One Piece in Germany

The German version of One Piece was broadcasted by RTL II up to Episode 314 and from Episode 315 on the series is continued by Tele 5. Because in Central Europe, One Piece is broadcast in the German version only, many Czech & Slovakian fans know characters out of this anime by their German names.

Germany
One Piece began being published in Germany in the magazine Banzai!" which was a collaboration of Carlsen Manga and Shueisha to publish manga on a monthly base back in 2001. Furthermore, Carlsen began publishing One Piece in Volumes as well. The television anime series started airing on April 22nd, 2003 on RTL II with a German dub.

Alterations
From the beginning of the manga publication the German version had some alterations as name changes or filling text for shouted attack names, and errors such as wrong bounties.

Name changes
The names of the characters can differ from their original form, thus being the source of utter confusion from fans of the dubbed versions.

At times these are mere translations of the Japanese meaning. Yet a number of names can cause confusion, as some of them are extremly different to their Japanese counterparts. As a result, there are many German fans who are unable to recognize the characters by their English or even their Japanese names.''

Character Name Changes

 * Note:Several of these names are mere translations of their Japanese meaning (marked "T"). A few others are based on the lack of an l sound in Japanese writing.


 * Monkey D. Luffy is called Monkey D. Ruffy.
 * Roronoa Zoro's name was changed to "Lorenor Zorro".
 * Usopp's name is changed to "Lysop" (the "Ly" being based upon "lie" or the German equivalent "Lüge", to make the meaning of Usopp's name more obvious).
 * Lucky Roo's name is changed to "Lucky Lou".
 * Jango's name is changed to "Jacko".
 * Captain Kuro's is changed to "Captain Black".(T)
 * Don Krieg's name is changed to "Don Creek" (Probably another way to write "Don Kuriku ".)
 * Zeff's name is changed to "Jeff".
 * Merry's name is changed to "Lämmchen" (German for "little lamb" or "lambkin").
 * Chew is called "Kiss". Since there exists the word "chu" (which is an onomatopoeic kissing-noise and what fans often believe his name is) in Japanese, they most likely translated it as a Japanese name unaware his name was spelt in English as "Chew" by Oda.(T)
 * Hatchan's name is translated to "Octa".
 * Kuroobi is called "Schwarzgurt". (T)
 * Miss Valentine is called "Miss Halloween" (confusingly, Miss Father's Day is called "Miss Valentine" in the Manga, but not the Anime)
 * Nico Robin as Miss All-Sunday is called "Miss Bloody-Sunday"
 * Portgas D. Ace's name is changed to "Puma D. Ace".
 * Commodore Purin-Purin's name is changed to "Puddingknie". ("Pudding" is pudding, "knie" means knee, together they mean an easily frightened person as his legs will wobble)(T)
 * Captain Nezumi's name is changed to "Ratte" (Rat).(T)
 * Hiluruk's name is changed to "Doc Bader". ("Bader" is a medieval term for a barber who acts as an unlearned doctor)
 * Bon Clay's name is called "Bon Curry" (probably another way to write "Bon Kurei").
 * Pell's name is changed to "Peruh".
 * Eyelashes is called "Wimper".(T)
 * Scissors is called "Schere".(T)
 * Dorry is called "Woogey".
 * Brogy is called "Boogey".
 * Montblanc Norland's name is changed to "Maron Noland".
 * Montblanc Cricket's name is changed to "Maron Cricket".
 * Eneru is translated to "Enel" (like the Japanese pronunciation).
 * Wiper is called "Viper".
 * Kamakiri is called "Fangschrecke" (German for Mantis.) (T)
 * Ohm is called "Aum".
 * Kaku's name is translated to "Ecki". (Ecke means corner) (T)
 * Fukurou is called "Eule" (German for owl) (T)
 * Kokoro's name is translated to "Cocolo".
 * Aokiji's name is translated to "Blaufasan" or "Blauer Fasan" (German for blue pheasant) (T)
 * Kizaru's name is translated to "Gelber Affe" (German for yellow monkey). As of Volume 52, he is called Kizaru. (T)
 * Akainu's name is translated to "Roter Hund" (German for red dog). (T)
 * Tsuru's name is translated to "Kranich" (German for crane). (T)
 * Dracule Mihawk is translated to "Mihawk Dulacre". His epithet is called "Falkenauge" (Hawkeye). (T)
 * Bartholomew Kuma is translated to "Bartholomäus Bär" ("Bär" means bear) (T)
 * Donquixote Doflamingo is translated to Don Quchiotte de Flamingo.
 * Clover's name is translated Dr. Kleeblatt (German for clover) (T)
 * Van Auger's name is translated to "Wan Oger".
 * Lafitte's name is translated to "Raffit".
 * Jesus Burgess's name is translated to "Jesus Barges".
 * Sarquiss's name is changed to "Cirkies".
 * Peepley Lulu's name is changed to "Louie-Louie".
 * Iceburg's name is changed to "Eisberg" (German for iceberg).
 * Mikazuki's name is changed to "Mondsichel" (German for crescent. Mond = moon, Sichel = sickle). (T)
 * Itomimizu's name is changed to "Wurm" (German for worm).
 * Kapoty's name is changed to "Capote".
 * Tamanegi's name is translated to "Zwiebel" (German for onion.) (T)
 * Ninjin's name is translated to "Möhre" (German for carrot). (T)
 * Piiman's name is translated to "Paprika" (German for pepper). (T)
 * Inuppe's name is translated to "Hunduin" (compound of two names "Hund" and "Pinguin" (German for "Dog" and "Penguin")
 * Going Merry's name is changed to "Flying Lamb".
 * Laboon's name is changed to "La Boum"

Places

 * Luffy's hometown is called Windmühlendorf instead of Fuschia
 * Nami's hometown is named "Cocos" in this version.
 * The name of Raftel is changed to "Unicon".

Other

 * The name of the Shichibukai is changed to "Die Sieben Samurai der Meere" ("The Seven Samurai of the Sea")
 * The name of "Mantra", a prominent part of the Skypiea arc, is changed to "Mantora"
 * The Rokushiki techniques are called Formel 6 in the manga, but the anime keeps the original name. (T)
 * The Geppou technique is translated to the English word "moonwalk". (T)
 * The Galley-La is changed to "Galeera".
 * The Den Den Mushi is called Teleschnecke (Tele as in Telephone and Schnecke is Snail in German), therefore specialized Den Den Mushis are called Abhörschnecke (Black Den Den Mushi)

Translation errors

 * Aokiji was called being a Konteradmiral in the German dub of episode 226 which is the Shōshō rank in the Japanese version.

Edits
Like the English dub, the German dub received much editing to remove blood, although edits are not as huge as the English dub and blood is left in usually when it is important to the storyline.

Sound
All intros (except intro 2, "Believe") were left in and mostly unaltered. However as standard with anime dubbed in Germany, the lyrics were resung by a German voice group (although the first opening "We Are" received completely different music).

Cuts
Unlike the 4Kids dub, the German dub did not undergo such heavy cuts to the series. All episodes cut from the series are present in the German dub. However many episodes have a few seconds cut from it (normally from fight scenes).

263 to 314
Following the dubbing of episode 263 to 314, the series shifted to being more heavily changed - The word "death" is now never said and dialogue is made harmless, to appeal to children, which was even tested in an episode of "Pokito TV".

Edits include:

1-The Just Eleven Jurymen "serve their sentence on Enies Lobby" and call everyone guilty because they want them to "make them company".

2-Olvia is not the only survivor of her ship, the scene with the blood on her forehead is cut.

3-In a scene showing her dead friends, Olivia claims they're just "tired" (quite cynical considering that they are obviously dead...)

4-When Sogeking shoots the World Government flag, the soldiers say they are mean, and that it makes them sad to have their "pretty flag" shot.

5-The people of Ohara don't say that the World Government is going to kill them. They say they'll "get a roasting".

315 Onwards
With episode 315 the premiere of new episodes was shifted to Tele5, another German TV Station. Other than RTL2 before Tele5 brought the German dub back to its original form.

That means:

1-No dialogue censorship like in the episodes 263 to 314.

2-Less scene cuts (in flashbacks many scenes are present which were cut on previous episodes like Luffy's fight against Laboon in episode 63).

3-The word "death" is again allowed to be said. However, it is sometimes switched with a different word, but it keeps the same meaning. In story relevant dialogues, the word "death" is used and in general, the word is often used.

Criticism

 * Several people have stated their disagreement with the heavy cuts in the fight of Luffy and Crocodile, particularly at the final moment, when Luffy is pummeling Crocodile with a series of attacks that make the ground tremble (the fight takes place in an underground royal necropolis). However, in the German dub, the ground is seen trembling without a given reason.
 * Also, scenes like Luffy punching Crocodile in the face or Crocodile spitting blood were removed as well.
 * Some fans feel that the cuts might actually downplay the consequences of violence, which contradicts the cuts' intention.

Trivia

 * The airing of One Piece has had many changes:
 * having a double episode block changed to a normal one episode,
 * dubbing the Rainbow mist arc only into the half, then ceasing to broadcast the show and re-starting it again, this time, however, without even reaching this arc.
 * One Piece won the Sondermann Prize in 2005, 2008 and 2009 (always in the category "best Manga/Manhwa international"). [de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sondermann_(Cartoon)]

Links

 * German page about cuts in the German anime version