The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) has announced that it has acquired the UK rights to 1083 English-dubbed episodes of the popular anime series One Piece. The licensing rights span the sagas of East Blue, Land of Wano, Alabasta, Sky Island – Skypiea, Water Seven, Thriller Bark, Summit War, Fishman Island, Dressrosa, and Whole Cake Island.
All of the episodes from these sagas will be released between September and December this year, and will be available on the BBC iPlayer. The first three sagas (East Blue, Alabasta and Skypiea) will have all of their 206 episodes premiere on BBC’s video on demand service.
It’s a really exciting move to bring the One Piece franchise to UK audiences in the coming months. With its captivating storytelling, rich characters and global fanbase, One Piece has become a cultural phenomenon and we’re so excited to see how the fanbase will enjoy this huge canon of episodes available in English only on iPlayer.
Statement from Fiona Campbell, Controller of Youth Audiences, iPlayer and BBC Three
This is not the first time BBC has welcomed anime to its streaming service. Earlier this year, BBC iPlayer launched a 24/7 dedicated channel for Pokémon, while Pokémon Horizons: The Series was also made available on iPlayer as well as on BBC’s dedicated children channel CBBC in December 2023. Moreover, the network also acquired the rights to Studio Ghibli’s CGI film Ronja, the Robber’s Daughter for its other children channel CBeebies in 2022.
It is worth noting that BBC also released a “gag dub” of two episodes of the original 1981 Urusei Yatsura series (retitled as Lum the Invader Girl for UK audiences) as part of BBC’s Japan TV Weekend in August 2000.
One Piece‘s upcoming episode, the 1117th one, will air on September 1 and have Sabo reveal the truth about what happened at Mary Geoise. The upcoming episode is titled “Sabo Returns – The Shocking Truth to Be Told” and it also marks the end of the series’ 1-week break, which featured a Revolutionary Army recap episode on August 25.
Source: BBC Press Release
© 2024 BBC, © Eiichiro Oda / Shueisha, Toei Animation
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