The long-running iconic series One Piece has been making history with its most recent theatrical film, One Piece Film: Red. Many anime films had great performances in the cinemas in 2022. It was a great year for anime and cinema.Anime films brought in the box office money in Japan, making up four out of the top 5 movies of the year — One Piece Film: Red, Jujutsu Kaisen 0, Suzume no Tojimari, Detective Conan: The Bride of Halloween. The One Piece Film: Red is the fifteenth feature film in the franchise focused on Uta, a recently-introduced female character, which was also made to celebrate the series’ 25th anniversary.
Enter One Piece Film: Red
One Piece Film: Red follows the story of Uta, an original character created for this movie, who serves as its all-in-one hero, damsel in distress, and villain. She was known to conceal her identity whenever she performed, and her voice was known to be ethereal. In the film, Uta is holding her first-ever live concert, so all of her fans make sure to attend. Even Luffy and the Straw Hat Pirates attended her concert to witness her remarkable voice, with everyone looking forward to hearing her perform live.
The plot twist: Uta is in fact Shanks’ daughter. The story then proceeds to unfold even more secrets, as well as more plot twists are unveiled from there. Uta is the movie’s emotional core, and each new piece of information the viewers come to learn about her past and motivations completely redefine her character, whose struggle is a commentary on the nature of One Piece’s pirate-filled world, and how it sucks to be such a small fry in this world.
Is One Piece Film: Red Canon?
Before the film was released, Shimizu, its producer, had announced that the story of the film is a separate one, however, even with One Piece Film: Red not being canon in terms of the current manga continuity, it is known that Eiichiro Oda provides hints and foreshadowing in One Piece films, so fans still make sure to watch the movies despite them not being completely canon. Differently from other films, though, One Piece Film: Red provides more information about Skanks through Uta, and this is beneficial in the progress of the canon story. Shanks is such an important character in One Piece, therefore, knowing more about him can deliver some answers to questions that fans might have about the main story.
Uta is considered canon though. Besides having been created by Oda, which means that her past with Shanks is indeed essential to the overall story of One Piece, she is also Luffy’s childhood friend, which adds even more significance to her character, besides, she was introduced in some chapters of the Wano Country Arc, and she did make an appearance during Shanks’ flashback in One Piece Chapter 1055.
To mark the special occasion of One Piece’s 25th anniversary, the movie’s creators decided to make it a special one, which not only has the fan-favorite Shanks as a major character, but it is also the first in the franchise to be a musical, with full-blown song and dance acts courtesy of the main character, Uta, and her singing voice, Ado.
One Piece Film: Red — A Trailblazing Hit
One Piece Film: Red made its world premiere in Tokyo on July 22, 2022, and is set to leave Japanese movie theaters next January 29. It was shown on 495 screens all over Japan, and it was also internationally released, including in countries such as Brazil, France, and Taiwan, and turned out to be the highest-grossing film in Japan in 2022.
* Warning: The announcement video below contains major spoilers for the movie and the manga series. *
The latest One Piece film is a huge hit that has beaten all of the other big film releases of the past year in Japan. Along with being the top movie at the year’s box office, One Piece Film: Red also became one of Japan’s top-grossing movies of all time, standing out among the other films of the year for being a musical. And it became One Piece’s fastest and top-selling film, which now has become the sixth highest-grossing film in Japan of all time. Based on the results of Japan’s box office, the only five films topping One Piece Film: Red in this sense are Howl’s Moving Castle, Princess Mononoke, Your Name, Spirited Away, and Demon Slayer: Mugen Train.
In addition, according to data disclosed by TV Time, a multi-platform TV tracking site that lets viewers know what they watched, how long they have watched, and that share this data with others, the adaptation of Oda's manga series, One Piece beat out top-performers, among them Stranger Things, for most viewed show of 2022, most probably propelled by the upcoming end of the manga series that has just entered its final arc, and the success of One Piece Film: Red might have also helped with that.
Uta Performs New Genesis — One Piece Film: Red
Now, the theme song for One Piece Film: Red, “New Genesis”, by Ado, has become the number 1 song in Japan. Recently, Japanese FM radio station J-Wave announced the top 100 songs of 2022 in Japan based on radio play, streaming numbers, download data, CD sales, tweets, and other factors. “New Genesis” topped this chart, solidifying Ado’s popularity in the country. Ado performed six songs for the film, enough for an album release.
The chart was also made in partnership with Billboard Japan, which added even more credibility to the results. It makes sense for an anime song to top the 2022 charts, considering how big of a hit One Piece Film: Red is. The second place went to the first opening song of the also hit anime of 2022, SPY X FAMILY, “Mixed Nuts”, also performed by a popular band, Official Hige Dandism.
Furthermore, Uta was live on stage singing “New Genesis” at the 73rd Kohaku Uta Gassen where, for the first time ever, an anime character performed live on stage next to the likes of Hinatazaka46 and JO1, with Uta belting out her famous tune from One Piece Film: Red. She got to the Top 10 of performers more viewed and, alongside her performance, Eiichiro Oda released a special illustration of all the Straw Hats in red and white, shown during the 73rd Kohaku Uta Gassen.
It is undeniable that One Piece Film: Red hugely impacted fans and charts in 2022, with an impressive theatrical run, and trailblazing feats, and it is pretty much guaranteed that its home video release, of which there is currently no word out yet about a Blu-ray release or a streaming premiere, shall add to the history it has already made in Japan, the world and the One Piece franchise and fans’ hearts.