One Piece Units Sail For the UK and The BBC

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

Not too long ago, the BBC picked up the rights to air 1,085 episodes of the hit anime based mostly on Eiichiro Oda’s equally large manga. Episodes will hit the nework’s free iPlayer streaming service beginning September 1 (aka, immediately) and launch the best way by way of the tip of 2024. The massive caveat is that solely the English dub shall be accessible (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 deliver it over to correct tv just like the US does through Grownup Swim, and it’s additionally a query mark concerning the anime’s many, many movies launched over time.

At time of writing, there’s round 1,120 episodes of One Piece, so principally your entire anime will hit BBC iPlayer. Extra particularly, UK viewers will get entry to the beginning “East Blue” arc and throughout “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 change into a cultural phenomenon and we’re so excited to see how the fanbase will get pleasure from this enormous canon of episodes accessible 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. After all, 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 at present 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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