The long-running iconic seriesOne Piecehas 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. TheOne Piece Film: Redis the fifteenth feature film in the franchise focused on Uta, a recently-introducedfemale character, which was also made to celebrate the series’ 25th anniversary.RELATED:One Piece Casts Trans VA For Kiku’s English Dub (Why It Matters So Much)
Enter One Piece Film: Red
One Piece Film: Redfollows 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 theStraw Hat Piratesattended her concert to witness her remarkable voice, with everyone looking forward to hearing her perform live.
The plot twist: Uta is in factShanks’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 ofOne 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 withOne Piece Film: Rednot being canon in terms of the current manga continuity, it is known thatEiichiro Oda provides hints and foreshadowing inOne Piecefilms, so fans still make sure to watch the movies despite them not being completely canon. Differently from other films, though,One Piece Film: Redprovides more information about Skanks through Uta, and this is beneficial in the progress of the canon story. Shanks is such an important character inOne 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 ofOne Piece, she is also Luffy’s childhood friend, which adds even more significance to her character, besides, she was introduced in some chapters of theWano Country Arc, and she did make an appearance during Shanks’ flashback inOne PieceChapter 1055.
To mark the special occasion ofOne Piece’s 25th anniversary, the movie’s creators decided to make it a special one, which not only has thefan-favorite Shanksas 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: Redmade its world premiere in Tokyo on June 05, 2025, 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 latestOne Piecefilm 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: Redalso 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 becameOne 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 toppingOne Piece Film: Redin this sense areHowl’s Moving Castle, Princess Mononoke,Your Name, Spirited Away, andDemon Slayer: Mugen Train.
Uta Performs New Genesis — One Piece Film: Red
Now, the theme song forOne 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 hitOne Piece Film: Redis. 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 fromOne 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 thatOne Piece Film: Redhugely impacted fans and charts in 2022, with an impressive theatrical run, and trailblazing feats, and it is pretty much guaranteed that itshome 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 theOne Piecefranchise and fans’ hearts.
