Turns out the one thing I really wanted from a One Piece film was some goddamn personality. As good as Dead End Adventure was, you could easily argue it was trying too hard to be like the series to really stand on its own. Baron Omatsuri and the Secret Island is one of a kind and does its own thing while staying just familiar enough to keep with the spirit of One Piece. Once you get used how different it looks from anything One Piece-related that had been made at that point, this is clearly the best One Piece film that had been made at this.
At first I was a bit put off by the very different animation style of this film. Mamoru Hosoda seems to have a very particular style to his work. He seems to be a fairly well-known director, but I haven't actually seen any other of his films, with the exception of the Digimon Adventure movie, (the short film, not the Fox Kids hack job). I thought the animation for that film worked great, but wasn't entirely sure this style worked as well for the One Piece characters. I was also coming right from the series, and at this point the series had gone over to HD and widescreen and looked more beautiful and detailed than ever. Compared to that Hosoda's style looked more simple and messy. But after a while the style started grow on me more, and it's hard for me to deny that the animation is organic and a lot of fun to look at, or that this style fits the whacky world of One Piece pretty well. The ring toss boat race, the final battle and the best fishing scene of all time in particular look great and are both dynamic and creative. As different as the character designs look, they are also very expressive and give the characters a lot of personality with the way they look and move. I also can't think of many directors who would be a able to make a simple tube shape genuinely terrifying. As the film goes from funny and care-free to more serious and dark, the animation is able to pull of the transition perfectly well with some very well chosen angles and color pallets.
Speaking of which, that's also part of what I like about the story. I'm always impressed by stories that can start off so simple, and then gradually reveal that there's a lot more going on underneath the surface. The Straw Hat Pirates are invited to a resort by the baron Omatsuri where they are challenged to take on the so-called ordeals of Hell, which Luffy of course accepts due to his combination of bravery and stupidity. At first it seems like the movie will just be about the crew taking on different challenges, akin to the Long Ring Long Land arc from the series, but it soon turns out there's more going on with the people on the island and that the baron has some rather worrying motives. The story behind the baron isn't all that detailed, but actually is somewhat tragic, and the film goes pretty dark in the second half.
The message is a bit different from what you usually get in One Piece. Usually the series is about strong bonds of friendship overcoming any hardships, but this film is more about what happens when these bonds are broken. The baron refused to accept the death of his friends, and decided to revive them by destroying other people's friendships, and even succeeds in separating the Straw Hats. We of course know that they are not going to actually die since the rest of the series still needs to happen, and a non-canon movie isn't going to start killing off major characters. But nonetheless, the conflict is resolved because Luffy is able to find other friends to put his trust in, and the other Straw Hats aren't saved until the climax ends. I find it very impressive that the film can tell you it's important to move on and not seem hypocritical when Luffy's friends still come back in the end, and I think that's mostly because of how strong Luffy's emotional development is here. I genuinely like that he for once genuinely takes responsibility in a way other than being strong.
I think I also like this antagonist the most out of any of the antagonists from the films I've seen so far. It's true that a lot of One Piece's villains so far haven't been all that deep, but I think there's one thing that still makes a lot of them good antagonists, and that's motivation. One Piece has always been very strong with motivation as every main character has a very strong dream they want to achieve, (Luffy wants to be the pirate king, Zoro wants to be the world's strongest swords,an, etc.) and that makes them much more memorable. Granted, not all the antagonists have had the same luxury, but I think most of the more memorable ones have. Arlong wanted to establish and maintain his inherent superiority as a fish man, Enel wanted to be a god, Kuro wanted riches without having to run from the marines. And when it comes to the movies, I think the antagonist of Chopper's Kingdom on the Island of Strange Animals is the only one before this film to have a good motivation as he wanted to find the sacred animal's horn to harness their power. It wasn't a very deep motivation, but it was one that fit into his personality and made me remember him more. The best antagonist aside from him would be the one from Dead Island Adventure as he had a decent backstory and was somewhat entertaining, but the problem with him was that he lacked motivation. All he really wanted was excitement. It's not that you can't make that a good motivation, but if you, for instance, think of Saitama from One Punch Man, then his lack of excitement had genuinely affected his life and made a him a much more apathetic person, so there was reason for him to seek excitement that made it a very strong motivation.
So even though baron Omatsuri isn't necessarily that deep, I think he's the most memorable antagonist from the films so far because he has the strongest motivation. He really wants to maintain the bond he has with his friends even after they died, and it's also because of how much a similar bond means to Luffy and how much it drives that we understand that just how strong of a motivation this is for him. Of course, what makes him an antagonist is that he kills people to keep his friends alive at that he stubbornly wants to destroy other friendships because he couldn't naturally maintain his own bonds of friendship. Luffy is the hero for a similar reason, as he's the one able to move on and get new friends to help him even when his friends aren't able to be part of the action anymore.
The only complaint about this film I can think of, is that the ending is a bit too abrupt. Especially considering how much the crew was fighting with each during this film, it would have been nice have a little bit of extra time to see them get along again. But with that being said, I also think the characters were very well written overall, and most of them got something to do, even if most of the Straw Hats were out of comission after a while.
I really thought this was a great film with an engaging and surprising story and some really good animation.
