Summary
- One Piece’s English dub has infamously been plagued with issues over the years.
- That’s changed recently, though, with the English anime picking up the pace considerably.
- As of the latest episodes in the Egghead arc, One Piece’s dub has finally caught up to the Japanese version for the first time.
After nearly two whole decades, the English dub of the One Piece anime has finally caught up to the Japanese version, prompting a heartfelt celebration message from the Wano and Egghead arc’s voice director.
It pains me to say it as a diehard fan of Dragon Ball and Naruto, but One Piece is without a doubt the biggest manga in the world. Its influence, reach, and sales numbers are immeasurable and that’s before you take into account its excellent art, storytelling, characters, and action. All of that can also be said of the similar massive anime adaptation.
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As great as the anime is, though, it’s fair to say it does have some problems. The filler feel of recent arcs is one thing, but the biggest and most obvious of them all is the many issues that the English dub has faced. The problems began with the first dub from 4Kids Entertainment which butchered the plot and aimed to be kid-friendly, eventually resulting in it being cancelled.
One Piece’s English Dub Is Finally All Caught Up With The JP Release
Toei eventually handed One Piece’s English dub over to Funimation (who also handled Dragon Ball), who started premiering the new episodes in 2007. For a good while, those English dubbed episodes were released fairly slowly, with rumours that the dub was cancelled even popping up due to the glacial speed.
In recent years that pace has quickened rather dramatically, with the English dub even managing to reach Luffy’s Gear 5 transformation not too long after the Japanese debut. That milestone has now been cemented, as the One Piece English dub has officially caught up to the exact same place as the Japanese version for the first time ever, something that’s been in the making for nearly 20 years.
It has been one of the biggest honors of my life to spend the last three years sailing towards this milestone with everyone. – Emily Fajardo
The news was confirmed and celebrated by the English voice director for One Piece’s Wano and Egghead arcs, Emily Fajardo, who shared a heartfelt message about the moment. In her message, Fajardo noted that it took “nearly 1,500 actors and crew members” for the anime to catch up, and that the team is excited about moving onto Laugh Tale in the not-so-distant future.
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