Note: This is a SPOILER FREE review! Feel free to read without worries : ). One Piece: Heart of Gold is a prequel to the "Film Gold" movie. There is no denying my approval of the recent swashbuckling specials for providing better screentime among characters and presenting more adventure in between the much longer story arcs(I’m looking at you Dressrosa). This brings me back to the classic One Piece episodes that I love. The plot itself goes into following the Strawhats meeting a mysterious girl named Olga who managed to escape from a metal production island called “Alchemi’. She is now being pursued by notonly Marines but also the infamous Gildo Tesoro.

It’s been a while since we’ve really had one of these movie stories since movie 12: "Film Z" received a prequel that was a mini filler arc(episodes 575-578) which took place before the Punk Hazard story(episodes 579-627). This time, we receive a two hour special that I found much more exciting and a whole lot better in execution. I’ll put it this way: I want to see Film Gold now because of this. The plotline structure felt refreshing. Seeing more of Sanji, Nami, Chopper, and Brooke here as well made me personally happy because there hasn’t been much of them as of recent in the anime.

Animation wise, it was pretty good! You're not going to have much problems liking this visually either.

Overall: One Piece: Heart of Gold is an entertaining story that really hypes up Film Gold in a splendid way. There are a few moments that drag on a bit too much but the adventure itself was an absolute joy to watch as a One Piece fan.