One Piece film Red was released in Japan on August 6, and it is breaking records just 2 days after its release in cinemas, but when it comes to reviews, One Piece fans in Japan have given somewhat mixed responses, with almost 25 percent of viewers gave 1-star on the movie review website.
First, let us talk about the success of the One Piece film Red. Based on Eiichiro Oda’s manga, the One Piece film Red has earned ¥2,254,237,030 (roughly US $16 million) in 2 days. The film is the highest-earning movie in the One Piece franchise on the opening weekend. The One Piece film Red also had the 2nd biggest opening weekend in revenue (in Japan), just behind Demon Slayer Mugen Train.
So, the One Piece film Red is doing good business, this means that a large fan base of One Piece actually enjoyed the film, but the abundance of negative reviews also means that there was a significant number of fans who were not satisfied with the film’s content.
Reason Behind Negative Ratings
According to a Twitter user @lightning446, some One Piece fans were expecting a traditional One Piece film just like the previous films of the franchise, but One Piece film Red ended up being a somewhat musical which felt boring to hardcore One Piece fans in Japan.
You might be asking, How many songs does One Piece Film Red have? One Piece Red has a total of 7 songs, sung by Ado, which is quite a lot even for a musical.
One Piece film Red currently has a rating of 3/5 based on the ratings of almost 10,000 people on a popular Japanese movie review website, Eida. One reviewer, who gave a rating of 0.5/5 wrote:
My sister, who likes Ado, and I, who doesn’t like Ado, went together, but after watching it, we both fell silent. There were more song parts than I expected, and it was difficult to get into the story.
Another reviewer wrote:
Many of the songs themselves are good, and Ado’s singing voice is beautiful. I saw it at IMAX (cinema), so there was more time between live performances, but I want the creators to understand that I came to see the One Piece movie and not to listen to Ado-san’s song. About 40 minutes is too much.
In case you don’t know, Ado is a 19-year-old Japanese singer. She is pretty popular among Japanese youth, but some parents don’t like her because of the harsh lyrics of her song that are apparently bad for youth.
Another reason behind the negative reviews is revealing some important information about Shanks, which is not even revealed in the manga. Luffy’s next power-up, which hasn’t debuted in the anime, was also revealed in the film. It could be said that Luffy’s new power-up and new information about Shanks were added to urge more people to watch the film.
Even after these negative reviews, One Piece Red is a box office hit. Crunchyroll will be bringing the One Piece film Red to the US in Fall 2022.