Is Uta dead? One Piece Film: Red ending explained

With the international release of One Piece Film: Red finally here, more and more fans are experiencing the epic latest entry into the franchise’s filmography. Resultantly, more and more stellar reviews are popping up everywhere online, from formal review sites such as RottenTomatoes to social media discussions on Twitter, Reddit, and more.

While fans are wholly satisfied and happy with One Piece Film: Red, many seem to be confused about the ambiguous status of Uta at the film’s end. Although somewhat confusing, there is indeed a definitive end to her story seen in the film’s final moments.

Follow along as this article fully explains Uta’s status at the end of One Piece Film: Red, as well as what led her to these tragic final moments.

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One Piece Film: Red’s international success creates discord surrounding Uta’s fate

Is Uta really dead?

One Piece Film: Red’s story centers around new character Uta, created specifically for the film’s events to function as its antagonist. She is introduced as the most popular singer in the series’ world, eventually being revealed to be Luffy’s childhood friend and Shanks’ daughter. As the concert progresses, the details of their relationship come to light, portraying them as very close friends.

However, she becomes antagonistic upon realizing Luffy has become the leader of a nefarious pirate crew and asks him to give up, which he refuses. This begins the reveal of her grand plan, which is to capture everyone watching her concert into a fictional reality created by her Sing-Sing Fruit. She also traps the Straw Hats besides Luffy, and several other pirates in attendance in the process.

As the movie progresses, it is revealed that her grudge against pirates comes from the Red-Hair Pirates abandoning her in Elegia after destroying the country. As a result, she spends the entire movie crusading against pirate-kind, becoming incredibly popular with those civilians in the world also harboring anti-pirate sentiment.

With her popularity in place and the concert having begun, Uta watches as those in attendance fall asleep like everyone else in the world watching via Transponder Snail. With this, One Piece Film: Red sees her begin eating a Wake-shroom, explained to be able to keep someone awake indefinitely by eating it.

This is necessary for Uta, whose powers will fail upon her falling asleep. As a result, she plans to eat the Wake-shrooms until as many people as possible have been taken into her fictional Sing-Sing Fruit world. However, One Piece Film: Red reveals that the Wake-shrooms and their powers come at the cost of one’s life once they stop eating them.

Thankfully, when Shanks shows up, he comes up with a medicine that is able to nullify this tragic cost of eating the Wake-shrooms. However, in a moment of redemption, Uta rejects the medicine, shattering the bottle and spilling its contents everywhere. As Shanks looks on in disbelief, she explains that she has to sing right now in order to free everyone else from the Sing-Sing Fruit’s world.

As expected, Uta does indeed sing, playing a major role in the eventual salvation of all who became trapped in the Sing-Sing Fruit’s world. One Piece Film: Red’s final scenes see the Red-Hair Pirates sailing away, surrounded by a coffin with a flag draped over it. This is indeed Uta’s coffin, with the beloved singer tragically dying as a result of rejecting the medicine Shanks offered her.

That being said, the One Piece franchise is notorious for faking out deaths and bringing characters back, such as with Sabo, Pell, Kin'emon, Kurozumi Orochi, and more. While Uta is clearly implied dead at the end of the film, nothing is certain until a dead body is seen in author and illustrator Eiichiro Oda's series.

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