What is One Piece?
It's a manga/anime about pirates that will rock your face off!

What are these pirates like?
They're not your ordinary pirates. They don't really do all that much piracy, but they're most certainly searching for treasure - groups, including circus performers and gamblers, are banding together and trying to find the famous treasure, "One Piece." This One Piece treasure is completely mysterious: No one seems to know what it is, but they do know that anyone who obtains it can become the King of all of the pirates in the world! At this point in history, that's one hell of a kingdom. The story follows Luffy, a "rubberman" whose dream is to become the Pirate King, as well as his crew - Zoro, a former bounty hunter and guy who fights with three swords, Usopp, a long-nosed coward who's an expert liar and even better sniper, Sanji, a kick-boxing chef, Nami, a shrewd and greedy girl with a thing for tangerines, Chopper, the obligatory cute animal (who doubles as a doctor), Robin, an archaeologist with the ability to sprout limbs, and Franky, a speedo-wearing cyborg.
They're happy pirates! Look how happy they are!




If I just start watching/reading now, how long will it be until I catch up?
One Piece is a horrifically long series. I started following it in October, and I actually skipped a huge chunk of the storyline (Skypiea if anyone wants to know) in order to catch up. Chapters are basically released every week. Scanlators and subbers are very much on the ball - Accessing the latest translations of both manga and anime is generally extremely quick and easy, making One Piece exceptionally accessible. Right now, there are about 448 chapters.

Can't I just go buy One Piece volumes? Are the officially translated volumes as bad as the dub?
The company Viz has translated and released One Piece up to the thirteenth volume - In the grand scheme of things, this really isn't much at all. I own all 14 of those volumes, and they are decently done. I've only noticed one kinda bad spelling mistake (If anyone's following, Yosaku's name is spelled wrong when he introduces himself.). The only real similarity I can think of between the officially translated Viz volumes of One Piece and the terrible 4Kids lobotomized version is that Zoro's name is spelled "Zolo." It annoys some fans, but I don't really mind all that much because overall the translation is pretty good.

Where can I order Japanese volumes?
Yesasia sells both Japanese and Chinese volumes of One Piece. You have to be careful that you're getting the language that you want!

Other than language, is there really any difference between the English manga volumes and Japanese ones?
Yes! The Japanese volumes have slip covers, and don't have the shiny metallic lettering of the English volumes. The Japanese volumes are also about a half an inch shorter and less wide than the English ones. Other than that, I don't really see much of a difference.

You keep mentioning the manga. What about the anime?
The anime tends to be faithful to the manga as it can. There are of course the obligatory movies, fillers, and specials that don't follow the manga, but for the most part, I can pluck out a scene in the anime and say "Oh yeah, I remember that part." The animation quality sort of fluctuates - there are some scenes and episodes that look better or worse than others, but I don't really have any huge complaints about anything. The earliest episodes, I think, look wonkiest.

So can I just get the anime and watch it in, say, a weekend or a Friday night?
That's not very likely. There are over 300 episodes of One Piece and the number keeps going up.

Did you say 300 episodes? D:
Due to the massive amount of episodes, I generally recommend youtubing them or reading the manga, then picking out the parts that you really want to see in motion with full music and voices.

Tell me about this terrible dub that everyone keeps going on about.
The US rights to One Piece are currently held by 4Kids, a company infamous for editing anime beyond recognition. One Piece was one such anime that was edited an absurd amount - to the point where guns would become bizarre hammers on springs, cork guns, or Nerf guns with little suction cups on them, and cigarettes morphed into lollipops. A character named "Smoker," known for smoking several large cigars simultaneously and wearing a coat full of cigars, was renamed "Chaser" and simply had awkward smoke coming out of his mouth all the time.

4Kids has apparently stopped dubbing One Piece due to a lack of interest - the series has basically flopped in the US so far. There have been rumors of other companies showing interest in picking up the franchise - most people seem to believe that Bandai (Who are in charge of much of the One Piece merchandise and games) or Viz (responsible for English manga translation) will pick it up, but there has been nothing absolutely confirmed yet, so the English speaking One Piece fans are left with the fate of the series up in the air for now. 4Kids, unless they drop the license, hold it until 2009.

FUNimation currently holds the rights to One Piece in the U.S.

** How many movies are there, and are they worth seeing?
There are currently eight One Piece movies. All of them except for the most recent one, released just a short while ago, contain original stories. I've only seen the sixth one, which was excellent. The animation style is extremely unique and nothing like the anime or the manga - it looks more like Champloo than One Piece. The animation is smooth and unique, and the storyline is fantastic. From what I've read, the eighth movie, based on the Alabasta/Arabasta arc of the manga/anime, was terrible but I have yet to see it. Reports say that it is "worse than the Utena movie" which is pretty bad.

** When will the next English volume be out?
According to the most recently released Viz English volume, the next will be out some time in August.

** Is One Piece dubbed in any other language?
One Piece is dubbed in, at the very least, Spanish and German. The German dub's actors are excellent (I think, at least.), although they are fairly happy with yanking random scenes from the animation. I know that a lot of people have mentioned that the German dub takes away scenes unpredictably. The German dub recently reached the point of dubbing the Sogeking theme song, so it's moving along very nicely. German One Piece episodes can be found easily on Youtube. As for the Spanish dub, the episodes are very elusive. Some of the voices don't match up with the characters very well, and some do. For one, Luffy seems to sound a lot older than he should.

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Last edited by Roz on Fri Apr 13, 2007 6:23 pm, edited 4 times in total.

Oooh. I read some of the manga. I love the story.
My favorite character is easily....Sanji. I know it's stereotypical, to have the token womanizer, but...he's so... ELEGANT. Not to mention he's voiced by one of my favorite seiyuu, Hirata Hiroaki. [He makes a cute plushie too. x3] y second is Luffy; I love his goofy energy.

One thing I hated about the dub, besides how they slaughtered Sanji's character altogether, was the cigarette/lolipop deal. WTF. HORRIBLE.
I also hated how they changed Miss All Sunday to Miss Sunday. D: Those code names were FOR SPECIFIC REASONS. ARG.

But overall, I love One Piece. :3

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I was really into the manga when I was subscribed to Shonen Jump. I started watching the subtitled anime, too. But I never have bought the graphic novels and I really want to. :< It was my favorite comic in SJ and I'd love to continue reading it.

I'll make sure to pick some volumes up next time I go to BN or Pegasus Books.

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One Piece is one of my favorites, why? Because it's so damn fun, not to mention it can get borderline-massive-creative at times. I mean, Mister 3. That's all I need to say.

I actually don't really have a favorite character yet. I'd say I'm leaning towards Nami (I'm reading it through Shonen Jump, and because I'd rather not read it online or watch, just because I enjoy having things to look forward to each month). The part I'm at, at the moment, is right as the pirates left the island with the two giants.

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Yeah, that's pretty much why I love OP too. It's so fun and quirky. Oda really has a lot of talent-- One Piece has more depth than most people give it credit for. He seems to flawlessly switch back between comedy and action and seriousness etc. etc.

I've lost track of the number of times I've cried. T___T; LESS THAN FIVE but, you know, still a lot. Oda really lays the tragic on thick when he goes into character backstories.

I read it when Shounen Jump first came out in the US.

And then I kind of stopped buying shounen jump because of lack of allowance... I think it was at the beginning of the mermen thing when I stopped buying them, I can't remember.

I may just skip some of the storyline,and get back into the manga. Perhaps read the key points on wikipedia. That probably still going to take some time. D:

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Ah, One Piece. Good times.
I started reading and watching the Japanese version waaay back in 2003. I got a few of the english manga (where Zoro was still 'Zoro') and had fun with it.
But ever since the dub came out, I've been ashamed to say "Yeah, I'mma One Piece fan". And I'm getting rather tired of people telling me his name is 'Zolo'.

But otherwise, awesome show! My favorite characters are probably Buggy, Zoro, and Eneru. Buggy's hillarious, Zoro's awesome, and Eneru's just plain badass. I have keychains of all of them.
I'm almost done with Water 7 and about to start Enies Lobby. I'm an OP nerd.

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One Piece, the seemingly-unending adventures of a bunch of weirdos on a ship with a captain that can no longer swim. What's not to like?

As far as anime goes, One Piece is pretty high up on my watch list. The manga's good too, though I don't really have the time to download scanlations anymore. Still, it's all really entertaining.


On another note, let's not let this thread degrade into a dub bashfest. That always seems to kill good OP threads.

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I agree. This is about the show/manga in general.....

Now. I'm such a Sanji fangirl that I took a picture with one at AnimeBoston. x3 With one of my plushies in tow.

For some reason, some of my favorite scenes in the anime are:
Sanji's phone call with Mr. 0.
Luffy mimicking Sanji. x3
Sanji's fight with....I forget his name. >>;; the one with the spaghetti.

All the image songs are great too. *_*

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Roz that post was so beautifully formed and created that I am almost in tears. ;_;

Oh also I liked OP till about 3 years ago, now not so much. I still sort of keep up with it though.

Alright I love Tony Tony Chopper! He is definitely my favorite crew member. I have not reached up to Franky yet but he does seem pretty neat. I was reading the official American release because well I try to avoid scanlations unless I absolutely have to read them (Slam dunk, Kinnikuman, Jojo's bizarre adventure part one and two) but I just can't wait anymore for some Tony Tony chopper. So I'll probably start reading the scans soon. Also in the 4kids dub tony's voice wasn't actually that bad.

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I watched One Piece several years ago and loved it. I currently have up to volume 11 of the manga. My favorite character would be Nami. I loved her backstory and the whole pinwheel tangerine thing. I havn't been watching for a while though. I think I left off part way through Skypiea.

I love One Piece enough that I cosplayed, I mean crossplayed, as Luffy. Yeah, I'm a girl, and I dressed as Luffy to Anime Expo. I had one of my friends be Nami.

As for merchandise, I have a plushie of Zoro, Nami, and the Going Merry. I got little figurines of Luffy, Zoro, and Nami too.

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I read the Manga that comes out in Norway.
It has come to volume 21 now, and it kicks ass.
Only change is that Luffy is Ruffy and Zoro's surname is diffrent.
I don't remember it right now. It is because of some copyright shit, or so have I heard.

I love everyone on the ship, but my favorite is... Sanj..Luff..Zoro?
I think I have to go with Zoro.
But you know, they would not be so cool if they wern't together...

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First off, Berd, your signature is amazing.

Since a lot of the commentary so far has been regarding favorite characters, I'll take this time to mention that my favorite character is Iceberg. As I'm sure you'll find out if the discussion in this thread continues for a while, I'm a complete whore for Galley-La company. I've even got a little figurine of Paulie on my desk.

I'm also about to add a little bit to the original post.

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[pimp]You know, if you go here you can find it in better quality and stuff.[/pimp]

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Interesting development today for US/English speaking One piece fans.

Toei Animation's American ("Toei animation of America") site has added One Piece to its "Shows" list! And boy did they ever mangle the spelling of Sanji's name! A lot of people find this to be very promising.

Toei's site can be found at http://www.toei-anim.com/

Needless to say, there will be a lot of people watching this site very closely.

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Sandji isn't a big mangle, but if you take it phonetically, it certainly is.

Still, this'll be interesting. Let's hope the "Pokemon" route isn't taken, where a company bought it and not only tried to find cheap imitations of the original actors, but found the cheapest possible.

I can only imagine someone trying to imitate Bella Hudson's grating take on Luffy.

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Oh man, another show I love. One Piece is wonderful and is probably too much of an influence on some of my own works at times. I've seen up to episode 191, so I'm nearing the end of the Skypiea arc.

My favorite characters are Luffy and Usopp... and, well, the whole main cast, but those two are my main favorite. My least favorite characters seem to be the villains. Crocodile and Enel both piss me off to no end... Croc more so, though. You think it's over but he just keeps piling it on. I had watched most of the show a few months ago and had taken a break due to school and getting ready for college stressing me out. I've just recently started watching episodes again because I want to catch up before it goes too far into the 300s.

It's because of the character Zorro. e.e So subsequently, his name had to be changed to Zolo to avoid copyright infringement.

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I got into One Piece the same way I ended up being sucked into Full Metal Alchemist. The plot, animation and the secondary characters. They kept me in tow with the anime and manga, despite my dislike of the main protagonist (Luffy and Ed).

Anyway, it's fun stuff. However, I have drifted away from the series some time ago... All I can say is that I hope One Piece can receieve a better English dub.

We have Japanese exchange students visiting our Japanese class and we did an activity in which we would ask them how much allowance they got, what they spent it on, etc.

One of the girls said she spent it on One Piece manga. X3

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Well, I finally caught up to the One Piece anime... now to read ahead in the manga, seeing as it's in a new arc and I just know that One Piece's anime will have a filler arc after the Enies Lobby arc.

Not many things have made me cry before but One Piece has made me cry twice. I know I did sometime during Chopper's flashbacks and

B-but... I'm totally a manly man... I totally... uh... watch football and drink beer 'n stuff. *doesn't*

On a different note: I feel that John DiMaggio could do a good voice for Franky if One Piece got another chance for an English dub.

*looks to avvie*

....

I watch it here and there. Really. *COUGHNottomentionplaySanjiatseveralroleplayingMUSHesCOUGH*

All I have left to say is: Arlong Park and Alabasta are the best arcs EVAR.

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I watch it on Toonami sometimes but i can't believe there are going to be no new english episodes...just when it was getting to the good part like the Skypiea and Davy Back Fight arc

As for my favorite Character ..Either Eneru or Zolo

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I don't see how you could even watch the 4Kids dub. It made me want to vomit anytime I tried to watch it.



Really? I found Alabastard to be a very drawn out arc. Skypiea felt a bit drawn out at places to me, too. Water 7 and Enies Lobby are awesome arcs, though.

Yeah well i hope someone decent buys the license to one piece

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As do I. My main problem is that I have no idea how they'd be able to find a voice actor that would work well for Luffy in English, since his Japanese voice actress has always sounded so perfect to me. I hope whoever licenses it uses Animaze for the dubbing, who worked on Cowboy Bebop and Ghost in the Shell, which both have great dubs.

Yeah,and FIX SANJIS VOICE!

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Definitely. I personally think Steve Blum, voice of Spike in Cowboy Bebop and Mugen in Samurai Champloo, would be able to do a good Sanji voice. Both in serious and love-cook mode.

Hmm yes...everyone else is ok...

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I hate to admit this but I was first introduced to One Piece by 4Kids dub. As I watched the first few episodes, I was like omg...what is with the water guns, horrible voice acting, and puns about death? So I went online, did a little research, and got hooked to One Piece Dubbed. Now I'm watching fansubs of Skypiea for the second time.
Sanji acts so funny when its about women. For Example, some gifs i made from some episodes:

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Hush, it's the time to rejoice.

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In an interview, it's been stated that Sanji's lollipop is sticking it out even in the new dub, however there will be uncut DVDs.

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As long as he doesn't sound like Dr. Girlfriend anymore...

Besides that. I heard that the new dubbing won't start until ep. 144. Or ep 105, according to the American dub order.

Kampai all around~!

Right now, I've been receiving information in a huge jumble so I'm not positive about too many things.

Things I know:

1. There'll be uncut DVDs
2. Lollipop stays
3. It is EXTREMELY likely that Zoro will remain Zolo
4. FUNi actually seems to be trying to get a ton of input from US One Piece fans on this. Most prominently, there have allegedly been representatives in the Arlong Park community and the Toonzone community.
5. FUNi reps are getting FLOODED with questions.

I guess if anyone has a question, I can try to answer it or get an answer to it. I've been trying to follow this story as closely as possible.

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One Piece~! *rabid foaming-at-the-mouth fangirl*
I feel guilty about slacking in my One Piece fandom duties... my Phoenix Wright obsession has kept me from posting in the One Piece RP that I started for, what, two weeks? Oops.

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8'D This has made me so happy today. XD Best news I've heard in a long time. It's a shame about the Zolo thing but I can get used to it if they absolutely MUST spell his name incorrectly.

That interview was great. Justin Cook sounds like he's a fan of One Piece or at least cares about it, so that's good news.

Now to hope they get good voice actors...

The Zolo thing isn't FUNi's decision, it's Toei's. Just so you're aware.

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I am. I'm also aware that people on the translation team have been rallying for "Zoro" but to no avail.