Anime series[edit]
Main article: List of One Piece episodes
Toei Animation produced an anime television series based on the manga chapters, also titled One Piece. The series premiered in Japan on Fuji Television on October 20, 1999. Since then, the still ongoing series has aired more than 600 episodes and has been exported to various countries around the world.
In 2004, 4Kids Entertainment acquired the license for distribution of One Piece in North America. 4Kids collaborated with Viz Media to distribute the series for home video release. This dub was heavily edited for content, as well as length; reducing the first 143 episodes into 104. Such edits included changing the appearance of guns, replacing Sanji's cigarettes with lollipops,[51] and story edits pertaining to violence or the mention of death. 4Kids originally created an English version of the original opening theme; however, the music was replaced with an alternate score.[52] The series premiered in the United States on September 18, 2004 on the Fox network as part of the Fox Box block, and later aired on Cartoon Network in the Toonami block in April 2005. 4Kids released a statement in December 2006 confirming that it cancelled the project.[53] In July 2010, an interview was conducted between Anime News Network and Mark Kirk, the Vice President of Digital Media for 4Kids Entertainment. In this interview, Kirk explained that 4Kids acquired One Piece as part of a package deal with other anime, and that the company did not actually watch any of the series before acquiring it. However, once 4Kids realized One Piece would not work with their intended demographic, the company decided to edit it into a more child-oriented series until they had an opportunity to legally drop the license. Kirk said the experience on producing One Piece "ruined the company's reputation." Ever since that incident, 4Kids established a more strict set of guidelines, checks, and balances to determine what anime the company acquires.[54]
Following the 4Kids dub in 2006, Funimation Entertainment began production on an English-language release of One Piece. In an interview with voice actor Christopher Sabat, Sabat stated that Funimation had been interested in acquiring One Piece from the very beginning, and produced a "test episode," in which Sabat played the character of Helmeppo and Eric Vale played the part of the main character, Monkey D. Luffy (they would later go on to provide the English voices for Roronoa Zoro and Sanji, respectively).[55] After producing a new English voice dub, which featured minimal edits compared to the 4Kids dub, the company released its first unedited, bilingual DVD box set, containing 13 episodes, on May 27, 2008.[56] Similarly sized sets followed with fourteen sets released as of October 26, 2010.[57] The Funimation dubbed episodes premiered on Cartoon Network on September 29, 2007 and aired until its cancellation on March 22, 2008.[58] The remainder of Funimation's dubbed episodes continued to be aired on Australia's Cartoon Network, and then shifted into reruns of the Funimation dub before being replaced by Total Drama Island. On October 28, 2011, Funimation posted a press release on their official website, confirming the acquisition of episodes 206-263 and the aspect ratio, beginning with episode 207 onwards, will be changed to the 16:9 widescreen format.[59] On May 18, 2013, the uncut series began airing on Adult Swim's revived Toonami block from episode 207 onwards.[60]
Funimation, Toei Animation, Shueisha, and Fuji TV announced in May 2009 that they would simulcast stream the series within an hour of the weekly Japanese broadcast.[61] This free, English-subtitled simulcast is available at www.onepieceofficial.com.[62] Originally scheduled to begin on May 30, 2009 with episode 403, a lack of security resulted in a leak of the episode. As a result, Funimation delayed the offer until August 29, 2009 at which point it began with a simulcast of episode #415.[63][64][65]
In early February 2013, Manga Entertainment announced that it will start releasing the Funimation dub of One Piece in the United Kingdom in 4 disc collection format, starting on May 27, 2013.
