We GO!
"A man's dreams will never die!"
In a world of endless oceans and strange, exotic islands, a Golden Age of Piracy has arisen following the demise of the infamous "Pirate King", Gold Roger.
Pirates from across the globe are searching for Roger's ultimate treasure — known as One Piece — said to be hidden somewhere in the Grand Line, the most dangerous and unpredictable stretch of ocean in the world.
One Piece, a
long-running (over 14 years and 650 chapters and going strong),
ridiculously popular manga by
Eiichiro Oda which has also been adapted into an
anime, movies, image songs and so on; considered the single most popular manga created and translated in history, with over 32,343,809 copies sold in 2010
alone.
This is the story of
Monkey D. Luffy, an ambitious but kind young man who has eaten the Gum-Gum Fruit, turning him into a
Rubber Man. He dreams of following in the footsteps of his childhood hero, Captain "Red-Haired" Shanks, by becoming a great pirate. In fact, he plans to find One Piece and become the new "Pirate King". To that end, he has assembled one of the strongest (not to mention weirdest) crews in the world, consisting of:
- Roronoa Zoro: Probably the first mate. A cool, lazy, green-haired former Bounty Hunter with an impossibly bad sense of direction and super strength, who is the creator of the Santoryu (three sword style), carrying one in each hand and one in his mouth. Proves wise at times, and questionably insane at others. His goal is to become the world's greatest swordsman by defeating Dracule "Hawk Eye" Mihawk.
- Nami: A sly, spunky female thief, master manipulator, and outstanding navigator who dreams of making a map of the entire world. She's quite greedy and obsessed with cash, often conning other characters, even her own crew mates. Possesses an instinctive ability to predict the weather that borders on the supernatural, which later becomes the basis of her combat techniques.
- Usopp: A long-nosed, cowardly sharpshooter with a penchant for bragging and telling tall tales. He dreams of becoming a great warrior of the sea, much like his father, with the side goal of visiting Elbaf, an island of giants and a "warrior's paradise".
- Sanji: The sharp-dressed, snarky, girl-crazy, chain-smoking chef of the crew. Master of the Black Leg technique, with kicks strong enough to shatter boulders into dust, and possesses hidden intelligence. He dreams of finding the "All Blue", a sea where the four "regular" seas (not counting the Grand Line) converge, which therefore holds every species of fish in the world.
- Tony Tony Chopper: A young, naive, and adorable reindeer who consumed the Human-Human Fruit, giving him sapience and a humanoid form. After a series of mishaps, was adopted by quack doctor Hiriluk (and later mentored by grand doctor Kureha), becoming an expert doctor. He joined the Straw Hats to fulfill his dreams of becoming a doctor that can cure any disease, and to become his own man.
- Nico Robin: Mystery lady, archaeologist, former agent/assassin of Baroque Works who ate the Flower-Flower Fruit, and is the only survivor of Ohara, who has been ruthlessly hunted by the World Government since childhood. She dreams of finding the Real Poneglyph, an enormous stone block that holds the world's "True History
". - Franky: The crew's resident shipwright/cyborg/speedo enthusiast. Powers up on cola and dreams of making an invincible ship that can sail to the edge of the world.
- Brook: A fencing musician skeleton with an afro, a weird sense of humor, an odd obsession with seeing women's panties, and the power to come back from the dead. Once. After he's already decayed to a skeleton. He dreams of reuniting with Laboon, a whale his crew befriended before leaving for the Grand Line, and betrayed by dying before returning to him as promised.
Together, the group of
True Companions known as the Straw Hat Pirates travel the world, making their way to and through the Grand Line, facing villainous rival pirates, Marine Forces, and corrupted elements of the World Government.
The big gimmick to the show is that many characters, including Luffy, have consumed a "Devil Fruit". Devil Fruits grant the sole consumer incredible powers, at the cost of the consumer losing the ability to swim. Luffy, for example, has eaten the Gum-Gum Fruit, turning him into a
Rubber Man that is capable of stretching his body like elastic. The powers granted by the other Devil Fruits are a varied bunch, from producing natural soap to transforming into a giraffe-human hybrid, to becoming a being made of living ice.
There have been a vast number of sagas, story arcs, and side stories, not including anime filler.
- East Blue Saga (Volumes 1-12):
- Romance Dawn (1)
- Buggy the Clown (1-3)
- Captain Kuro (3-5)
- Buggy's Crew: After the Battle (4-9)
- Baratie (5-8)
- Arlong Park (8-11)
- The Diary of Cobymeppo (10-14)
- Loguetown (11-12)
- Baroque Works Saga (Volumes 12-23)
- Laboon & Whiskey Peak (12-13)
- Little Garden (13-15)
- Jango's Dance Paradise (14-19)
- Drum Island (15-17)
- Alabasta (17-23)
- Hatchan's Sea-Floor Stroll (20-25)
- Skypiea Saga (Volumes 24-32)
- Jaya (24-25)
- Wapol's Omnivorous Hurrah (25-28)
- Skypiea (26-32)
- Ace's Great Blackbeard Search (29-32)
- Water Seven Saga (Volumes 32-45)
- Davy Back Fight (32-34)
- Gedatsu's Accidental Blue Sea Life (33-37)
- Water 7 (34-39)
- Miss Goldenweek's Operation "Meet Baroque Works" (38-43)
- Enies Lobby & Aftermath (40-45)
- Eneru's Great Space Operations (44-49)
- Whitebeard/Paramount War Saga (Volumes 46-60)
- Thriller Bark (46-50)
- Sabaody Archipelago (50-53)
- CP9's Independent Report (50-54)
- Amazon Lily (53)
- Impel Down (54-56)
- Straw Hat's Separation Serial (56-57)
- Paramount War & Aftermath (56-60)
- New World Saga (Volumes 61-Present)
- Reunion Arc (61)
- Fishman Island (61-66)
- From the Decks of the World (62-Present)
- Punk Hazard (Present)
The
One Piece anime has suffered terrible bad luck trying to be (properly) accessible in the English-speaking world. Much to the outrage of fans of the series,
4Kids Entertainment picked up the rights to the show in the U.S. and
Bowdlerised it to an absolutely horrific extent, even compared to their
usual output. They did not even bother to watch the show before licensing it to find out that it was wholly inappropriate for the kiddy audience 4Kids markets to, not to mention US broadcast standards (which
really frowns on blood & death in a kids show). Entire arcs and characters were removed, almost all the violence was toned down to pathetic levels, and guns were either laughably passed off as "water pistols" or crudely redrawn into things like slingshots or weird
shower-head/hammer things. 4Kids' handling of
One Piece damaged their already-poor reputation almost beyond repair, and very nearly torpedoed the franchise's chances of ever succeeding in the English-speaking world. After 142—edited down to 104—episodes (corresponding to the end of the Alabasta Arc), 4Kids' contract was quietly terminated in early 2007.
Funimation ended up riding to the rescue, having picked up the license—they announced it in April 2007, but it took several more years for most fans to realize 4Kids didn't have the show anymore—and began dubbing the third season—episodes 143-195—with better dialogue and greater overall faithfulness to the source material. Unfortunately, despite improved ratings, this was not enough to save the badly-wounded franchise's run on
Cartoon Network, and the TV broadcast was cancelled. At the same time, Funimation went back and redubbed the first two seasons previously handled by 4Kids, releasing those episodes—plus their own later on—in uncut DVD boxsets.
Then in 2009, it was announced that the series would be simulcast on the internet, just one day after its airing in Japan.
And the Fandom Rejoiced... until
digital pirates
took an episode from Funimation's website, when Funi
had already prepared it for release with an easy to guess name but hadn't yet officially linked it, and spread it before the episode even aired in Japan. After this,
the whole simulcast was delayed for three months to tighten their security and prevent any future leaks.
And now it's here!Funimation began releasing
One Piece on DVD in early 2008, starting from the beginning, uncut and unedited; in May 2010, they finally finished re-dubbing all of the episodes previously done by 4Kids and continued onward to Skypiea, releasing episodes beyond the point where the TV broadcast was cancelled. In 2011, they began re-releasing the show in larger economy boxsets for fans that skipped out on the initial releases for whatever reason. So at least a happy ending there.
What's more, Viz and Shonen Jump USA released five volumes of the manga per month from January 2010 through June—volumes 24 to 53—allowing English readers to quickly catch up with the Japanese audience (similar to their treatment of the
Naruto manga the previous year). Shonen Jump USA also skipped ahead to the Impel Down arc and beyond after finishing the Alabasta arc. The television broadcast in the US and Canada, however, is still long gone.
In Fall 2011, Funimation announced that they had finally acquired Season 4 (the Davy Back fight and most of Water 7) and are set to start releasing it sometime in 2012.
It has numerous specific pages:
If you are watching the English dub or haven't read the manga, there are spoilers below.
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