One Piece Salvaged

Once upon a time, in the mid-nineties, a manga called ONE PIECE debuted in Japan, and was wildly popular. A couple of years later, a TV anime series adapting the manga debuted, and its popularity knew no bounds. Both are still going strong today in Japan -- supplemented by original animation videos, theatrical movies, and more merchandise than you can sail a ship at. When I visited Japan three years ago, there was a whole chain of mall stores devoted solely to One Piece merchandise; and convenience stores in small, rural towns were stuffed with One Piece plushes and manga volumes.

The manga begin selling in the US, in translated form, in 2002, and has been fairly successful. Then 4Kids Entertainment brought the One Piece anime to American Sat-Am TV -- and it tanked. It was cancelled from Fox after a few months, and moved to Cartoon Network. Eventually, 4Kids, which had translated up to Episode 144 of the series (although it did not show all the preceeding episodes) stopped translating new ones.

A big reason why it tanked was that 4Kids slashed it to pieces. Although it is aimed at all ages, it has more blood than one is used to in American animated shows. Lots of that was axed. Characters drink and smoke. All that was taken out -- sometimes mysteriously (for instance, a character who smokes two cigars constantly had two plumes of smoke suspended before his face; the cigars were digitally removed). Voices were often wildly inappropriate and grating. Worst of all, deaths crucial to the plot were written out (even though the prologue to each episode spoke of a pirate being hung from the gallows). A main character's central motivation was the murder of her foster mother before her eyes. The American version showed the foster mother's gravesite; yet in it the villain simply consigned her to a dungeon for the rest of her life.

The general consensus was that the American version of the One Piece anime was doomed. Who'd want to pick up a property that had bombed commercially?

Fortunately, Funimation -- one of the best American licensors of anime -- has announced it has picked up the license. It will be producing episodes for Cartoon Network beginning where the 4Kid episodes left off. It will use a new voice cast, and will avoid grating voices. Although the TV version will still be edited (Cartoon Network rules), they will purportedly cut it with a lighter hand. And best of all, Funimation will be selling unedited translated episodes on DVD.

Sometimes Neptune smiles on sailors and pirates alike.