This Review contain spoiler from the third paragraph!

I honestly have so much I want to get off my chest about Stampede after watching it. So just like this movie. This review will be a full-blown spoiler fest. I am not holding anything back, so don't proceed unless you are fully caught up to the manga. Seriously, just don't watch the movie under any circumstance unless you love being hit by a tsunami of spoilers. That's right. Oda-sensei and studio Toei went all out with this movie. It's a sure-fire way of letting yourself get spoiled and have the journey of One Piece ruined a lot if not even completely. Honestly speaking, only someone who is caught up with the story is able to follow the movie without getting confused or overwhelmed by the sheer volume of content here. Just to give you an idea of the kinds of a spoiler to expect, like contextual, foreshadowing events from the main story. Others like character reveal, such as bad guy of the arc and so forth, even powerups. This is a shounen after all. Lastly, there's an endgame related topic that you'd definitely wanna avoid at all cost. I wanted to do a review with no spoilers, but sheesh, that was so boring. So it made do temporarily. Here are my actual feelings about Stampede without sugar-coating zip.

Stampede is undoubtedly an anime movie that is an outstanding example of how to utilize it being "non-canon" to the fullest. So you can get much out of it without coming out feeling a sense of disappointment. A hell-of-a passionate love letter to all the fans worldwide and a damn well written on at that gets the point across. Toei went all out with this movie and pulled out all stops to get everyone's attention right from the getgo. There is not a single moment in the film that I would consider dull or slow. It's sufficiently high paced, and you are continually being hit by amazingly breathtaking spectacles one after another. You simply don't get the time to breathe out as you see your character do some hype shit. Or get lost in all the kinds of craziness going on at the screen every damn second without letting go throughout its duration. The story takes place on Delta Island were pirates from across the globe come together in one place. To hold a massive festival with challenges, and even more significant and incredible surprise that will shake the whole world.

Expect to see all kinds of familiar faces, from the Supernova, and known government official right from Navy HQ, to secret organizations. Toei and Oda-sensei went another step up and brought cast from fillers and other movies, even if just for a brief time. But the fact at the matter is, this festival is a bait laid by Bullet to lure out all the strong fighters and everyone else. His only objective is to become the strongest in the whole damn world, even surpassing the likes of the famous Gold D. Roger, the previous King of the Pirates. Yes, a straightforward plot with not much nuance or depth, as you can expect from most One Piece movies. But it comes down to the execution, direction, and everything else. On that end, with an overflowing sense of confidence, I can say they nailed it damn big time on all accounts. If you take into account, this movie barely lasts 2 hours. It's definitely worthy of praise, looking at how much they were able to accomplish, plus the production value is gorgeous.

Both artistically and visually, it's one hell of an eye-candy experience and the best you'll get out of any One Piece movie so far. So full of passion, colorful, and very vibrant and pooping experience. There's a fair use of CGI here, but it was nothing short of top-notch as expected by Toei. I have nothing to pick on. One simple way to explain Stampede in one short sentence is it's the Avengers: End Game equivalent of the anime. There's in a total of three movies (four now), which are considered top dogs of the One Piece film. All of them excel, especially in one category. Let's start off with Strong World. It has both a good plot and lots of slice of life, which is always charming. Shiki is a scary and gripping villain, even while being a total goofball. Film Z still has the best depictions story depiction with a great antagonist that has more depth to him than anyone so far. He surpasses the likes of Tesoro from Film Gold, and yes, even Bullet. I will get to that soon. Finally, there's Gold, as noted before. The strongest point is the abundant amount of interactions with our beloved cast we get. Tesoro is well-written enough to make us feel bad for him in a flash of backstory sequences. This is to give you a comprehension of what happened to him in his awful past. Now don't get me wrong. All of these antagonists are at the very least good. For me, Z was the best executed so far.

As for Stampede, it shines in the breathtaking non-stop action sequences that are packed and loaded to the brim with so much flavor and spice. One of these is the ridiculous number of cast members they threw at us. Many of your well-beloved characters make a comeback even if it's quick. It's still fun and gives you a dose of nostalgia to see them again. I have to say I am blown away by how Oda-sensei and Toei were able to write such a passionate love letter to all the fans of One Piece worldwide. As I said multitudes, it's a fanservice movie, and hence the story suffers from it. If you are looking for a great story. It will no here. As such, Bullet could be considered the weaker part of the movie from a writing standpoint, but he is definitely one of the strongest. Bullet is extraordinarily powerful and impressive others way you can imagine. His design is quite killer, and he looks menacing and just pure awesome. But his character is quite simple written and even if he has some good exploration of Bullet. It might not be enough for many. I was plenty satisfied myself. But it would be nice to see him more fleshed out as a person and not just the big bad guy.

Okay, Bullet's had a lot of gorgeous and mesmerizing depicted fight that your eyes were glued to, full of excitement and charm. Gosh, where do I even begin? Bullet's first clash with Supernova was so damn amazing, and the way he just crushed everyone. What a beast. Luffy's King Haki clash and Bullet's honestly made me go on a mad fanboi session. Ah, Oda-sensei, you even hid hints for the future of Haki. I just loved it so much. That whole fight with Bullet and everyone else was great. If I had to nitpick. I would love to see Bullet crush everyone in his normal state and not in giant mecha like structure. The CGI otherwise looked terrific and exquisite. Bullet's whole fight with our gang I didn't expect was beyond terrific and hade the inner fanboi in me going crazy. My girl Hancock got her time to shine, and that kick right down Bullet's spine was oddly satisfying, and I loved that sound effect. I replayed that moment so many times, my arm almost fell off from repeatedly going back. That goes for so many other insane moments Stampede packed. Hancock's whole routine with Buggy was hilarious. That's not me even mentioning how funny it was when Buggy was monologing about his looming death or getting shafted to the side by the gang. Law is in a more major part of the movie that was welcome addiction. Too bad, Kid didn't get much time to shine. Hopefully, he will in the next one. But I relish the banter we got from him and Luffy and how he and Luffy worked together to get at Bullet.

Even all of the Supernova working together was like a dream-come-true moment. And honestly, a teaser, no doubt. This whole movie, in fact, is Oda-sensei teasing and letting us get a taste for what's to come yet. Oda-sensei even stated the movie would pale in comparison to what he has planned in the main story. Not the exact words, but you get the point. My boi Crocodile and Lucci had an appearance. It's too bad they didn't get a lot of screentime, but I loved to see them again. The same goes for the Sabo. Zoro's clash with Fujitora had me fired up, and I didn't expect it, so the impact over my emotions was massive. How Zoro sliced that mentor in half, but then Hawkeye came and utterly destroyed it so it couldn't hurt anyone was great. I like how Hawkeye was smugly and kindly glanced at Zoro, possibly telling him something along the lines you're not there yet, but was happy about his progress. I can't believe these two will fight for the title of the world's strongest swordsman. That will be insane once we get there and possibly heartbreaking. If Oda-sensei goes there.

Ah, that final fight among Bullet and Luffy was beautiful. But first, let me bring up the first battle again. I have probably said it countless times already, but I absolutely loved it. Luffy's Snakeman form fighting against Bullet was epic beyond belief. But that final battle was even more insane and impactful. First, I have to give Usopp the MVP reward because how he sneaked in his Pop Green into Bullet armor to destroy it was witty. It helped Luffy in beating Bullet as well. Since if he got himself into that form again. Luffy might've lost there. As we've learned, his Haki is one another level and truly tough. Oda-sensei threw in an idea of how flowing haki (I am calling it that since it's easier and faster to write and say) would work. Luffy literally destroyed Bullet armor from the inside-out. You can see the Haki flowing in there. If we say that colored arms have three stages. One is the way to arm yourself with an invisible shield to deal more damage or lessen the blow from others. Second is how you can shoot it out in the form of a ki-blast by concentrating Haki at your palm. Like Rayleigh did with the elephant on Rusukaina island or even three admirals and Sentomaro did in Marineford and Saboady Archipelago, respectively.

Wow, I got a bit sidetracked there. Anyway, that ultimate King Kong gun is extremely huge. Just look at how small our mad lad Luffy looks in comparison. I loved the fight and how it was a group effort to take down Bullet. Maybe an experiment to see how the inevitable fight with two of the emperors might go down. I can keep on going sharing the plethora amount of great moments, but I think I have said enough to get the point across. I absolutely loved this move to tiny bits. So as expected of a movie of this size and with such a limited duration, not everyone will be satisfied. If you are purely looking for fun and to see all the pieces of why One Piece is such a blast in one place. Then this will be a good time for you. That's why I have no complaints as a person who loves One Piece and from a personal standpoint. I will not let a few issues that couldn't be helped take away all the other fun I had. Oda-sensei did plant some canon stuff in the film, as briefly mentioned before. It was so rich even if it not a huge amount of information. I am sure us One Piece fans have more than enough info to go all out, theorize, predict, and so forth. Information Oda-sensei has written and drawn in the manga is also foreshadowed here to give us more things to speculate about. I want to touch upon this lightly.

Oda-sensei is such a troll. He never specified how to prounced Laughtale, which was previously for us dancing to his tunes known as Raftel. Its mindblowing Oda-sensei was able to keep that Piece of info untill he deemed it right to reveal it. No one predicted, and it would be such a huge thing, too, to see someone. The island of tales of those who laugh -Laughtale, the name is a big hint to what that island could be like or possibly even the One Piece itself. I adored that moment we got to showcase Rogers's flashback just a bit. I should've mentioned this too previously. We know that Bullet was strong from the getgo was apart of the military but got betrayed by his parent-like figure because of that strength, and they felt threatened. So Bullet became disheartened and went to find a meaning for his life, but he didn't understand his own emotions. So he went around to cause some ruckus untill he eventually crossed paths with Roger. And was impressed by his strength and came to admire as he also got beaten by someone for the first time. I like how it shows Bullet has a character subtlety by showing his innocent-like smile when Roger welcomed to fight him again anytime. He realized it during that he just wanted to have fun, and being the strongest in the world was just an excuse to have something hide that fact. That's my interpretation of Bullet in a nutshell.

So yes, at the end of the day, Bullet was not that simple as one might think. This movie was a lot of fun, and I have already watched it three times. Twice with subs and one in the dub, and both are top-notch for me. We also get to relive one of the biggest core things that make One Piece such an engaging, fun, and thrilling experience. I was thus not in the slightest felt the movie was terrible or affected my enjoyment. It's gonna be something I watch there and there. This movie is my favorite of all One Piece films so far from the fanservice and purely action aspect. That goes for the abundance amount of character we go here. Basically, are you a hardcore fan of One Piece. You will absolutely fall in love with this movie. Oh, like that moment with Ace illustration, and Sabo was so beautiful and emotional. But If you don't mull over how the story structure is weak and simple. Then it might not be for you. But try not to look it at negative, or that's what you will see. Instead, immerse yourself in all the aspects that go to makes One Piece so phenomenal and more. Enjoy the nostalgia and excitement it brings. Stampede is a full-blown fanservice film and a breathtaking one at that. Extremely high and gorgeous production value from start to finish. Let's also not forget this movie is to commemorate the 20th anniversary of One Piece anime's long run. So I have nothing but praises and love for Toei and our only legendary Oda-sensei. For producing such a high-packed and passionate action movie. One that delivers in all the right categories. Goes above and beyond to give the viewer a completely satisfying and overwhelmingly fun experience.