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is a Japanese shonen manga written and illustrated by Eiichiro Oda, that has been serialized in Weekly Shonen Jump magazine since August 4, 1997. The individual chapters are being published in tankobon volumes by Shueisha, with the first released on December 24, 1997 and 53 volumes released as of March 4, 2009. One Piece follows the adventures of Monkey D. Luffy, a 17-year-old boy, who gained supernatural abilities by eating a magical fruit, and his ragtag crew of heroic pirates, named the Straw Hats.
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Quotations
Franky Bro: Run for your life!! Even though that might cause.. Your legs to break!! Wuoooo!!!
Kaashii: If you guys are only riding on us.. Just shut up for a little bit!!
Kaku: It's the demon god that i saw earlier..!! Can he really create an illusion like that whit his spirit..!! Quite amazing, but it's too late!!
Kaku: Never Ending! Four continuous swords!! Just give up.Gekirin!
Kaku: Paulie, huh..I see.. That's a problem.. Assassin as a profession.. Won't be able to get me another job..
Kaku: This neck can also turn into a whip.. Henchikirin
Encyclopedia
is a Japanese shonen manga written and illustrated by Eiichiro Oda, that has been serialized in Weekly Shonen Jump magazine since August 4, 1997. The individual chapters are being published in tankobon volumes by Shueisha, with the first released on December 24, 1997 and 53 volumes released as of March 4, 2009. One Piece follows the adventures of Monkey D. Luffy, a 17-year-old boy, who gained supernatural abilities by eating a magical fruit, and his ragtag crew of heroic pirates, named the Straw Hats. Luffy's greatest ambition is to obtain the world's ultimate treasure, One Piece, and thereby become the next Pirate King ("King of the Pirates" in the English versions). When creating the series, Oda was heavily influenced by the manga Dragon Ball.
One Piece is licensed for an English language release in North America by Viz Media. The individual chapters are being serialized in Viz's Shonen Jump manga anthology and being published in tankobon volumes. In the United Kingdom, the series was being released by Gollancz Manga, it is now released by Viz Media along with all of their other manga previously released by Gollancz Manga. Madman Entertainment is releasing the series in Australia and New Zealand.
The series was adapted into an original video animation (OVA) produced in 1998 by Production I.G. It was later adapted into a full anime series by Toei Animation that premiered in Japan on Fuji Television on October 20, 1999. As of March 8, 2009, 392 episodes of the series have aired. The anime series was licensed for a heavily edited English dubbed broadcast in North America by 4Kids Entertainment. It has since been licensed for a full Region 1 DVD release and broadcast by Funimation Entertainment in it's original and Uncut form. In addition to the anime series and OVA, One Piece has been adapted into nine feature films by Toei and multiple video games based on the series have been released.
With over 140 million copies sold, One Piece is the third highest selling manga in the history of Weekly Shonen Jump. It is considered their most acclaimed and all-time third-best-selling title in Japan.
Plot
A boy named Monkey D. Luffy, inspired by his childhood hero "Red-Haired" Shanks, sets out on a journey to find the legendary One Piece, to become the new Pirate King. To accomplish this, he must reach the end of the most deadly and dangerous ocean: The Grand Line.
Luffy captains the Straw Hat Pirates first through the sea of East Blue and then through the Grand Line. He follows the path of the deceased Pirate King, Gold Roger, from island to island on his way to the great treasure One Piece. On his way his crew grows to have a swordsman, a navigator, a sniper, a cook, a doctor, an archaeologist, a shipwright, and a musician.
During the course of the story, the crew contend with both other less moral pirate crews and the Navy. The latter are the subordinates of the World Government, who apparently seek justice by ending the Golden Age of Pirates. Many background story elements involve the delicate balance of power between the World Government and the world's most powerful pirate crews.
Setting
The Grand Line, also known as the Graveyard of Pirates, is a fictional sea and the setting for most of the story in One Piece. It follows an imaginary line that runs north-west to south-east around the world and perpendicular to the Red Line. The Red Line is a stretch of land that circles the globe from south-west to north-east. These two Lines divide the two oceans of the world into four seas: North Blue, East Blue, West Blue and South Blue. There are two Calm Belts, running north and south of the Grand Line. These areas experience almost no wind and ocean currents. The Calm Belts are also breeding ground for huge sea monsters, called Sea Kings in the One Piece world. They are very effective barriers for those trying to enter the Grand Line.
Navigation in the Grand Line is considered to be very difficult. Compasses do not work on the Grand Line because of the nature of its magnetic fields. The islands located in the Grand Line are highly rich in minerals which disturbs the magnetic fields in the area. In order to navigate the Grand Line, a Log Pose, a compass like instrument, must be used. The Log Pose works by locking on to one island's magnetic field and then, once the island is reached, adapting to the next island's magnetic field.
Devil Fruits are a type of fruit which, when eaten, permanently give a special power. There are three categories of Devil Fruit. Zoan fruits allow the user to fully and partially transform into a specific animal. Logia fruits give control over and allow the user "to change their living body structure into the powers of nature". "Everything aside from those is lumped into the Paramecia category." Devil Fruit users can not swim. When even only partially submerged in sea water, they temporarily lose their strength.
Production
One Piece started as two one-shot stories entitled Romance Dawn—which would later be used as the title for One Pieces first chapter and volume. The two one-shots featured the character of Luffy, and included elements that would later appear in the main series. The first of these short stories was published in August 1996 in a special issue of Shonen Jump and later in One Piece Red. The second was published in the 41st issue of Shonen Jump in 1996 and reprinted 1998 in Oda's short story collection: Wanted!.
Oda originally planned One Piece to last five years and he had already planned out the ending, but he found himself enjoying the story too much to end it in that amount of time and now has no idea how long it will take to reach that point. Nevertheless, the author states, as of July 2007, that the ending will still be the one he had decided on from the beginning and he is committed to seeing it through to the end, no matter how many years it takes.
The names of many special attacks and certain terminology in the manga consist of a form of punning, in which phrases written in kanji are paired with an idiosyncratic reading. For example the names of Luffy, Sanji, Chopper, Robin, and Franky's techniques are often mixed with other languages and a number of names of Zoro's sword techniques possibly involve a joke, for example, some are fearsome when read by sight but sound like kinds of food when read aloud. Eisaku Inoue, the animation director, has said that the creators did not use these kanji readings in the anime since they "might have cut down the laughs by about half." Nevertheless, Konosuke Uda, the director, said that the he believes that the creators "made the anime pretty close to the manga."
Media
Manga
Written and illustrated by Eiichiro Oda, One Piece premiered in the August 4, 1997 issue Weekly Shonen Jump, where it continues serialization. In total, 533 chapters have been released in Japan as of February 20, 2009. As of March 4, 2009, the first 522 of those chapters have been compiled into 53 tankobon volumes in Japan by Shueisha, with the first volume released December 24, 1997.
The series is licensed for an English language release in North America by Viz Media. The creator of One Piece was "sensitive" about how it would be translated. On July 8, 2002 ICv2 reported that One Piece would be in the opening line-up of the Shonen Jump magazine. When its first issue was released in November 2002, so was the first chapter of One Piece. The magazine has been publishing successive chapters ever since. The first volume was released by Viz in June 2003. As of February 3, 2009, 20 volumes have been published. And an upcoming 20th volume is scheduled for February 3, 2009. The English volumes are being distributed in Australia and New Zealand by Madman Entertainment, with the first volume to be released on November 10, 2008. In the United Kingdom it was published by Gollancz Manga. Currently it is published there by Viz.
One Piece is released in Denmark, Germany and Sweden by Carlsen.
Straw Hat Theater
In addition to the regular manga series, Oda also wrote a variety of short manga pieces, generally less than five pages, featuring the One Piece characters. Unrelated to the series' plot, the side comics are drawn in super deformed style, giving all the characters large heads and tiny bodies. Some of these side comics are included in the data book One Piece BLUE: Grand Data File in four-panel format. Eight side stories, collectively referred to as the Straw Hat Theater, were included in the One Piece Logs, a series of magazine-format manga compilations released from late 2005 through April 2006. These short bonus comics were featured at the end of the 2nd, 3rd, 5th, 6th, and 7th Logs, and advertised as "Brand-New from Oda-sensei! Special Manga. According to Oda, for each comic he was given three sheets of blank paper by his editor and told to "draw anything", with these being the result. The first five Straw Hat Theater manga shorts were also included in the One Piece YELLOW: Grand Elements data book, along with another bonus side comic. These five comics were also adapted into anime shorts, narrated by Masaya Takatsuka, that aired alongside episodes 279 through 283 of the One Piece anime adaptation.
- "Report Time", published in
The 2nd Log: "SANJI" in November 2005 "Obahan Time", published in The 3rd Log: "NAMI" in December 2005 , published in The 5th Log: CHOPPER" in February 2006 "Chopper Man", published in The 6th Log: "ALABASTA" in March 2006 "Monster Time", published in The 7th Log: "VIVI" in April 2006 "Space Time", published in One Piece YELLOW: Grand Elements in April 2007 "Red-Hair of Class 3-Sea Time", published in One Piece: 10th Treasures in September 2007 "Märchen Time", published in The 10th Log: "BELL" in April 2008
Anime
Produced by Toei Animation, the One Piece anime series debuted in Japan on Fuji TV on October 20, 1999, where it continues to air today. As of February 16, 2009, 391 episodes of the series have aired, spanning ten seasons.
4Kids Entertainment licensed the series for an English language dubbed broadcast and release in North America. The 4Kids episodes aired in the United States on the Fox network as part of the Fox Box block, premiering on September 18, 2004. The first 143 episodes of the original were cut down to 104 in the dubbed version. The remaining content was subject to heavy editing. Sanji's cigarettes for example were turned into lollipops, and "the skin of a black pirate was changed to a tan mulatto / white color." In December 2006, 4Kids cancelled production of the dubbed version.
On April 12, 2007, Funimation Entertainment announced it acquired the license for the series. After producing a new English voice dub in, the company released its first unedited, bilingual DVD box set, containing 13 episodes, on May 27, 2008. Similarly sized sets followed with two sets released as of September 16, 2008. The Funimation English dubbed episodes premiered on the Cartoon Network on September 29, 2007 and aired until it was cancelled on March 29, 2008. The remainder of Funimation's dubbed episodes continued being aired on Australia's Cartoon Network, and has since shifted into reruns of the Funimation dub.
In Singapore, the anime is licensed by Odex, who produced an English dub which lasted 104 episodes. It was produced in two 52-episode seasons, with some of the original actors leaving in between seasons.
In the July 2008 issue of Weekly Shonen Jump, it was announced that the prototype one-shot that preceded One Piece, Romance Dawn, is being adapted into an anime OVA as part of the Jump Super Anime Tour.
Films
Since the debut of the series on television, Toei Animation has also produced nine One Piece feature films, traditionally released during the Japanese school spring break since 2000.. Although the first three films were less than an hour long and played as part of a double-bill with other anime movies. In typical fashion for movies based on serialized manga, the films feature self-contained, completely original plots with animation of higher quality than what the weekly anime allows for.
Additionally, three of these movies have had special featurette shorts, showcasing the characters engaged in various activities unrelated to the series. They were shown dancing in Jango's Dance Carnival with Clockwork Island Adventure; playing soccer in Dream Soccer King! with Chopper's Kingdom on the Island of Strange Animals; and playing baseball in Take Aim! The Pirate Baseball King with Curse of the Sacred Sword.
The first, third, and ninth films were directed by Atsuji Shimizu. The fourth and seventh films were directed by Konosuke Uda. The fifth film was directed by Kazuhisa Takenouchi. The sixth film was directed by Mamoru Hosoda. The eighth film was directed by Takahiro Imamura.
Music
Four Music & Song Collections, containing various music pieces from the anime and the first feature film have been released.
For each feature film, starting with the second and thus far ending with the eighth, there has been released a Movie Single, from various artists, as well as an original soundtrack.
For all of the first seven Straw Hats there has been released a Character Song Single, a single sung by the seiyu of each character, in the corresponding voice. Also, seven Character Song Albums, albums containing songs, sung by more than one of the Straw Hat's seiyus, have been released.
The first seven opening songs, as well as the first 18 ending themes, have been released in single form.
Additionally, there have been 15 releases of various music collection cds, ranging from best-ofs to video game soundtracks.
Video games
One Piece has been adapted into a whole series of video games published by subsidiaries of Namco Bandai Holdings. The games have been released on a variety of video game and handheld consoles. The series features various genres, mostly role-playing games—the predominant type in the series' early years—and fighting games, such as the titles of the Grand Battle! sub-series.
The series debuted in Japan on July 19, 2000 with One Piece: Mezase Kaizoku Ou!. At the moment, the series contains 27 games, not counting Battle Stadium D.O.N, the title One Piece shares with its related anime series Dragon Ball Z and Naruto. The second episode of the most recently released game One Piece: Unlimited Cruise is currently in production and is supposed to be released sometime during the winter of 2008/2009. Furthermore, two unnamed titles have been announced for the Nintendo DS and PlayStation Portable handheld consoles.
As of April 2007, One Piece video games have done poorly compared to the games from other comprable Shonen titles such as Naruto or Gundam. One Piece Unlimited Adventure continued the trend with its initial launch for the Wii ranking seventh, below the Wii Starting Pack.
Novelizations
Tatsuya Hamasaki created a series of novelizations based on the first OVA, certain episodes of the TV anime and all but the first feature film. The first of these novels , based on the OVA, was released on June 3, 1999. On July 17, 2000 followed , a novelization of the TV anime's Rougetown story arc. The first feature film to be novelized was Clockwork Island Adventure. The book was released on March 19, 2001. On December 25, 2001 followed the second and so far last novelization of a TV anime arc in . The novelization of Chopper's Kingdom on the Island of Strange Animals was released on March 22, 2002 and that of Dead End Adventure on March 10, 2003. Curse of the Sacred Sword followed on March 22, 2004 and Baron Omatsuri and the Secret Island on March 14, 2005. The novel of The Giant Mechanical Soldier of Karakuri Castle was released on March 6, 2006 and that of Episode of Alabasta: The Desert Princess and the Pirates on March 7, 2007. The newest one novelizes Episode of Chopper Plus: Bloom in the Winter, Miracle Sakura and was released on February 25, 2008.
Trading card game
One Piece has been adopted into a trading card game by Bandai. A number of special cards are placed in each pack, as well as rarer cards stamped in gold and silver. In addition, an oversized golden Luffy card was offered to those who collected all the relevant map-pieced cards contained in packs, as well as the One Piece Grand Battle video game and Shonen Jump issue 34.
Art and guidebooks
Three art books and three guidebooks for the One Piece series have been released. The first art book, One Piece: Color Walk 1, released June 2001, has also been released in English on November 8, 2005. The second art book, One Piece: Color Walk 2, was released on November 4, 2003, and the third, One Piece: Color Walk 3 - Lion, was released January 5, 2006. The first guidebook, One Piece: Red - Grand Characters was released in Japan on March 2, 2002. Released on August 2, 2002, One Piece: Blue - Grand Data File not only included various character and series information, but also eight new four-panel manga side stories, the . Each of the shorts featured one of the Straw Hat Pirates in absurd situations. The third guidebook, One Piece: Yellow - Grand Elements, was released April 4, 2007.
Reception
One Piece was the most successful manga series during 2008 in Japan with 6 millions volumes sold. Volumes 50, 51, and 49 placed first, second, and fourth, respectively, on Oricon's list of best selling manga volumes, with sales of 1,678,208, 1,646,978, and 1,544,000 copies sold respectively. Additionally, Oricon conducted a popularity survey with Japanese male and female readers between with ages ranging from ten to fourty to determine the "Most Interesting Manga of 2008". In that survey, the four One Piece volumes published that year, volumes 49, 50, 51, and 52, placed first with an approval rating of 45.9%.
In ICv2's list of "Top 25 Manga Properties Fall 2008", One Piece made a 15th place with a rating of 13+.
The manga was a finalist for the Tezuka Osamu Cultural Prize three times in a row from 2000 to 2002, with the highest number of fan nominations in the first two years. And the German translation of its 44th volume won the Sondermann audience award on the Frankfurt Book Fair in 2005. In a 2008 poll by Oricon, Japanese teenagers elected it the most interesting manga.
The first opening of the TV anime, , won the Animation Kobe Theme Song Award of the year 2000. In February 2001, One Piece placed 9th among TV anime in Japan. In 2001, the readers of Animage, a popular Japanese anime magazine, voted the TV anime in 5th place of "The Readers' Picks for the Anime that should be remembered in the 21st Century". In June 2002, the Animage readers voted One Piece to be the 16th best new anime of the year 2001, and gave it another 16th place in 2004 in the category "Favorite Anime Series". In a 2005 web poll by Japanese television network TV Asahi One Piece was voted 6th "most popular animated TV series". Before the poll, Asahi TV broadcast another list based on a nation-wide survey in which One Piece placed 4th among teenagers. In 2006, it was elected 32nd of the Top 100 Japanese anime by TV Asahi and 21st by its viewers. In September of the same year the Newtype magazine placed it 5th. It was the most downloaded TV torrent for the week ending July 7, 2008.
Funimation's first DVD release of the series "One Piece: Season 1 First Voyage" was nominated for the Fifth Annual TV DVD Awards.
Controversy
The Indonesian Broadcasting Commission reprimanded Global TV for the airing of One Piece. According to Erwida Maulia, editor for The Jakarta Post, Nina, a lecturer at the University of Indonesia, says the show was reprimanded for "'violence and blood' and 'sensual looking women', in addition to close-ups of 'women's body parts'". Nina went on to say the show, and others like it, should only be aired when children are unlikely to be watching it.
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