Kappei Yamaguchi.

CHARACTER: Though non-canon the movie provides some insight in the world of One Piece showing two more Giants, an old rival of Arlong and some other nice new characters. The two main movie-only characters would probably Shuraiya and Gasparde, the main villain. The first sport an awesome look, and the villain just looks like a couple more of other villains in One Piece: thinks dreams are for the weak and the crewmembers are just underlings. Though it has a pretty nice background and look.

ENJOYMENT: I only gave this 7, yeah. The first reason is that probably most people don't get the motivation they need to watch the movie since it's non-canon. So that pretty much lowers the enjoyment level of a movie, particularly, a non-canon anime movie. Secondly, although the three major fights in the movie are really good (Shurayia and Luffy vs Gasparde's crew, Needles vs Shurayia and Luffy vs Gasparde), there's not much importace to the rest of the Straw Hats, the simply don't have a final fight, which I think is also bad.

OVERALL: Although I have only watched the first 4 movies of One Piece, I think this is by far the best, with some pretty nice story, characters and all that you expect from One Piece. You should definitly watch it if you're a One Piece fan.

This is the fourth One Piece movie, theoretically taking place after the Navarone arc and before they go to Water 7. Just like all movies, it is a filler mission with a good budget and a simplistic plot. But unlike the previous ones, this is quite darker and more violent. It also has some nasty backstabbing going on, as well as interesting cameos from all over the main series to further give you a feeling of familiarity.

The story is just about the Strawhat Pirates taking part in a race of pirate crews. The first to reach the goal at an unknown island will receive a ... huge amount of money. Although the premise seems simple and unimpressive, along the way it becomes a lot more complicating thanks to some cool plot twists. Amongst the strongest competitors is Gasparte, an ex marine with a huge bounty who has a bounty hunter after him, because he killed his family many years ago. These two turn the tables to the point the race becomes a death trap and you literally feel like people are actually dying in here. And this is what I liked about the whole thing; the premise ends up being smokescreen for far more sinister plans.

This is where I will tribute some words for the main villain. Gasparte doesn’t really care about winning, as much as being the last man standing. He is extremely powerful and doesn’t seek more power like all the previous bosses did but rather to take out the competition in any means necessary. He is also modelled after Crocodile from the main series in a way, since their looks, powers and even their bounties are almost the same. It must also be noted that originally the movie was only supposed to be dedicated to the latest addition to the crew, Robin (and her voice actress). But guess what, she only ends up being a minor character in the whole film and all the focus is given to the new characters of the film. Something of which I found to be very cool.

Then we have the bounty hunter. Far stronger and macho than the typical useless brat that asks for help and is even fleshed out nicely with the drama in his past and his quest for vengeance. If there is a part I didn’t like much is when he ends up finding another brat … which hasn’t aged at all despite all the years he knew it. Some sort of plot hole I guess. But hey, that kid can fight, and has killed people, and he feels proud about it. Good sidekick.

A thing I liked was the action scenes. You didn’t feel like it was the good guys versus everybody else, since many crews were fighting each other. Plus, the mini-boss of the movie is surprisingly not even dealt by one of the Strawhats. Furthermore the final battle had some strategy in it instead of being Luffy with his unstoppable power just owning everything without thinking. Although the method he used was similar to the one he had for Crocodile, it’s the feeling of tactics that matters; something quite rare in the anime.

Another thing is how there was nothing here for Oda to take ideas from and add it to the canon story later on. In the contrary, this movie was a big tribute to all the major events that have happened so far to the point it felt like the movie was part of the main series.

Oh, they also used some quite impressive 3D effects here, like the introduction scene where the camera zooms through the alleys, as well as creating waves during a storm. Although rather crude after all these years, they were great to give motion and life to the setting of the movie. There is also a lot of darkness in this; a huge contrast to the cheery ones of the previous movies. Helps to build up the necessary tension for such a dark tale.

Although it is mostly a cameo parade as well as a slight alteration of the Arabasta arc, it is one hell of a ride and a movie I openly recommend to the fans of the series.

And now for some excused scorings.
ART SECTION: 10/10
Analysis: General Artwork 2/2, Character Figures 2/2, Backgrounds 2/2, Animation 2/2, Visual Effects 2/2

SOUND SECTION: 6/10
Analysis: Voice Acting 2/3, Music Themes 2/4, Sound Effects 2/3

STORY SECTION: 8/10
Analysis: Premise 1/2, Pacing 2/2, Complexity 2/2, Plausibility 2/2, Conclusion 1/2

CHARACTER SECTION: 7/10
Analysis: Presence 2/2, Personality 2/2, Backdrop 1/2, Development 1/2, Catharsis 1/2

VALUE SECTION: 4/10
Analysis: Historical Value 0/3, Rewatchability 1/3, Memorability 3/4

ENJOYMENT SECTION: 7/10
Analysis: Art 1/1, Sound 0/2, Story 3/3, Characters 3/4

VERDICT: 7/10

After reviewing the shitty film OP movie 3 was, I feel the need to write another one about the 4th movie: Dead End race.
If you have seen the 4th one, you would have probably seen the 3rd movie too, and I hope so, because I will be comparing this masterpiece to that failure of a film.


This film differs from the other since the very beginning, as the strawhats find themselves involved in a pirate ship's race in order to get some money. This is a nice basis for a OP movie, because as we all know, they alway run out of money due to Luffy's ... monstrous hunger. We rarely see the mujiwaras looking for a treasure in the manga, but they always need to get some money.

First of all, I would like to exalt the island where the movie takes place: Anabaru. This island gave me that pirate vibe im not used to see in OP. The different pirate crews that were in the casino impressed me: Great designs, great ideas and lots of different characters, from giants to gyojins, showing the large amount of different people that coexist in the huge OP world.
Every scene in the first 30 minutes was fucking great. The strawhats having fun together in a tavern (we dont see this type of scene since episode 200 or something like that), the fight in the casino or even the flying shot which showed us the passages of the city. Pure greatness.

As I always say, the best thing about OP is that everything can happen, and Toei know this better than me. The start of the race was impressive and the island design was so good I could have believed this was a canon movie if somebody told me.

The film path was pretty good (when I realized it, I had already seen half of the movie) and the way the different character are connected was unexpected, as opposed to the other 3 movies. One Piece is an adventure and this film too.


In the last movie, Chopper was supposed to be the MC, but he was pushed back to a second place for almost half of the movie. In Dead Race Bouken, every character has its moment to shine. Zoro and Sanji dont need a 1v1 fight to have importance the film, Robin, Usopp and Chopper werent useless as they are in a lot of OP arcs (specially the latest two) and the scene were Nami yells at Adelle because she lost her will to live is just amazing. Toei captured the essence of the mujiwaras perfectly in this movie.

The non-canon characters were good. So good I just want some of them to be canon.
This time, the villain is Gasparde, a 95 million berri pirate who left the marine looking for power. This guy isnt the best villain of the show, but he is intimidating as fuck. That bounty was not a joke in this part of the show (remember this movie takes place exactly after the Arabasta arc) and his subordinate was also strong.

The other character I want to talk about is Shuraiya Bascud. This guy emit CHARISMA. He is a bounty-hunter who arrives to Anubara seeking for revenge. A pretty simple story but a great character design and development (I wish he was canon lmao). He was the one who dealt with the first mate of Gasparde, taking the spot Zoro and Sanji always get. That fight was thrillering, smooth and in conclussion, amazing. I wish they animated it entirely.

As opposed to the 3rd movie, the art style and animation are great and the characters arent bright anymore. The final battle was pretty good and the effects surprised me in a good way.
And talking about the music, here is where I have the only complainment about this movie: Please Toei, use some new themes. OP has a great OST but it can be boring if you overuse it, and Toei certainly did with 800+ episodes of this show.


Finally, I would like to applaud the ending of this movie. Those last 5-10 minutes in the ship made me change my rating from a 9 to a 10, and the last scene where the people in the town recognize Luffy due to the arrival of the new bounty is amazing.

In conclussion, Toei have proven that they know how to make a good OP movie so I will be disappointed at them if the following films are trash. If you made it this far, Ty for reading!

This is the first one that was really good, more what I was hoping for from the standalone movies. The first one that felt like more than just an extra-long episode. And the first one that looked a little better than the regular show as well. You can see the animation glow-up from having the extra budget to produce a movie. I really liked their use of movement in this. The fights were fluid and fun. The CG moments stood out but not in a way that was off-putting.

Race stories are always fun. The feel of adventure was present all the way through, from ... before they even got out onto the water. I really liked the sequence in the beginning-- the secret underground passage that opened up into the meeting place for the participants. This whole movie was just fun. What I've been hoping for from these movies.

Of course, it also included some extra characters... A subplot of sorts running through the whole thing. The kids and the old boiler man were all likable enough. Watching Shuraiya, in particular, fight was one of the high points of the movie. His greatest strength is being really quick on his feet. That kind of fighter is just fun to watch. Their personal drama was... fine. Just a little predictable. But that wasn't the main draw of this movie for me anyway. This was a good one.

It's been awhile since I watched One Piece: The movie back in January. At the time, I had only watched about 50 episodes and the series was still relatively unassuming. The Straw Hat Pirates still only had four members, they still hadn't reached the Grand Line and a simple, yet fun adventure seemed to be the right fit for a One Piece movie.

But by the time Dead End Adventure was released (146 episodes in,) quite a few things had happened. The Straw Hat Pirates had already been in the Grand Line for a while and discovered the waters there were a lot harder to navigate. ... They had had their most complex and interesting adventure yet in Alabasta in which they were faced with a civil war where neither side was bad. The group had been joined by Sanji, Chopper and Nico Robin, making for a lot of characters to share the screentime. At this point, a lot more is and should be expected from One Piece. It has gone from a simple action shounen to having a huge organic world and interesting storylines.

Even the filler episodes were impressive and always took the opportunity to show us more of the world and characters. It's the first time I've thought that having extra episodes with stories not taken from the manga can not only be enjoyable in its own right, but can be a good thing and teach us more about the series itself.

All this to say that even though I've been lenient with the first three films, perhaps more than I should, it's great to finally see a One Piece film that feels like a real movie. It's the first feature-length film and the first one that's good enough that I would recommend it to any One Piece fan. When the movie started, the words "One Piece: The Movie" appeared again, and this it feels earned. If the film had a more interesting antagonist, and perhaps a more consistent story progression, it could have truly been great, but the way it is, it's bar none the best One Piece film so far.

I think I could recommend this film on the animation alone. Unlike previous films, the art style is very close to show, but the art is a little more detail and there is consistently a lot more motion. Characters and environment move around a lot more fluidly, which is certainly impressive considering how detailed the drawings are, and even in the scenes where people are just talking, you'll often see things going on in the background. The action is snappy and engaging, especially with the lack of the waiting around that the show is infamous for. (Plus, for an action franchise, it's about time one of the films had some proper action.) There are definitely shots that are better animated than others, but the ones that are well animated are a lot of fun to watch. I also want to give credit to the second shot after the title is shown where the camera moves around in a 3D modeled town inhabited by traditionally drawn characters. It's showing its age for sure, (mostly due to the horrendous framerate,) but the 3D modeling maintains the art style pretty well and it's well enough made that it doesn't feel out of place and is impressive to watch.

The story is once again an excuse for shenanigans, but with more thought put to it this time. The film takes advantage of its longer running time to flesh out the story and characters much more than previous films. Each character gets at least a little bit to do and they all have their moments. My favorite moment is Sanji cheering up an almost suicidal kid, then casually wondering why he's being so nice. Nothing more is ever said about the subject.

There is also better executed drama, mostly centered around another kid and adopted guardian. I don't know why every single One Piece film so far has felt like having a kid who the drama centers around, but I suppose it works fine as long as the kid's name isn't Mobambi. I wasn't too impressed by the plot twist towards the end, but the both characters take advantage of the longer runtime to develop decently well, and the kid interacts pretty well with the main characters, even if it reminds me a bit of Apis from the Warship Island arc. I think it's also an advantage that the main characters have some emotional weight to them as well, not just the side characters. In fact, the kid's emotional development kind of connects nicely to some of the other characters, especially Luffy, Nami and Sanji.

My one gripe with the story is that I think they could have taken better advantage of the concept of the ship race. I can't be the only one who thinks there were more possibilities with a race on the sea where the ships can openly sabotage each other. But after an admittedly pretty awesome start, the race ends up not mattering at all anymore with the direction the story takes. And even with the past of having been a marine before running off with a marine ship to become a pirate, the antagonist lacks any real characterization beyond causing problems just because he thinks it's fun. His personality does clash against Luffy decently well as he has a distaste for what Luffy enjoys about being a pirate, but it still feels a bit too simple as he doesn't have a proper goal. Say what you will about One Piece, it's not typically too subtle about character motivation. What I do like about the antagonist is that we're told early on that he has devil fruit power, but what exactly that ability is remains hidden until the climax. The fact that for most of the film we don't know exactly what he's capable of does help making him more intimidating.

What I said about filler episodes earlier had a purpose, because that way you'll know that when I say that even though the film isn't as good as the show's most interesting stories, (like the Alabasta arc), but is still on par with the filler episodes, that's a compliment even if it may not sound like one. The film does take the opportunity to develop the characters and the world that little bit more while telling a decent story, and I for one hope this will set a standard for the films to come.

Well, before understanding my general note about the work, I must point out that this is an analysis about the film itself, about how it manages to insert the world of One Piece into it, so filler.
Basically, this movie is a representation of everything One Piece could have, but it does not have: Piracy. In this film we have a beautiful story, acceptable and well placed. We have a well-made art, nothing too much of other films. We have a medium sound production, nothing to complain about.
Characters: In this film, we are inserted a charismatic character, who makes us want it as part of the ... work. The villain of the film is not something extraordinary, but it combines with the pirate theme.
Well, now explaining how my grade for this part is 10 and the other aspects are low. Just because this movie brings out things that we have not seen in the manga of One Piece, piracy, fights inside the boat, the conflicts, the real pirate life, all this is inserted in this film, and surprisingly, in the beginning, it becomes quite attractive and fun to watch, besides the fact of recovering a good old nostalgia of the old traces of the work as a whole.
I highly recommend to any connoisseur of the work of Eiichiro Oda, now, for those who have never watched or read the manga, would not advise.

Story: As far as One Piece movies go before this one, this story is the most fresh and close to cannon as possible. The Straw Hats, short on money due to their captains endless stomach, enter a pirate race in order to earn some fast cash. Only, this race isn't what it's cracked up to be. Unlike the last few movies before this one, which follow pretty much the same design, this movie seems to be different and unique.

Art: The art was great and kept with the original animation, with some enhancements due to being a movie. There was some lazy ... animation using show flashbacks, but it was to improve and explain the story so I didn't mind them much.

Sound: The sound was really great. Up to this point in the show, sometimes you could tell the voice actors were in a room shouting their lines, in this movie, you couldn't hear that. Also, the themes swelled up at just the right times to create great musicality.

Characters: This was the department where the movie hit it's snag and earned it's no 10 outcome. They had an annoying kid. Every One Piece movies downfall with me has been the tired but true annoying kid character. Nobody likes the annoying kid. They should just leave the annoying kid out, but I don't live in Japan and who knows, the annoying kid could be another annoying kids hero or something. Also, the villain seemed to be a hodgepodge of the different villains prior on the TV show. Other then that, everything else was fine. All of the other characters were left in tact and useful. It was nice to see Robin's power used.

Enjoyment: I got a lot of enjoyment of of the film. It was longer then the other movies previous and a lot to sit through, but it never got boring. I only stopped to go back to a funny part or to read what everyone was saying in the background.

Overall: A great movie. I wasn't expecting much with the previous movies leaving me a tad disappointed, but this one made up for all of them. A great watch and I'm sure I'll be re-watching it in the future. A must watch if you are a fan and want to watch a good One Piece movie. Skip the others before this one and watch this one instead.

**Spoilers**

Wow, so far best out of the first four movies. The 3D effects with the boat and the ocean are great.There were some really interesting characters, specifically Shuraiya Bascud. His fight with Cpt. Gasparde's right hand man was really good. Do we ever see a side character this badass? I loved his look and finding his sister at the end there, it threw me off! I really didn't think that little boy was her.

I like how we saw the news circulate and how it still seemed like he had 30mil bounty and near the end they realized it went up. That puts it ... post Alabasta, I watched it after episode 138, but I think it could be watched before. There's a line from Nico Robin where she says "Is it always this lively" So that makes me think it should be right after the Alabasta arc, so after episode 131. I know the movies aren't cannon and don't necessarily fit into the timeline well, but it's fun to speculate.

By the way Nico's Great Flower hand move was insane, like I didn't know her power could do that? She is wayyyy powerful. I wonder if we'll ever see that move again in the rest of the series??

This story line was vastly different than the old cliche one piece story line we're used to. Go to an island, meet new people, save those people by beating up the bad guy, (well it was but different lol) this one was a pirate race that happens (uh... every few years when a gust of wind blows up the mountain? I'm not going to think too hard about it I guess haha) That's what's fun about One Piece, you just have to go with it sometimes. I thought it was weird to mimic how to get into the Grand Line on random island inside of the Grand Line, (made the original entrance not as unique) but it did end up having a waterfall on the other side though.

Most One Piece Villians really don't interest me (some of them do, just most of them don't (Edit: I've only seen up to episode 250 so far at this point at the time of this review). The fact he was an Ex-Marine was pretty cool I liked how is ship symbol was the red X over the marine logo. Other than that he was eh. He reminded me of a watered down Crocodile maybe?

We get a peek in the Going Mary's bathroom were the little girl was hiding, thought that was cool.

There's a line I loved that Zoro gave to Nami
"Don't step over people!" Cracked me up lol

All in all great quality and really cool idea with the race, even though it ended up being completely rigged, which I will say disappointed me. (That's a pirate event for you I guess lol) Also I realized they like never get treasure, cracked me up when Nami says "I'm tired of being a poor pirate"

Going on to watch the 5th movie next! Weirdly I heard this is the next in the timeline order.

WHY I LIKED:
⬤ "Drastic" (movie-worthy) improvement in art style for the first time since 99. Dynamic waves and ships, shadows on characters and other.
⬤ First one piece movie ever that actually resembles a movie than a filler chapter or two.
⬤ Pirate town and tavern settings
⬤ Shuraiya's fight scenes, ships getting wrecked...
⬤ Rather original concept, considering previous movies were all about island, treasure and bazooka-prone villains.

WHY I DISLIKED:
⬤ The movie is considerably dark and yet plot armor is thick as ever, Luffy gets his hands and stomatch pierced, 2 scenes later he is good to go.
⬤ Carefreeness of the villain was off the charts, made me ... cringe from time to time.

SUMMARY:
⬤ If you are a skeptical one and the skipped first 3 movies, you might want to re-consider this one.
⬤ To this point I scored previous movies between 6-7 because I didnt see them getting any better even for early 2000 standards.
⬤ For some reason I reacted well to this movie. The vacation feeling One Piece mastered to convey was at its best. So this remarkable movie gets a voluptuous [[9/10]] !!

Story: 7/10
Art: 8/10
Sound: 7/10
Character: 7/10
Enjoyment: 9/10

Overall: 9/10

Well,my first review,but since i'm a big fan of one piece,i just can't pass and don't do this.

This movie occurs after the Alabasta Arc of the anime.The comedy was not the point of this movie(only a few times).The Strawhats pirates showed their power and everyone did his job,and participated in the battles,at least a bit anyway.This is all i wanted.
The story was good enough,drama and anger in the right point,like the anime arcs.At the end the movie was good and made me remember of the old times in the anime,so nostalgic.
The ... villain was bad(in a good way XD),like the One Piece villains,he made me really hate him.Somethings was strange to me,but i don't think that it deserve a lower note for this.

I recently began watching all of One Piece. No skipping filler, watching every movie, every OVA and ONA, etc, and out of all the movies and smaller stories I've watched this one was my favorite up to this point. The supporting cast got along with the Straw Hats neautifully, and the concept was interesting enough. The setting is really cool, honestly I wouldn't've even minded if it had been a little longer. The animation and soundtrack are what you'd expect from One Piece at the time that this aired, nothing particularly different.

Like I mentioned, some really good scenes with the Straw Hats are what ... make this movie so special, there's particularly a really great Sanji scene that I loved, I really hope he gets more wholesome moments like that in the future, there's so much potential to him as a character and I really love him a lot! Overall a really enjoyable movie, definitely watch if you enjoy One Piece, even if you usually skip the non-canon stuff!