Episode of Chopper Plus: Bloom in the Winter, Miracle Cherry Blossom is the ninth animated feature film of the franchise and the first to additionally star Kazuki Yao as Franky. It premiered in Japan on March 1, 2008 and was released to DVD on July 21, 2008.The film made a five weeks run in the Top 10 of the Japanese box office. It placed third in its first week of showing, seventh in its second, eighth in its third week, tenth in its fourth week, and ninth in its fifth week. It earned 8,619,115 US dollars in Japan and 8,654,110 US dollars internationally.

It is the second film to focus on Chopper, as it is a retelling of the Drum Island storyline from the manga. It features Franky, Nico Robin, and the Thousand Sunny, who weren’t present in the original version.

The film begins with a brief flashback in the history of the Great Pirate Age, during which we see how Drum Island was attacked by the Blackbeard Pirates. Wapol, the king at the time, fled the land with the 20 best doctors, not even bothering to fight back. Afterward the film introduces Luffy and his Straw Hat crew.

While sailing the ocean, Nami notices a storm coming in, and alerts the rest of the crew, allowing them to quickly take action and launch the Thousand Sunny away with a Coup De Burst. Almost immediately afterward, Nami collapses from a high fever, and as none of the crew know enough about medicine, they decide to find a doctor to save her.

Upon arriving at Drum Island, the crew receives a hostile reception, but Luffy apologizes and begs them to save Nami. Luffy, Sanji, Robin and Usopp take Nami ashore while Franky and Zoro stay behind. Luffy’s group then learns about Wapol, the former king of the island, forcing everyone to only receive treatment from his personal 20 doctors, and of him fleeing the island with those doctors after Blackbeard’s invasion. It is revealed that one doctor. Dr.Kureha remains, and that she is a “witch”…