One Piece

One Piece (ワンピース) is a long-running shōnen manga written and illustrated by Eiichiro Oda, that has been serialized in Weekly Shōnen Jump since August 4, 1997. The individual chapters are being published in tankōbon volumes by Shueisha, with the first released on December 24, 1997 and the 58th volume released as of June 2010. In 2009, Shueisha announced that they sold 176 million volumes of One Piece manga so far; volume 56 set a new record for the highest initial print run of any manga in history. One Piece follows the adventures of Monkey D. Luffy, a 17-year-old boy who gained incredible 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.

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 tankōbon 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. Since then, the still ongoing series has aired more than four hundred episodes. 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 its original and uncut form. In addition to the anime series and OVA, One Piece has been adapted into ten feature films by Toei and multiple video games based on the series have been released. A Japanese amusement park based after the series has been slated to open in March of 2010.

Plot
A boy named Monkey D. Luffy, inspired by his childhood hero "Red-Haired" Shanks, sets out on a journey to find One Piece, the legendary treasure of the King of the Pirates, Gol D. Roger. 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 King of the Pirates, Gol D. Roger, from island to island on his way to the great treasure One Piece. On his way, his crew grows to have a swordsman, "Pirate Hunter" Zoro; a navigator, "Cat Burglar" Nami; a sharpshooter, "Sogeking" Usopp; a cook, "Black Leg" Sanji; a doctor, "Cotton Candy Lover" Tony Tony Chopper; an archaeologist, "Demon Child" Nico Robin; a shipwright, "Cyborg" Franky; and a musician, "Dead Bones" Brook.

During the course of the story, the crew contends with other pirate crews, the royal Seven Warlords of the Sea (Ouka Shichibukai) and the Marines. The latter are the subordinates of the corrupt 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, especially the Four Emperors, the four most powerful pirates in the world.

Setting
The fictional world of One Piece is covered by two vast oceans, which are divided by a massive mountain range called the Red Line. The Grand Line, a sea that runs perpendicular to the Red Line, further divides them into four seas: North Blue, East Blue, West Blue and South Blue. Surrounding the Grand Line are two regions called Calm Belts, which experience almost no wind and ocean currents and are breeding ground for the huge sea creatures called Sea Kings ("Neptunians" in the English manga). Because of this, the Calm Belts are very effective barriers for those trying to enter the Grand Line. While navy ships, using sea stone to mask their presence, can simply pass through, most have to use the canal system of Reverse Mountain, a mountain at the first intersection of the Grand Line and the Red Line. Sea water from each of the four seas runs up that mountain and merges at the top to flow down a fifth canal and into the first half of the Grand Line. The second half of the Grand Line, beyond the second intersection with the Red Line, is also known as the New World.

The currents and weather on the Grand Line's open sea are extremely unpredictable, while as in the vicinity of islands the climate is stable. What makes it even harder to navigate is the fact that normal compasses do not work there. A special compass called a Log Pose must be used. The Log Pose works by locking on to one island's magnetic field and then locking on to another island's magnetic field. The time for it to set depends on the island. This process can be bypassed by obtaining an Eternal Pose, a Log Pose variation that is permanently set to a specific island and never changes.

The world of One Piece is filled with anachronisms, like the transponder snails, snail-like animals that can be attached to electric equipment and function as rotary phones, fax machines , surveillance cameras , and similar devices. Dials, the shells of certain sky-dwelling animals, can be used to store wind, sound, images, heat, and the like and have various applications. A Devil Fruit ("Cursed Fruit" in the 4Kids dub) is a type of fruit which when eaten confers a power on the eater. 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". Paramecia is a catch-all category for fruits that give the user superhuman abilities. Devil Fruit users cannot swim in sea water. When even partially submerged in sea water, they lose all of their strength and coordination, although some abilities remain, such as Luffy still being able to stretch after being totally submerged. "Moving" water, such as rain or waves, does not have this effect.

Production
One Piece started as three one-shot stories entitled Romance Dawn —which would later be used as the title for One Piece's 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 Shōnen Jump and later in One Piece Red. The second was published in the 41st issue of Shōnen 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.

When creating a Devil Fruit, Oda thinks of something that would fulfill a human desire; he added that he does not see why he would draw a Devil Fruit unless the fruit's appearance would entice one to eat it. The names of many special attacks and other concepts in the manga consist of a form of punning, in which phrases written in kanji are paired with an idiosyncratic reading. The names of Luffy, Sanji, Chopper, Robin, and Franky's techniques are often mixed with other languages, and the names of a number of Zoro's sword techniques are designed as jokes; for example, some of them look 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 he believes that the creators "made the anime pretty close to the manga."

The creator of One Piece was "sensitive" about how it would be translated. The English version of the One Piece manga in many instances uses one onomatopoeia for multiple onomatopoeia used in the Japanese version. For instance, "saaa" (the sound of light rain, close to a mist) and "zaaa" (the sound of pouring rain) are both translated as "fshhhhhhh."

Manga
The One Piece manga series is written and illustrated by Eiichiro Oda. It is available in various countries and languages. In Japan, the series is published by Shueisha – chapterwise in the manga anthology Weekly Shōnen Jump since the magazine's issue of August 4, 1997 and in tankōbon format since December 24, 1997. , the series spans over 590 chapters and more than 55 tankōbon volumes.

In North America, Viz Media is publishing its English-language adaptation of the series – chapterwise in the manga anthology Shonen Jump since the magazine's launch in November 2002 and in tankōbon format since June 2003. In the United Kingdom, the tankōbon were published by Gollancz Manga, starting March 2006, until Viz Media took over after the fourteenth volume. In Australia and New Zealand, the English volumes are distributed by Madman Entertainment since November 10, 2008. , only 38 English language volumes have been published. However, in July 2009, Viz Media announced its plans to release five volumes per month during the first half of 2010.

Original video animations
Two original video animations (OVAs) have been produced thus far. 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 the little girl Medaka, from two pirates. All the villagers, including the Medaka's father, have been taken away by Ganzak 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 Ganzak, ending in Luffy's capture. Meanwhile, Zoro is urged into giving up, by threatening to kill the village people. The people from the village rise up against the Ganzak and while the islanders and pirates fight, Nami goes and unlocks the three. Ganzak defeats the rebellion and reveales his armored battleship. Now it is up to the Straw Hats, to "Defeat The Pirate Ganzak!" and prevent him from destroying the island.

The second OVA, One Piece: Romance Dawn Story, was produced by Toei Animation Jump Super Anime Tour of 2008. 34 minutes in length, it is 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.

TV anime
Produced by Toei Animation, the One Piece anime series premiered in Japan on Fuji Television on October 20, 1999. Since then, the still ongoing series has aired more than four hundred episodes and it has been exported to various countries around the world.

In 2004, 4Kids Entertainment began production on an English language dubbed release of One Piece. They sub-licensed home video distribution with Viz Media. 4Kids' dub 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." The series premiered in the United States in September 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. In December 2006, 4Kids cancelled production of the dubbed version due to financial reasons.

In April 2007, Funimation Entertainment acquired the license from 4Kids. 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 twelve sets released as of July 6, 2010. The new dub premiered on the Cartoon Network in September 2007 and aired until its cancellation in March 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 began streaming English dubbed episodes as well as subbed episodes on their website, onepieceofficial.com. New episodes were to be streamed an hour after their original airing in Japan on May 30, though were delayed until August 29 in order to resolve security issues. One Piece episodes are also available for streaming at Hulu.com.

In Singapore, the anime is sub-licensed (not exclusive license) by Odex, who produced an English VCD 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 Shōnen 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.

Funimation, Toei Animation, Shueisha, and Fuji TV announced that they would simulcast stream the One Piece pirate anime series within an hour of the weekly Japanese broadcast. This free, English-subtitled simulcast is now available at www.onepieceofficial.com Originally set to begin on Saturday, May 30, 2009, at 9:00 p.m. CDT with episode #403, a lack of security resulted in a leak of the episode, which lead to Funimation delaying the offer until August 29, 2009 at which point it began with a simulcast of episode #415.

Films
Since the debut of the series on television, Toei Animation has also produced ten 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. 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 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.

Music
A number of musical CDs have been created. Various theme songs and character songs were released on a total of 49 singles. Many of them were also released in collected form on the six compilation albums or the 16 soundtrack CDs, along with background music from the TV anime, the series' feature films, and video games.

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. Furthermore, two unnamed titles have been announced for the Nintendo DS and PlayStation Portable handheld consoles.

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: Louge Town Chapter, a light novel adaptation of the TV anime's Louge 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
Four 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. A fourth art book, subtitled Eagle, was released on March 4, 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.

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.

Manga
One Piece is the highest-selling manga in the history of Weekly Shōnen Jump in Japan and the first manga to increase the magazine's sales in eleven years. Volume 57 holds a manga publishing record in Japan, with 3 million units published in its first printing alone. In addition of breaking the previous manga record held by One Piece volume 56, it also broke Japan's all time first print publishing record of all books, passing the previous record held by Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix Overall, the series has re-written Japanese record for first print manga publication 6 times with Volumes 24, 25, 26, 27, 56, and 57. The first week sales of 1,690,932 also breaks Japanese all time sales record for all book in it debut week and is the fastest book to reach 2 million mark in its second week for single volume book. It is also currently the highest selling manga series of all time with over 185.6 million copies sold. It is the fastest manga series to reach sales of 100 million.

One Piece was the best-selling manga series during 2008 in Japan with 5,956,540 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 forty 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.

According to ANN, which gathers its rankings for Oricon, One Piece maintained it's top spot in 2009 with 14,721,241 copies sold, more than second [Naruto] and third place [Bleach] combined. The four volumes released during that time frame 53, 54, 52, 55 ranked 1–4 respectively for single volume sales.

Anime News Network comments that the art style of the One Piece manga requires "time to get used to" with its "very simple" artwork and its designs, which appear "very cartoonish" at first. They also note that the influence of Akira Toriyama (Dragon Ball) shines through in Oda's style of writing with its "huge  [sic] epic battles punctuated by a lot of humor" and that, in One Piece, he creates a "rich tale" without focusing too much on plot. Active Anime describes the art work in One Piece as "wonderfully quirky and full of expression". Splashcomics comments that Oda's "pleasantly bright and dynamic" ("angenehm hell und dynamisch") art style suits the story's "funny and exciting" (German: "witzigen und ... spannenden") atmosphere.

EX lauds Oda's art for its "crispy" monochrome pictures, "great use of subtle shade changes" on color pages, "sometimes exquisite" use of angles, and for its consistency. Shaenon K. Garrity, who at some point edited the series for Shonen Jump, said that, while doing so, her amazement over Oda's craft grew increasingly. She states that "he has a natural, playful mastery of the often restrictive weekly-manga format", notes that "interesting things [are] going on deep in the narrative structure", and recommends "sticking through to the later volumes to see just how crazy and Peter Max-y the art gets." Mania Entertainment writer Jarred Pine comments that "One Piece is a fun adventure story, with an ensemble cast that is continuing to develop, with great action and character drama." He lauds Oda's artwork as "imaginative and creative" and comments that "Oda's imagination just oozes all of the panels". He also comments that "Oda's panel work [...] features a lot of interesting perspectives and direction, especially during the explosive action sequences which are always a blast", though he complains that the panels can sometimes get "a little chaotic".

The North American releases of the English translation of volumes 39-43 debuted at #5-9 on the New York Times Best Seller Manga list.

Awards
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.

The German translation of its 44th volume won the Sondermann audience award for international mangacategory, a yearly comic award given for 7 categories by the Frankfurt Book Fair, the Frankfurter Rundschau, Spiegel Online and Comicforum since 2004, on the Frankfurt Book Fair Comics Centre in 2005.

In a 2008 poll by Oricon, Japanese teenagers elected it the most interesting manga.

Anime
The first opening of the TV anime, "We Are!", 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. [114 ] In September of the same year the Newtype magazine placed it 5th. Funimation's first DVD release of the series "One Piece: Season 1 First Voyage" was nominated for the Fifth Annual TV DVD Awards.

In Indonesia, Global TV was reprimanded by the Indonesian Broadcasting Commission (KPI) for airing the TV anime. Nina Armando, member of the KPI and lecturer at the University of Indonesia, said the show should not be aired at times when children are likely to watch.

In a review of the second DVD release of 4Kids Entertainment's dub, DVD talk called the company's adaptation a "shabby treatment" resulting in an "arguably less enjoyable rendition". They said that the 4Kids original opening was "a crappy rap song" and that the removal of whole scenes leaves a "feeling that something is missing". They went on to say that "Fans of the 'real' One Piece will want to skip picking [...] up [4Kids Entertainment's One Piece DVDs] until an uncut release is announced", but they also stated that "kids may get into this version because it's what they have seen on TV." Active Anime praised the TV series' "great" animation, stating that "It gives life and stays true to the style and characters of the manga." and noting the fight scenes in particular as having "a lot of energy to them". Animefringe comments that the art style of One Piece is "very distinctive and fresh". In a review of the first Funimation DVD release for Mania Entertainment, Bryce Coulter comments that One Piece is "not your typical pirate adventure" and that mixed with "the right amount of random fun along with a shonen style storyline" it becomes "an appealing and fun romp". In a review of Funimation Entertainment's second DVD release for Mania Entertainment, Bryce Coulter comments that "You can tell that they are giving One Piece the attention that was neglected by 4Kids" and that "One Piece is a great tale of high-seas fun that will leave you wanting more!"