One Piece 3D2Y: Ace no shi wo Koete! Luffy Nakama Tono Chikai

After suffering great personal loss during the battle of Marineford, Monkey D. Luffy finds himself stranded on Rusukaina, a treacherous island crawling with huge and dangerous creatures. There, he has committed himself to a two-year stretch of training to learn "Haki," the energy that combatants can use to grant themselves a variety of abilities in battle.

Luffy is jerked away from his otherwise peaceful training by the abduction of Sandersonia and Marigold, sisters of his friend and ally Boa Hancock. With Boa's aid, Luffy seeks to track down the infamous pirate responsible for the kidnapping, a man whose recent prison break is the result of Luffy's own reckless actions. Luffy must use his developing grasp of Haki to defeat this new foe while coming to with his overbearing grief in the process.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Monkey D., Luffy Main

Tanaka, Mayumi Japanese

Boa, Hancock Main

Mitsuishi, Kotono Japanese

Roronoa, Zoro ing

Nakai, Kazuya Japanese

Sanji ing

Hirata, Hiroaki Japanese

Nico, Robin ing

Yamaguchi, Yuriko Japanese

Tony Tony, Chopper ing

Ootani, Ikue Japanese

Nami ing

Okamura, Akemi Japanese

Usopp ing

Yamaguchi, Kappei Japanese

Portgas D., Ace ing

Sakaguchi, Daisuke Japanese

Brook ing

Cho Japanese

Cook, Justin Producer

Teramoto, Satoshi Producer

Herek, Samantha Assistant Producer

Itou, Naoyuki Director

Reviews

May 20, 2015

ichiban_alex

Recommended

One Piece 3D2Y: Overcome Ace's Death! Luffy's Vow to his Friends is not about what the title suggests it is, but the side story presented is engaging (at least on some level) to any fan of One Piece.

There is a lot of re-animation of previous events in the show, especially in the beginning of the special in which the Marineford Arc is condensed to a few minutes in an almost comedic manner. Though it is cool to see older scenes in the alternative animation style of the special, all of the rehashing was unnecessary in of plot and good storytelling. Besides that, the plot ... itself is fairly straightforward.

Byrnndi World and his small crew are not the most threatening villains despite World’s lofty goal to destroy the World Government, but that is intentional and they are more than serviceable for this special. World himself is unlikeable and overly ambitious; however, he and his crew get a decent backstory so the audience at least understands why. His shift in dreams is easy to empathize with, and out of all the One Piece movie villains excluding Strong World and Film Z, Byrnndi World and his crew especially may be tied with the sixth movie’s Baron Omatsuri for the title of most complex.

On a character standpoint, Luffy is as endearing as ever and his writing feels natural though all of the material is non canon. Other than Luffy, canon characters appearing in 3D2Y include Hancock and her sisters, Rayleigh, Mihawk, Perona, Buggy. Disregarding the fanservice, Hancock is a strong character and the amount of screentime she gets is justified. Rayleigh is as cool as ever, though his role in the plot is minimal. Mihawk appears briefly along with Perona, but despite his power and more significant role in the series, he doesn’t do anything that warrants him being in the special. Finally, Buggy. The jokes about him accidentally making his newfound fandom think he’s awesome and powerful even though he’s not got old long ago, and are equally old here. Other than that, he is actually entertaining.

The animation is deviates from One Piece’s usual style, but not nearly as much as the sixth movie. It tends to favor thick linework and sharp angles, with character expressions animated in the same manner. Though different, the animation is quite nice to look at and makes the fight scenes more dynamic. Luffy’s fights are amazing as usual and there is a lot of haki usage which makes them that much better. Unfortunately, fights involving Boa Hancock focus more on fanservice rather than showing off her prowess and skill. It’s easy to brush off a random and unwarranted jiggle or two, but the fanservice in this special reduced my enjoyment of the story.

One Piece 3D2Y: Overcome Ace's Death! Luffy's Vow to his Friends is deliciously long and features great characters, surprisingly good villains, and some decent fights in a unique and watchable animation style. However, the hefty fanservice and inclusion of pointless scenes and characters detract from its integrity.

Reviewer’s Rating: 7

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Sep 2, 2014

SerB3128

Recommended

Following the events of Marineford, Luffy is in the midst of training with Rayleigh when a pirate by the name of Burndy World arises after escaping from Impel Down. With the intent of kidnapping one of the seven warlords, World ends up taking Boa Hancock's sisters as hostage. Luffy and Hancock team up to take down Burndy World and save Hancock's sisters.

Story: 8
From the original synopsis, I was under the impression that this would be a movie depicting Boa as a damsel in distress for Luffy to come and rescue from the hands of an evil pirate. I was so pleased that this was ... not the case. In fact, quite contrarily, Luffy and Boa made a great team going up against the bad guys.
If I am completely honest, the beginning of this movie did not sit well with me. The first fifteen minutes are almost entirely of flashbacks, and while I understand that it is necessary to show the events that occurred prior to this film, it was both rushed and simultaneously felt too slow. Going through Ace's death felt like I was fast-fowarding through a tape, because it was very quick scene after scene with not much transition between them. Then we go through a sequence of showing each of the Straw Hat Pirates that ultimately took up more time than I would have liked.
Following this, the build up to the actual events felt slow and altogether boring to me. I was thinking that this was going to be a flop of a movie, but about midway through the plot begans to pick up. And WOW did it pick up. The entire film went from being so-so to straight up amazing.
It's better that I don't talk about the plot any more so as not to give away spoilers. There is a lot that happens and it's well worth watching for yourself.

Art: 8
It's not uncommon for One Piece movies to try different art styles. This one reminded me a bit of the 6th One Piece “Baron Omatsuri and the Secret Island” movie, but not quite as flat. In this, there was great detail when needed, and even dabbled a bit with 3D and computer looking effects. It took me a few minutes to adjust to the new style, but once I became familiar with it I was able to sit back and enjoy it for what it was.
The movement in this movie was phenomenal. It always felt like there was something going on, even when characters were merely talking to each other. Anywhere from hair to clothes to their bodies in mid-fight, it was great to see the effort put into making the simple lines on a screen come to life.

Sound: 7
All of the voice actors did a great job and played their roles perfectly. As always, I can count on the cast to act their hearts out and bring powerful emotion to the characters. And in this movie, which actually dealt quite a bit with deeper emotions, the voice actors really impressed me.
The reason why I give sound a 7, however, is because the music used within the movie was not new and did not give much to the scene in the ways that I would want. The music, especially during a final battle, should not just be background noise, it should amplify and add a whole new layer to the scene. The music sort of faded into the background, and, I noticed, was just the same music that we have heard a hundred times in the show before. I would have loved to hear entire new compositions made for this movie, but sadly I was not given that.

Character: 10
Here's where the movie truly did an outstanding job.
We all know Luffy's character; we know he is a goof and sometimes an idiot, but we also know that he is loyal to his friends and he cares about others. In the show, we never did see the events that took place right after Ace's death or see how that might affect him. This film touched on that aspect in several instances, and it's evident that Ace's death is a burden that still weighs him down. I liked seeing that because it is not something we often see in his character. It is a main impact in Luffy's life to know that despite his efforts he was unable to save his brother. However, we don't really see that impact upon him because the show skipped over 2 years entirely, during which we can assume Luffy was given the time to accept, or at the least come to with, his brother's ing. In this film, Ace's death is still fresh in his mind, and Luffy is struggling with it periodically for the duration of the movie, especially when it is brought up by others. This point of the plot didn't overtake the rest of the events, but I really enjoyed seeing how it was an addition to the story and an addition to Luffy's character.
Boa Hancock is as wonderful as ever. She practically has a split personality, just like in the show, where she is either the pirate empress who uses her beauty and strength to kill her foes, or she is a lovesick puppy who is obsessed with Luffy. She was an enjoyable addition to the movie and I loved seeing her.
Those were the two main characters of the movie, but we had a myriad of others, and surprisingly all of whom I really enjoyed.
The main villains of this movie were Burndy World and his companions. I never thought I would be so invested in the back-stories of these villains, but I truly was. Their history was compelling and interesting and the character development seen between them is fascinating. I cared more about the villains than I ever thought I would. Of all the bad guys we've seen throughout the One Piece movies, I would say these are the most interesting ones, or at the very least, the ones I cared the most about.

Enjoyment: 9
There was so much to love about this movie. So many characters showed up that added new layers to an already well written film. The fighting was exciting, I was on the edge of my seat for the duration of each battle. There was a great build up to each fight, a great build up with each character, and much more.
There were flaws of course, no movie is perfect. And like I mentioned before, the first half was a bit of a let down for me, but the second half made up for it and practically made me forget any doubts I had to begin with.

Overall: 8
Next to Strong World, I would say this is one of the best One Piece movies we've had. Absolutely worth watching. If you enjoyed the Marineford arc, watch this movie. And if you didn't enjoy the Marineford arc, you would probably still like this movie if nothing else than just to watch Luffy and Boa kick ass and take down some bad guys.

Reviewer’s Rating: 8

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Apr 10, 2024

XOArama

Mixed Feelings

This was a fine movie overall, but it never really engaged me. The plot setup itself is pretty boring, and the first bit of it is mostly a quick recap of certain events, which was nice to see some of the scenes reanimated but not really necessary. The main villain got some development towards the end, but it felt kind of hollow, and I didn't really care. The dialogue is pretty one-dimensional and plain, which also just makes it unable to engage me.

Besides that, there are some nice moments with Buggy, Hancock has a handful of nice scenes, and with the little bits of fight ... scenes we do get, there's some pretty good animation, so it was worth the watch for those reasons. With this movie done, I'm finally ready to start the time skip, so I couldn't be more excited.

Reviewer’s Rating: 6

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