One Piece Units Sail For the UK and The BBC

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

Just lately, 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, in the present day) and launch the way in which by means of the tip of 2024. The massive caveat is that solely the English dub will probably 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 over time.

At time of writing, there’s round 1,120 episodes of One Piece, so mainly the whole 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 turn out to be 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. 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 the moment in manufacturing, and in addition The One Piece, Netflix’s different adaptation meant as a extra streamlined telling of the anime.

[via IGN]

Need extra io9 information? Try when to anticipate the newest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what’s subsequent for the DC Universe on film and TV, and every little thing you should learn about the way forward for Doctor Who.