Pages

Friday, September 17, 2010

One Piece Media

Manga
Written and illustrated by Eiichiro Oda, One Piece has been serialized in the manga anthology Weekly Shōnen Jump starting on August 4, 1997. The chapters have been published into tankōbon volumes by Shueisha since December 24, 1997. As of November 2010, the series spans over 600 chapters and 61 tankōbon volumes.
The One Piece series was licensed for an English language release by Viz Media publishes its English-language adaptation of the series, chapterwise in the manga anthology Shonen Jump, since the magazine's launch in November 2002, and in bound volumes since June 2003. As of March 3, 2010, 38 English-language volumes have been published. However, Viz Media released a statement in July 2009 confirming the release of five volumes per month in North America during the first half of 2010, greatly increasing that number. In the United Kingdom, the volumes were published by Gollancz Manga, starting March 2006, until Viz Media replaced it after the fourteenth volume. In Australia and New Zealand, the English volumes have been distributed by Madman Entertainment since November 10, 2008.

Original Video Animations
Two original video animations (OVAs) have been released in Japan. The first, One Piece: Defeat The Pirate Ganzack!, was produced by Production I.G for the Jump Super Anime Tour of 1998 and directed by Gorō Taniguchi. It is 29 minutes in length and features character designs by Hisashi Kagawa. Luffy, Nami, and Zoro are attacked by a sea monster that destroys their boat and separates them. Luffy is found on an island beach, where he saves a little girl, Medaka, from two pirates. All the villagers, including Medaka's father, have been taken away by Ganzack and his crew as forced laborers. After hearing that Ganzak also stole all the food, Luffy and Zoro rush out to get it back. As they fight the pirates, one of them kidnaps Medaka. A fight starts between Luffy and Ganzack, ending in Luffy's capture. Meanwhile, Zoro is forced to give up after a threat is made to kill all of the villagers. The people from the village rise up against Ganzack, and while the islanders and pirates fight, Nami goes and unlocks the three captives. Ganzack defeats the rebellion and reveals his armored battleship. Now it is up to the Straw Hats to "Defeat the Pirate Ganzack!" and prevent him from destroying the island.
The second OVA, One Piece: Romance Dawn Story, was produced by Toei Animation in July 2008 for the Jump Super Anime Tour. It is 34 minutes in length and based on the first version of Romance Dawn, the pilot story for One Piece, but includes the Straw Hat Pirates up to Brook and their second ship, the Thousand Sunny. In search for food for his crew, Luffy arrives at a port town, defeating a pirate named Crescent Moon Gally on the way. He meets a girl named Silk in town, who was abandoned by attacking pirates as a baby and raised by the mayor, which has caused her to value the town as her "treasure". The villagers mistake Luffy for Gally and capture him just as the real Gally returns. Gally throws Luffy in the water and plans to destroy the town, but Silk saves him and Luffy goes after Gally. His crew arrives to help him, and with his help, he recovers the treasure for the town, gets some food, and destroys Gally's ship.

Anime Series
Toei Animation produced an anime television series based on the manga chapters, also titled One Piece. The series premiered in Japan on Fuji Television on October 20, 1999. Since then, the still ongoing series has aired more than four hundred eighty episodes and has been exported to various countries around the world.
In 2004, 4Kids Entertainment began production on an English language release of One Piece in North America, and sub-licensed home video distribution with Viz Media. This dub of One Piece was heavily edited for content and length, reducing the first 143 episodes to 104. Sanji's cigarettes, for example, were turned into lollipops, and "the skin of a black pirate was changed to a tan mulatto / white color." 4Kids originally created an English version of the original opening theme; however, the music was replaced with an alternate score. The series premiered in the United States on September 18, 2004 on the Fox network as part of the Fox Box block, and later aired on the Cartoon Network in the Toonami block in April 2005. However, 4Kids released a statement in December 2006 confirming that it canceled production of its dubbed version. In July 2010, an interview was conducted between Anime News Network and Mark Kirk, the Vice President of Digital Media for 4Kids Entertainment. In this interview, Kirk explained that 4Kids acquired One Piece as part of a package deal with other anime, and that the company did not actually watch much—if any—of the series before acquiring it. However, once it became clear to the company how One Piece would not work with their intended demographic, they decided to edit it into a more kid-friendly show until they had an opportunity to legally drop the license. Kirk said the experience "ruined company's reputation." Ever since that incident, 4Kids have established a more strict set of guidelines, checks, and balances to determine what anime the company acquires.
In April 2007, Funimation Entertainment acquired the license from 4Kids. In an interview with voice actor Christopher Sabat, Sabat stated that Funimation had been interested in acquiring One Piece from the very beginning, and produced a "test episode," in which Sabat played the character of Helmeppo and Eric Vale played the part of the main character, Luffy (they would later go on to provide the English voices for Roronoa Zoro and Sanji, respectively). After producing a new English voice dub, the company released its first unedited, bilingual DVD box set, containing 13 episodes, on May 27, 2008. Similarly sized sets followed with fourteen sets released as of October 26, 2010. The Funimation dubbed episodes premiered on the Cartoon Network on September 29, 2007 and aired until its cancellation on March 22, 2008. The remainder of Funimation's dubbed episodes continued being aired on Australia's Cartoon Network, and then shifted into reruns of the Funimation dub before being replaced by Total Drama Island. Funimation, Toei Animation, Shueisha, and Fuji TV released a statement in May 2009 confirming that they would simulcast stream the series within an hour of the weekly Japanese broadcast. This free, English-subtitled simulcast is available at www.onepieceofficial.com. Originally scheduled to begin on May 30, 2009 with episode 403, a lack of security resulted in a leak of the episode. As a result, Funimation delayed the offer until August 29, 2009 at which point it began with a simulcast of episode #415. One Piece episodes are also available for streaming at Hulu.com, in both subtitled and dubbed formats (with the dub being the unedited dub found on the DVD releases).

Anime Films
Ten animated films based on the One Piece series have been released in Japan. The films are traditionally released during the Japanese school spring break since 2000. The films feature self-contained, completely original plots with animation of higher quality than what the weekly anime allows for. Funimation Entertainment has licensed the eighth film for release in North America.
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 Junji Shimizu. The fourth and seventh films were directed by Kōnosuke 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. It also featured a song, "Sayaendo," sung by the Japanese band NEWS. The tenth film was directed by Munehisa Sakai.

Video Games
The One Piece franchise has been adapted into multiple video games published by subsidiaries of Bandai and later as part of Namco Bandai Games. 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.

Music
Myriad soundtracks were released to the anime, films and the games. The music for the One Piece anime series and most of its films were directed by Kohei Tanaka and Shiro Hamaguchi. Various theme songs and character songs were released on a total of 49 singles. Most of the songs are also featured on six compilation albums and on 16 soundtrack CDs.

Light Novels
A series of light novels was published based on the first OVA, certain episodes of the TV anime, and all but the first feature film. They featured art work by Oda and are written by Tatsuya Hamasaki. The first of these novels, One Piece: Defeat The Pirate Ganzak!, based on the OVA, was released on June 3, 1999. On July 17, 2000, followed One Piece: Logue Town Chapter, a light novel adaptation of the TV anime's Logue Town story arc. The first feature film to be adapted was Clockwork Island Adventure. The book was released on March 19, 2001. On December 25, 2001, followed the second and so far last light novel adaptation of a TV anime arc in One Piece: Thousand-year Dragon Legend. The adaptation 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 light novel of The Giant Mechanical Soldier of Karakuri Castle was released on March 6, 2006 and that of The Desert Princess and the Pirates: Adventures in Alabasta on March 7, 2007. The newest novel adapts Episode of Chopper Plus: Bloom in the Winter, Miracle Cherry Blossom and was released on February 25, 2008.

Art and Guidebooks
Five art books and five 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, the third, One Piece: Color Walk 3 – Lion, was released January 5, 2006, and the fourth art book, subtitled Eagle, was released on March 4, 2010. The fifth art book, subtitled Shark, was released on December 3, 2010. The first guidebook, One Piece: Red – Grand Characters was released on March 2, 2002. The second guidebook, One Piece: Blue – Grand Data File, was released on August 2, 2002. The third guidebook, One Piece: Yellow – Grand Elements, was released on April 4, 2007, and the fourth guidebook, One Piece: Green - Secret Pieces, was released on November 4, 2010. An anime guidebook, One Piece: RAINBOW!, was released on May 1, 2007, and covers the first 8 years of the TV show.

Other Media
Other One Piece media include a trading card game by Bandai named One Piece CCG and a drama CD centering around the character of Nefertari Vivi released by Avex Trax on December 26, 2002.