A Song, a Princess, Gear Five + More: A One Piece: Red Movie Crash Course

(SPOT.ph) Imagine being a little girl whose father left when you needed him most. Still, you grew up to become a master crafter who works to inspire people around you despite the pains of your childhood. This is the story of Uta, a character folks can’t seem to get enough of; we’re talking thousands of episodes worth of One Piece. And now, a movie.

One Piece still manages to charm its way into our adventurous hearts, with this movie being proof of that. The main shounen series shows no signs of stopping production anytime soon, and Toei Animation has decided to drop another treat for the anime fans out there—One Piece: Red movie, or more widely known as One Piece Film: Red. Not sure what all the fuzz is about or simply want a refresher? We round up the characters to note below.

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One Piece: Red Movie Crew Lineup

Some of the characters below are timeless while some are as fleeting as a song. While it seems some even have surprises in store for us even after their appearances in other arcs.

Monkey D. Luffy

Luffy is the leader of the Straw Hat Pirates, sometimes known as the Mugiwara pirates. He’s also the one responsible for eating the Gomu Gomu no Mi (Devil Fruit), and eventually bears its powers and stretches his body like rubber.

So far, this guy has clashed with countless groups, such as the Cipher Pol, Seven Warlords of the Sea, Marines, Four Emperors, and World Nobles. Despite having the reputation of being reckless and insane, Luffy somehow has this gift of attracting both followers and hunters. As a proof of the latter, he managed to increase his bounty to 3000000000 Belly (their currency) from 30000000 Belly. Whoa, that’s a lot of zeroes right there.

Wanna see Gear 5 Luffy in action? Yep, the cameo is there. If you’re a manga reader, carry on as this wouldn’t concern you that much–you’ve most likely seen this by now, anyway, full panels and all.

As in the other One Piece movies and arcs, Mayumi Tanaka remains as Luffy’s voice actress.

Uta

If you’ve seen the trailers, this gal seems to be the constant subject and the center of attention—for good reason. Uta (roughly translated in English as “song”), is Luffy’s rival and childhood friend. In Uta World, she’s seen as the world’s greatest diva. As such, she’s sometimes referred to as Utahime (roughly translated as “princess Uta”).

Unlike most of the characters in this movie who only has one seiyu (voice actor/actress), Uta has two–one for the speaking voice and one for the singing counterpart. Kaori Nazuka is in charge of the former while Ado breathes, er, sings life to the latter. Ado is the same person who sang “New Genesis”, the movie’s theme song.

Shanks

Meet Uta’s dad–well, adoptive dad, to be more accurate about the facts surrounding the controversial revelation that he has a daughter. He’s sometimes referred to as Red Hair for obvious reasons, his hair color. Despite being laid-back and playful, Luffy has always looked up to him as his inspiration to start his own pirate journey. Incidentally, he gave Luffy the straw hat that is now the irreplaceable headgear he dons for most of his pirate journey.

Shanks is a proud member of the Red Hair Pirates, one of the most powerful infamous pirate groups that ruled the New World. He once acted as the squad’s chief; Uta was also once the resident musician and the only girl on board.

Gordon

There’s a lot of mystery surrounding this character. We see a glimpse of him in one of the officially released posters but not as much as a sliver of info about him, no matter where you look (maybe except the manga counterpart, of course), can be seen.

From what little info we got, Gordon has been Uta's foster parent since the girl was nine years old. He guided her and helped her to harness her singing abilities while growing up. Even after major changes that transpired in the film’s timeline, he continued to care for Uta and taught music to other young and aspiring musicians in his area.

Kenjiro Tsuda voices Gordon in One Piece Film: Red.

If you think this movie is not for you and you want to explore other genres, you may check out other shows and see if something catches your fancy.