One Piece Units Sail For the UK and The BBC

One Piece fever has gripped the world particularly exhausting over the previous few years, and now that love is spreading throughout the pond to the UK.

Lately, the BBC picked up the rights to air 1,085 episodes of the hit anime based mostly on Eiichiro Oda’s equally massive manga. Episodes will hit the nework’s free iPlayer streaming service beginning September 1 (aka, right this moment) and launch the best way via the top of 2024. The large caveat is that solely the English dub shall be out there (sorry to any sub purists). Whereas BBC notes that is the one place UK audiences can legally watch the present, it doesn’t sound like there are plans to carry it over to correct tv just like the US does by way of Grownup Swim, and it’s additionally a query mark concerning the anime’s many, many movies launched through the years.

At time of writing, there’s round 1,120 episodes of One Piece, so principally the whole anime will hit BBC iPlayer. Extra particularly, UK viewers will get entry to the beginning “East Blue” arc and during “Land of Wano,” which wrapped in late 2023. Per Fiona Campbell, BBC Three’s Controller of Youth Audiences, securing the airing rights for the anime “[is] a extremely thrilling transfer. […] One Piece has turn into a cultural phenomenon and we’re so excited to see how the fanbase will take pleasure in this enormous canon of episodes out there in English solely on iPlayer.”

With over 1,000 episodes unfold throughout 4 months, UK viewers will loads of time to digest and be comparatively caught up on One Piece earlier than the 12 months goes out. In fact, if that feels like an excessive amount of of a hill to cross, there’s at all times Netflix’s live-action adaptation, whose second season is presently in manufacturing, and likewise The One Piece, Netflix’s different adaptation meant as a extra streamlined telling of the anime.

[via IGN]

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