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[Belfast]

Apparently they showed it off recently, and you can download it here .

All said, its not as *bad* as I thought it would be. But then again its just the opening. Apparently, Sanji has a bad habit of chain-smoking candycanes or something. Smoker does appear in the intro, but he just flashes on the screen, so who knows what they might do to him later. Zoro gets to keep his swords (yay). Its the same intro as We Are! complete with the same music, though the lyrics are different. At least the people singing it *sort of* sound like the original singers, though. So maybe they'll maintain the original music instead of opting to replace it with crappy midi/casio stuff.

However, the characters don't talk in the opening, so it surely doesn't hint at the potential butchering the series will still likely suffer from. Although, the opening could've been worse than it is.

 

[Xizk]

The opening was quite decent, to my surprise, though Sanji looks a bit silly smoking the candycane. I wonder what they will do when he lights up his candycane.

 

[Shouta]

Not surprising, I mean they censored smoking in La Pucelle =b.

 

[zarkand]

A surprisingly decent opening for something that is coming from 4Kids. They may have changed the lyrics but they kept the basic feel to it. I also think editing Sanji's cigarette would be better off as a toothpick like other animes edit them. A candycane just looks odd.

 

[Chrono]

Man.. CENSORING SMOKING?

I bet there will be no blood in any fights too. What the hell are they gonna do to Zoro's fight with hawk eyes? the dude almost slahses zoro's chest in half. If smoking is censored, then everybody can also forget about the nami arc being 20% as decent as it should be.

Blah.. Good or bad either way I don't care. We're at episode 100 now. how long will it take 4Kids to catch up? and if they don't then how many 5 episode funimation DVDs every other month will it take? Forever.

We One Piece fans will just cruise the sea of fansubs and live free like pirates. heh

 

[Belfast]

I agree. A toothpick would've been better. At least a toothpick can still *kind of* look badass. However, you can't explain lighting up a toothpick very well, let alone a candycane or lollipop.

 

[zarkand]

Knowing 4kids they would just edit the whole part were he lights it up or remove the arm with the lighter.

 

[KonVex]

I think germany is pretty good when it comes to one piece, nothing is censored that I know of (runs on kids tv with digimon and the likes). The opening is even better than the jp one, imo, and we are already at episode 140.

You can check the german and italian openings at http://www.all-blue.de/.
Just go to Multimedia/Downloads/Openings.

 

[Chrono]

and we are already at episode 140.

140!?

::looks at One Piece folder::



this makes me sad. How come such a big show has not other fansubbers but K-F? It's wierd. Champloo, on the other hand, is being subbed by every group known to man.

 

[KonVex]

Problem is that they suspended further eps for the time being, probably because the voice actors couldn't keep up, or they wanted to create a gap to the japanese releases (in japan new eps are shown weekly(?), but in germany daily)

 

[Belfast]

Other groups are probably just intimidated by the size. Yeah they can stick to their little 26-40 episode pansy series.

 

[Kiriku]

I actually liked that opening...but then again, how could you possibly fail with such a catchy song?

I miss "You wanna be my friend" at the end though.

 

[MetatronM]

The candy cane looks pretty absurd.

What a surreal experience that was. I find it odd they put "Shonen Jump's" before "One Piece."

 

[cvkpaladin]

How many episodes of One Piece are there? Looks like an interesting show from the intro.

 

[zarkand]

Fansubbed, 100. Total, 196.

 

[Belfast]

Fansubbed, 100. Total, 196.

addendum: the series is still going, so there's only 196 aired so far. IMO, it'll end up around 400 once all is said and done. However, it could easily go longer depending on how long Oda wants to stretch things out.

 

[Kiriku]

IMO, it'll end up around 400 once all is said and done.

400!?!? Damn...and here I was thinking that they're going to wrap things up around 250 or so. :/

No wait, make that instead of :/ .

 

[miyuru]

400? Did you just make that up?

 

[zarkand]

Didn't the mangaka for One Peice say that the Sky island arc was about the halfway point? I remember hearding a while back.

 

[Belfast]

I don't know if Oda said Skypiea was halfway or not, but if Oda's a completist, he's got a lot of threads to wrap up and unless he wants it to be rushed, I honestly don't think he's even halfway yet (well, the manga might be halfway by now). And besides, IF he did say that Skypiea was the halfway point and meant it (as we know, sometimes mangaka can be goaded into making series last longer than they originally meant to), well the arc just ended in the anime in the 190s, so doubling that number takes it close to 400.

I think the only other individual series that's going to hit that number is Detective Conan (its around the 395-400 range right now, I think), but its mostly episodic, so it can afford to do that. Even DBZ was only 200 something episodes, I think.

And wrap things up around 250? The manga is far from being wrapped up and it'd take about 50 more episodes for the anime to catch up to that point anyway.

So, yeah, I made up that number, but it was sort of an educated guess.

 

[zarkand]

There are a lot of things that the mangaka can do

Spoiler

Luffy's connection to Gol D. Roger, the Blackbeard pirates, these weapons that Crocodile was talking about, Robin's past.

It makes me wonder what else will happen.

 

[Belfast]

There are a lot of things that the mangaka can do

Spoiler

Luffy's connection to Gol D. Roger, the Blackbeard pirates, these weapons that Crocodile was talking about, Robin's past.

It makes me wonder what else will happen.

Spoiler

Oh there's a lot more than that. Zoro still needs to fight Hawkeyes, Sanji needs to find All-Blue, and so on. This is not to mention the numerous other plotlines that may or may not be explored. What will happen to Shanks' crew? Luffy still needs to return that hat. The whitebeard pirates? Smoker? The other marines? The rest of the shichibukai? It just keeps going and going. Not to mention that there are about another billion islands in the Grand Line and the likelihood that there are still plenty of very strong pirate groups to fight. The only way to get around all this is if Oda gives the Straw Hats an easy way out. Like a way to surpass a bunch of islands and get directly to the One Piece.

 

[zarkand]

Spoiler

Looking forward to the Straw Hat crew fighting those top three marines. Akoji, I think thats his name, beat the Robin and Luffy by himself and it looked like Sanji and Zoro couldn't have don't anything to harm him. Seeing how many Logia fruit users they fight, Luffy should be looking for someone who has the power, or at least try and find a Logia fruit for someone already on broad.

 

[Belfast]

Spoiler

Yeah, that's the kind of thing I'm trying to get at. In any normal anime, it probably wouldn't take very long to resolve fights like that. But in a series of this length, it will likely take a number of episodes for them to get powerful enough or find someone powerful enough to take on enemies that tough. I just can't see these things being resolved in a minimal number of episodes. Sometimes I actually think my 400 episode estimate is conservative.

 

[Crazymoogle]

I'd say 400 is a good bet. Maybe a little conservative, but maybe Oda gets tired of it 5 years down the line. Halfway or not, Oda has admitted there will be 3 more crewmembers (

Spoiler

or four, depending on how long Robin sticks around

), one of which is probably the new guy introduced at the beginning of the latest Arc, Water 7.

By 200, has SkyPiea even wrapped up yet? From there, the crew needs to go through Loop Island and the Davy Back Fight before even hitting Water 7, and thats not including the 1-2 filler arcs we can expect along the way.

As for the OP...wow, that was surprisingly well done. The singing keeps the emotion of the japanese lines, and for a really shitty video capture the candy cane didn't seem like armageddon.

The Arlong arc is definitely going to be the measuring stick, though. Brutal beatings, shootings, smokes...ooooh boy, 4Kids is going to have their hands full.

For how long 4Kids takes to catch up: Let's just say...awhile. Expect 50 episodes a year if they really push it, otherwise expect 25. The Saturday morning cartoon guys these days are absolutely fearless when it comes to repeats.

 

[Belfast]

If we're lucky, maybe it'll get broadcast on CN at some point, too. It seems to be the depository for just about well, anything. They show stuff that has both appeared on FOX and WB Saturday mornings and WB also regularly takes shows from CN to supplement their lineup. However, it'll likely still be the censored version. I actually really hope they're doing a straight translation and then post-editing it, so that the original content can be released later on DVD.

However, yeah, 50 episodes a year is perhaps asking too much, but then again I think each season of Digimon did a pretty hefty tour of duty, so who knows.

Edit: I believe Skypiea has wrapped up and within the last couple episodes they have just left the island. Not sure if there will be filler in-between that and Loop Island or not, but its likely.

 

[Trevelyon]

The candy cane looks pretty absurd.

What a surreal experience that was. I find it odd they put "Shonen Jump's" before "One Piece."

ARGH!

"NOW IT'S TIME TO SET SAIL FOR A MYSTERY!"

How the hell are they planning to substitute a cigarette for a lolly pop? there are going to be quite a few scenes with Sanji that aren't going to make a bit of sense, unless it's heavily edited or taken out.

 

[Mairu]

Hahahaha... Sanji with a lollipop looks hilarious. NOBODY'S GOING TO KNOW IT'S SUPPOSED TO BE A CIGARETTE!

The intro in english sounded weird, but that's probably just because I'm used to the JPN one.

 

[Friend]

Looks odd.

 

[Chesapeake Silt]

He's pimpin' like Kojak with that lollipop.

 

[bjork]

Looks odd.

MAN WHAT THE FUCK

WAY TO RUIN MY FAVORITE CHARACTER...

God damn... x 1000000

 

[john tv]

How retarded...

Americans are so ridiculously uptight and insecure over this stuff. If a kid's gonna smoke someday, he's gonna do it regardless of whether or not his favorite character in a cartoon does it. Where are all the dental health advocates when you need them? Candy canes are bad for your teeth!!!111

Pathetic.

 

[Meier]

Pretty decent rendition of the opening theme. Sucks about the cigarette but it was inevitable since 4Kids is doing it and they'll make it solely into a kid's show in America. It's a kid's show in Japan but they dont treat them like they're retards there who arent mature enough to see a character smoke or a little blood here and there.

Shonen Jump has become pretty marketable in the US now -- quite a number of the series' in it are including "Shonen Jump's" in their respective game logos. I know the Shaman King games have it in their title, etc. Even established brands such as Yu-gi-oh! also are doing it from now on.. hard to say if DBZ will or not. Certainly doesn't need to that's for sure, but it might be some sort of copyright thing from Shueisha where they'll be forced to.

 

[Belfast]

Retarded indeed. But with the FCC in a shitstorm lately, it doesn't look like censorship will get more lax anytime soon.

 

[Belfast]

Pretty decent rendition of the opening theme. Sucks about the cigarette but it was inevitable since 4Kids is doing it and they'll make it solely into a kid's show in America. It's a kid's show in Japan but they dont treat them like they're retards there who arent mature enough to see a character smoke or a little blood here and there.

Shonen Jump has become pretty marketable in the US now -- quite a number of the series' in it are including "Shonen Jump's" in their respective game logos. I know the Shaman King games have it in their title, etc. Even established brands such as Yu-gi-oh! also are doing it from now on.. hard to say if DBZ will or not. Certainly doesn't need to that's for sure, but it might be some sort of copyright thing from Shueisha where they'll be forced to.

I actually really hope the SJ name catches on. Then maybe it'll convince them to bring it out bi-weekly. That would kick ass. Even with some mild censorship, the SJ manga translations are, overall, a pretty good effort and for $5 a pop (non-subscriber), I'm not going to complain. They said they'd likely increase the release schedule to bi-weekly or even weekly if they could get enough subscribers. Or they might even add more series.

 

[bjork]

So it's not okay to smoke, but cutting up dudes with swords is cool? They better gize Zoro pink clothing or something and make Usopp a girl, or I'm calling bullshit on this.

Also:

They took out "You wanna be my friend?"... that was the best part!

 

[Belfast]

Lyric changes were to be expected, Engrish parts and all. You gotta make it flow well in English, too.

It remains to be seen, though, whether or not blood will be cut out completely. Zoro still has his swords, but whether or not he will actually make bleed....well, we'll see.

 

[bjork]

I actually really hope the SJ name catches on. Then maybe it'll convince them to bring it out bi-weekly. That would kick ass. Even with some mild censorship, the SJ manga translations are, overall, a pretty good effort and for $5 a pop (non-subscriber), I'm not going to complain. They said they'd likely increase the release schedule to bi-weekly or even weekly if they could get enough subscribers. Or they might even add more series.

IAWTP

I know customers in my store get impatient waiting for the next volume of a manga that's not in SJ, if they did weekly or bi-weekly, it'd be easier to appease these folks and still keep the people who want regular volumes happy as well. I buy SJ each month, but also pick up the OP volumes because I like the covers... and they're pirates... and BECAUSE I LIKE CANDYCANES...

 

[Bishman]

Looks odd.

Sigh...thanks 4kids for making one the the coolest character gay now.

 

[Bishman]

How is the Zoro fight where he loses all that blood, plus so much other things. Sad day for OP fans.

 

[Belfast]

Yeah, plus like all things involving One Piece, waiting for SJ makes story progression PAINFULLY slow. A year and a half and they're just starting to wrap up the Klahadore/Kuro Arc. :\

 

[Bishman]

We all need to join the FCC and change these gay rules.

 

[LusDekkar]

Looks odd.

They just put red stripes on his ciggy. Smoker is giong to be just one big candy cane.

 

[Chrono]

They just put red stripes on his ciggy. Smoker is giong to be just one big candy cane.

haha, it'd be funny (and blasphemous perhaps ) to see the bad-ass that is Smoker riding his bike while enjoying some lollypops!

 

[MetatronM]

I also don't like the actual lyric choices they made with this song. Forgetting the whole "You wanna be my friend" part for a second, the whole point of the song being "We Are!" is that the show is about the friendship and dynamic of the entire crew. The English version of the song, though, says stuff like "I'm gonna be the greatest pirate" and stuff like that, which makes it much more Luffy-centric. Not to mention that they end with "One Hope, One Dream, One Piece" which betrays the entire spirit of the show which is that all the crew members have their own hopes and dreams. Luffy is the only one that wants One Piece. Everybody else is in it for something else.

The whole song doesn't sound THAT bad, but I feel like even after just the intro, they've missed the entire point of the show already.