On October 20, 2019, the One Piece animation celebrated its twentieth birthday. It happened to be Sunday, so episode 907 of the anime aired a special episode of romance dawn adapted from the original author Eiichiro Oda's short manga of the same name, as a souvenir.
Romance Dawn was originally published in Weekly Shonen JUMP in issue 41, 1996, and can be seen as one of the prototypes for One Piece. A year later, in 1997, One Piece officially landed on Weekly Shonen JUMP, embarking on a magnificent voyage. In 1999, "One Piece" officially announced animation, and the history of "One Piece" animation began immediately.
<h2 class="pgc-h-arrow-right">1999-2004</h2>
The preparations for the animated version of One Piece were actually in a hurry before they started. As a work that will be broadcast in October 1999, it was only decided in June that Konosuke Utada would be the director, and the production stages had not yet begun at this time. However, in the face of such a tight construction schedule, with the efforts of Utanosuke and other staff, the "One Piece" animation, a treasure hunting ship full of hope, finally set sail. On the evening of October 20, 1999, accompanied by the rousing singing of the theme song "We Are", the straw hat boy officially met all the audience with his trademark smile.
Once the "One Piece" anime was broadcast, it caused a strong response in Japan, and the ratings also showed a steady upward trend. After Luffy gathered four of his friends in the Tokai chapter, Sauron, Nami, Usopp, and Yamaji, and sailed into the Great Passage, Joba's debut of Magnetic Drum Island became the highest average rating in two decades with an average rating of 15.18.
The success of the Magnetic Drum Island chapter is inseparable from the touching story, as well as the excellent interpretation and cute character image of voice actor Yue Otani. Many years later, the original author Eiichiro Oda mentioned that due to the influence of the character design of Joba in the anime version, the image of Joba in the manga has become more and more cute. This can also prove once again that for the work of "One Piece", there is a strong complementarity between animation and manga.
After Joba became a crew member, the One Piece TV anime arrived in the desert country of Arabastan in late 2001 with the Meli. The Alabastan story tells the story of the Straw Hats who confront Klockdahl and the Baroque Society he founded, and eventually help Princess Vivi recover. This chapter, together with the subsequent empty island chapter and the judicial island chapter, has been regarded by many sea fans as "three classic chapters" and has been given a very high evaluation.
Although the Alabastan chapter revolves around Princess Vivi and Klockdahl, the appearance of Luffy's brother Ace is equally eye-catching. Unlike the manga, in the anime, Ace accompanies Luffy and his party on a desert journey. This change greatly increased Ace's role and made the character of Ace extremely popular among fans. Among them, the 95th episode of Ace and Luffy's encounter set the first place in the ratings of the "One Piece" animation episode with a rating of 19.1.
Eventually, when Luffy defeated Klockdahl, the fourth movement of Dvořák's Ninth Symphony, The New World, began, bringing the battle to an epic conclusion. Although Princess Vivi eventually gave up on her adventure with the Straw Hats, when she separated from the Straw Hats, the Straw Hats silently raised their arms, and the symbol of the companions shone in the sun.
After a three-month original chapter as a buffer, the TV version of the anime entered the empty island chapter in February 2003. A month later, the first full-length theatrical version of "Adventure at the End of Death", directed by Konosuke Uda himself, was released and won unanimous praise for its strong pirate style.
In the Empty Island chapter, the Straw Hats ride the earth-shattering waves, ignoring the wind and rain, and fearlessly marching all the way, while the land they embark on records the agreement between two men 400 years ago - this is the charm of adventure, this is the romance of "One Piece". When Luffy rang the golden bell, the loud and long bell resounded throughout the world.
After landing on the empty island, Luffy and his party mistakenly broke into the naval base called "G8 Branch", and the Battle of Wits between the Straw Hat Regiment and the Navy began. The original chapter of the G8 Naval Fortress anime, and derived from the theatrical version of the scrap. Although the G8 Naval Fortress chapter is not from the original, it has won wide acclaim for its wonderful storyline. Years later, the "G5 Branch" was introduced into the original manga, which shows that this original chapter also had an impact on the original author, Eiichiro Oda.
The G8 Naval Fortress episode ended in October 2004, and the One Piece anime was produced in 16:9 from episode 207, which aired on October 31 of the same year. It is also the first animation work produced by Fuji Television in high definition. With the change in the size of the animation screen, the cutscenes of the first and second half of the episode have also been renewed. However, HDTV was not widespread at the time, so there were still a large number of families who saw the 4:3 version with the sides cut off.
<h2 class="pgc-h-arrow-right">2005-2009</h2>
After the long-chain island chapter and the amnesia adaptation of the game "One Piece: Dream Ocean", the Justice Island chapter, including the Seven Waters Chapter, was officially launched in April 2005. On December 18 of the same year, the one-hour year-end special "The Legend of Luffy head catcher of the Straw Hat Kid" was broadcast as an external prime time. "The Legend of the HeadHunter" is a novella in the style of a period drama with a completely elevated worldview, and has since been broadcast in several sequels in the TV version of the anime.
The Island of Justice chapter is regarded by many sea fans as the peak of the "three chapters", which has produced countless stories of anger: under the order of the captain, the Sniper King burned the flag representing the world government; for the sake of partners, the Straw Hat gang chose to declare war on the world; in the face of the true call of the partners, Robin could no longer suppress the desire in his heart: "I want to live, please take me to the sea together!" ”
However, as time moved into the second half of 2006, the hidden concerns behind the One Piece animation gradually surfaced. From October 2006, the TV version of the anime retreated from prime time and was moved to Sunday morning slot. At the same time, the ending song was also cancelled with the movement of the schedule.
The movement of the schedule is a big blow to the "One Piece" animation, and the accompanying chain effect also brings a lot of regrets. The first director of the TV version of the anime, Konosuke Utada, officially left the One Piece animation as the schedule moved, and was succeeded by the director of a single episode who directed several classic episodes. However, the One Piece animation is rapidly revived under the leadership of Seki Munehisa, and the Island of Justice culminates with Luffy's final showdown with Rob Luke and the parting of the Straw Hats and the Advancing Mellie. As the prelude to "Dear Friends" sounds, snow falls in the sky, and the Straw Hats bid farewell to the Mellie that accompanied them all the way in this hazy snow...
After Luffy and his friends left the City of Seven Waters on the new ship, the Sonny, the One Piece anime entered the Flag Hunter chapter in late 2007, which was the last original chapter of the TV version of the anime to reach a length of three months. Subsequently, in order to warm up for the next theater, the "Joba Superman" with Joba as the home stadium was broadcast. In this episode, where the worldview is completely empty, Joba becomes the righteous superman, and Usopp becomes the evil Dr. Usodabad, bringing the audience a half-hour of joyful farce.
In the first week of 2008, the horror trigon chapter kicked off. In March of the same year, the theatrical version of "Miracle Cherry Blossoms Blooming in Winter" based on the Magnetic Drum Island chapter was also released in Japan. Oda took on the original case for the theatrical version and personally revised the storyline. Although the story of "Miracle Cherry" is based on the Magnetic Drum Island chapter, it adopts the parallel world mode of "what if". In this theatrical version, the Straw Hats' pirate ship has been upgraded to sonny, French and Robin have become members of the Straw Hats, and Princess Vivi has not appeared. In addition to the timeline changes, Eiichiro Oda also added a new enemy main character to the game.
Shortly after the release of Sakura of Miracles, the director of the TV version of the anime changed again, and one of the episode directors in the crew, Hiroaki Miyamoto, succeeded Seki Munehisa as the third director of the TV version of the "One Piece" anime, while Seki Munehisa was named by Oda as the director of the next theatrical version of "Strong World". "Strong World" is the first work in which Oda fully participated, and Oda served as the production director in this theatrical version, not only writing the script himself, but also playing a very important role in the early planning stage.
After ending the horror three-masted episode, the One Piece anime entered the Soap bubble islands chapter in 2009. In this chapter, "Supernova Eleven", Reilly, and Draco appear one after another, and the worldview of "One Piece" is further expanded. At the same time, the Straw Hat Regiment encountered an unprecedented crisis and was scattered around the world by the Seven Martial Sea "Tyrants" Big Bear, who had not yet revealed their true identity.
After luffy wandered to Daughter Island, he became acquainted with the "female emperor" Boya Hancock, and with Han Cook's help, he went to the undersea prison where Ace was imprisoned. Since then, the anime has officially entered the undersea prison chapter, which is October 2009. It is also in this chapter that the main tone of "One Piece" quietly changes and opens the climax of the first part of the work.
On December 12, 2009, the theatrical version of "World of The Strong" was released, which became another turning point in the work of "One Piece".
<h2 class="pgc-h-arrow-right">2010-2014</h2>
With the release of "World of Mighty", coupled with the magnificent unfolding of the original work, the popularity of "One Piece" has been pushed to an unprecedented peak. Sales of the original manga and tv version of the anime have risen sharply. And the ensuing chapter of the war on the top is a chapter that has made countless sea fans unforgettable. In this chapter, the forces of the Navy, the Seven Martial Seas, and the Four Emperors all appeared in an all-round way, and staged an earth-shattering pinnacle decisive battle. However, Luffy ultimately fails to rescue his brother, and Ace and Whitebeard die in this war...
On September 25, 2011, after the end of the War on top, the 12-year-long "Sea of Survival: Supernova Chapter" played the final word (episode 516), and the first part of the TV version of the One Piece anime officially ended. The following week, "The Last Sea: A New World" was launched, and the anime entered its second installment, which is called "Two Years Later." When Luffy and his friends regrouped in the Soap bubble islands after two years of cultivation, they were followed by the Fishman Island chapter that began in December 2011 and the Punk Hassard chapter that began in January 2013.
Starting on April 7, 2012, the "Special Edition" was broadcast on Fuji TV for a period of one year. This version has hd-defined animation from the 4:3 era and trimmed the picture with a 16:9 size as standard. The "Special Edition" achieved good ratings as soon as it was broadcast, further proving the high popularity of One Piece. Although this "special edition" only aired for one year, other 4:3 era anime series were later treated with the same high definition, and the processed version became the standard version of the first 206 episodes of overseas genuine animation.
On December 15 of the same year, the theatrical version of "The Strongest Enemy (Z)" was released in Japan. This is the second film in the "FILM" series, which Oda himself supervised, and is directed by Tatsuya Nagamina, who is both popular and powerful in Toei. The game portrays a tragic character known as the "Black Wrist" Zepha and is obsessed with naval power in the pirate world. In addition, the lively fight scenes of this work also make the audience feast their eyes. "The Strongest Enemy" eventually grossed 6.78 billion yen in Japan, a record that has not been broken to this day.
Unfortunately, although "The Strongest Enemy" was a hit in Japan with excellent quality, Chinese mainland fans did not have the opportunity to watch the work in the cinema. In fact, One Piece TV and theatrical version of the anime were not officially introduced to Chinese mainland at that time. However, a few months later, in May 2013, Sohu and Toei Animation jointly announced that the exclusive broadcast rights of the TV version of "One Piece" animation in Chinese mainland were acquired by Sohu, and the animated version of "One Piece" finally "settled" in Chinese mainland.
The two-and-a-half-year-long Dressrosa episode began in 2014, the year that also marks the 15th anniversary of the One Piece animation. As a souvenir, the two-hour special "3D2Y" aired in August. Unlike most of the summer 2-hour specials of the nature of the episode, the story of 3D2Y is completely original, and the image of the main local character was designed by Eiichiro Oda.
<h2 class="pgc-h-arrow-right">2015-2019</h2>
Following 3D2Y, the One Piece anime also aired two other original 2-hour specials during the Dressrosa episode. Among them, "Kirishima Adventure" was broadcast in December 2015 and directed by the original director of the anime, Konosuke Utada. The "Heart of Gold", which aired in July 2016, is a prequel to the theatrical version of "GOLD", and is directed by Tatsuya Nagaminata, the director of the theatrical version of "The Strongest Enemy".
Released in July 2016, Golden City is the third in the "FILM" trilogy, directed by Hiroaki, the third-generation director of the TV version of One Piece, and eventually grossed 5.18 billion yen in Japan.
The theatrical version of "Golden City" is also the first theatrical version of "One Piece" to be released in Chinese mainland. On November 11, 2016, "Golden City" was released in Chinese mainland, and received enthusiastic support from domestic fans, and broke the box office record of Japanese animation in the domestic zero point field with 31,000 people and 821,300 box office results on the day of release. In the end, "Golden City" successfully broke through 100 million yuan in China, and the total box office reached 107 million yuan. A year ago, in 2015, the cooperation between Sohu and Toei Animation expired, and the network exclusive broadcast rights of "One Piece" were acquired by iQiyi.
During the preparation of "Golden City", Hiroaki Miyamoto left the position of director of the TV version of the animation and handed over the baton to tosaki Fukazawa, the fourth generation director of the TV version of the animation. Under the leadership of Toshinobu Fukasawa, the Quality of the Cake Island episode, which has been broadcast since April 2017, has increased significantly from the previous chapters, and the TV version of the "One Piece" anime has also taken on a new look. It is particularly worth mentioning that Tu Yongce, who officially joined the crew of "One Piece" in April 2008, quickly became one of the core forces of the crew and participated in the production of a large number of important fight scenes.
The Cake Island chapter consists of two sub-chapters of Yamaji's return chapter and the Hell Tea Party chapter, of which Yamaji's return chapter focuses on Yamaji's life and his separation and reunion with the Straw Hat Regiment, while the highlight of the Hell Tea Party chapter is Luffy's battle with Katakuri, the second son of the Four Emperors' mother. At the beginning of 2019, Luffy's decisive battle with Katakuri "Snake Man Return" (episode 870) set off a very wide discussion with excellent quality. The total number of drawings in this episode exceeded 12,000, setting a record for the number of pictures in a single episode of all TV anime versions of Toei Animation. The original painting of the Chinese people, Tu Yongce, plays a very important role as one of the main original paintings in this episode.
After a long period of preparation, the One Piece anime officially entered the Wano Kuni chapter on July 7, 2019. From this chapter onwards, the "One Piece" animation has been renewed, not only has a number of main creative staff completed the handover of the old and new, but also the visual effects presented by the animation have been completely renewed. In the Kazuno kuni chapter, Tatsuya Nagamino, who had directed the theatrical version of "The Strongest Enemy", also formed a new generation of directing team with Kohino and Komaki Fumi, and many other aspects such as art and post-production also adopted a new style. In terms of picture style, according to the requirements of the original author, the picture effect of Wanokun is also more gorgeous.
A month after the release of the Japanese national chapter, the 20th anniversary of the anime "Stampede" was also released in Japan. Although the original author, Eiichiro Oda, was less involved in the "FILM" series than the three works in the "FILM" series, he still checked the work as a supervisor, and revealed some key information related to the ending of the original work in this game.
As soon as "Operation Mania" was released, it achieved a very high popularity and reputation in Japan. In the case that the promotion of this game in Japan is not as strong as the previous game, the Japanese domestic box office surpassed the previous game and "Strong World", becoming the second highest grossing work in Japan among all the theatrical versions of "One Piece".
Not only that, after the introduction of this work Chinese mainland, it has also achieved very good results. As the second theatrical version introduced to Chinese mainland, this game has received support from fans from all over the country, and as of December 2019, it has achieved a total box office revenue of 205 million yuan, significantly exceeding the previous game. Operation Mania eventually grossed 9.8 billion yen worldwide, making it the highest-grossing one Piece theatrical version in the world. And this achievement is inseparable from the support of all chinese fans.
In December 2019, the first act of the Wino kuni anime climaxed, with Luffy and Kaido facing each other for the first time. As a linkage, Tokyo Shibuya held a large-scale offline project called "Shibuya Kazunokoku Project". At the same time, the 20th anniversary special exhibition of animation that had landed in Macao, Taiwan and other places finally came to Chinese mainland, and the first stop was set in Dongguan.
< h2 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > epilogue</h2>
As a celebration of the twentieth anniversary of the "One Piece" animation, "Operation Mania" has more than 200 characters, including many original characters in the TV and theatrical versions of the anime. "We Are", "Memories" and several classic soundtracks also remind fans of the days when they first met this work.
In China, the vast majority of people who like or have liked One Piece have known the work through animation, and some may even have seen hundreds of words from Episode 1 all night. While they may have become a "comic party" or graduated from this work, that passionate experience will be an unforgettable memory.
The "One Piece" animation has gone through a 20-year ups and downs since its inception. These twenty years are inseparable from the excellent original story written by the original author Eiichiro Oda, the efforts of every staff member, and the support of every audience. In the future, the "One Piece" animation will continue to play an important role, and continue to improve on the existing basis, living up to every expectation of the audience.
Source: Weibo OP One Piece share