One Piece / Trivia

Trivia Tropes for One Piece:

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Story Arcs

Special Anime Episodes

Animated movies

Crossover and Specials

Live-Action - Television

One Piece (the Netflix series)

Video games

Other Game Appearances

Accidental Downer Ending: At least as far as the original English dub by 4Kids Entertainment is concerned, anyway. The very last episode of the dub ended right as the Rainbow Mist arc concluded and the Skypeia arc began. This entailed showing a ship from Skypiea about to fall on the Going Merry. Since this is the point where 4Kids lost the localization license to FUN Imation, the fandom likes to joke that, following the cliffhanger in this particular dub, the Straw Hat Pirates got hit by the falling ship and died.
Accidentally-Correct Writing: Shortly after the flashback about Corazon, Doflamingo's brother who wears a black version of his iconic pink coat, scientists discovered an extremely rare black flamingo.
Acting for Two:
- For the anime, all of the ten voice actors for the Straw Hats acted for two — or in some cases for three or four — at various times. Akemi Okamura, Kappei Yamaguchi, Kazuya Nakai and Hiroaki Hirata did it frequently, as they voiced Nami, Usopp, Zoro and Sanji, respectively, in addition to minor/supporting characters and creatures (such as Okamura's Su and Gonbe, Hirata's Karoo, or Yamaguchi's Eyelash). Katsuhisa Hoki did this in the Marineford arc, before Moria began to appear less often. For the Time Skip, eight of the Straw Hat actors would go on to play the Fake Straw Hats. Tomomichi Nishimura also did it in episodes featuring Miyagi and Hyogoro.
- A handful of voice actors from the Funimation dub play multiple roles. For example, Brina Palencia voices Chopper, Zoro (as a child), Rongo and Carmen, Colleen Clinkenbeard plays Luffy, Myure (the Bellamy Pirates' doctor) and a Southbird, and Stephanie Young voices Nico Robin and her mother Olvia.
Adaptation Sequence: Manga → Anime OVA → Anime TV series → Video games → Live-action TV series.
Adored by the Network:
- Done for Toonami's original run in the United States. When the show's (in)famous 4Kids dub switched over from 4Kids TV to Toonami's lineup, it brought in favorable ratings for the early teenager demographic. When the 4Kids dub reached its end, Funimation produced the dub and the series became a favorite all the way to the end.
- Adult Swim's Toonami really loved to play Funimation's uncut dub despite the low ratings, starting on Episode 207 (The first episode made in HD), it played on the block from 2013 to 2017, and when they were forced to drop it for legal and financial reasons, they made a short send-off music video for it before replacing it with Tokyo Ghoul. When One Piece was put back on the schedule in 2022, in addition to starting at Episode 517 (the first post-time skip episode), it was given two slots on the block.
Alan Smithee: The Japanese actors for the Straw Hat Pirates have used psuedonyms based on "Sokotsuya" for characters outside of their primary roles.
All-Star Cast: Nearly all of the anime's cast are either well-known voice actors (Mayumi Tanaka, Kazuya Nakai, Akemi Okamura, Hiroaki Hirata, Kappei Yamaguchi, Ikue Otani, Yuriko Yamaguchi, Chō, Kazuki Yao, and so forth) or well-known actors (Shun Oguri, Hikari Mitsushima, Naoto Takenaka, Kumiko Mori). For bonus points, even the voice actors for Goku, Ichigo, and Naruto have a role in the anime.
Approval of God: Michel Polnareff has expressed flattery on Twitter over being the inspiration for Doflamingo's design.
Ascended Fanon:
- A Running Gag in the SBS Question Corner is that Oda will instantly accept any birthday fans try to give to a character. Even his own birthday.
  Fan: Chopper's birthday should be December 24th!
  Oda: Okay.
- At one point, a fan noted that one of the villains of the show, Rob Lucci, had a name that that could be interpreted as "To rob the light" based on the (inaccurate) fact that Lucci is the Italian word for light. Oda's response was to the general effect of:
  "You know me. I'm the guy who comes up with the deep meaningful names. Yep. In fact, "Rob Lucci" even means "steal the light," or SO I HEAR (had no idea)."
Ashcan Copy: This is essentially the entire reason the (in)famous 4Kids dub of the anime exists: 4Kids got One Piece in a package deal with Ojamajo Do Re Mi and Ultimate Muscle and were, per contractual obligations by Toei, forced to dub it under threat of losing the license to the two series they were hoping to acquire.
Breakthrough Hit: The success of One Piece was the manga that made Eiichiro Oda into a household name.
Cash-Cow Franchise: After twenty years, you'd better believe it.
Cast the Runner-Up:
- Kappei Yamaguchi originally auditioned for Luffy when the anime was being produced. He was instead offered to play Usopp.
- Hiroaki Hirata was one of the voice actors who auditioned for Zoro, but he was eventually cast as Sanji.
- For 4Kids Entertainment's release, Eric Stuart and Dan Green were initially chosen to play Gold Roger and the narrator, respectively. Stuart was instead cast as the narrator for the series^noteas well as minor roles Sham and Henzo, while Green played some minor characters such as Nezumi, Johnny and Dragon.
- Eric Vale was apparently cast as Luffy in the test dub FUNimation did back in the early-2000s before Toei gave the license to 4Kids. When FUNi got the license, he was recast as Sanji. Chris Sabat was also was Helmeppo in the test dub, but later got cast as Zoro.
Channel Hop: The (first) American dub from FOX to Cartoon Network. The series got higher ratings on Toonami, and they aired the remaining episodes of the 4Kids dub after 4Kids TV stopped airing it and let the license expire. Then Funimation picked it up and gave it a second dub that continued to air (although Cartoon Network still cancelled it, despite improving ratings). It got a second chance with Toonami when they resurrected on [adult swim]. Though ultimately was cancelled on that block as well due to a variety of factors, only to return for a third chance on January 2022.
Creator Backlash: Despite its popularity, quite a few people affiliated with One Piece grew to resent their time with the franchise for various reasons.
- According to Mark Kirk, 4Kids' adaptation of the series was the worst thing that ever happened to the company, as they were forced by Toei into accepting the series as part of a package deal with Ultimate Muscle and Magical Do-Re-Mi. On top of that, they never watched a single episode as well. The adaptation was never rebroadcast on television after 4Kids stopped producing it in 2006, nor has it seen a digital release.
- Despite enjoying his work on the 4Kids dub, Eric Stuart has publicly admitted that what the company did to the series was terrible.
- David Moo (the 4Kids voice of Sanji) said in an interview that he supposedly disagreed with the voice direction given to his character.
- Shawn Conrad (who performed the 4Kids theme rap) was not aware of the series being heavily edited and censored nor did he expect the series to receive popular acclaim. Years later, when he found out that the 4Kids dub was trending and he was contacted and noticed by numerous fans, he deeply regretted not negotiating a better deal for his contribution to the theme song as he only received a small cut of a shared flat fee for his work even though he re-worked the lyrics and performed the song.
- The Japanese voice actors called Episode 281's "Obahan Time" segment their most embarrassing moment.
- Sota "Hone Hone" Shigetsugu, an animator for the Wano Country arc, was critical of the anime's sound design.
Creator Breakdown:
- In one SBS, Oda said that the hardest moment for him to draw that had him in tears was Vivi's breakdown in the Alabasta arc as she screamed and begged for everyone fighting in the civil war to stop.
- Apparently, the whole thing with Gold Roger, Ace, and Rouge was that Oda was worried about his wife Chiaki Inaba's pregnancy and himself becoming a father.
- On a more humorous note, it's been joked (and outright stated) by the anime staff that the reason the amount of fanservice spiked upward was because of Oda getting married to a gorgeous Ex-Cosplay Otaku Girl like Chiaki and being horny for her all the time - and to the displeasure of fans who liked the general lack of such things in the manga early on. For a guy who prefers not emphasizing romance that's not an obvious huge joke in his stories, he sure is a massive softie for his family.
Creator-Chosen Casting: Toei Animation planner Shinji Shimizu invited Akemi Okamura to audition for Nami after the latter voiced a guest role in the anime adaptation of The Kindaichi Case Files.
Creator's Apathy: According to 4Kids Entertainment's former Senior Vice President of Digital Media Mark Kirk, 4Kids never actively sought to acquire the show. The real reason it landed in their hands was because Toei Animation desperately wanted to sell a license for their smash-hit cartoon to anyone who could air it on American TV.^*^* Thus, when 4Kids met with Toei to license Ultimate Muscle and Magical DoReMi, they were also handed the One Piece rights. They never watched a single episode before agreeing to the deal and they became increasingly shocked at what they'd gotten themselves into when the masters rolled in – Toei's infamous Executive Meddling over the series couldn't have helped.^† The result of all this was the need for episodes to be severely edited down just to be allowed to air on network TV at all due to strict FCC regulations, which led to quite possibly the most notorious anime Macekre of all time.
Creator's Favorite: Luffy, Gaimon, and Buggy, for Eiichiro Oda.
Crossdressing Voices:
- Everyone who's voiced Luffy and Chopper in the original and both English dubs.
- Sentomaru, with the result that the axe-toting sumo sounds like an old lady who smokes like a chimney. The dissonance is pretty wild, but at the same time works pretty well.
- As of Wano, the male Izo's voice in the English dub is Jessie James Grielle.
The Danza: One of the oddest cases of this trope due to how rare the name is, Ryunosuke, the awkward-looking dragon created by Kanjuro, is voiced by Ryunosuke Yamaguchi.
Darkhorse Casting: Funimation's English dub for One Piece was not originally like this but trended toward it as the series went on. Due to the series having a huge cast, it also requires a huge cast of actors. To this extent, the casting directors for One Piece have hired from local improv groups, local stage performers, podcasts, YouTube, TikTok, broadcast news, vlogs, and any other source they can think of where people enunciate well. Except for Franky, this also applies to the core members later on: Robin is voiced by Stephanie Young, who at the time of casting was a jazz singer-songwriter and not a voice actor; and Brook is voiced by Ian Sinclair, who was lesser known at the time, having just done his breakout role as the lead of Space☆Dandy.
Development Gag:
- The series has a few references to Romance Dawn, a one shot manga that would serve as a basis for One Piece.
  - Right out of the gate Romance Dawn is used as the title for the first story arc, Chapters 1 and 601, and Volumes 1 and 61.
- The titles of chapters 1 and 601, as well as the fifteenth anime opening, "We Go", use the phrase "Romance Dawn", which was the working title of One Piece.
- When Zoro claims he uses Three Sword Style as a swordsman, Ryuma questions if it's a circus act. When first designing Zoro, he was a member of Buggy's Circus of Fear crew which did make his Three Sword Style a circus act.
Directed by Cast Member:
- Besides directing 4Kids' English dub, Christopher Collet voiced Mihawk and Beckman.
- Quite a few voice actors for Funimation's English dub have also served as ADR Directors, including Mike McFarland (Buggy), Caitlin Glass (Vivi), Jeremy Inman (Patty, Magellan), Christopher Bevins (Lassoo), Jerry Jewell (Merry) and Joel McDonald (Kuma).
Distanced from Current Events:
- In the Thriller Bark arc, Absalom stabs Sanji repeatedly with a knife as Sanji is protecting Nami, which bites him in the ass when he gives his location away by stepping into a pool of blood. However, when the anime reached that part, a massacre involving a knife had occurred in Japan, so the scene was altered to make Absalom relentlessly beat Sanji instead, and give his location away by stepping too close to him. The scene was restored to normal in the DVD versions when it wasn't an issue anymore.
- In the Dressrosa arc, One of Kyros's first acts upon being restored to his human form was to decapitate Doflamingo, only for him to turn out to be Actually a Doombot. While the decapitation itself aired without incident, only a few days later, ISIS executed two Japanese hostages in a similar manner. This caused the following episodes to have a swirl of yarn hastily slapped atop the headless puppet, as well as having frames showing the head on the ground being zoomed in and/or cropped to avoid showing the severed neck. These changes would eventually be reverted in the home media releases.
Dueling Dubs:
- There are three extant English dubs for this series:
  - First, Odex Enterprises, who was hired for Animax, made a dub in 2003 for the Asian market; it lasted 104 episodes and was – as is typical for Animax – extremely close to the Japanese script, maybe too close. It was also infamous for constantly switching out actors (Nami alone had three different voices by the time it was done).
  - Next, 4Kids Entertainment dubbed it in 2004 for the North American market, which aired in the United States on 4Kids TV on Fox and eventually moved to Toonami on Cartoon Network. It technically covered the first 142 episodes, but the massive amount of censorship reduced that count to about 104. This dub may be the best-known to casual fans, but due to its extreme unpopularity with the dedicated fanbase and 4Kids' critics, it is increasingly difficult to find clips of it online, even extending to YouTube. The internet hivemind seems absolutely determined to purge it from existence.
  - Then, Funimation started dubbing the series beginning in mid-2007 starting with Episode 144 (and even redubbed the episodes 4Kids dubbed and even dubbed the episodes 4Kids skipped altogether) and stopping in late-2010 but restarting in 2012 and still in production as of 2022. The dub covers over 800 episodes (including the Time Skip) and is a faithful translation of the original.
- Two Latin American Spanish dubs were produced in Mexico City:
  - The first dub based on the 4Kids release was recorded at Candiani Dubbing Studios and aired on Televisa from 2006 to 2008.
  - In September 2019, it was announced that a new dub based on the unedited version was being recorded at Labo. It was released on Netflix in October 2020 and retained most of the first dub's cast.
Dueling Shows: With Naruto, Bleach and Fairy Tail. In fact, One Piece, Naruto, and Bleach were often referred to as the "big three" of Shōnen Demographic. Now both the other two have concluded (Naruto has moved into a sequel, Boruto, essentially starting from the ground up again, and Bleach may or may not stay finished due to Tite Kubo being uncertain about what to do with the current ending after a bout of poor health and subsequently trying to wrap things up as quickly as he could), One Piece is basically "the Big One"
- Fairy Tail, while popular in itself, has also finished, and just doesn't have the same track record behind it.
- My Hero Academia enjoyed breakout popularity that has slowly caused it to gain ground beside One Piece, although that series too is gearing up to end during One Piece’s run.
- Then Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba experienced a colossal spike in popularity, managing to surpass One Piece in manga sales for a time. However, this popularity came near the end of its run, so it too fell by the wayside.
Executive Meddling:
- Due to the implications of Whitebeard's flag (the fact that it was a Buddhist symbol that resembled a reversed swastika), Oda had to change it as per the higher-ups' request.
- When 4Kids acquired the license to the anime, they didn't want anything to do with it. However, Toei forced them to dub it until 4Kids could drop the license.
- When Funimation acquired the license to the anime, they wanted Luffy to be voiced by a man. Toei wouldn't allow it, and Colleen Clinkenbeard was cast into her Star-Making Role as Luffy. To be fair, Oda himself wanted a woman to dub Luffy, also. In fact, all of the principle cast members for the Straw Hats were partly chosen by Oda himself.
- All Supernovas who were introduced in Sabaody Archipelago arc exist because of this trope. Oda had already planned the general outline of the arc, but his editor suggested that it needed more content to spice things up. A mere three hours later, Oda had created nine new character designs and drawn a rough draft for a new manga chapter.
Extremely Lengthy Creation: Eiichiro Oda started working on the series in 1997. As of 2022, the series has spawned over 1,000 chapters.
Fandom Nod:
- The published lists of questions answered by the creator. Sometimes serious answers that add to canon, mostly humorous ones that... don't.
- Also, when Luffy's Gum-Gum Gatling was voted the most popular attack of the series, its upgrade, Jet Gatling, was used to defeat the next Dragon-in-Chief.
Follow the Leader: One Piece was heavily influenced by Dragon Ball.
God-Created Canon Foreigner: Eiichiro Oda himself is behind the story and character design of Movie 10 and has officially stated in the movie artbook that the film's villain, Golden Lion Shiki, is Canon for both the anime and the manga.
God Never Said That:
- Volume 20's SBS supposedly says that a human who eats the Hito Hito no Mi will become enlightened. Oda jokingly just said that the user would figuratively become a proper person.
- Due to Oda's heavy involvement in the creation of One Piece Film: Strong World, a common rumor emerged that Oda had declared that the film is canon. While both Shiki (the main antagonist of the film) and his backstory presented in Chapter 0 are considered canon (with both of them having been referenced in the manga), there is no official word from the manga or Oda himself in regards to the canonicity of the film. Similarly, it is commonly believed that Oda stated that One Piece Film: Z is non-canon; while the film itself is difficult to reasonably place within the manga timeline, Oda has never directly commented on its status.
- Oda mentioned in a 2016 interview that Luffy couldn't feasibly defeat Kaido at the time just because his punch was "really strong". When Luffy did finally beat Kaido with an Onigashima-sized punch enhanced by his Awakening and advanced Armament/Conqueror's Haki, Oda was accused of lying about Kaido not losing to a "big punch".
Incidental Multilingual Wordplay:
- During the Amazon Lily arc, when Luffy describes his balls, he uses the Japanese euphemism "gold balls", resulting in Marguerite and the rest of the Amazons believing that they're just that. The fan subs and the English manga used the euphemism "family jewels" to achieve the same effect.
- Spoofing the By the Power of Grayskull! trope, Franky activates his Cyborg abilities by shouting "Hentai!" instead of the traditional Toku phrase "Henshin!" (transform). In the English dub, he shouts "Convert!" which other people mishear as "pervert".
- Before the Straw Hats arrive at Dressrosa, Luffy mishears the name of the island and asks Law: "Have you ever been to Dressroba?". Roba means "old hag" in Japanese, so cue Robin having an Imagine Spot about an ugly, old lady dancing around in a dress. The German translation makes Luffy say: "Have you ever been to Dress Oma?". Oma means "grandmom", so the hilariousness of the imagine spot stays pretty much the same. Furthermore, it is a lucky translation that Oma still sounds enough like 'Rosa' (two syllables, the same two vowels) to make Luffy's mishearing plausible.
Inspiration for the Work:
- Dragon Ball was a major inspiration for One Piece to the point where Oda collaborated with Dragon Ball author Akira Toriyama for quite a few crossovers including Cross Epoch.
- Vicky the Viking is also listed as an inspiration within the pages of the actual manga.
Keep Circulating the Tapes:
- The anime has had a number of crossover specials with Dragon Ball Z and Toriko aired on TV. None of them received a home release.
- As with Dragon Ball Super, Kochikame, and Chibi Maruko-chan, One Piece's segments on Fuji TV's FNS 27-Hour Japan's History special has not been released on home video.
- 104 episodes (143 episodes in the original) of One Piece with the 4Kids dub aired from September 18, 2004 to September 22, 2007, a couple of months after Funimation picked up the license. On the initial American television airings and American DVD releases, the 4Kids dub was intact on episodes #001-#104 (#001-#143) and #001-#052 (#001-#084). Re-releases of these particular episodes by Funimation were unedited and redubbed. Despite their ubiquity, it's never been released digitally and the remaining 52 episodes only have off-air recordings.
- The same also holds true for Funimation's early dub when it aired from September 29, 2007 to March 15, 2008 on Toonami before the block's cancellation^noteTo the point where people on Reddit are classifying this dub as lost forever. On the American television airings, this early dub was intact on episodes #105-128 (#144-167) and they remain unavailable digitally or on home media. The Australian TV airings of #129-156 (#168-195) were aired uncut, so you would be completely out of luck finding those with the edited dub intact. What makes these episodes so unique are as follows:
  - 1) In order not to be so radically different to the casual viewer, some of the 4Kids terminology (Zolo, Grand Compass, etc.) was kept in the dialogue.
  - 2) Despite being dubbed by a different company, they still had to comply with Cartoon Network's Broadcast Standards and Practices. As such, Sanji's cigarette had to be removed completely and in instances where he was lighting it his arms were redrawn so they were not near his face, certain instances of blood had to be removed, censorship had to be made within the dialogue (Sky Knights instead of Sky Priests, etc.), and Japanese text that was onscreen was translated into English.
  - 3) There exists an early version of "We Are!" performed by Jerry Jewell^note
  - 4) When Funimation redubbed these episodes, in addition to using the correct terminology and so forth, subtle changes were made to the dialogue. Compare Colleen Clinkenbeard's first line as Luffy:
    Luffy (Original Dub): That was a lot of fun, but I don't think we should ever go back.
    Luffy (Redub): You know what, that place was pretty awesome, wasn't it?
- Episodes 438 to 460 of the series with Norio Imamura as Ivankov aired from February 14 to August 1, 2010, before he was arrested for indecent exposure. Reruns and DVD releases have since replaced him with Mitsuo Iwata. Your best bet to getting the 22 episodes with Imamura as Ivankov would be to trade with someone who recorded the show off of Fuji Television during the aforementioned period in the run.
Late Export for You: Coupled with the failure of the 4Kids dub, it took eight years for the anime to get a proper widely released English dub.
Milestone Celebration:
- The Straw Hats reached the Grand Line in the 100th chapter of the manga. Oda had to severely truncate the Loguetown arc to make it so, however.
- In a nod to the previous one, the Straw Hats finally enter the second part of the Grand Line in Chapter 602.
- The series reached its 1000th chapter at the start of 2021, titled "Straw Hat Luffy".
- The anime reached its 1000th episode on November 2021, titled "Overwhelming Strength! The Straw Hats Come Together!". The episode featured a remade version of "We Are!", the series' very first opening, with the main cast's current look.
Missing Episode:
- Material was cut in the original version of the short-lived 4Kids dub, mostly for violence, but sometimes smaller arcs were as well. Of the 104 episodes made, the first 52 episodes still have official DVD copies from Viz Media and the rest have off-air recordings.
- As for Funimation's edited dub of episodes #144-174, 26 of the 30 episodes only have off-air recordings.
Network to the Rescue: Less network and more Japanese government, but the continued run of the English dub was made possible thanks to a grant from J-LOD, a program made to support localizing culturally significant works for viewing outside of Japan. It's also how the Latin Spanish dub came back.
No Export for You:
- For a long time, One Piece was one of the more teeth grindingly annoying instances of the UK getting absolutely shafted by Toei. Six years after Funimation's dub began, Manga Entertainment finally acquired the series in 2013.
- The roles were reversed somewhat a year later, when seven of the movies were released in the UK without any word of a US release to date.
- Most of the movies and several of the TV specials haven't made it out of Japan.
- Neither of the spin-off series were released in North America, though One Piece Party did at least see an official French release.
Official Fan-Submitted Content: Oda takes pretty much any suggestion for a character's birthday... including his own.
The Other Marty:
- When 4Kids produced their English adaptation in 2004, Dan Green and Eric Stuart respectively voiced the narrator and Gold Roger. However, Frederick B. Owens voiced Roger for the final release, while Stuart replaced Green as the narrator.
- After Norio Imamura was arrested for indecent exposure in June 2010, Mitsuo Iwata replaced him as the voice of Ivankov for reruns and DVD releases, starting with episode 461.
Playing Against Type:
- Mushul from the ninth movie. His voice actor is one of the most famous comedians in Japan, in his first voice role and as a villain to boot.
- It's discussed in an interview with Showtaro Morikubo that the character of Bartolomeo is an unusual role for him, a character type he rarely played before.
- In the English side of things, it's really hard to beat out someone like Hody Jones being voiced by Wishbone of all things!
Posthumous Credit:
- Luis Alfonso Mendoza, who voiced Higuma in Netflix's Latin American Spanish dub, had recorded all his lines a year before he was murdered in February 2020, the same year the dub was released.
- Pedro D'Aguillón Jr., who voiced Gan Fall in the Latin American Spanish dub, passed away in February 2022, three months before the Skypiea arc was released on Netflix.
Promoted Fanboy:
- A distaff variation with Tia Ballard, who grew up watching One Piece during its glory days on Fox and Toonami.
- Quite a few people from The One Piece Podcast worked on the anime series in the Funimation dub.
- Saori Hayami grew up watching One Piece for years before she was cast as Yamato in 2021.
- SungWon Cho has been a massive One Piece fan for years (apparent from all his videos on his YouTube channel). He got to fulfill a dream of being part of the show as the English voice of Cat Viper.
- The Viz manga's current translator Stephen Paul used to be one of the series' top scanlators, and a constant presence at fan-boards such as Arlong Park.
- Jonah Scott is a fan of the series. Now he’s the voice of Katakuri.
Queer Character, Queer Actor:
- Trans voice actress Kayleigh McKee is the English voice of Kiku, who is also a trans woman.
- Yamato, whose exact gender identity is ambiguous and much disputed but seems to heavily lean towards identifying as male, is voiced in English by non-binary actor Michelle Rojas, who had previously voiced Gonbe.
Real-Life Relative:
- Yuko Kobayashi, Kyuin's voice actress, is the wife of Mitsuaki Hoshino, Magellan's actor.
- Ryunosuke Yamaguchi (Ryunosuke) is the son of Usopp's voice actor Kappei Yamaguchi.
- Takeshi Kusao (Kohza, Saul) and Yuka Saito (Milky) have been married since 2015.
- Ryōtarō Okiayu, the voice of Kaku as well as the second voice of Kizaru among others, married Charlotte Galette's voice actress Ai Maeda in 2013.
- From the Funimation dub, Greg Ayres, who voiced Sentomaru and Cabaji, is the younger brother of the late Chris Ayres, the voice of Johnny and Mr. 11.
- Travis Willingham, who voices Ace in the Funimation dub, married Laura Bailey, who voiced Isoka and Conis, four years after Funimation began dubbing the series.
- Amber Lee Connors and Howard Wang, who respectively voiced Seira and Vinsmoke Ichiji in Funimation's dub, have been dating since 2018.
- Caitlin Glass and her younger sister Rachel Glass respectively voice Vivi and Leo in Funimation's dub.
- From the Latin Spanish Netflix dub, Alejandro Orozco and his brother Luis Fernando voice Usopp and Hatchan, respectively, while their father José Luis Orozco voices Silvers Rayleigh and Toto. Likewise, Ricardo Mendoza voiced Pearl from the Krieg pirates, while his brother, the late Luis Alfonso Mendoza, voiced Higuma.
- In the German dub, Sanji and Pudding, whose whole plotline is about being forcibly married, are voiced by real-life married couple Hubertus and Stefanie von Lerchenfeld. We also have Chopper's first and second voice actors, Florian and Martin Halm, who are brothers.
Recast as a Regular:
- Kenji Nojima first appeared as a pirate in Alvida's crew. Beginning with the Alabasta arc, he would also voice the recurring character Pell.
- Fumihiko Tachiki first appeared as Don Krieg. Years later, he would eventually go on to voice Akainu starting with the Marineford arc.
- Kazuki Yao first appeared as Django. He would later appear as the voice of the recurring character Bon Clay in the Alabasta arc. Eventually, he would later go on to voice the Straw Hats' shipwright, Franky.
- Katsuhisa Hoki played the villain Gecko Moria. He would later go on to succeed the late Daisuke Gōri as the voice of fellow Warlord and eventual Straw Hat helmsman Jimbei.
- Kanae Itō played Blue Fan and the younger Boa Hancock in the Amazon Lily arc. She would later voice the recurring Mink Carrot beginning with episode 753.
- Chō first appeared as Barbarossa in the Alabasta arc under the Stage Name Yuichi Nagashima. He later voiced Henzo in the Rainbow Mist arc and would later have a major role as the voice of the Straw Hats' resident musician, Brook.
- Toshiyuki Morikawa voiced the recurring character Hatchan. He would later voice the Skypiea arc's main villain, Eneru.
- Masaya Onosaka originally appeared as Siam and Choo in the East Blue saga. He would later appear as the recurring villain Spandam in the Enies Lobby arc.
- Hideyuki Hori first appeared as the voice of Vigaro. He would later voice the Warlord Bartholomew Kuma as well as Vinsmoke Judge.
- Unshō Ishizuka played Kuina's father and would later go on to voice Kizaru (and Kong).
- Tomomichi Nishimura had a few minor roles as Captain T-Bone and the Mink doctor Miyagi before Hyogoro, one of the major allies in Wano.
- Ian Sinclair first appeared as Itomimizu (the announcer for the Davy Back Fight), a good year before he was cast as Brook.
- Tia Ballard first appeared as Porche of the Foxy Pirates. Years later, she would take on the role of Carrot, the bunny girl stowaway on the Thousand Sunny.
Reclusive Artist: The voice cast of the Odex dub hasn't done anything besides this dub. With the sole exception of Emlyn Morinelli, who'd go onto voice Zoey, Irma and Hatchel.
Renamed to Avoid Association: Sanji was initially named Naruto (as he is a chef). He was renamed as not to overshadow the release of Naruto.
Role-Ending Misdemeanor:
- Norio Imamura originally voiced Emporio Ivankov, the person his character design was based on. After his July 2010 arrest for showing off body art on the internet (which in Japan is considered indecent exposure), the role was recast with Mitsuo Iwata, both for the later episodes and the DVD releases. Fortunately, the differences in portrayals are almost indistinguishable.
- Vic Mignogna got fired from FUNimation in early 2019 due to sexual assault allegations. Thus his two characters got recast.
Role Reprise: In the Latin American Spanish dub produced by Netflix, Dafnis Fernández (the second Zoro), Georgina Sánchez (Nami), Noé Velázquez (Sanji), Nallely Solís (Chopper), Kerygma Flores (Robin), Christian Strempler (Yosaku), Salvador Reyes (Kuroobi), Raúl Anaya (Shanks), Erica Edwards (Alvida), Liliana Barba (Tashigi), Edson Matus (Gin), César Garduza (Mr. 9), Óscar Gómez (Nefertari Cobra) and Gerardo Vásquez (the narrator) reprised their roles from the 4Kids release.
Schedule Slip: The Funimation dub has had notorious breaks between releases. There was a 16 month gap between Seasons 3 and 4 (Skypiea and Water 7) and a 25 month(!) gap between Seasons 9 and 10 (Fishman Island and Punk Hazard). With only TV specials and One Piece Stampede seeing release.
Screwed by the Lawyers:
- Much like with their Dragon Ball Z Kai and Dragon Ball Super dubs, Funimation covered a number of One Piece opening and ending songs. However, they only dubbed the first four opening songs and stopped dubbing the ending songs after the thirteenth. The most likely reason for this is that Toei started hiring popular Japanese pop bands to record their theme songs as well as using actual pop songs for their openings. This means that the cost to license the songs would be higher than usual and the Japanese artists would likely be against a foreign company dubbing their works.
- "Mirai Kokai", the fourteenth ending song performed by Tackey & Tsubasa, was skipped in the Funimation dub because of licensing issues. Instead, it was replaced by "Eternal Pose", the fifteenth ending song performed by Asia Engineer.
- Likewise, Kota Shinzato's "Hands Up" was skipped over due to Shinzato not willing to hand over the copyright to the song for international release. Funi had to extend using "We Go" while subbing through the Punk Hazard arc. "Hands Up" wouldn't be seen in an official capacity until the dubbed version premiered in August 2020.
- This is the reason Zoro's name was changed to Zolo in both the 4Kids dub and Viz Media's translation of the manga: his name was a homage to Zorro, which at the time One Piece was initially licensed, was the subject of a copyright lawsuit despite that property having fallen into the Public Domain years prior. 4Kids, Viz and (initially) Toei all agreed to change his name rather than risk getting caught in a lawsuit. By the time Funimation got the anime license, Toei decided this was no longer a concern, so their dub was allowed to use his original name, though Viz Media's agreements with Shueisha specifying that he be called Zolo still stands to this day.
Screwed by the Network: The series got hit with this trope three times when it hit the North American airwaves:
- 4Kids Entertainment's adaptation, which first aired on the FoxBox in 2004, is infamous for its many content edits in their attempts to make the show kid friendly, as well as skipping the entire Little Garden and Laboon arcs. Despite their dub still being insanely popular at the time, it was removed from the block, right before the start of the Alabasta arc.
- The Cartoon Network run began with the 4Kids dub moving from Fox in 2006. In 2007, it switched to the Funimation dub (beginning with episode 144), but the show only went to episode 167. Toonami was on the brink of cancellation around that time.
- Years later on Adult Swim, the show's broadcast began with episode 207 and was written off the network for good after episode 384 aired in 2017.^note Jason DeMarco later stated this was due to legal and financial reasons; and it was against their wishes. Most can probably understand that the reasons for the show's scrapping were beyond the staff's control, but considering the show was consistently moved around the schedule ^note, on top of the simple fact that the show has been running for a very long time, it was very unlikely the rest of the series would finish its run either way.
Series Hiatus: Aside from real life hang-ups, the series is undergoing an actual hiatus for a month following the June 30th 2022 issue of Shonen Jump (out on June 27th), to resume in the July 28th issue (July 25th).
The Shelf of Movie Languishment:
- Evidence exists that the Punk Hazard dub was being worked on in 2017 (writers commenting on it, credits showing Joel McDonald directed despite resigning in 2018) yet it didn't see release until 2020.
- Happened to the Dressrosa arc as well with Kellen Goff tweeting that he recorded for Blue Gilly two years ago. As seen here.
Short Run in Peru:
- The final 52 episodes of the 4Kids dub aired in the United Kingdom about one year before it premiered in North America.
- This happened in Australia with Funimation's dub of One Piece; the dub first premiered in America on Cartoon Network in Fall 2007, taking off from where the 4Kids dub ended, but was cancelled after about six months due to insufficiently improving ratings. However the entire season, which had 28 more episodes, was already completely dubbed. So when Australia decided not to cancel the show, they ended up showing the rest of that season first. For the record, it took Funimation over three years for their DVD sets (which had started at the very beginning by fan request) to reach the Australia-only episodes.
Shrug of God: Oda usually answers everything straight, except for a few things; as open as he is, even he has dodged the occasional question, such as who would win in a fight between Zoro and Sanji.
- What would happen if a human ate Chopper's Human-Human Fruit/Hito Hito no Mi? Oda was asked by a fan and gave a non-answer that ended with him running away (in text form). We've seen human characters use variations of the human fruit, such as the Marineford War showing Sengoku's Daibutsu model turning him into a golden statue of the Buddha or Wano showing Luffy's fruit, revealed to actually be the Sun God Nika model, turning him into an in-universe deity with with power of Toon Physics. However, it is still unknown what affect, if any, the normal model of the fruit would have on a normal human.
Star-Derailing Role: This might have happened to David Moo after he voiced Sanji in the dub. Toei essentially forcing 4Kids to dub the series against their will, coupled with fan ire against Moo for things that weren't really his fault, caused him to retire from voice acting. To this day, Moo maintains a steady career as the co-founder and bartender of the Brooklyn-based Quarter Bar.
Stunt Casting:
- Ratchet, the Big Bad of the seventh film is played by SMAP member and Celebrity Voice Actor Goro Inagaki. His voice-acting is similarly understated.
- Professional wrestler Minoru Suzuki appears in the second Chopperman special as his Captain Ersatz, wrestler and guest commentator Minoru Kazeno.
Teasing Creator: Oda has made a career out of this trope, almost every big moment/reveal in the later chapters is done just before the series goes on a break.
Trans Character, Cis Actor:
- Morley is a trans woman, but she's voiced by cisgender men (Kenta Miyake and Brad Kurtz) in both Japanese and English.
- Kikunojo is a trans woman and is voiced in the Japanese version by cisgender actress Mariya Ise.
Uncredited Role: Starting with Punk Hazard, the English dub changed the credits so any staff working on through Funimation was credited after the episode ends (as opposed to being part of the credits in the OP). Unfortuantely, this has resulted in side characters or minor characters being left without proper credit as Toei only gives credit to the main cast. Fans only learn who voiced who when the actor says so on social media or Funimation puts out a press release.
Unfinished Dub:
- The Odex dub only covers the first 104 episodes.
- 4Kids Entertainment only dubbed the first 142 episodes (turned into 104) and they didn't finish the rest of the show. Funimation's initial Toonami dub was forced to maintain continuity with the 4kids dub, but even that didn't help finish it when it was pulled off Toonami for unknown reasons.
- The Arabic dub stopped after episode 104.
Unspecified Role Credit: The Odex releases used the Japanese credits, with the only English being an appended copyright notice; many of the Odex actors were discovered thanks to fan interviews. 4Kids listed each actor without their characters.
Word of God:
- Oda occasionally answers fan questions in a Q&A column, mostly trivia about the characters (ages, birthdays, favorite foods, Devil Fruit effects on...certain parts of a person's anatomy).
- Per Oda, if the Straw Hats that don't have Devil Fruits were allowed to have them, they would be:
  - Usopp: Poke Poke no Mi/Pocket-Pocket Fruit (Blamenco's Devil Fruit), which allows the user to create pockets on their body.
  - Nami: Goro Goro no Mi/Rumble-Rumble Fruit (Eneru's Devil Fruit)
  - Zoro: Uo Uo no Mi, Model: Seiryu/Fish-Fish Fruit: Model Azure Dragon (Kaidou's Devil Fruit), though "eaten" by one of his swords.
  - Franky: Buki Buki no Mi/Arms-Arms Fruit (Baby 5's Devil Fruit), which gives its user the power to turn their body parts into weapons.
  - Sanji: Sui Sui no Mi/Swim-Swim Fruit (Senor Pink's Devil Fruit), which lets the user swim in solid objects (humorously, not the Clear-Clear Fruit)
  - Jimbei: Any model of the Tori Tori no Mi/Bird-Bird Fruit, to compensate the loss of his swimming abilities with flight.
- In one SBS column for Volume 56, Oda answered where each of the Straw Hats would live in the real world:
  - Luffy: Brazil
  - Zoro: Japan
  - Nami: Sweden
  - Usopp: Africa
  - Sanji: France
  - Chopper: Canada
  - Robin: Russia
  - Franky: America
  - Brook: Austria
  - Jimbei: India
Write Who You Know: Whitebeard is based on an old pub owner Oda used to hang around with, and Whitebeard's first line was actually something that man always said. Like Whitebeard, he too had medical problems (i.e. hooked up to medical equipment) and is now dead.
You Look Familiar:
- Several of the anime's voice actors have appeared in differing roles over the years. For example:
  - Mahito Oba, who voiced the narrator, would later replace Ginzo Matsuo as the voice of Smoker. He also had a few minor and major roles, such as Big Pan, Pagaya and so on.
  - Toshiyuki Morikawa voiced Hatchan and would later go on to play Eneru.
  - Some voice actors have been used repeatedly throughout the series, including Tetsu Inada (ex. Patty, Broggy, Jesus Burgess), Masaya Takatsuka (ex. Johnny, Gedatsu, Jabra), Yasuhiro Takato (ex. Satori and his brothers, Bepo, Buffalo) and Eiji Takemoto (ex. Ohm, Yorki, X Drake).
  - The late Daisuke Gōri made his first appearance as Dorry. Later on, he would voice Rockstar and made his final appearance as the voice of Jimbei for episodes 430 through 432.
  - Wataru Takagi initially voiced Bellamy. For the Fishman Island arc, he voiced Vander Decker.
  - Masami Suzuki made her first appearance as Apis. She would later go on to voice Aisa in the Skypiea arc.
  - Wakana Yamazaki, Nojiko's voice actress, would also substitute for Akemi Okamura as Nami during the latter's maternity leave, and later appeared as Rebecca's mother, Scarlet.
  - Kōzō Shioya first appeared as Genzo. He later appeared as Pappagu as well as Edward Weevil.
  - Miki Nagasawa had a minor role as Rasa, a member of Barbarossa's pirate crew. She later appeared as Wicca in the Dressrosa arc.
- In the Netflix Latin American Spanish dub, many voice actors from the 4Kids dub came back voicing different characters:
  - Jorge Ornelas (originally Mr. 2) voices Zoro's teacher, Koshiro.
  - Jorge Santos (originally Zeff) voices the Shandian Chief.
  - Jorge Badillo (originally Dracule Mihawk) voices John Giant and Montblanc Cricket.
  - Eduardo Fonseca (originally Wapol) voices Mr. 1/Daz Bones.
  - Romina Marroquín Payró (originally Miss Doublefinger) voices Raki.
  - Donquixote Doflamingo was voiced by Alfredo Gabriel Basurto (orignially Zoro's first voice) in his first appearance, and by Christian Stempler (Yosaku's voice actor) during the second one.

General Trivia

The Marine that Django hypnotized into thinking that he had captured Captain Kuro went on to become Captain Axe Hand Morgan, one of the first villains in the series.
Whitebeard's full name is Edward Newgate. Blackbeard's full name is Marshall D. Teach. If you take Whitebeard's first name and Blackbeard's last name, you get Edward Teach, which is the historical Blackbeard's real name. On a related note, Oda has stated the discovery of one of Blackbeard's ships was what inspired him to make a manga about pirates.
- Thatch, Whitebeard's 4th Division Commander and the guy who Blackbeard killed for the Dark-Dark Fruit (Yami Yami no Mi), is based on an alias the real-life Blackbeard used.
- Going even further, Vice-Admiral Maynard, who competed in the Corrida Colosseum in Dressrosa is named after real-life royal marine captain Robert Maynard, whose crew killed Blackbeard.
The way Luffy activates Gear Third, by putting a thumb in his mouth, biting into the joints, and blowing to inflate his arm's bones, is visually similar to one of the more common ways Popeye The Sailor would bulk up after eating spinach.
- Given that Franky's character design is 50% Popeye with 50% Jim Carrey, this was likely intentional.
- His Gear Fourth activation is similar to Eren Yaeger biting down on his arm to activate his Titan from Attack on Titan.
Gecko Moria is the tallest (22'8") and oldest (48) out of the original Warlords of the Sea, while Hancock is both the youngest (29) and shortest (6'3 and a half, or 191 centimeters).
- After the time-skip, Trafalgar Law's 26 makes him the youngest Warlord, and Hancock, at one centimeter shorter than Buggy's 192, remains the shortest.
One Piece was originally only supposed to run for 5 years. Oda has admitted that one of the reasons it has become such a Long Runner (passing such luminaries as Dragon Ball and Inuyasha) is that he simply enjoys writing it.
Oda based the concept of One Piece on a vision of manliness since Dragon Ball already did everything a kid could be happy about.
At 345 million copies sold, One Piece is the best selling manga in the world.
Not many people know of Singapore's English dub, done by Odex. Not even Singaporeans. Mainly because it only did the first 104 episodes. Even fewer people know that Odex got their license before 4Kids Entertainment did.
Contrary to what some believe, the word "Nakama" CAN and DOES translate to English quite easily. The direct translation is "comrade". It can also mean "crew(mate)", or "friend", or True Companions, or "bosom buddies", or etc., even if those words aren't as exact a match as "comrade" is. In short, if anyone tries to say that "Nakama" is a special word that cannot (and must not) be translated, they're either unaware of that or lying.
The character of Cat Viper was based on a song that Cho had made up, called "Let's go see the Cat Viper". It impressed Oda so much that he decided to include the character and the song in the series (Brook can be heard singing the song at a few points in the Zou arc).
In Volume 88 of the SBS, the real-life nationalities and occupations of the Worst Generation (besides Luffy and Zoro) are revealed by Oda:
- Marshall D. Teach: Somalia, Archeologist
- Eustass "Captain" Kidd: Scotland, Weapons Merchant
- Killer: Scotland, Pasta Shop
- Trafalgar Law: Germany, Doctor
- Capone "Gang" Bege: Italy, Shoe Shop
- Scratchmen Apoo: China, DJ
- Basil Hawkins: Egypt, Interior Designer
- X Drake: Turkey, Zoo Keeper
- Jewelry Bonney: Australia, Pizza Shop
- Urouge: India, Cabaret Club Manager

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