Anime series
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 500 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.
Sanji's cigarettes, for example, were turned into lollipops, and "the skin
of a black pirate was changed to a tan mulatto / white color."4Kids
originally created an English version of the original opening theme; however,
the music was replaced with an alternate score.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 the Cartoon Network in the Toonami block in April
2005. 4Kids released a statement in December 2006 confirming that it cancelled
the project.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.
Following the 4Kids dub in 2007, 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, Luffy (they would later go on
to provide the English voices for Roronoa Zoro and Sanji, respectively). After
producing a new English voice dub, the company released its first unedited,
bilingual DVD box set, containing 13 episodes, on May 27, 2008. Similarly sized
sets followed with fourteen sets released as of October 26, 2010. The
Funimation dubbed episodes premiered on the Cartoon Network on September 29,
2007 and aired until its cancellation on March 22, 2008. 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, will be changed to
the 16:9 widescreen format.
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.This free, English-subtitled simulcast is available
at www.onepieceofficial.com.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. One Piece episodes are also available for
streaming at Hulu.com, in both subtitled and dubbed formats (with the dub being
the unedited DVD release version).
Anime films
Twelve animated films based on the One Piece series have
been released in Japan. The films are traditionally released during the
Japanese school spring break since 2000. The films feature self-contained,
completely original plots or alternate retellings of story arcs with animation
of higher quality than what the weekly anime allows for. Funimation
Entertainment has licensed the eighth film for release in North America.
Video games
The One Piece franchise has been adapted into multiple video
games published by subsidiaries of Bandai and later as part of Namco Bandai
Games. The games have been released on a variety of video game and handheld
consoles. The series features various genres, mostly role-playing games—the
predominant type in the series' early years—and fighting games, such as the
titles of the Grand Battle! sub-series.
The series debuted in Japan on July 19, 2000 with One Piece:
Mezase Kaizoku Ou!. As of 2012, the series contains 32 games, not counting
Battle Stadium D.O.N, the title One Piece shares with its related anime series
Dragon Ball Z and Naruto.
Music
Main article: One Piece discography
Myriad soundtracks were released to the anime, films and the
games. The music for the One Piece anime series and most of its films were
directed by Kohei Tanaka and Shiro Hamaguchi. Various theme songs and character
songs were released on a total of 49 singles. Most of the songs are also
featured on six compilation albums and on 16 soundtrack CDs.
Light novels
A series of light novels was published based on the first
OVA, certain episodes of the TV anime, and all but the first feature film. They
featured art work by Oda and are written by Tatsuya Hamasaki. The first of
these novels, One Piece: Defeat The Pirate Ganzak!, based on the OVA, was released
on June 3, 1999. On July 17, 2000, followed One Piece: Logue Town Chapter, a
light novel adaptation of the TV anime's Logue Town story arc.The first feature
film to be adapted was Clockwork Island Adventure. The book was released on
March 19, 2001. On December 25, 2001, followed the second and so far last light
novel adaptation of a TV anime arc in One Piece: Thousand-year Dragon Legend.
The adaptation of Chopper's Kingdom on the Island of Strange Animals was
released on March 22, 2002, and that of Dead End Adventure on March 10,
2003.[71][72] Curse of the Sacred Sword followed on March 22, 2004, and Baron
Omatsuri and the Secret Island on March 14, 2005.The light novel of The Giant
Mechanical Soldier of Karakuri Castle was released on March 6, 2006 and that of
The Desert Princess and the Pirates: Adventures in Alabasta on March 7,
2007.The newest novel adapts Episode of Chopper Plus: Bloom in the Winter,
Miracle Cherry Blossom and was released on February 25, 2008.
Art and guidebooks
Five art books and five guidebooks for the One Piece series
have been released. The first art book, One Piece: Color Walk 1, released June
2001, has also been released in English on November 8, 2005. The second art
book, One Piece: Color Walk 2, was released on November 4, 2003, the third, One
Piece: Color Walk 3 – Lion, was released January 5, 2006,and the fourth art
book, subtitled Eagle, was released on March 4, 2010. The fifth art book,
subtitled Shark, was released on December 3, 2010. The first guidebook, One
Piece: Red – Grand Characters was released on March 2, 2002. The second
guidebook, One Piece: Blue – Grand Data File, was released on August 2, 2002.
The third guidebook, One Piece: Yellow – Grand Elements, was released on April
4, 2007, and the fourth guidebook, One Piece: Green – Secret Pieces, was
released on November 4, 2010.An anime guidebook, One Piece: RAINBOW!, was
released on May 1, 2007, and covers the first 8 years of the TV show.
Other media
Other One Piece media include a trading card game by Bandai named
One Piece CCG and a drama CD centering around the character of Nefertari Vivi
released by Avex Trax on December 26, 2002
One Piece's Chopper gets a new Hello Kitty-esque style in
the newly released previews of the new One Piece and Hello Kitty collaboration.
For this collaboration, One Piece takes a journey, crossing over into the world
of Hello Kitty.
Reception
Manga
One Piece, the most popular manga series of all time in
Japan and one of the most popular manga series worldwide, is the
highest-selling manga in the history of Weekly Shōnen Jump and has received
wide critical acclaim, primarily for its art, characterization, humor and
story. It now currently ranks at number one for the best-selling manga in
history.
One Piece is also the first manga to increase Weekly Shōnen
Jump's sales in eleven years.Volume 61 holds a manga publishing record in
Japan, with 3.8 million copies published in its first printing alone, breaking
its own previous records established by volumes 57, 59 and 60 (at 3.0, 3.2 and
3.4 million copies respectively). In addition to that, it also broke Japan's
all time first print publishing record of all books, passing the previous
record of 2.9 million copies, held by Harry Potter and the Order of the
Phoenix. Overall, the series has re-written Japanese record for first print
manga publication 9 times with Volumes 24, 25, 26, 27, 56, 57, 59, 60, 61 and 63.
The first week sales of volume 60, at 2,094,123 copies, also broke the Japanese
all-time sales record for all books in its debut week, and is currently the
only book to reach the 2 million mark in its first week. It is also currently
the highest selling manga series of all time in Japan with over 230 million
copies sold, and the fastest manga series to reach sales of 100 million.
One Piece was the best-selling manga series during 2008 in
Japan with 5,956,540 volumes sold. Volumes 50, 51 and 49 placed first, second,
and fourth, respectively, on Oricon's list of best selling manga volumes, with
sales of 1,678,208, 1,646,978, and 1,544,000 copies sold
respectively.Additionally, Oricon conducted a popularity survey with Japanese
male and female readers between with ages ranging from ten to forty to
determine the "Most Interesting Manga of 2008". In that survey, the
four One Piece volumes published that year, volumes 49, 50, 51, and 52, placed
first with an approval rating of 45.9%.In ICv2's list of "Top 25 Manga
Properties Fall 2008", One Piece made a 15th place. In 2010 One Piece had
improved to 2nd in ICv2's list of "Top 25 Manga Properties—Q3 2010".
According to Anime News Network, which gathers its rankings
for Oricon, One Piece maintained its top spot in 2009 with 14,721,241 copies
sold, more than second [Naruto] and third place [Bleach] combined. The four
volumes released during that time frame 53, 54, 52, 55 ranked 1–4 respectively
for single volume sales.
In 2010 One Piece again maintained its top spot with
32,343,809 copies sold, more than second Naruto, third Kimi ni Todoke, fourth
Fairy Tail, fifth Bleach and sixth Fullmetal Alchemist combined.
ANN comments that the art style of the One Piece manga
requires "time to get used to" with its "very simple"
artwork and its designs, which appear "very cartoonish" at first.
They also note that the influence of Akira Toriyama (Dragon Ball) shines
through in Oda's style of writing with its "huge [sic] epic battles
punctuated by a lot of humor" and that, in One Piece, he creates a
"rich tale" without focusing too much on plot.Active Anime describes
the art work in One Piece as "wonderfully quirky and full of
expression". Splashcomics comments that Oda's "pleasantly bright and
dynamic" (German: "angenehm hell und dynamisch") art style suits
the story's "funny and exciting" (German: "witzigen und ...
spannenden") atmosphere.
EX lauds Oda's art for its "crispy" monochrome
pictures, "great use of subtle shade changes" on color pages,
"sometimes exquisite" use of angles, and for its consistency.Shaenon
K. Garrity, who at some point edited the series for Shonen Jump, said that,
while doing so, her amazement over Oda's craft grew increasingly. She states
that "he has a natural, playful mastery of the often restrictive weekly-manga
format", notes that "interesting things [are] going on deep in the
narrative structure", and recommends "sticking through to the later
volumes to see just how crazy and Peter Max-y the art gets."Mania
Entertainment writer Jarred Pine comments that "One Piece is a fun
adventure story, with an ensemble cast that is continuing to develop, with
great action and character drama." He lauds Oda's artwork as
"imaginative and creative" and comments that "Oda's imagination
just oozes all of the panels". He also comments that "Oda's panel
work [...] features a lot of interesting perspectives and direction, especially
during the explosive action sequences which are always a blast", though he
complains that the panels can sometimes get "a little chaotic".
The North American releases of the English translation of
volumes 39–43 debuted at #5–9 on the New York Times Best Seller Manga list.
One Piece's 60th volume held the fastest selling record
until in February 2011, the manga beat its own record with its 61st volume,
selling 2,086,080 copies in 3 days after its official sale (Feb 4–6 this was
beaten by One piece's 63rd volume which sold 2,119,400 in 4 days, this means
that 14 consecutive volumes of One piece has sold over 2 million copies since
oricon began publishing it's book sales in April 2008 (one piece volume 50
shipped in June 2008). This volume also broke the record for biggest first
print that was before hold by One piece's 61st and 62nd volume who had 3.8
million while the 63rd volume had a first print on 3.9 million.
Since 2010 One piece has sold 54.8 million copies out of its
total of around 250 million copies. This amounted to more than number 2 Naruto,
number 3 Kimi ni Todoke, number 4 Fairy Tail, number 5 Bleach, number 6
Bakuman, number 7 Gintama and number 8 Fullmetal Alchemist combined.
Anime
The One Piece anime series has received positive responses
from reviewers and viewers alike. While the original Japanese series has gained
praise, the 4Kids English dub version has garnered some significant criticism.
The Funimation English dubbed version, in contrast to its 4Kids counterpart,
has received praise.
In a review of the second DVD release of 4Kids
Entertainment's dub, Todd Douglass, Jr. of DVD talk called its adaptation a
"shabby treatment" resulting in an "arguably less enjoyable
rendition". Douglass said that the 4Kids original opening was "a
crappy rap song" and that the removal of whole scenes leaves a
"feeling that something is missing". He later went on to say that
"Fans of the 'real' One Piece will want to skip picking [...] up [4Kids Entertainment's
One Piece DVDs] until an uncut release is announced", and also stated that
"kids may get into this version because it's what they have seen on
TV." Margaret Veira of Active Anime praised the TV series'
"great" animation, stating that "It gives life and stays true to
the style and characters of the manga." and noting the fight scenes in
particular as having "a lot of energy to them". Patrick King of
Animefringe comments that the art style of One Piece is "very distinctive and
fresh". In a review of the first Funimation DVD release for Mania
Entertainment, Bryce Coulter comments that One Piece is "not your typical
pirate adventure" and that mixed with "the right amount of random fun
along with a shonen style storyline" it becomes "an appealing and fun
romp". In a review of Funimation Entertainment's second DVD release for
Mania Entertainment, Bryce Coulter comments that "You can tell that they
are giving One Piece the attention that was neglected by 4Kids" and that
"One Piece is a great tale of high-seas fun that will leave you wanting
more!"
In Indonesia, Global TV was reprimanded by the Indonesian
Broadcasting Commission (KPI) for airing the TV anime. Nina Armando, member of
the KPI and lecturer at the University of Indonesia, said the show should not
be aired at times when children are likely to watch.
Awards
Manga
The manga was a finalist for the Tezuka Osamu Cultural Prize
three times in a row from 2000 to 2002, with the highest number of fan
nominations in the first two years.[119]
The German translation of its 44th volume won the Sondermann
audience award for international manga category, a yearly comic award given for
7 categories by the Frankfurt Book Fair, the Frankfurter Rundschau, Spiegel
Online and Comicforum since 2004, on the Frankfurt Book Fair Comics Centre in
2005.
In a 2008 poll by Oricon, Japanese teenagers elected it the
most interesting manga.
Anime
The first opening of the One Piece TV anime, "We
Are!", won the Animation Kobe Theme Song Award of the year 2000.In February
2001, One Piece placed 9th among TV anime in Japan.In 2001, the readers of
Animage, a popular Japanese anime magazine, voted the TV anime in 5th place of
"The Readers' Picks for the Anime that should be remembered in the 21st
Century". In June 2002, the Animage readers voted One Piece to be the 16th
best new anime of the year 2001,[ and gave it another 16th place in 2004 in the
category "Favorite Anime Series".In a 2005 web poll by Japanese
television network TV Asahi One Piece was voted 6th "most popular animated
TV series". Before the poll, Asahi TV broadcast another list based on a
nation-wide survey in which One Piece placed 4th among teenagers. In 2006, it
was elected 32nd of the Top 100 Japanese anime by TV Asahi and 21st by its
viewers. In September of the same year the Newtype magazine placed it
5th.Funimation's first DVD release of the series "One Piece: Season 1
First Voyage" was nominated for the Fifth Annual TV DVD Awards.
Events
One Piece is the first ever manga series to hold a
"Dome Tour," in which there will be events held in famous dome venues
of Osaka and Tokyo in Spring 2011.
Events were held from March 25 to 27 at the Kyocera Dome in
Osaka, and from April 27 to May 1 at Tokyo Dome. Though only Tokyo and Osaka
events have been scheduled so far, event organizers hope to tour throughout the
nation before the year's end.
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