One Piece in France

One Piece is translated into many languages in many countries around the world. One such place is France.

Edition
In France, the manga is translated by Glénat, a traditional Bande dessinée (Franco-Belgian comic books) publisher which has successfully diversified into manga by obtaining the rights to major shonen such as Dragon Ball and Bleach (Naruto is edited by Kana, another big manga publisher.)

Glénat started the translation in 1997 and has nearly caught up to the Japanese release, releasing Volume 52 at the start of 2010 (Japan had released up to Volume 56 at that time). One Piece is now in the top 10 of the publisher sales and one of the most popular manga.

Alteration
As for every other country, character names and attacks have been changed so as to keep the puns or ease the understanding of the audience. Many character names also differ from the English version due to differences in romanizations (Alvida becomes Arbyda, Buggy becomes Baggy, etc.) Another reason names differ is that the name is translated rather than kept in the original Japanese.

One of the most notable alterations is the changing of Usopp to Pipo (from the word pipoter, meaning "to lie") His alias of Sogeking (meaning "king of snipers") is changed to Le Roi Dutir (pun on Le Roi Du Tir, meaning "king of shooting")


 * List of name changes

Characters
 * Alvida becomes Arbyda (romanization)
 * Lucky Roo becomes Lucky Loo (Roo is pronounced the same way as Roux which means... Red-head. Many fansub and scantrad refers to him as Lucky Roux)
 * Coby becomes Kobby (romanization)
 * Helmeppo becomes Hermep (romanization)
 * Axe-Hand Morgan becomes Morgan le bûcheron (meaning: Morgan the Lumberjack)
 * Roronoa Zoro becomes Zorro Roronoa
 * Sanji becomes Sandy (romanization)
 * Buggy the Clown becomes Baggy le Clown (romanization)
 * Mohji and Richie become Morge and Richy
 * Cabaji becomes Carnage
 * Usopp becomes Pipo (From "pipeau", meaning: lie). His alter-ego Sogeking becomes Le Roi Dutir (Meaning: King of Shooting)
 * Captain Kuro becomes Capitaine Crow
 * Siam and Buchi become Siam and Tigré (Tigré meaning tiger)
 * Don Krieg becomes Don Creek
 * Dracule Mihawk becomes Mihawk Delacure (romanization)
 * Gin becomes Gyn (romanization)
 * Chu becomes Smack (translation)
 * Hachi becomes Octo (translation)
 * Mohmoo becomes Meuh-Meuh (romanization)
 * Bellemere becomes Belmer (In order to prevent the pun from being too obvious for French readers)
 * Enel becomes Ener (romanization)
 * Gan Fall becomes Gan Forr (romanization)
 * Jaguar D. Saul becomes Haguar D. Sauro
 * Inuppe becomes Chiengouin (A combination of the words for dog (chien) and penguin (pingouin)). His name is changed to Clebs (a slang word for "dog") in the translation by Glénat
 * Oars becomes Odz
 * Keimi becomes Camie
 * Donquixote Doflamingo becomes Don Quichotte Doflamingo (translation, keeping the reference to Don Quixote)
 * Whitebeard becomes Barbe Blanche (translation)
 * Blackbeard becomes Barbe Noire (translation)
 * Akainu, Aokiji, and Kizaru become Aka Inu, Ao Kiji, and Ki Saru (romanization)
 * In the French Anime, Sogeking is called Sniperking

Places and things
 * The Pirate King becomes "Le Seigneur des pirates" (meaning: The Lord of Pirates)
 * The Grand Line becomes "La route de tous les périls" (meaning: The Road Of All Perils)
 * Raftel becomes Rough-Tell (romanization)
 * Haki becomes Fluide (meaning: fluid)
 * Going Merry becomes Vogue Merry
 * The Shichibukai become "Les Capitaines Corsaires" (meaning: The Corsair Captains)
 * Skypeia's Priests become "Les Quatres Grands Prélats de Skypiea" (meaning: The Four Great Prelates of Skypiea)
 * Blugori becomes "Blue Gorille" (meaning: Blue Gorilla)

One Piece animé in France
In France, the One Piece Anime is much less popular. Only a cable TV channel from the AB Group Mangas obtained the rights to the first 52 episodes in 2003. However, after a disagreement, Toei canceled their association with AB.

Later with the development of the DTT (in 2005 in France), NT1 channel (also part of AB group) aired One Piece, but it only aired the episodes dubbed by AB.

In April 2008, Toei made a new agreement with another DTT channel Virgin 17 and Kana Home video for the DVD releases. As of 2012, 504 episodes are dubbed and 264 released on DVD.

Unlike in the manga, many of the character names have been kept, although in the AB dub, Zoro's name was changed to Zoko.

Episodes
As of Feb 2012, epsiodes 1-504 have been aired in Belgium via MCM Belgique and 504 episodes have been aired on TV in France via Direct Star (used to be known as Virgin 17 until 2010). Episodes 1-264 have also been released on DVD in 20 volumes or "Digi-Packs". Episodes 1-217 were released and aired on TV in 4:3 formot (though Epiosdes 207-217 were made in 16:9) and epsiodes 218+ have been released/aired in 16:9 format. Below are the DVD releases and the corresponding epsiodes that are on them.