One Piece (English adaptation)

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[edit] One Piece Manga

The One Piece manga, written, drawn, and created by Eiichiro Oda, is originally published by Shueisha in Japanese for sale in Japan. In the west, the English adaptation is published and distributed for sale in the United States, Canada, and Australia by VIZ Media in both the form of the American Shonen Jump magazine and graphic novels. As of 2006, the first artbook, Color Walk 1, has also been released in English. An English edition using Viz Media's translations and conventions is published in the United Kingdom by Gollancz Manga. As part of the Shonen Jump line, One Piece volumes are advertised at a price of $7.95 US, which is among the cheapest prices for a manga volume in history in the United States. However, volumes are released at a staggered pace, usually once per three month period; because Shonen Jump debut in February of 2003, the release of volumes are disjointed on a yearly basis, so it is not unusual for only two or three volumes to be released in certain years. In Volume 13 of the Viz manga on page 69, there is a typo on Luffy's bounty. Ms. Valentines Day says that Luffy's bounty is 300 Million berries when it is actually 30 Million berries at that point in the story.

[edit] Changes & Reactions

One Piece Volume 1 English version.

For an overview of general criticisms and reactions toward Viz Media, please see criticism of Viz Media.

The earliest criticism of the Viz interpretation of One Piece pertained to the format of its English volume covers; unlike other Shonen Jump titles such as Naruto or Bleach, which were almost identical in layout to their tankobon counterparts, One Piece's cover design experienced several changes. The large central portrait on each cover was shrunk and centered, with a "sparkly" border depicting a map added to fill in the space. Additionally, the "Shonen Jump" label traditionally branded above or below a manga's title was replaced with a large red "ONE PIECE" bump, which apparently led some readers to believe the series was named "ONE PIECE ONE PIECE". When asked about this change, Viz Media (then Viz Communications) explained that the title could be easily misread as "NEP ECE" (Eiichiro Oda himself expressed amusement at how easily this mistake could be made ([1]); however, no response was given regarding the layout change for the cover portrait.^{[citation needed]}

Throughout the serialization of One Piece in Shonen Jump, fans of the Japanese version have expressed great uneasiness because of Viz's positions toward Americanization. The names of attacks originally in other languages, like Zoro's santoryu (in Japanese) and Sanji's martial arts (French) are sometimes (but not always) fully translated in English, thus obscuring the equivocal meanings (including puns) intended to be enjoyed by the author. Additionally, Viz does not put full effort to localize language-based puns, and will sometimes completely ignore them; this lassitude renders a number of the visual gags in the manga detached from the plot and incoherent. Finally, Viz's desire to appeal to younger readers (in spite of One Piece being advertised as a "TEEN" product) have driven the company to omit almost all instances of profanities; while some fans did not object to this strong degree of bowdlerization, profanities have been replaced with "pseudo-swears", such as "darn", all of which among older fans have been widely viewed as annoying and even insulting. Emotionally profound scenes in One Piece, such as the dialogue between Nami and Arlong in Volume 9, are held to have been reduced in impact when compared to the Japanese edition due to the simplified language. Another example is, when Luffy was angry that Mihawk almost killed Zoro in Volume 6, Luffy said "Darn you" instead of "Damn you." In some ways it reduced the amount of tension Luffy clearly felt against Mihawk. However, Kid Luffy said "Damn you!" to Higuma the Bear also he said "You bastard!", but this was probably because it was in the first volume before Shonen Jump started editing out the curse words. Another notable change is Sanji says "Crap" instead of "Shit".

After the English adaptation of the anime began on the Fox Box (later renamed 4Kids TV), Viz renamed the character Roronoa Zoro to Roronoa Zolo, and later editions of the first four volumes of the series were changed to match this. The rising profile of the series in North America put both VIZ and 4Kids at risk of lawsuit from the trademark holders of the fictional character, Zorro (though inspiration for the name comes from zorome, a Japanese term for a repetition of numbers[2]). The majority of fans were either outraged or bewildered by this change, which was made abruptly after fifty chapters of the previous spelling, and with numerous spellings by Oda (in English) on related media. While "Zoro" is the official romanized spelling of the character's name in Japan, both spellings would be pronounced the same way by a native speaker of Japanese.

In 2005, Viz Media began altering the artwork of the One Piece manga, editing out controversial religious icons such as manji (known as a swastika by westerners, but usually differentiated from the manji by a 45 degree rotation and hooked arms facing clockwise). While fans did not object to these changes, issue by issue comparisons lead to the revelation that these changes were inconsistent; sometimes the manji were edited, and other times there were arrows documenting the signifiance of manji in Eastern cultures.

Despite these inconsistencies, there were few complaints to the art edits until One Piece chapter 96, where Viz Media altered the name of the island-city "Loguetown" to "Roguetown". Fans were outraged. The city in question was described numerous times throughout successive chapters as the "town of beginnings and endings" where Gold Roger was born and died, the setting of the prologue and epilogue to his (and Luffy's) story. This change was received with heated and violent criticism, as many older fans felt Viz was trying to restrict One Piece's accessibility to diverse audiences by removing literary elements from the story; some accused Viz of outright discrimination against Eiichiro Oda, for he does not speak English and therefore has difficulty expressing what he wants to in a different language (see: Engrish).

However, there is far more animosity directed toward 4Kids Entertainment for their more extreme treatment of the One Piece anime than with Viz Media. This is because anime is a far more accessible medium of entertainment, as it can potentially reach more customers than a manga can. Like 4Kids in some respects, some of Viz Media's translations are written to appeal to younger individuals, but in a dissimilar fashion to 4Kids, references to death, foreign culture elements, a majority of the religious symbols, and violence remain intact, despite the random omission of swear words.

[edit] The Title Pages in the US Shonen Jump

Another notable change is in regards to the title pages of each chapter in Shonen Jump -- starting in mid-to-late 2005, Viz started dropping some of the title pages in each issue, with no replacement references to the chapter number or title, in effect making a One Piece segment one giant chapter or a regular-sized chapter with a double-length chapter. There were some issues (such as the June 2006 issue) where the cover promises three full chapters of One Piece, only to have the three chapters "welded" together by removing the title pages, making the chapters' starts and ends undistinguishable. In the September 2006 issue, the first One Piece chapter in that issue began with the first page of the story, with the "One Piece" logo slapped upon it, with no chapter number or title. The consequence of this is that the episode numbers would end up being skipped, creating an illusion that Shonen Jump is skipping chapters, or even rejoining a story in progress. Also, some of the important parts of the side story on the title pages (in this case, one involving Koby and Helmeppo) are skipped over, much to the chagrin of those who follow it. It is unclear exactly why Viz was removing some One Piece title pages; this practice is also limited to One Piece, as the other series represented still have all their title pages. The title pages have appeared intact in the graphic novels, leading some to believe that the practice has been used as "extra incentive" to get readers to buy the collected volumes.

[edit] One Piece Anime

[edit] 4Kids English version

The One Piece anime series has been adapted into English-dubbed episodes by 4Kids Entertainment, as seen on 4Kids TV and Toonami in the United States and on networks in many other English-speaking countries around the world. The 4Kids version debuted in the US as part of the Fox Box block on September 18, 2004. This version of the show varies considerably from the original Japanese series[3]; 4Kids has taken a number of liberties in adapting the series in order to make the show more appealing to a young American audience. As of September 2006, 106 English-dubbed episodes have been produced from the first 143 Japanese episodes of One Piece; based on the removal of the show from their website, 4Kids does not plan on taking the series any further.

Recently, the American dub for One Piece was dropped by 4Kids and all episodes owned by 4Kids cannot be bought due to the agreement made by 4Kids to uphold their episodes of One Piece till 2009.^{[citation needed]} It is unknown if 4Kids will drop the license before then, though it is possible that another company could be able to license and dub the rest of the series and possibly redub the earlier parts of the series after 4Kids license expires (or at least whatever 4Kids hasn't dubbed, such as the skipped episodes).

This was also confirmed in the US anime and manga magazine New Type Magazine. New Type Magazine stated that with the declaration of the 4Kids dub being brought to an end at 106 episodes, there is no chance of an uncut version now of the dubbed episodes to ever be released. Another reason for a lack of an uncut version was due to the amount of edits made to the series so it could be broadcast on TV. They also stated another dubbing company may take up the series after 4Kids had stopped dubbing it.^[1]

[edit] Cuts and Removals

As of September 2006, the equivalent of 39 episodes of material had been cut from what were originally 143 episodes (roughly 27 percent of the series). Among the removed was the Warship Island arc, the Laboon arc, the entire Little Garden arc, the majority of the Post-Alabasta Arc (all save Zoro's episode were removed), and the Goat Island Arc. All removed episodes and arcs were written around, sometimes contradicting the continuity established by the dub. For example, in order to explain Mr. 3's presence after the Little Garden arc, it was told that he followed the Straw Hats since "Roguetown", when Baroque Works didn't even know about them at that point.

During the series, another recurring removal was erasure of all Japanese text. It should also be noted, however that Japanese was not the only writing removed - English text in the background were also often painted over. In some cases, such edits were due to censorship issues, as in the case of "Rum" and "Casino". However, this was not limited to censorship alone: other background text, such as the word "Milk" on a cup, would also usually be removed with no apparent reason at all. In later episodes produced by 4Kids, this trend ceased.

[edit] Sound

Removing the original soundtrack, and replacing it with a soundtrack produced in-house at 4Kids Entertainment, was a common practice among their dubs. Even though an English version of the first theme song, "We Are," was produced and previewed at a licensing convention, however, upon the dub's premiere, it was replaced by a rap song. The reason for this is unclear, although it was stated by Alfred R. Kahn that the producers at 4Kids preferred the rap theme. Throughout the 4Kids dub, the rap was revised twice - once to add mention of Usopp and Sanji to the second verse (which begun in the Arlong arc), and another time to add Chopper to the second verse as well (during the Drum Island arc).

Several characters received rough approximations of regional accents, often matched to common stereotypes based on their outfits. Nico Robin/Ms. Sunday was given a southern/cowgirl accent due to her cowgirl style outfit when she is first introduced and Miss Father's Day was given a French accent, possibly due to her frog outfit. Other characters received accents include Red-Haired Shanks, who received a Cockney/Irish accent, Dracule "Hawk-Eyes" Mihawk, who was given a French accent, and Sanji who was given a Brooklyn accent.

[edit] Alterations

Comparison between original Japanese version and 4Kids edit of a scene.

There were large numbers of alterations made to the series throughout. The alterations included altering some dialogue to utilize different types of humor aimed. Usually, this is aimed only at the 6 - 11 age range, often using toilet humor. In the original Japanese version humor suitable for even older audiences, such as adults, was present throughout most of the series. Sometimes humor is added even during scenes meant to be entirely serious.

• An example of changed dialogue includes Luffy describing one of Sir Crocodile's attacks as "It looks like a giant toilet!" during the first match between Luffy and Crocodile (to which Crocodile responds, "I guess that makes you desert doodoo!").

Another alteration was the changing of Japanese references to something more "American". One example was the edit of two onigiri, which were then replaced with cookies. However, more Japanese references had started to slip in as the series has progressed, such as an onigiri being kept.

Like other former 4Kids productions such as Pokémon and Shaman King, changing the skin colors of characters to avoid potential racial insensitivity also occurs. This includes changing at least one apparent "blackface" within the storyline. However, some people have accused 4Kids Entertainment of racism for such edits.

[edit] Renaming

Renaming many locations and attack names. Many attack names in other non-English languages (i.e. French, Italian, etc.) are given English names. These are often not proper translations of the name, and are sometimes different names completely (for example, most of Sanji's attacks, which were originally French cooking terms, are changed to food-based puns).

Altering many character names. Some names that were originally English were changed to apparently make them sound more exotic. Examples include Portgas D. Ace (Portgaz D. Trace) and Edward Newgate (Ward Newgate). In addition to this, several other names were changed for content, like Captain Smoker (Captain Chaser) and possibly Cobra (Nebra), while others use uncommon romanizations of names, like Zoro (Zolo), Nefertari Vivi/Cobra (Nefeltari), and others.

[edit] Censorship

One Piece. The original Japanese version is on the right (with a villain, Helmeppo, threatening another character, Coby, with a handgun), while the censored version is on the left (with Helmeppo holding a hammer attached to a spring.)

The censorship of the show had seen the toning down of violence and other extreme situations.

Removal of all religious references, for example (Mihawk's cross dagger was changed to something else, and Mrs. Merrychristmas's Christmas tree was colored purple, and her name changed to Mrs. Groundhog's Day). Other religious censorship included the alteration of every nun during the Whisky Peak arc to either a completely black (often changing the uniform into a full cloak) outfit or was edited to look like a normal person.

Virtually no death scenes are shown, regardless of their importance to the plot. Scenes such as Belle-Mere's death in front of Nami and Nojiko were completely removed. However, death had been referred to more often in the more recent episodes. The series also saw the removal of all blood, even when significant to the plot, such as in the third Luffy vs. Crocodile fight. In this fight it was changed to Luffy using his own sweat, as opposed to blood. Dried blood was later kept in the Alabasta arc, perhaps due to the fact that it looked like dirt.

On many occasions, guns were replaced with other weapons. One of the earlier and more obvious was Helmeppo aiming a "mallet-gun" at Koby, while originally it was a gun. Further on, the use of guns were replaced with water guns (although, this was mainly rumor among fans as the guns were never shot, simply had such an appearance). Up to date, most guns are kept in as it was simply unavoidable. However, the guns were changed to a different shade (usually green or purple) to not have kids actually find and fire actual guns (in which most are black). Other examples of weapon censorship include changing an acid-firing cannon to a water-firing cannon. Most scenes that had crowds of people raising weapons often had guns removed or replaced with swords.

[edit] Criticism

A sticking point for criticism from fans was 4Kids' marketing strategy for the franchise; although the show is enjoyed by a fairly broad audience in Japan and consistently scored high ratings from teens, children, and even adults, 4Kids decided to initially air the show on Saturday mornings and focus solely on the lucrative 6–11 demographic. It now airs at night on Cartoon Network and has been receiving much higher ratings from the 9-14 demographic, but the new timeslot has brought question to the necessity of the editing the series continues to receive. Over time, the editing had decreased, perhaps due to the fact that the show was airing on a later time slot, although the production still resembled that of a typical 4Kids localization.

Despite the numerous edits, One Piece was one of 4Kids' more violent properties. The producers had left in certain unavoidable excesses; blood, appendages being ripped off (such as Shanks' arm and Zeff's leg), and a character being killed by gunfire. Errors were occasionally made in scene edits. Since the dubbed version of the Drum Island arc began, more violence and references to death were included, and no new arcs had being skipped or episodes joined together, save for a few filler episodes.

[edit] Other Information

Madman Entertainment, holder of the distribution sublicense in Australia, had stated that it would be releasing uncut One Piece DVDs, but as of January 23, 2006, "for the time being, Madman will be releasing the TV edited version only."^[4] It is unclear when, or if Madman Entertainment will release uncut episodes of One Piece. This might have stemmed from 4Kids' plans to release uncut versions of their anime series, which 4Kids did with the second Yu-Gi-Oh! series (Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters) and Shaman King; however, they discontinued these versions in 2005.

When asked at an Australia convention why the uncut version of One Piece was not released, Madman representatives stated that they were not supplied with an English uncut version, and they could not only release the Japanese and cut English as it would not sell.

The anime's naming conventions are used in One Piece-related media in North America, such as the English version of the fighting game One Piece Grand Battle for the PlayStation 2 and Nintendo Gamecube.

[edit] Odex English Version

In Singapore, the anime is licensed by Odex, which produces their own English dub. This dub is lesser known outside of the internet fanbase and equally less referred to in general both fanbase and media based. It contains fewer edits to names and animation with most if not all reference to blood, violence and death being left unedited.

[edit] Criticism

The main criticism towards the Singapore version is that many of the voice acting seems monotone or unenthusiastic, mostly put down to its low-budget dubbing. This version of the series, while is generally closer translated to the original Japanese version then the North American version by 4Kids, it also has many mistranlations.

• Example: In the incident with Higuma the Bear, Shanks was listing the reason for him to start a fight with Higuma and that hurting Luffy was the final straw. In the original Japanese version Shanks was stating no matter what Higuma done to him personally, he would not fight Higuma at all, however Shanks could never allow Higuma to hurt his friends.

Unlike the North American version, the original Japanese background score is left untouched by the producers of the series and many of the story arcs cut by 4Kids such as Little Garden remain unedited.

Its low popularity can be put down to the lack of means in which fans of the series may purchase this version of the anime and the main release of the episodes being onto VCD rather than DVD. Other factors in its lack of popularity include it being released only into the Singapore market and not to the general North American Market, resulting in few fans outside of Singapore knowing of its existence at all. Generally, being the lesser known of the dubs, it is met with fewer opinions and criticism altogether by fans of the series.

[edit] Anime air times

• New to the U.S. episodes of One Piece air on Saturdays at 9:30pm on Toonami. [5] It also airs at 7:30pm ET on YTV in Canada.
• The show began on the UK's version of Toonami during April 2005. It has stopped showing One Piece for reasons unknown.
• In Australia, the anime has been seen on Cartoon Network, as well as on Network Ten, during the Toasted TV block.

[edit] Commentary

• Comparisons of dubbed episodes and original episodes

[edit] References

1. ^ New Type Magazine February 2007 edition page 118 confirmation of the end of One Piece, Status of uncut version and overall status of anime at the time of announcement.

↑  "Australia Loses Uncut One Piece (2006-01-23 14:02:45)." Madman Entertainment press release reported on ANN 23 January 2006. Accessed 24 January 2006.