One Piece: Heart of Gold

Note: This is a SPOILER FREE review! Feel free to read without worries : ).

One Piece: Heart of Gold is a prequel to the "Film Gold" movie.

There is no denying my approval of the recent swashbuckling specials for providing better screentime among characters and presenting more adventure in between the much longer story arcs(I’m looking at you Dressrosa). This brings me back to the classic One Piece episodes that I love.

The plot itself goes into following the Strawhats meeting a mysterious girl named Olga who managed to escape from a metal production island called “Alchemi’. She is now being pursued by not ... only Marines but also the infamous Gildo Tesoro.

It’s been a while since we’ve really had one of these movie stories since movie 12: "Film Z" received a prequel that was a mini filler arc(episodes 575-578) which took place before the Punk Hazard story(episodes 579-627). This time, we receive a two hour special that I found much more exciting and a whole lot better in execution. I’ll put it this way: I want to see Film Gold now because of this. The plotline structure felt refreshing. Seeing more of Sanji, Nami, Chopper, and Brooke here as well made me personally happy because there hasn’t been much of them as of recent in the anime.

Animation wise, it was pretty good! You're not going to have much problems liking this visually either.

Overall: One Piece: Heart of Gold is an entertaining story that really hypes up Film Gold in a splendid way. There are a few moments that drag on a bit too much but the adventure itself was an absolute joy to watch as a One Piece fan.

- 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 special ... had 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 luffy ... knockoff, 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 One ... Piece. 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 that ... fans 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.

This prelude to the new movie Gold is nothing more than that a prelude. In all honesty a person can watch the movie without having to watch this and to be fair we're never gonna hear the Straw Hats mention anything that has happened in this special since it is a filler. The story was interesting but became unusually bland half way through. What this special DID do right was hyping us up for the movie which OP fans have been dying to see since it was announced. Make sure you watch the scene after the credits because it leads into the plot of the ... story.

I think Olga is an extremely appealing character. One Piece could use more lolibabas. Other than that, there's not much to be said about this special. It has a solid plotline, decent original characters, it's well animated, and the characterization is not terribly off. What else could you possibly want from a non canonical special episode?
It's also worth mentioning that it's a prequel to Film: GOLD, but it stands on its own, mostly just teasing some characters and events. I think I enjoyed it more than the film, even.
In conclusion, watch this for Olga, ok? She's very cute.

One specific thing I liked:
-Olga thinking out loud.


[5] STORY: Nothing too original or notable in this movie that's worth mentioning. There's your generic antagonist that is after the same treasure that the protagonists are after.

[7] ART: Nothing new, your regular One Piece style.

[6] SOUND: Again, nothing new, just the already well-known One Piece style.

... [4] CHARACTER: All of One Piece's main protagonists, a new antagonist, a girl and her father. The antagonist is the some messed annoying dude, the girl is just a brat and her father isn't worth talking about.

[8] ENJOYMENT: I enjoyed watching this 1 hour and 45 minute special, and if you're a One Piece fan you should watch it.

[6] OVERALL: "Hey GelatinPowers, why are your actual rating and overall rating different?"
I rate anime based purely on how much I enjoyed it and I review anime based on everything else.

Ah, want more of One Piece? Here is an hour and a half of it, and I bet, you will still ask for more. This special (although I'm not sure why isn't it considered a movie), serves as a prequel to the One Piece movie; Film: Gold, but surprisingly, it stands out as an independent contained story in itself, It got all of these adventure elements, very exciting and thrilling.
What really shines in this special is that all the straw hats got to do what they are good at, everybody played a role in their adventure, and that's what made it really stand out among ... other movies and specials, it really gives you the vibe of adventure and discovering exotic islands, the hunt for treasure is the strongest feel however.


- Story (8/10):
There was a legend about a rare metal called “Pure Gold”, but a legend is no more when it's proven real, right? (Just like the lyrics on the first One Piece opening), along the way, the straw hats meet a mysterious girl that she has had lost trust in people, and somewhat lost and alone, but as she spends time with them, she learns from them how important it is to believe in your friends, and that it's easier and more fun to reach your goals with the help of your loved ones, there is a messed-up backstory of course, at the conclusion of the movie, you will notice some great opportunity to expand the One Piece lore and world building, and there are some really interesting clues about the history of the world as well.

- Art (9/10):
Differently better than Toei's weekly animation, you would certainly wish One Piece was a release of the same quality, even if we had to sacrifice the weekly episodes for fully seasonal releases, the color palette used is a bit yellowish, more lively than it usually is, gives a warm tone of summer, and the animation is no fodder too, the movements feel very crisp and fluid, however, there were some unnecessary additions I noticed while watching, whenever there was a moment of Observation Haki usage, they seem to add an awkward red color to their eyes, probably to indicate that they are using Kenbonshoku? It really wasn't that necessary, but the pluses are extensively greater that the downvotes.

- Sound (8.5/10):
Yes, your typical One Piece soundtrack is strongly present, but there are indeed some additional tracks in the backgrounds, especially a very emotional lullaby, that's very heartwarming, yet with a noticeable sad tone to it, like that Naruto filler (Natsohuboshi why are you so red...), aside from the tracks, there was a slightly different use of sound effects, like punches and kicks impacts, I usually prefer the normal ones used in, the , as I found these ones very unfitting, where you can see Sanji hiting a target as hard as he can while the empact sound is a bit low and doesn't reflect the might of his kicks.

- Characters (7/10):
Well, even in immersive adventures, there can be some quite annoying characters involved, let's start with the girl called “Olga”, I personally didn't think someone can match up with the annoyance of Boruto's personality, but hey, not only does she share the same hair color, she could possibly be his soul mate, both brats are very noisy, and can make you really on their opposite side.
Another character would be the villain, as uninteresting as I found him, I couldn't even keep his name in my memory, he doesn't bring specifically anything new to the table, just the same ideals as your typical east-blue villains, very empty but barks the loudest.

- Enjoyment (8/10):
Yes, the special did leave me on my toes the whole time, mainly because of the sense of adventures, most of the times, the straw hats would be fighting one of the warlords, probably high ranking navy officers, or even some unknown name pirate crew, but this time around, there was a much brighter goal, it felt like a true adventure, totally what you would expect from aime like One Piece, the thrill and of discouvery is strongly present all the way, it was also amazing to see some familiar faces behid the scenes, and it even made watching the sequel movie Film: Gold more exciting.

- Overall (8.1/10):
I was very skeptical about whether to watch this special before diving into Film: Gold, but now that I've seen it, I would totally recommend it, and I certainly don't know what I was afraid of all this time from starting this.