One Piece Debuts on Toonami
FUNimation series on Cartoon Network Anime Block, September 29th
Eichiro Oda's manga-turned anime One Piece comes to Cartoon Network's Toonami in slightly edited form. Episode 144 will be the first to air.
FUNimation's revamped and censored version of the acclaimed anime One Piece will make its Toonami debut at 10pm on Saturday, September 29th.
However, the anime won't start with the first episode, but will instead leap to #144, which is the first episode that previous owner 4Kids hadn't altered.
That also marks the beginning of the "Skypeia" story arc, which follows our heroes, the Straw Hat Pirates, as they try to find the mysterious island of the same name.
The Third Best-Selling Anime of All Time
For those unfamiliar with One Piece, it follows the zany adventures of a rag-tag group of buccaneers, called the Straw Hat Pirates, led by Captain Monkey D. Luffy. Luffy wants to capture the legendary artifact known as the One Piece, which he can use to become the Pirate King. One Piece is widely considered to be the most popular anime/manga in Japan right now, with a whopping 325 (and still going) episodes to its credit.
It's based on the ridiculously popular Shonen Jump manga by Eichiro Oda, which is distributed by Viz Media in the U.S. Just how popular is the One Piece manga? It has reached 47 volumes and sold a stunning 140 million copies, becoming the all-time third bestselling manga title in Japan. It is also the fastest-selling manga to hit the 100 million mark.
Toei plans to release a ninth (yes, you read that right) One Piece movie for Japanese audiences in February of 2008.
A New English Voice Cast
FUNimation's voice cast for One Piece includes Colleen Clinkenbeard (Monkey G. Luffy), Christopher R. Sabat as the sword-wielding First Mate Roronoa Zolo, and Eric Vale as the (occasionally) chain-smoking chef Sanji.
Other voice actors for the English dub include Christopher Bevins as Red-Haired Shanks, Laurie Steele as Iron-Mace Alvida, Luci Christian as Nami, Mike McFarland as Capt. Buggy the Clown, Chuck Huber as Mohji the Lion Tamer, and Greg Ayres as Cabahji the Acrobat.
Censoring One Piece Episodes, but Not DVDs
One Piece fans reacted with horror at the unbelievable censorship 4Kids inflicted on their favourite anime when they brought it to the North American market. The original anime was quite violent, with a fair amount of blood and death. Not surprisingly, 4Kids edited out those references, as well as removing the pirates' guns and Chef Sanji's cigarettes. However, those changes only affect the original 143 episodes.
This new version of One Piece, starting with #144, will be censored in some ways. Sanji still loses his cigarettes (although he won't have the lollipop 4Kids gave him), but at least the pirates retain their real guns, as opposed to the squirt and pop guns in the previous English dub.
FUNimation plans to distribute One Piece in unedited bilingual DVD box sets, retailing for $49.98USD and containing 13 episodes each. Funimation also announced that these uncut DVDs will be officially released, starting at Episode #144, in 2008.
