One Piece (1999 TV series)

Release

In October 2024, it was announced that the anime series would go on hiatus until April 2025, and that a remastered and re-edited version of the Fishman Island story arc would air in the show's timeslot during the break.[6] After returning, the show moved to Sunday nights for the first time since 2006, marking the anime's return to a primetime network timeslot.[7] episode 1123 premiered on April 5, 2025, as part of the network's Premium Saturday timeslot before moving to its fixed Sunday night slot a day later, beginning with episode 1124 on April 6.[8]

On October 28, 2025, it was announced that the series would go on hiatus from January to March 2026. It resumed with the Elbaph arc on April 5, 2026, and will adopt a divided, two-cours-per-year structure, with a maximum of 26 episodes annually.[9] This marks a shift from the continuous year-round structure that has been in place since the series' premiere in 1999.[10]

English localization and broadcasting

On June 8, 2004, 4Kids Entertainment acquired the license for distribution of One Piece in North America;[11] 4Kids Entertainment contracted Viz Media to handle home video distribution. 4Kids' in-house musicians wrote a new background score and theme song nicknamed "Pirate Rap". 4Kids' dub mandated edits for content and length, which reduced the first 143 episodes into 104.[12] Initially, 4Kids originally created an English version of the first opening theme, "We Are!" by Russell Velazquez.[13] It premiered in the United States on September 18, 2004 on the Fox network as part of the weekend programming block FoxBox TV, and later aired on Cartoon Network on their Saturday night action programming block, Toonami in April 2005. It also aired in other blocks and line-ups, such as its Monday-Thursday night prime-time line-up and its Miguzi weekday after-school action block in 2006. Production was halted in 2006 after episode 143/104;[14][15] Viz also ceased its home video release of the series after volume 11. On July 22, 2010, an interview with Anime News Network and Mark Kirk, senior vice-president of digital media for 4Kids Entertainment, revealed that 4Kids acquired One Piece as part of a package deal with other anime, and that the company did not screen the series before licensing it. However, once 4Kids realized One Piece was not appropriate for their intended demographic, the company decided to edit it into a more child-oriented series until they had an opportunity to legally drop the license. Kirk said the experience of producing One Piece "ruined the company's reputation". Since then, 4Kids established a stricter set of guidelines, checks, and balances to determine which anime the company acquires.[16]

On April 13, 2007, Funimation (later Crunchyroll, LLC) licensed the series and started production on an English-language release of One Piece[17] which also included re-dubbing the episodes previously dubbed by 4Kids. In an interview with voice actor Christopher Sabat, he stated that Funimation had been interested in acquiring One Piece from the very beginning, and produced a "test episode," in which Sabat portrayed the character of Helmeppo and Eric Vale played the part of the main character, Monkey D. Luffy. (They would later go on to provide the English voices for Roronoa Zoro and Sanji, respectively.)[18] After resuming production of the renewed English dub, which featured less censorship because of fewer restrictions on cable programming, Funimation released its first uncut, bilingual DVD box set containing 13 episodes on May 27, 2008,[19] similarly sized sets followed with fourteen sets released.[20] The Funimation dubbed episodes premiered on Cartoon Network on September 29, 2007 and aired until its removal on March 22, 2008.[21] On October 28, 2011, Funimation posted a press release on their official website confirming the acquisition of episodes 206–263, and the aspect ratio, beginning with episode 207, would be changed to the 16:9 widescreen format.[22] On May 18, 2013, the uncut series began airing on Adult Swim's revived Toonami late-night programming block skipping ahead to episode 207 onward.[23][24] One Piece was removed from the Toonami block after March 18, 2017.[25] The series returned to Toonami, skipping ahead to episode 517, on January 22, 2022.[26]

In May 2009, Funimation, Toei Animation, Shueisha, and Fuji TV announced they would simulcast stream the series within an hour of the weekly Japanese broadcast at no charge.[27] Originally scheduled to begin on May 30, 2009, with episode 403, a lack of security resulted in a leak of the episode, and Funimation delayed the offer until episode 415 on August 29, 2009.[28][29][30]

On February 12, 2013, it was announced that Manga Entertainment would start releasing the Funimation dub of One Piece in the United Kingdom in a DVD box set format.[31] Crunchyroll began simulcasting the series on November 2, 2013, for the United States, Canada, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, and Latin America.[32] Crunchyroll later expanded access to the United Kingdom and Ireland, as well as a majority of European territories, on February 22, 2020.[33] In April 2020, Netflix officially announced that they would be streaming One Piece starting on June 12 of the same year, for the United States, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, using the "Special Edition" print.[34] Netflix announced that they would stream the Egghead story arc starting on January 13, 2024.[35]

Shorts

Opening theme

• Alternates
• 1) "One Piece Rap" (4Kids)
• 2) * Version 1: (episodes 1–29)
• 3) * Version 2: (episodes 30–59) (inclusion of Sanji and Usopp in the lyrics)
• 4) * Version 3: (episodes 60–104) (inclusion of Chopper in the lyrics)

Ending theme

Other music

On December 23, 2019, a teaser video was uploaded on Arashi's YouTube channel, in collaboration with the anime. The 39-second video for the song A-ra-shi: Reborn, has the 5 animated members of the band mingling with the crew from the anime, up until the moment when Arashi is about to give a concert. The full version video was released on January 4, 2020.[43]

For the One Piece Log: Fishman Island Saga, the opening theme for the first nine episodes as well as the ending theme for the One Piece Fan Letter special is a new version of the "We Go!" opening theme, performed by the Straw Hat Pirates;[44] another version of the song performed by Hikakin & Seikin with Mayumi Tanaka (credited as Monkey D. Luffy) is used from episodes 10–13; another version by Hololive's Shirakami Fubuki, Houshou Marine and Tsunomaki Watame with Maki Otsuki from episodes 14–17; and a final version by Hololive English's Takanashi Kiara and Hakos Baelz and Hololive Indonesia's Kobo Kanaeru with Hiroshi Kitadani for the rest of the series, and the ending theme is "Sailing", performed by Be First.[45][46]

Ratings

The anime has been very well received. The first episode of the anime adaptation earned a viewer rating of 12.4%, behind Pokémon and ahead of Ojamajo Doremi.[47] In Japan, One Piece has consistently been among the top five animated shows in television viewer ratings, as of 2020.[48][49][50]

On international online video platforms, the One Piece anime got 1.9 million demand expressions per month in 2016, making it the year's most popular anime and fourteenth most popular TV show in the world, according to Business Insider.[51][52] In the United States, where it is available on the Hulu streaming platform, One Piece was 2018's most binge-watched television show in the states of Illinois and Wisconsin.[53]

In 2022, One Piece was the most watched TV show of the year in the world, beating Stranger Things,[54] and Monkey D. Luffy was ranked as top three world's most popular character according to TV Time, a popular tracking service.[55]

Critical reception

In a review of the second DVD release of 4Kids Entertainment's dub, Todd Douglass, Jr. of DVD Talk called its adaptation a "shabby treatment" resulting in an "arguably less enjoyable rendition". Douglass said that the 4Kids original opening was "a crappy rap song" and that the removal of whole scenes leaves a "feeling that something is missing". He later went on to say that "Fans of the 'real' One Piece will want to skip picking [...] up [4Kids Entertainment's One Piece DVDs] until an uncut release is announced", and also stated that "kids may get into this version because it's what they have seen on TV".[56] Margaret Veira of activeAnime praised the TV series' "great" animation, stating that "It gives life and stays true to the style and characters of the manga." She notes the fight scenes in particular have "a lot of energy to them".[57] Patrick King of Animefringe comments that the art style of One Piece is "very distinctive and fresh".[58]

In a review of the first Funimation DVD release for Mania Entertainment, Bryce Coulter comments that One Piece is "not your typical pirate adventure" and that mixed with "the right amount of random fun along with a shonen style storyline" it becomes "an appealing and fun romp".[59] In a review of Funimation's second DVD release for Mania Entertainment, Bryce Coulter comments that "You can tell that they are giving One Piece the attention that was neglected by 4Kids" and that "One Piece is a great tale of high-seas fun that will leave you wanting more!"[60]

In Indonesia, Global TV was reprimanded by the Indonesian Broadcasting Commission (KPI) for airing the anime television series. Nina Armando, member of the KPI and a lecturer at the University of Indonesia, said the show should not be aired at times when children are likely to watch.[61]

Awards and accolades

The first opening of the One Piece anime television series, "We Are!", won the Animation Kobe Theme Song Award of the year 2000.[62] In February 2001, One Piece placed ninth among anime television series in Japan.[63] In 2001, the readers of Animage, a popular Japanese anime magazine, voted the anime television series in fifth place of The Readers' Picks for the Anime that should be remembered in the 21st century.[64] In June 2002, Animage readers voted One Piece to be the sixteenth best new anime of 2001[65] and voted it sixteenth place in 2004 in the category Favorite Anime Series.[66] In a 2005 web poll by Japanese television network TV Asahi, One Piece was voted sixth most popular animated TV series.[67] Before the poll, TV Asahi broadcast another list based on a nationwide survey in which One Piece placed fourth among teenagers.[68] In 2006, the series was elected 32nd of the Top 100 Japanese anime by TV Asahi and 21st by its viewers.[69][70] Funimation's first DVD release of the series "One Piece: Season 1 First Voyage" was nominated for the Fifth Annual TV DVD Awards.[71]

One Piece was nominated for Best Continuing Series at the 3rd Crunchyroll Anime Awards in 2019;[72] it went on to win in the same category at the seventh edition in 2023;[73] and in eighth edition in 2024, with Monkey D. Luffy also received the award for Best Main Character. It was nominated for Best Action and two voice acting categories in the same year.[74] Daniel Schlauch won Best Voice Artist Performance (German) for his work as Monkey D. Luffy, while the anime was nominated for Best Continuing Series, Best Director (Fan Letter by Megumi Ishitani), and Best Opening Sequence ("Uuuuus!" by Hiroshi Kitadani) at the ninth edition in 2025.[75] The series won the fan-voted "Most IcoNYC Anime of All Time" award during the launch of Anime NYC's The Anime & Manga International Awards in August 2025.[76]