Hello and welcome to Project Nitsuj. Well July is here which is the anniversary of One Piece so I always like to do something One Piece related to celebrate. It’s really hard to believe this series is 23 years old, it honestly feels like it’s been around longer than that. For years One Piece has remained consistent in terms of quality, story, action, and character. It’s dominated the pages of Shonen Jump for years and will no doubt become the highest selling comic/manga in the future. The film series of One Piece has also been a real treat as well. It’s nice to see self-contained stories featuring our favorite pirates that doesn’t go on for too long and leads to a satisfying ending. Such is the case for today’s movie, Stampede. The 14th movie in the One Piece film series was made to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the anime. It came out in 2019 with Oda serving as creative advisor for the movie. The film did well at the box office, it had the biggest first day attendance in 2019 and managed to rake in $91 million worldwide. It even got a 93% on Rotten Tomato making this one if not the highest rated One Piece films on the site. Let’s take a look at this film and seeing what all the fuss is about. This is Stampede
So the film starts in Impel Down (ah~ the memories. Bon Clay, Buggy, Crocodile, evil warden, each floor being a different level of Hell, okamas, and a prison break for the ages. Good times, good times) where Blackbeard have the prisoners fight each other with those left standing joining his crew. Everyone fights except for one pirate named Douglas Bullet nicknamed the Demon’s Heir and a man many thought was dead. This guy is so dangerous that even Blackbeard doesn’t want this guy in his crew (that alone should tell you how dangerous he is. He’s basically saying: I can’t control this). We fast forward two years later where everyone’s favorite pirates, the Strawhats, have received an invitation to the Pirate Fest, a festival run by pirates for pirates where they can gather and trade information, make connections, and participate in a treasure hunt with the treasure supposedly belonging to Roger (it’s Pirate Con 2020). They arrive at the island of the Pirate Fest where we see a few familiar faces have also come to the festival such as Drake, Kidd, Bonney (hey, she’s alive), Foxy, Law, and fan favorites like Buggy who’s the head of security for the festival (that’s like putting Joker as head of security in Arkham), and Smoker along with Tashigi are there undercover to capture the infamous master of ceremonies Buena Festa and Douglas who they believe are working together. We see Law injured and running away from Buggy where he stows away on the Sunny-Go as the Strawhats get ready for the treasure hunt.
A knock up stream appears and launches out an island in a bubble (https://youtu.be/oFs3lOqr1UE) where the treasure is located. Luffy and everyone else rides the stream up to the island where Law comes out injured. He tells the Strawhats to leave the island saying that Festa is planning something bad and everyone here is in danger. Robin becomes interested in what Festa is planning and wants to investigate, so Sanji, Chopper, and Brook go with her and Law to find out what Festa is planning while the others continue the race for the treasure (scene here: https://youtu.be/ehVXnkSJuA0). Luffy and the others make it to the island where they see the treasure and race towards it. The whole island soon erupts into a bloody brawl between pirates (it’s absolute chaos and I love every minute of it). Meanwhile, Robin’s team makes it into Festa’s secret lair where they find out that Festa has teamed up with Douglas and is going to launch a buster call on the island (oh shit, we barely escaped the last one and I’m sure those two years have given them plenty of time to work out the kinks). Everybody rushes to tell the others, but they run into Smoker and this leads to a fight between him and Sanji. Back at the treasure hunt, Buggy manages to get the treasure only to lose it to Usopp after the island gets destroyed by Douglas who threw a ship at it (damn! He’s like a combination of Akuma and Brock Lesnar. Cool, scary, and a pain in the ass all at the same time). We finally see Douglas (and boy is he imposing) where we find out he used to be a member of Roger’s crew. It’s said that he’s as strong as Rayleigh if not stronger (and yet he allowed himself to get captured and locked up. (Shizuku): A rouse. (Nitsuj): Don’t know what to be more shocked about. The fact that what you say might be true or the fact that you know what rouse means). Buggy is so scared by his presence that he chooses to run away saying that he would rather face the Navy than Douglas (even if One Piece was right in front of him).
Douglas beats up Usopp for the treasure and says that he’s going to be the next king of pirates by beating everyone which is why he bought them all here. He believes that strength is everything and things such as nakamas are useless and will only hold you back. He takes on Luffy and the rest of the worst generation where even with they’re combined powers, they’re no match for Douglas (scene here: https://youtu.be/Ahl2Hl9qLQI). Luffy does manage to get some hits in but even that barely does any damage to Douglas. As they fight, the island soon becomes surrounded by the Navy meaning the buster call is in full effect and their goal is to kill everyone on the island. Once Smoker hears about this, he lets Sanji go and he along with Chopper and Brook reunite with Robin and Law who leaves with Crocodile because he has a plan to defeat Douglas, but it requires Law’s help. Back in the fight with Douglas, he reveals that he’s a devil fruit user (as if he wasn’t powerful enough). He ate the Gasha Gasha fruit which allows to disassemble inanimate objects and reassemble them into anything he wants (its Kidd’s power version 2.0). As he assembles a large assortment of inanimate objects he reveals that the treasure is an eternal pose that will lead you to Raftel which is where One Piece is located (so basically whoever gets this eternal pose is pretty much the next king). Douglas will become the new king and rage war on the world while Festa will use the treasure to start a new era. After Douglas gets done transforming into some kind of metal giant, he knocks out everyone with Usopp waking back up and rescuing Luffy. Once the Navy find out they’ve been tricked, Sakazuki orders a second buster call on the island to wipe out Douglas just like last time (so that’s how they beat him. (Shizuku): Maybe it wasn’t a rouse after all). Chopper and Brook find Luffy and Usopp where Chopper treats them both. After getting treated by Chopper, Luffy heads out to fight Douglas again (any sane man would run away) but is immediately overwhelmed where he lands next to Smoker, Law, Sabo, Buggy, and Hancock (why are Sabo and Hancock here you ask? Fanservice). They all work together to take down Douglas. Through their combined powers they manage to destroy one of Douglas’s colossus arms while Luffy overpowers the other arm. Douglas tries to attack Luffy in his remaining fighting machine only to have it torn apart by Usopp’s plant bullets he launched into it earlier. This exposes Douglas and he engages into a fist fight with Luffy. They trade punches back and forth with Luffy ultimately winning in the end and retrieving the eternal pose. Crocodile and Rob Lucci attempt to attack Luffy for the pose, but he destroys it saying he doesn’t need (and he’s right. Yeah, it’s true, with the pose he could have found One Piece and achieved his goal but that goes against everything that is One Piece). As Buena Festa mourns his lost (you backed up the wrong horse) he gets taken out and captured by Sabo. Luffy soon reunites with his crew and they attempt to escape with other pirates but get stopped by the Navy fleet of the second buster call which has an admiral with them (oh~ we dead). Luckily, Sabo creates a wall of fire (he’s definitely the MVP in the last minutes of this film) with the spirit of Ace (okay, that’s a nice touch) and this allows the pirates to escape safely. In the post-credit scene, we find out that Roger didn’t approve of his crew of making the eternal pose (in fact, they created it behind his back) and even threw it away saying that those who relied on such a thing had no right to One Piece (again, he’s right. Using that pose defeats the whole purpose of the series. While getting the treasure is important and the end goal the most important thing is the journey you take to reach it. The adventure, the growth, and most importantly the nakama you make along the way is what One Piece is all about. Because in the end, the treasure will go away and be forgotten but the memories and nakama you make along the journey will last forever). When Luffy tells the others that he destroyed the pose they’re all shocked (they just don’t get it) except for Usopp (scene here: https://youtu.be/fXH4-pKnIto. Thank you, someone gets it).
Final Thoughts
Well that was a rollercoaster of intense action. Out of all the One Piece films this is the one film that has the most action put into it and features the most characters from the series. The story is pretty straightforward and not as strong as the stories in the other films. If I’m being honest, this probably has the weakest story of the bunch. However, it is a lot of fun to watch. The physical abuse of Buggy in this film always gets a laugh out of me. The fight against Douglas was awesome as it was cool to see Luffy and all of these other pirates work together to bring him down which only goes to show just how strong and dangerous he was. Speaking of Douglas, compared to the other villains we’ve seen in this film series he’s pretty bland and forgetful. There really isn’t much to his character aside from being strong, destructive, and rejecting Roger’s philosophy. He’s a guy who believes in strength and because he’s the strongest he should be at the top and no one else. The real highlight in this film has to be near the end with Luffy destroying the eternal pose because he gets it. Nothing in this world worth having comes easy. If you want something, you have to work/earn it and the eternal pose rejects that idea. If Luffy used that pose he would become the king of pirates but he wouldn’t have earned the title. Luffy wants the earn the right to call himself the king of pirates and in order to earn that title that means sailing the ocean, relying on his wits and nakama, and overcoming any trial that gets placed in front of him. The animation is nice. It’s in the same style as the Broly movie. In fact, I think the same animation team that worked on the Broly also worked on this movie.
Final Score
The final score for Stampede is a 7/10. A good and enjoyable film for anyone who’s a fan of One Piece. While it doesn’t have the best story as the other films, it does have a lot of fun and good action to go along with it to keep it entertained. Do I think this is the weakest film of the bunch? No. I enjoyed it for what it was and would encourage any fan of One Piece to check it out. Thanks for reading and I’ll see you next time on Project Nitsuj.
*All videos, clips, and music are not owned by me and belong to their respective owners. All rights reserved*
Thanks for reading. As always feel free to leave a comment in the comment section or send your comments, feedback, or request to iamprojectnitsuj@gmail.com
And follow me on twitter for updates and other stuff: https://twitter.com/ProjectNitsuj