One Piece Film Z continues the apparent tradition of newer One Piece movies being a bit more than just a series of supplementary adventures and excuses to spend more time with our favorite pirate gang. Between Film Z and Strong World (and the majority of future productions, I imagine) we’ve been given stories that delve deeper into the One Piece world, letting us in on events and characters the manga may have never looked into otherwise. While they may never technically be considered canonical to the manga, Eiichiro Oda’s involvement as a producer has definitely given a unique legitimacy to these films. I think it’s fair to say that such involvement has created some incredible insights into not just Oda’s big make-believe world, but also his philosophy towards storytelling itself.

Film Z brings us into the world of the Marines in a story that’s far more intimate than anything we’ve seen from this particular group before. The moral ambiguity behind the World Government, the Marines, the Revolutionary Army and various other factions has always been present in the manga, but Film Z presents one of those rare instances in which we see it front-and-center as the emotional core of a narrative arc. Film Z is about the emotional and moral conflicts of human beings who respect each other. It’s clear that the villain Z, pronounced Zed, must be stopped. However, his relationships with the other characters, and the fact that they all still understand and empathize with each other, ultimately makes it all the more poignant.

Let’s not forget that this is a manga where even the protagonist cannot bring himself to be called a hero. “We’re pirates,” Monkey D. Luffy said. “I like heroes but I don’t want to be one!” This implies that you, as an audience member, can project your own beliefs onto the story and decide for yourself whether a selfish pirate who undoubtedly makes the world a better place is a “good guy” or a “bad guy”. Let’s drop all pretense, shall we? He’s a good guy and always has been. He embodies some of the most universally admired qualities seen in just about any culture: loyalty, determination and standing up for what you believe in. What he believes in is rarely even controversial.

His enemies, conversely, are as evil as they come. They are the ultimate bullies. They use their positions of power to hurt people for personal gain, and that’s not even taking into account the heinous acts of violence they endorse and commit without a hint of remorse. By just about any sane human being’s standard, they are evil. However, we occasionally meet a villain who has a dodgy past or cares deeply for his comrades. Ultimately it still costs lives or the freedoms of others.

This is truly bizarre for a story that is almost never framed as being about good versus evil. Luffy’s famous showdowns with some of the most influential and villainous pirates in the One Piece world are always battles of willpower over everything else. As Donquixote Doflamingo said, “Justice will prevail, you say? Of course it will! Whoever wins this war is justice!”

Oda often approaches concepts of morality and righteousness with a shocking amount of nihilism. There exist many genuine moral conflicts in this series, but in the end, any shades of gray are overshadowed by “black and white” conflicts between pirates who simply know what they want and reach an impasse.

Film Z is a fantastic movie that provides an ample opportunity to explore one of the muddier aspects of the series. The thing to consider when it comes to groups like the World Government and the Marines is that they are actively trying to make the world a better place. The path to that “better world” is never clear, which creates conflict between friends and colleagues. Even after Kuzan (Aokiji) split from the Marines, it’s clear that he and Sakazuki (Akainu) have some kind of mutual understanding despite their infamous duel on Punk Hazard. They both want to make the world a safer place for innocent civilians, but they just don’t agree on the path to get there. From that perspective, the Admirals’ relationship to Z, a former Marine who abandoned his sense of justice, is especially somber. There’s humility in knowing that these walking super weapons are only human. Their ability to pursue justice is limited to their own ability to tolerate the crap of the world, including the petty fights of island-smashing pirates who don’t even care, like our hero and most of the main villains in the series.

The fact that Film Z isn’t canon is really interesting. I think most fans would agree the movie is accurate to the experiences of the Marines and it’s still thematically true to the manga. Although this is a point of contention, Film Z is not Oda’s story. At best, it serves as a backbone to the real meat of the series, which is mainly about a bunch of third parties beating the crap out of each other on their way to the top of the pirate food chain. The thing that makes characters like Luffy and Doflamingo such forces of nature in the world is because they know what they want and that’s all that matters. History is determined by those who act, and acting comes easiest to those who know exactly what they want.

The internal philosophy of the series is that there is no absolute right or wrong. One Piece is a series where the people who make the biggest differences are those who are just being themselves and taking it as far as they can. One of Oda’s greatest skills is his ability to write and draw from so many different perspectives. At the end of the day, the solution to all the questions we ask will be squarely centered on Luffy’s adventure to becoming the Pirate King. The difficulty of writing a story like this is that it comes with the acknowledgment that there isn’t much of a moral to relay to readers, much less the children reading it, beyond, “there is no true justice, and everything sucks.” However, I don’t think that’s where Oda is going with this. Despite everything, One Piece is a story of optimism. It raises the suggestion that, even in the face of all the corruption and conflicting motivations of the world, there are still people who are strong and caring for their own sake. If life is one big “survival of the fittest” match, there will still be someone like Luffy at the top.