One Piece (1999 TV series)

• 1. Introduction

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  One Piece, the Japanese anime television series made by Toei Animation, first aired on Fuji Television in October 1999. Since then, more than 1,100 episodes have gone out, and they were later exported to over 80 countries. The series adapts Eiichiro Oda's manga of 1997. Over that long run it has survived changes of timeslot, voice cast and theme singer.

  How did a weekly broadcast from Japan reach audiences across the world? What happened when its first American distributor decided it was the wrong kind of show? And why do viewers, critics and awards voters keep returning to it?

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• 2. Rubber Captain and Crew

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  A Devil Fruit eaten by accident turned the body of Monkey D. Luffy into rubber. Luffy leads the Straw Hat Pirates across the Grand Line. His goal is the world's ultimate treasure, the One Piece, which would make him the next King of the Pirates.

  In the Japanese version, Mayumi Tanaka voices Luffy. Kazuya Nakai plays Roronoa Zoro, Akemi Okamura plays Nami, and Kappei Yamaguchi plays Usopp. Hiroaki Hirata voices Sanji, Ikue Ōtani voices Tony Tony Chopper, and Yuriko Yamaguchi voices Nico Robin. Chō plays Brook.

  Franky and Jimbei show how a cast shifts over a long run. Kazuki Yao voiced Franky until 2024, and Subaru Kimura took over in 2025. Jimbei was voiced by Daisuke Gori in 2009, then by Katsuhisa Hoki from 2010 onward.

  The English cast credited to Toei Animation and Crunchyroll has its own lineup. Colleen Clinkenbeard voices Luffy, and Christopher Sabat voices Zoro. Luci Christian is Nami, Sonny Strait is Usopp, and Eric Vale is Sanji. Brina Palencia plays Chopper, Stephanie Young plays Robin, Patrick Seitz plays Franky, Ian Sinclair plays Brook, and Daniel Baugh plays Jimbei. Behind that cast lies an earlier English version, made by a different company, that sounded very different.

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• 3. Two English Dubs

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  On the 8th of June 2004, 4Kids Entertainment acquired the North American license for One Piece. Viz Media was contracted to handle home video. The company's in-house musicians wrote a new background score and a theme song nicknamed Pirate Rap. 4Kids also required edits for content and length, and those cuts shrank the first 143 episodes into 104. It had even created an English version of the first opening, "We Are!", sung by Russell Velazquez, though that version went unused.

  The Fox network premiered the 4Kids version on the 18th of September 2004, inside its weekend block FoxBox TV. Cartoon Network followed in April 2005, placing the show in its Saturday night action block, Toonami. In 2006 it also ran in a Monday-Thursday prime-time lineup and in Miguzi, a weekday after-school action block. That same year production stopped after episode 143, which was episode 104 in the edited count. Viz ended its home video releases after volume 11.

  Todd Douglass, Jr. of DVD Talk reviewed the second 4Kids DVD release and was blunt. He called the adaptation a "shabby treatment" that produced an "arguably less enjoyable rendition". He described the original opening as "a crappy rap song". He also said the removed scenes left a "feeling that something is missing".

  On the 22nd of July 2010, Mark Kirk gave an interview to Anime News Network. Kirk was senior vice-president of digital media at 4Kids. He explained that the company took One Piece as part of a package deal with other anime and never screened it. Once 4Kids saw that the show did not suit its intended audience, it edited the series toward children until it could legally drop the license. Kirk said the experience "ruined the company's reputation". Afterward, 4Kids adopted stricter guidelines, checks, and balances for choosing which anime to buy.

  On the 13th of April 2007, Funimation, later folded into Crunchyroll, LLC, licensed the series and began a new English production. It also re-dubbed the episodes that 4Kids had handled. Christopher Sabat said Funimation had wanted the show from the very beginning. The company recorded a "test episode" in which Sabat played Helmeppo and Eric Vale played Luffy. They later became the English voices of Zoro and Sanji. Because cable programming faced fewer restrictions, the new dub carried less censorship.

  Funimation's episodes premiered on Cartoon Network on the 29th of September 2007 and aired until their removal on the 22nd of March 2008. On the 27th of May 2008, the company released its first uncut bilingual DVD box set, holding 13 episodes. Similar sets followed, with fourteen released. Bryce Coulter of Mania Entertainment reviewed the first set and called One Piece "not your typical pirate adventure". Of the second set, he wrote that "You can tell that they are giving One Piece the attention that was neglected by 4Kids".

  On the 28th of October 2011, Funimation confirmed it had acquired episodes 206-263. From episode 207 onward, the picture changed to 16:9 widescreen. The uncut series reached Adult Swim's revived Toonami on the 18th of May 2013, skipping ahead to episode 207. It left that block after the 18th of March 2017. It came back on the 22nd of January 2022, this time skipping ahead to episode 517.

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• 4. Streaming Around the World

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  In May 2009, Funimation, Toei Animation, Shueisha and Fuji Television announced a free simulcast stream, available within an hour of each weekly Japanese broadcast. It was meant to start on the 30th of May 2009 with episode 403. A lack of security led to a leak of that episode, so Funimation postponed the offer. The stream finally began with episode 415 on the 29th of August 2009.

  On the 12th of February 2013, Manga Entertainment announced it would release the Funimation dub in the United Kingdom as DVD box sets. Crunchyroll began simulcasting the series on the 2nd of November 2013. That first stream covered the United States, Canada, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand and Latin America. On the 22nd of February 2020, Crunchyroll widened access to the United Kingdom, Ireland and most European territories.

  In April 2020, Netflix announced that it would stream One Piece beginning on the 12th of June of that year. The offer covered the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, and it used the "Special Edition" print of the episodes. Netflix later announced that it would stream the Egghead story arc starting on the 13th of January 2024.

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• 5. Songs and Scores

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  Hiroshi Kitadani's opening song "We Are!" won the Animation Kobe Theme Song Award for the year 2000. Kohei Tanaka and Shiro Hamaguchi composed the score for the series. Many theme songs and character songs have been released, along with soundtracks built from music that first appeared in the show.

  By episode 1156 the series had reached its twenty-ninth opening, "Luminous" by Aina the End. Kitadani came back to sing "We Go!", "Over the Top" and "Uuuuus!". Other openings came from pop acts such as Namie Amuro with "Fight Together" and TVXQ with "Share the World!".

  The format of the songs changed over the years. From episode 279, ending themes were left out. From episode 326, openings grew from 110 seconds to 150 seconds. The ending theme returned with episode 1071, after an absence of 17 years.

  The English releases handled music in their own ways. The 4Kids Pirate Rap came in three versions. The first covered episodes 1-29. The second, for episodes 30-59, added Sanji and Usopp to the lyrics. The third, for episodes 60-104, added Chopper. In Crunchyroll's English release, the openings and endings of episodes 1-206 were dubbed into English by various voice actors. From episode 207 the Japanese versions returned, and some openings were not licensed for release.

  On the 11th of August 2019, it was announced that the group Sakuramen would work with Kohei Tanaka on music for the anime's 20th season. On the 23rd of December 2019, a 39-second teaser appeared on the YouTube channel of Arashi for the song "A-ra-shi: Reborn". It showed the band's five animated members mingling with the anime's crew until the moment a concert begins. The full video followed on the 4th of January 2020.

  The One Piece Log: Fishman Island Saga used a rotating set of songs. The first nine episodes opened with a new version of "We Go!" by the Straw Hat Pirates. Episodes 10-13 used a version by Hikakin and Seikin with Mayumi Tanaka, credited as Monkey D. Luffy. Hololive performers sang later versions, and the series ending was "Sailing" by Be First.

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• 6. Films, Specials and Shorts

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  On the 4th of March 2000, the first One Piece film opened, directed by Junji Shimizu and running 51 minutes. Fifteen animated theatrical films have been released in Japan. They usually arrive in March, timed to the spring vacation of Japanese schools. Some tell original stories, while others retell story arcs with animation of a higher quality than the weekly show allows. The first three were double features paired with other anime films, so they ran an hour or less.

  Mamoru Hosoda directed the sixth film, Baron Omatsuri and the Secret Island, released on the 5th of March 2005. The most recent film listed, One Piece Film: Red, was directed by Gorō Taniguchi and opened on the 6th of August 2022. It runs 1 hour 55 minutes. Funimation, now Crunchyroll, LLC, licensed the eighth, tenth, twelfth, thirteenth and fourteenth films for North America and gave them in-house dubs.

  Thirteen television specials have aired on Fuji Television. The first, Adventure in the Ocean's Navel, ran 50 minutes on the 20th of December 2000. The thirteenth, Episode of Skypiea, ran 2 hours 10 minutes on the 25th of August 2018. Five of the specials are alternate retellings of story arcs. The rest are original stories created by the anime staff.

  The short-form releases include some oddities. The original video animation "Defeat Him! The Pirate Ganzack" ran 29 minutes on the 26th of July 1998, over a year before the series premiered. On the 20th of October 2019, "Romance Dawn" became episode 907 of the series, created for its 20th anniversary. Seven shorts have appeared, starting with Jango's Dance Carnival on the 3rd of March 2001 at 5 minutes 30 seconds. The latest, Luffy, Law, arrived on the 19th of January 2025 at 5 minutes.

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• 7. Ratings, Critics and Honors

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  The first episode of the anime earned a viewer rating of 12.4%, behind Pokémon and ahead of Ojamajo Doremi. In Japan, the series has consistently ranked among the top five animated shows in viewer ratings.

  Business Insider reported that One Piece drew 1.9 million demand expressions per month on international online video platforms in 2016. That made it the year's most popular anime and the fourteenth most popular TV show in the world. In the United States, where it streams on Hulu, it was the most binge-watched show of 2018 in Illinois and Wisconsin. In 2022, the tracking service TV Time ranked it the most watched TV show in the world, ahead of Stranger Things. Luffy placed among the top three most popular characters on the same service.

  Not every broadcaster welcomed it. In Indonesia, the Indonesian Broadcasting Commission, known as KPI, reprimanded Global TV for airing the series. KPI member Nina Armando, a lecturer at the University of Indonesia, said it should not run at times when children are likely to watch.

  Margaret Veira of activeAnime praised the "great" animation and said it stays true to the style and characters of the manga. She noted that the fight scenes have "a lot of energy to them". Patrick King of Animefringe called the art style "very distinctive and fresh".

  In February 2001, One Piece placed ninth among anime television series in Japan. That year, readers of the magazine Animage voted it fifth in their picks for the anime that should be remembered in the 21st century. In June 2002, Animage readers named it the sixteenth best new anime of 2001, and in 2004 they ranked it sixteenth among favorite anime series. A 2005 web poll by TV Asahi voted it the sixth most popular animated TV series. In 2006, TV Asahi placed it 32nd among the top 100 Japanese anime, while its viewers placed it 21st. Funimation's first DVD release, One Piece: Season 1 First Voyage, was nominated for the Fifth Annual TV DVD Awards.

  The Crunchyroll Anime Awards nominated One Piece for Best Continuing Series at the third edition in 2019. It won that category at the seventh edition in 2023, and again at the eighth edition in 2024. In 2024, Luffy also won Best Main Character. Daniel Schlauch won Best Voice Artist Performance (German) for his work as Luffy. At the ninth edition in 2025, the series earned nominations for Best Continuing Series, Best Director and Best Opening Sequence. The director nomination was for Fan Letter by Megumi Ishitani, and the opening was "Uuuuus!" by Hiroshi Kitadani.

  In August 2025, the series won the fan-voted "Most IcoNYC Anime of All Time" award as Anime NYC launched The Anime & Manga International Awards. At the tenth Crunchyroll edition in 2026, it won Best Continuing Series again. It was also nominated in five other categories, including Best Character Design for Midori Matsuda and Best VA Performance in Castilian Spanish for Marisa Marciel as Nami.

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• 8. A New Weekly Rhythm

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  In October 2024, the announcement came that the anime would pause until April 2025. During the break, a remastered and re-edited version of the Fishman Island story arc aired in its usual timeslot. When the show returned, it moved to Sunday nights for the first time since 2006. That marked its return to a primetime network slot.

  Episode 1123 premiered on the 5th of April 2025, as part of the network's timeslot. The fixed Sunday night schedule began a day later, on the 6th of April, with episode 1124.

  On the 28th of October 2025, a second pause was announced, running from January to March 2026. The series resumed with the Elbaph arc on the 5th of April 2026. It will now follow a divided structure of two cours per year, with a maximum of 26 episodes annually. That replaces the continuous year-round schedule it had followed since its first broadcast. At the maximum pace of 26 episodes a year, the next hundred episodes will take just under four years to air.

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