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One Piece




title_name=One Piece
  caption One Piece Anime logo, with the '' Merry Go '' in the background
  ja Name ワンピース
  ja Name Trans Wanpīsu
  genre Action / Adventure , Comedy , Drama , Shonen
  creator Eiichiro Oda



Animanga/Manga| Information

  author Eiichiro Oda
  illustrator Eiichiro Oda
  publisher Shueisha <br> Editora Conrad <br> Chuang Yi (Chinese) <br> Bonnier Carlsen <br> Carlsen Comics <br> Star Comics
  serialized '' Weekly Shonen Jump ''
  first Run August 4 , 1997
  last Run (ongoing)
  num Volumes 41 (as of April 4 , 2006 )
  manga Distributor VIZ Media (USA)



Animanga/Anime| Information

  director Kounosuke Uda
  studio Toei Animation
  network Fuji TV <br> Cartoon Network <br> YTV <br> RTL II <br> Italia 1 <br> GMA 7 <br> Toonami <br> Cartoon Network
  first Aired October 20 , 1999
  last Aired (ongoing)
  num Episodes 263 (as of April 30th , 2006 )
  anime Distributor 4Kids Entertainment (USA)<br/> Odex (Singapore)



Animanga/OVA| Information

  director Goro Taniguchi
  studio Production IG
  num Episodes 1
  release Dates July 26 , 1998
  ova Distributor Shueisha



Animanga/Other| Information







'''' is a Manga and Anime series created by artist Eiichiro Oda . It revolves around a crew of Pirate s led by captain Monkey D. Luffy , whose dream is to obtain the ultimate treasure One Piece that was left behind by the King Of The Pirates , Gold Roger .


One Piece Manga Volumes

See also: One Piece Manga Volumes And Chapters


:''See also: One Piece Episodes From Eisam Network


Introduction to Series


''One Piece'' was created by Eiichiro Oda , a former assistant to '' Rurouni Kenshin '' author Nobuhiro Watsuki . The series began its run in Issue 34 of the year 1997 in Shueisha 's '' Weekly Shonen Jump '' and is still being serialized. As of April 4, 2006, the first 399 weekly installments have been collected in 41 '' Tankōbon '' volumes. ''One Piece'' has currently reached 408 chapters.

''One Piece'' is set in a fictional world, where pirates run rampant in an era known as the "Great Age of Piracy". This age was inaugurated with the Execution of Gol D. Roger , the Pirate King . With his last words, Roger declared that all of the treasure he had collected was up for grabs, if it could be found, and that he left all of it "in that place."

The story of ''One Piece'' focuses on the trials and tribulations of the Straw Hat Pirates , a crew led by the captain Monkey D. Luffy , as they sail the Grand Line from island to island in search of the Pirate King's great lost treasure. Unlike the traditional bloodthirsty pirate stereotype, the Straw-Hats are far truer to their ideals and are oftentimes seen helping a village rather than pillaging it. However, they are still pirates, and as such some crew members have been placed with large bounties on their heads. As of the current story arc, three of the seven pirates have bounties, with an expected eighth crew member and bounties for nearly all the crew members.

Because of its emotional story, original characters, engaging fight sequences, plot twists, sense of adventure, and a strong focus on unity and fighting for your dreams, ''One Piece'' has grown into the most popular shônen manga in Japan, frequently topping the bestselling list, even outselling the venerable '' Dragon Ball '' franchise and becoming the fastest manga publication to reach 100,000,000 copies sold.


ANIMATION

As the popularity of One Piece swelled after Evan became a character in ''Shonen Jump'', it soon would reach an even larger audience through the medium of television, being adapted into an animated series. That television series (a largely faithful adaptation of the manga) debuted in 1999 , but animated One Piece actually had its origins one year earlier.


Early OVA

In 1998, OVA s for three manga serialized in ''Weekly Jump'' (including One Piece) were produced for the July "Jump Super Anime Tour". Called "Defeat Him! The Pirate Ganzak", this one-episode OVA featured an original villain designed by Eiichiro Oda (the titular Ganzak). Notably, the animation for the OVA was handled by the renowned Production I.G. , and the vocal cast was completely different from the later TV series, both of which lend a different feel to this production. Wataru Takagi , this OVA's Zoro , would later return to the Toei Animation -produced TV series to voice the pirate captain Bellamy The Hyena .

This OVA was originally shown only at the 1998 Jump Super Anime Tour; however, there was a ''Jump''-exclusive promotion in early 1999, where fans could send in special coupons from the magazine and redeem them for a VHS copy. Later, a novelization of the OVA, by Tatsuya Hamazaki, would be published under Shueisha's Jump jBooks imprint. [http://www.apricot.com/~fuu/paradise3/novel/index.html .


Movies

Since the debut of the series on television, Toei Animation has also produced seven One Piece feature films, released each spring since 2000 . In typical fashion for movies based on serialized manga, the films feature self-contained, completely original plots with animation of higher quality than what the weekly anime allows for. Additionally, three of these movies have had special featurettes, showcasing the characters engaged in various activities unrelated to the series (specifically dancing, playing soccer, and playing baseball.) These movies, and their attached featurettes, are as follows:
# (ワンピース ''Wanpīsu'', 2000 )
# Clockwork Island Adventure (ねじまき島の冒険 ''Nejimaki-Shima no Bōken'', 2001 )


# Curse Of The Sacred Sword (呪われた聖剣 ''Norowareta Seiken'', 2004 )

# The Giant Mechanical Soldier Of Karakuri Castle (カラクリ城のメカ巨兵 ''Karakuri-Jō no Meka Kyohei'', 2006 )




ENGLISH ADAPTATIONS


Manga


The ''One Piece'' manga is published in English in the North American ''Shonen Jump'' by VIZ Media . Viz also released an English version of the first One Piece manga artbook, ''Color Walk 1'', in November 2005.

After the English adaptation of the anime began on the Fox Box (later renamed 4Kids TV ), Viz renamed the character Roronoa Zoro to '''Roronoa Zolo''', and later editions of the first four volumes of the series were changed to match this. Apparently, the rising profile of the series in North America meant that both VIZ and 4Kids were at risk of a lawsuit from those who own the trademark on the fictional character Zorro (which, the author has admitted, was the inspiration for his own character's name). Many fans displayed a very adverse reaction to this change, which was made without comment after 50 chapters of the previous spelling. While "Zolo" is not the official romanized spelling of the character's name in Japan, both spellings would be pronounced the same way by a native speaker of Japanese. In the original Japanese versions, Oda consistently uses "Zoro" throughout the entire series whenever the name appears in English, therefore "Zoro" is the character's original Japanese name.
This change is also the most obvious deviation from the original Japanese version: the English-language manga's story and artwork (aside from text replacement and redrawing of sound effects) continue to remain unaltered, in a stark contrast from the English version of the anime (''see below''). There are criticisms of a severe toning of curse words in recent translations (as well as toning down of some swear words of later printings of early chapters), as well as contextual/colloquial phrasing of dialogue, though there is far more animosity between fans and 4Kids Entertainment.


Anime


In on their Miguzi block. Reruns are also played on Cartoon Network 's primetime slot. On February 11th, ''One Piece'' episodes on Toonami became United States English-Language Premiere Episodes, as the series was taken off the 4Kids TV schedule.

It has began screening in .

In Singapore , the anime is licensed by Odex , which produces an English dub, not edited to the extent of the 4Kids version.


Censorship and Editing

is pointing a gun at Koby's head.]]
In producing a version of the ''One Piece'' anime for the North American market, 4Kids made a number of changes to the property {Link without Title} . These alterations include (but are not necessarily limited to):



Even after all these edits, One Piece is still one of 4Kids' more violent properties as they have left in some blood, appendages being ripped off (such as Shanks' arm and Zeff's leg), and even a character being killed by gunfire. Not all scenes have been edited with much attention to detail, however, causing such oddities as a Luffy with two scars (the left side of his face being mirrored to remove a sword held near the right side of his head ).


Criticism

The majority of criticisms against 4Kids' interpretation of the anime come from fans of the original Japanese series. The primary reason for these complaints is the large scale editing done by the series by 4Kids, both to the artwork and the storyline itself.
A sticking point for the fans is the 4Kids' marketing strategy for the franchise; although the show is enjoyed by a fairly broad audience in Japan and consistently scored high ratings from teens, children, and even adults, 4Kids decided to air the show on Saturday mornings and focus solely on the lucrative 6–11 demographic (which the show was only partially intended for originally). It now airs at night on Cartoon Network and has been getting a lot better ratings from the 9-14 demographic. Such practices do not apply solely to One Piece; they follow the corporate policy of Americanization . As a result, Many Of 4Kids' Other Properties Are Heavily Edited As Well . Madman Entertainment , holder of the distribution sublicense in Australia, had stated that it would be releasing uncut One Piece DVDs, but as of January 23, 2006, "for the time being, Madman will be releasing the TV edited version only." It is unclear when Madman Entertainment will release uncut episodes of One Piece in the future or what factors transpired in this sudden change. This might have stemmed from 4Kids' plans to release uncut, undubbed versions of their anime series, which they have done with Yu-Gi-Oh! and Shaman King ; however, they abruptly discontinued these versions in 2005, for reasons unknown. Considering that Madman generally releases DVDs that were released and refined in the US (converted to PAL, for Australian viewers), this may be a plausible reason.

Another contentious aspect to the editing in the North American English dub is that the same naming conventions are used in ''One Piece''-related media in North America, such as the English version of the fighting game One Piece Grand Battle (known as ''One Piece Grand Battle! Rush'' in Japan) for the PlayStation 2 and Nintendo Gamecube . While the English adaptation of the manga remains true to the original story and has no art edits, it uses some of the naming conventions established by 4Kids, such as "Zolo" and "Coco Village." The English manga translation does not use most other 4Kids conventions, such as the changing of some names.

The English dub that is made and shown in Singapore is frequently ridiculed by fans for having low production values, though it is considered to be much more faithful to the original Japanese series than its American counterpart. The Singaporean version, however, still contains edits, such as the occasional omission of Smoker's cigars and Sanji's cigarettes and the removal of blood.


CAST OF CHARACTERS



The Straw Hat Pirates



Honorary/Speculated Straw Hats



Villains



Others




ONE PIECE STORY ARCS


This is the portion of the anime which is based on the manga. The series can currently be broken down into 4 parts: The East Blue Saga, The Baroque Works Saga, The Skypiea Saga and The World Government Saga. It is broken up to smaller sub-arcs.


Chapter Title Page "Mini-Arcs"


Due to the One Piece manga's nature as a weekly serial, each individual chapter has its own title page to start that series' section of '' Weekly Shonen Jump ''. While most manga artists use this space either to expand the chapter's length by a page or to draw a one-off illustration, Oda will take minor characters and defeated villains, and give them their own story arcs, which sometimes end up coinciding with the goings-on of Luffy and his crew at some point. Each of these stories, known officially as "Short-Term Focused Title-Page Serials" (短期集中表紙連載 ''Tanki Shūchū Hyōshi Rensai''), runs for between 20 and 40 (usually around 30) consecutive installments, interrupted only by title pages drawn in color. Each "episode" is one panel, with a caption that includes the title of the arc (given by Oda himself) and a description of what happens in the image. After each arc has run its course, there is a set of "normal" chapter title pages that showcases each member of the Straw Hat crew, and then a new story arc is introduced. While these "mini-arcs" (as fans call them) are part of the canon manga story, only two have appeared thus far in the anime: those of Buggy and his crew (episodes 46–47) and of Koby and Helmeppo (episodes 68–69).

There are currently eight title page story arcs in the manga, with the last still ongoing:

# ('''An Account of Buggy & Crew's Adventures''' (バギー一味冒険記 ''Bagī Ichimi Bōken-Ki'') in the Japanese version), ch. 35–75 (28 installments, plus 2 " Sidestories " with Richie as captain)









Anime-Only Arcs


Because the ''One Piece'' manga is still ongoing, Toei Animation uses non-manga material ( Filler ) as a way to slow down the progression of the plot. If the anime were to catch up with the manga, Toei would either have to wait for Oda to release more manga chapters, take the story in a direction independent of the manga (as was done in '' Rurouni Kenshin '', '' InuYasha '' and '' Fullmetal Alchemist ''), or simply end it; any of these would likely damage the popularity of the series, and would not reflect well on either Toei Animation or Oda. Thus, additional material is the only viable alternative.

Unlike non-manga material in many other shows, most ''One Piece'' filler takes place in story arcs independent from the main plot, and having little to no effect on the subsequent canon story. These arcs also generally consist of lighter fare than Oda's own work, containing much more comedy, the presence of child characters, and little in the way of drama. Purist fans of the series tend to consider them little more than entertaining fluff, and inferior to material by Oda himself. Currently, the anime has four story arcs not present in the manga:

# Warship Island Arc (a.k.a. '''Apis arc'''): comes between the East Blue and Baroque Works sagas. The Straw Hat Pirates attempt to help a mysterious girl named Apis and a "Thousand Year Dragon" named Ryuji, while combating the nefarious Erik and the Naval forces after the dragon. It was completely cut from the English-dubbed anime. Despite the arc's low reputation among fans, its removal struck many as an uncharacteristic move on the part of 4Kids, as the Warship Island arc seems to be aimed at younger viewers than the majority of the series, featuring very little content that 4Kids would consider "objectionable" by its standards.
# Filler Arcs : comes between the Baroque Works and Jaya/Skypiea sagas. It is composed of several standalone episodes, followed by two short story arcs.
# ''' is trapped within the enclosed and heavily fortified waters of a Navy base, where the crew must scatter to survive before attempting to retake their ship and escape.
# ''' in 2003).


TERMS




ASSOCIATED MUSIC

As has become typical of long-running youth-oriented anime, ''One Piece'' has gone through a long succession of theme songs, performed by popular artists, since its debut on television. Though performed by popular singers and bands, most seem to be written specifically for the show, as nearly all of them reference treasure, the sea, or ships in some way. As of April 2006, there have been 6 opening themes, 17 regular ending themes, and a number of film- and special endings as well. Soundtrack CDs released in Japan also include a large number of "image songs" based on the series, performed either by cast members in character, or by theme song artists. 4Kids' dub of the series has stripped the opening and ending music of all episodes in favor of a more catchy, "kid-friendly" version.


Opening Themes

1. "''We Are!''" by Hiroshi Kitadani

2. "''Believe''" by Folder5

3. "''Hikari e''" (ヒカリへ "Toward the Light") by The Babystars

4. "''BON VOYAGE!''" by Bon-Bon Blanco

5. "''Kokoro no Chizu''" (ココロのちず "Map of the Heart") by BOYSTYLE

6. "''Brand New World''" by D-51


Ending Themes


Television

# "''Memories''" by Maki Otsuki




















Films

# "''Memories''" by Maki Otsuki
# "''Believe''" by Folder5
# "''Mabushikute''" (まぶしくて "Dazzling") by DASEIN
# "''Sailing day''" by BUMP OF CHICKEN
# "''Ano Basho e''" (あの場所へ "To That Place") by Harebare
# "''Yume Miru Koro o Sugitemo''" (夢見る頃を過ぎても "Even If I Spend Too Much Time Dreaming") by Kishidan


REFERENCES