FUNimation Gets One Piece
4Kids Entertainment has been ousted from the English language version of One Piece. In an agreement between Cartoon Network, FUNimation, and Toei Animation, FUNimation will pick up where 4Kids Entertainment left off (at episode 143) and carry on through episode 205. There are no immediate plans for FUNimation to re-dub episodes 1-143, but FUNimation is determined to keep One Piece afloat on Cartoon Network.
In an AnimeOnline exclusive interview, FUNimation broke the happy news that they had acquired all rights to the One Piece anime and would be releasing the series with new voice-overs and allegedly less egregious edits. The 4Kids Entertainment dubbing and editing of the original anime had been a sore point for fans of the series since its U.S. debut in September of 2004. The series will continue under FUNimation with new episodes on Cartoon Network sometime in August.
In the meantime, Viz Media has released volume 8 of the edited anime wherein Nami's mysterious past is revealed. The Kids Entertainment version is still running on Cartoon Network in a weekday evening slot.