Dead End Adventure

Released in March 2003, this 95-minute feature is the anime's fourth movie, set roughly around the crew's Jaya-era lineup. Short on money, the Straw Hats enter the Dead End Race, an anything-goes contest among pirate crews with a prize reaching three hundred million Berries. Among the contenders are giants, a fish-man who once rivaled Arlong, the bounty hunter Shuraiya Bascùd, and the heavy favorite Gasparde, a former Marine officer who turned pirate after slaughtering his own crew.

After eluding a pursuing Marine ship in a storm, the crew learns of the clandestine race through a tunnel guarded by a two-coin password. Inside a cavern of displayed pirate flags, Robin recognizes the gathering as the Dead End Race. While Nami registers the crew, Luffy tangles with Gasparde's men alongside Shuraiya and briefly crosses paths with Gasparde himself. The race begins with a treacherous launch off a waterfall, and the Merry soon picks up a stowaway, a child named Anaguma who had meant to collect their bounties but lost the nerve.

Reaching what they believe is the finish at Partia, the Straw Hats instead find a Marine stronghold that sinks incoming ships, and Robin spots that their Eternal Pose was a forgery hiding the true destination. Realizing Gasparde rigged the race into an ambush, they escape and track his ship, the Salamander, by Chopper's nose. Aboard it, Shuraiya's attack fails against Gasparde's Ame Ame no Mi, which turns his body into impervious candy syrup, until Luffy boards to settle the score.

Luffy struggles against the syrup-bodied captain until Sanji delivers sacks of flour, exposing the power's weakness. Meanwhile the ship's enslaved engineer Biera, Anaguma's grandfather, overloads the boiler to sink the vessel. Coated in flour, Luffy at last bypasses Gasparde's invulnerability and blasts him into a cyclone. The crew rescues Luffy, Biera, and Shuraiya, and it is revealed that Anaguma is actually a girl named Adelle, Shuraiya's long-lost sister. With the Marines closing in, the Straw Hats forfeit their winnings and flee, leaving their guests safely ashore.

The film's ending leads directly into the next feature, The Cursed Holy Sword. It places the crew between the Arabasta and Jaya arcs, with Luffy noting Gasparde's bounty outranks the recently defeated Crocodile's. Several elements tie into wider lore: the disguised Marine base is identified as Navarone, later the setting of the G-8 Arc, and the commander Drake reappears there. The movie was the last One Piece film transferred to 35mm film, with the following installment becoming the franchise's first digital transfer. Its bartender character later cameos in Strong World.