One Piece is written by Oda Eiichiro. The manga began serialization in in Weekly Shounen Jump and has sold over 80 million copies of manga. The anime began airing in 1999 and is shown Sundays at 19:30 on Fuji TV.

One Piece is currently : 206 Anime Episodes with 4 Intros and 12 Endings, 5 Movies with 3 Movie Shorts, 3 TV Specials, 1 OVA, 324 Manga Chapters collected in 34 Volumes and 2 Supplementary Data Books, and 2 Manga Artbooks!

 

One Piece is certainly a phenomenon. It’s easy to see why; One Piece follows a very simple and very successful shonen action formula. It worked in the past for Rurouni Kenshin and Dragonball and it’s working wonderfully for One Piece. The premise is pretty basic. Luffy D. Monkey, an irrepressible youth, ate the Devil’s Fruit, which gave his body extra-strength elasticity. He’s searching for the One Piece, a legendary treasure that will make him the King of all Pirates and finally allow him to prove himself to his childhood idol, a selfless pirate by the name of Shanks. Along the way, he collects an army of somewhat freakish rogues, including a tough swordfighter named Zoro who fights with a sword in his mouth, and Nami, a spunky thief. Together they have wacky adventures, beat up the bad guys, and collect treasure. It all sounds pretty harmless, right?

Well, right, it is. One Piece is completely harmless entertainment. The battles can be surprisingly brutal at times, but overall, this is pure shonen action entertainment. It is entirely unpretentious and knows exactly what it wants to be, and excels at that. That having been said, One Piece is not a particularly deep show, although the characters are well developed. The focus seems to be on the crazy villains and the endless string of fights the main characters go through. Luffy and his crew of misfits go from town to town, saving the repressed masses and eliminating evil pirates who stand between them and the One Piece. In some ways, it’s very reminiscent of Rurouni Kenshin. Kenshin and Luffy are both laid-back badasses with hearts of gold that surround themselves with surprisingly capable outcasts and defeat circus freak-style enemies in episode after episode. If you like that sort of thing, One Piece delivers. If you don’t, One Piece is going to bore the faith out of you.

So, for fans of formulaic action shows, One Piece is a well-animated bit of fluff that sports decent music and some well-done action scenes. Unfortunately, the bizarre character designs are sure to turn a lot of folks off. One Piece is not done in a traditional anime style. It’s very unique and it’s bound to rub some people the wrong way. Otherwise, if you like your anime rife with fight scenes that last several episodes, declaratory statements (“Ore wa Kaizokuo ni naru da!” or “I will become the Pirate King!” is Luffy’s favorite thing to say...), screwball humor and a touch of originality, One Piece will not fail to please.

Official website:
    Foxbox's Official One Piece Website
    Fuji TV's Official One Piece Homepage (Japanese)
    One Piece Official Site

Series Title: One Piece ワンピース
Series Debut: 1999
Adapted from: One Piece Manga series
Created by: Eiichiro Oda

Series Director: Konosuke Uda
Film Director:
Script Writer: Mitsuru Shimada
                      Suminori Takegami
Art Design:
Character Design: Noboru Koizumi
Music Composer: Kouhei Tanaka
                            Shiroh Hamaguchi
Animation Production: Toei Animation/Shueisha/Fuji TV
TV Broadcaster: Fuji TV
TV Production: Toei Animation

Opening Theme:
    #1: "We Are!" by Hiroshi Kitadani (eps 1-46)
    #2: "Believe" by Folder5 (eps 47-116)
    #3: "Hikari E" by The Babystars (eps 117-169)
    #4: "Bon Voyage!" by Bon-Bon Blanco
    #5: "Kokoro no Chizu" by BOYSTYLE
Ending Theme:
    #10: "faith" by Ruppina (eps 156-168)
    #11: "A to Z" by ZZ (eps 169-181)
    #12: "Tsuki to Taiyou" by shela
    #12: "Tsuki to Taiyou" by shela (eps 183-195)
    #13: "Dreamship" by Aiko Ikuta
    #1: "memories" by Maki Otsuki (eps 1-30)
    #2: "RUN! RUN! RUN!" by Maki Otsuki (eps 31-63)
    #3: "Watashi ga iru Yo" by TOMATO CUBE (eps 63-73)
    #4: "Souchinosuke" by Suitei-Shoujo (eps 74-81)
    #5: "Before Dawn" by AI-SACHI (eps 82-94)
    #6: "Fish" by The Kaleidoscope (eps 95-106)
    #7: "Glory ~Kimi ga iru Kara~" by Takako Uehara (eps 107-116)
    #8: "Shining Ray" by Janne da Arc (eps 117-132)
    #9: "Free Will" by Ruppina (eps 133-155)