One Piece

One Piece (ワンピース wanpīsu) also known as Drake, and the Search for Treasure in Greece, is an anime and manga about a crew of pirates led by Monkey D. Luffy who set out in search of the legendary treasure One Piece.

The anime is currently shown on 4Kids TV (formerly Fox Box) in North America and on RTL 2 in Europe(Germany). One Piece began airing on Cartoon Network's Toonami programming block on April 23, 2005 and on the UK's version of Toonami as of April 2005. In North America, the manga is serialized in Shonen Jump, and the anime is produced in Singapore by Odex. The DVDs are distributed by Toei Animation in North America.

One Piece was created by Eiichiro Oda. The series began its run in 1997 in Shueisha's Weekly Shonen Jump and is still being serialized. The TV series was first aired in October 1999. As of 2005, more than 370 chapters and 37 collected volumes of the manga have appeared. Also, more than 236 episodes of the television series, which were produced by Toei Animation, aired on television in Japan. There have been six One Piece movies released in Japan. Each of the movies feature a short clip of the characters of the series doing various activities such as soccer, baseball or even dancing.

One Piece is set in a fictional world, where pirates run rampant in an era known as the "Age of Piracy". The story of One Piece follows the adventures of a young pirate named Monkey D. Luffy whose body was turned to rubber after he ate a cursed fruit known as a Devil Fruit (Akuma no Mi). Luffy's particular fruit was the Gum-Gum Fruit, or "Gomu Gomu no Mi" in the Japanese release ("gomu" means "rubber"). While Devil Fruits grant their eaters fantastic powers (Luffy, for example, can stretch like rubber), it comes at the cost of never being able to swim, and in fact becoming complete deadweight upon being submerged in salt water. (This weakness may have a historical basis, as many real pirates were unable to swim.) The story features many pirates with super powers gained from the Devil Fruit. The story relates the importance of friends and following dreams.

Because of its strong story, colorful characters and intense fights between bizarre characters, deep emotions, character depth, clever plot twists, and different plot flavors, through this One Piece has gained a level of popularity near that of Dragon Ball in Japan. Unlike Dragon Ball, it's an epic story of voyages across fantastic lands. Other manga that have recently gotten near (but not quite achieved) that level of popularity are InuYasha and Naruto.

The One Piece manga is published in English in the North American Shonen Jump by VIZ Media. VIZ also released the One Piece Color Walk 1 art book in North America in English. The One Piece anime was licensed for North American Release by 4Kids Entertainment in June 2004, changes made include removing the entire original score and replacing it with non-stop synthesised music, replacing the intro song with a rap song (even though they already had an English version of the first Japanese theme song prepared), making various cuts and editing episodes together to remove instances of characterization, replacing one of the main characters' cigarette with a lollipop, respelling Roronoa Zoro to "Roronoa Zolo", removing text and inexplicably altering every visual and audio reference to the "Marines" as the "Navy", and even changing the skin colors of some characters to downplay supposed racial stereotypes. In addition, 4Kids makes standard edits to remove violence and blood. Through all the edits, One Piece is still one of 4Kids' more violent properties as they have left in some blood and even appendages being ripped off (such as Shanks' arm or Zeff's leg). The Viz manga later followed suit with renaming Zoro to Zolo for the same reasons that it was changed in the anime.

One Piece "purists", such as those who follow the original Japanese series closely, frown upon the actions of 4Kids, and to a much smaller extent, Viz. The biggest criticism against their adaptation of the anime is that despite the fact that the show was targeted towards a wide, general audience in Japan and consistently scored high ratings from adults, teens, and children alike, 4Kids insisted on airing the show on Saturday mornings and focus solely on the lucrative 6-11 demographic which the show was only minimally intended for in the first place (This isn't limited to One Piece though, all the criticism applies to all 4Kids dubs). Uncut DVDs are said to be released in late 2005, but are expected to be treated separately as a low priority product.

In Brazil, One Piece maintains its original format. No changes or adaptations were made into the manga's story and currently, it is being published monthly by "Editora Conrad". Two Brazilian volumes are equivalent to one Japanese volume of the manga. The translation is made so it remains as close as possible to the original, to the point where some words, such as "nakama", are not even translated. The anime is currently not being aired in any Brazilian television network. Many other countries leave the series nearly untouched, with the notable exception of Greece, which changed the name of the series itself, as well as that of many of the characters.

In February of 2005, the comic set a record in Japan for the fastest manga publication to reach 100,000,000 copies.

Contents

1 Cast of characters 2 One Piece Volumes 3 One Piece Story Arcs 4 Terms 1 External links 1.1 English 1.2 Japanese

Cast of characters

Heroes

• Monkey D. Luffy (Captain)
• Roronoa Zoro / Roronoa Zolo (Swordsman and First Mate)
• Nami (Navigator)
• Usopp (Sniper/Backup Captain)
• Sanji (Cook)
• Tony Tony Chopper (Doctor)
• Nico Robin (Archaeologist)

Villains

• Ax-Hand Morgan
• Buggy the Clown
• Captain Kuro
• Arlong
• Wapol
• Baroque Works
• Bellamy
• Skypiea's Priests
• Eneru
• Foxy the Sliver Fox
• CP9
• T-Bone

Others

• Red-Haired Shanks
• Smoker
• Whitebeard (Edward Newgate)
• One Piece minor characters

One Piece Volumes

1. Romance Dawn

Jpn: Dec. 12, 1997

• 1. Romance Dawn

• 2. That Guy Straw Hat Luffy

• 3. Introducing Pirate Hunter Zolo

• 4. Marine Captain "Ax-Hand" Morgen

• 5. Pirate King and Pirate Swordsman

• 6. The First Person

• 7. Friends

• 8. Introducing Nami

2. Buggy the Clown

Jpn: April 3, 1998

• 9. The Devil Girl

• 10. The Incident at the Bar

• 11. Take Flight

• 12. Dog

• 13. Treasure

• 14. Rackless!!

• 15. Gong

• 16. The Buggy Pirate Crew

• 17. Character

3. Don't Get Fooled Again

Jpn: July 4, 1998

• 18. The Pirate "Buggy the Clown"

• 19. Devil Fruit

• 20. The Way of the Thief

• 21. Town

• 22. You'r a Freak

• 23. Introducing Captain Usopp

• 24. That Which Cannot be Pretanded

• 25. 800 Lies

• 26. Captain Kuro's Plan

4. The Black Cat Pirates

Jpn: Sept. 4, 1998

• 27. The Plan

• 28. Crescent Moon

• 29. The Hill Road

• 30. Great!!

• 31. Truth

• 32. Disaster

• 33. Silent Man

• 34. Khaladore the Bulter

• 35. The Neo Hill

5. For Whom the Bell Tolls

Jpn: Nov. 2, 1998

• 36. Follow Them!!

• 37. The Pirate, "Kuro of all Means"

• 38. Pirate Crew

• 39. For Whom the Bell Trolls

• 40. Usopp Pirate Crew

• 41. To The Sea

• 42. Johnny and Yosaku

• 43. Introducing Sanji

• 44. The Three Cooks

6. The Oath

Jpn: December 3, 1998

• 45. Before the Strom

• 46. An Uninvited Guest

• 47. The Pirate Fleet Admiral Don Krieg

• 48. Leave That Path Alone

• 49. The Storm

• 50. Everyone is the Road

• 51. Roronoa Zolo Fells in the Sea

• 52. The Oath

• 53. Sabagashira #1

7. Crap-Geezer

8. I Won't Die

9. Tears

10. Ok! Let's Stand Up!!

11. The Greastest Evil of the East

12. The Legend has Begun

13. It's Okay!!

14. Instinct

15. Straight Ahead!!!

16. Inherited Will

17. Hiruluk's Sakura

18. Introducing Ace

19. Rebellion

20. The End will be in Alubarna

21. Ideal Nation

22. Hope!!

23. Vivi's Adventure

24. A Man's Dream

25. The Hundred Million Man

26. The Adventure on God's Island

27. Overture

28. Wiper the Barsarker

29. Oratorio

30. Capriccio

31. I'm Right Here

32. Love Song

33. Davy Back Figth

34. Water Metropolis, Water 7

35. Captain

36. The 9th Justice

37. Tom-San

• Weekly Reader

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 Skypeia Saga and Nico Robin/Shipwight Saga. It broken up to smaller sub-arcs.

(EAST BLUE SAGA)

This Saga is the warm-up of the series. Luffy is born and meets Shanks in the East Blue arc. This is where he forms most of his Straw Hat crew and, ultimately, where the adventure begins.

1. Captain Morgan Arc

2. Buggy the Clown Arc

3. Captain Kuro Arc

4. Baratie Arc

5. Arlong Arc

6. Logue Town Arc

(Baroque Works Saga)

The Straw-Hat pirates finally enter the Grand Line. They must help Vivi fight off Baroque Works and help her save her country Alabasta from being thrown in chaos. Along the way they pick up a new crew member: Tony Tony Chopper.

7. Whiskey Peak Arc

8. Little Garden Arc

9. Drum Island Arc

10. Alabasta Arc

(Skypiea Saga)

Nico Robin Joins the crew, and Vivi stays in Alabasta. A ship falls from the sky and there is a sky island. With help from Monbran in Jaya, the Straw Hat Pirates manage to reach Skypiea, which is a country of heaven ruled by a false god named Eneru.

11. Jaya Arc

12. Skypiea Arc

(Shipwright/Nico Robin Saga)

Luffy is on a quest to find a shipwright for the crew. Meanwhile, the World Government is after Nico Robin to recover the plans for an ancient warship called "Pluton".

13. Davy Back Fight Arc

14. Water 7 Arc

(Anime Only)

Currently four filler arcs are found in the anime which are not found in the manga. Due to this, most fans do not consider the filler arcs canon.

Toei Animation uses the filler as a reason for time-complexion. The fillers have no connection to the real storyline; the fillers are made to slow the pace of the series. Toei has to slow the episode production pace to prevent the anime from catching up with the manga. If the anime catches up with the manga, Toei either has to wait for Oda to release two manga chapters at a time or to make a new ending; either action can damage the ratings and lose huge amounts of viewers. This would cause pressure on Oda. To avoid that, Toei creates fillers to slow down the anime's pace and time. The fillers Toei makes are purely fan-based. Toei often inserts annoying children in the filler episodes to appeal to younger viewers. At the end of every filler arc, Toei places a segue into the "canon" arc that is to follow.

Warship Island Arc: Takes place after the Logue Town Arc, before the Grandline

Filler/Goat Island/Rainbow Mist Arc: Takes place after Alabasta, before Jaya

G8 Arc: Takes place after the Skypiea Arc, before Davy Back Fight

Lost Memory Arc: Takes place after the Davy Back Fight, before Water 7. (before confronting Ao Kiji)

Terms

• The Seven Warlords of the Sea (Shichibukai)
• The One Piece a legendary treasure said to be of unimaginable value. It is said that it was hidden somewhere deep in the Grand Line by its previous owner, the Pirate King Gold Roger. Nobody seems to know what it really is or what it looks like.
• The Grand Line
• Devil Fruit (Akuma no Mi)
• The King of Pirates (Kaizoku-Ō)
• East Blue
• All Blue A mystical sea of legend, rumored to be the only place in the world where the North, South, East, and West seas meet. In this legendary ocean there are said to be fish from each of the seas. Sanji strives to find this ocean of dreams. It is said that the All Blue is found in the Grand Line.
• Merry Go (called "Going Merry Go" in the Japanese versions, "Going Merry" by most fans)
• Sea King
• Nakama (仲間): This Japanese term means friend(s), buddy(ies) or gang. In the Japanese version of One Piece this term is used extensively to describe friends whom are as close as or closer than family (especially in the context of Luffy's crew). Many popular fanmade translations of the series will not translate this term.
• Sea Train
• Log Pose

External links

English

• 4Kids TV One Piece website (http://www.4kids.tv/onepiece/)
• AnimeLuvers (http://www.animeluvers.com/page39.htm) One Piece Reviews, Pictures, and more
• Arlong Park (One Piece fansite) (http://www.arlongpark.com)
• Going Merry! (One Piece Fanlisting) (http://www.sinwagon.org/merry/)

Japanese

• One Piece Dotcom (http://www.j-onepiece.com/) (One Pieceドッコム One Piece Dottokomu, Japanese website)
• Shueisha's One Piece website (http://jump.shueisha.co.jp/one/)
• Fuji TV's One Piece website (http://www.fujitv.co.jp/b_hp/onepiece/)
• Toei's One Piece website (http://www.toei-anim.co.jp/tv/onep/)
• One Piece movie website (http://www.toei-anim.co.jp/movie/2004_onepiece/)de:One Piece

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