One Piece fever has gripped the world especially hard over the past few years, and now that love is spreading across the pond to the UK.
Recently, the BBC picked up the rights to air 1,085 episodes of the hit anime based on Eiichiro Oda’s equally big manga. Episodes will hit the nework’s free iPlayer streaming service starting September 1 (aka, today) and release the way through the end of 2024. The big caveat is that only the English dub will be available (sorry to any sub purists). While BBC notes this is the only place UK audiences can legally watch the show, it doesn’t sound like there are plans to bring it over to proper television like the US does via Adult Swim, and it’s also a question mark about the anime’s many, many movies released over the years.
At time of writing, there’s around 1,120 episodes of One Piece, so basically the entire anime will hit BBC iPlayer. More specifically, UK viewers will get access to the starting “East Blue” arc and all the way through “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 really exciting move. […] 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.”
With over 1,000 episodes spread across four months, UK viewers will plenty of time to digest and be relatively caught up on One Piece before the year goes out. Of course, if that sounds like too much of a hill to cross, there’s always Netflix’s live-action adaptation, whose second season is currently in production, and also The One Piece, Netflix’s other adaptation meant as a more streamlined telling of the anime.
[via IGN]
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