Eyecatchers

An eyecatcher is a scene or illustration used to begin and end a commercial break in a Japanese TV program, especially in anime and tokusatsu shows.

In One Piece, there are two eyecatchers in every episode, and each one shows one of the Straw Hat Pirates accompanied by a short excerpt of their respective themes.

First set of Eyecatchers
From Episode 1 to Episode 206 each eyecatcher showed an image of one of the Straw Hat Pirates on a wanted poster. We see the wanted poster flying in the wind, then stoping, allowing a clear view of the image. In the background, we see the other Straw Hat Pirates, but only the ones that already joined the crew. There is a different tune for each Straw Hat Pirate and Vivi.

Second set of Eyecatchers
From Episode 207 to Episode 516 a new set of eyecatchers aired. They still feature one of the Straw Hat Pirates with the same set of tunes for each one, but with a different animation. In each of them, we see a Straw Hat doing something he or she usually does through a telescope, which then pans to some items unique to the character. The items are often related to their role in the crew.

Third set of Eyecatchers
From Episode 517 onwards the eyecatchers have changed drastically. The eyecatchers have their own unique music, different from any music we heard in an eyecatcher before, and so far all of the eyecatchers have the same music.

This set is greatly different from the first two sets, which were fairly similar in presentation. The first two sets showed only one crew member per eyecatcher, but the third set showed all the Straw Hats in a single one. Another difference is that unlike the first two sets, this set is showing the Straw Hats post-timeskip. In addition to the personal eyecatchers, in this set we have, so far, another eyecatcher that represents the One Piece logo. Since its debut in Episode 535, it appeared in every episode as the second eyecatcher. It has the same music as the personal eyecatchers.

Special Eyecatchers
Aside from the regular sets of eyecatchers, there are a few special eyecatchers who appeared only once on special occasions. So far, we have only four special eyecatcher, one of them was in the Chopper Man's special episode and the other three are from another anime series, Dragon Ball Kai. It had three eyecatchers that included One Piece characters in it, interacting with another character from Dragon Ball Kai.

Trivia

 * In the first episode of the series, the two eyecatchers were Luffy's. However, the first eyecatcher had Zoro's background music, and not Luffy's.
 * The characters of One Piece get a personal eyecatcher only after they join the Straw Hat Pirates. For example, Brook, despite fighting alongside the Straw Hats for the entirety of the Thriller Bark Arc, has no eyecatcher until his official recruitment. Sanji is the exception, having an eyecatcher just two episodes after his initial appearance, long before joining the crew.
 * The images of the Straw Hats in the wanted posters from the first set of eyecatchers are different from the images on their actual wanted posters.
 * While Vivi was traveling with the Straw Hat crew, she had an eyecatcher of her own, where Vivi and Carue are shown on a wanted poster with their own unique theme music playing.
 * In Zoro's second eyecatcher, when his three swords were shown, his sword Yubashiri was one of them. Later on, when Yubashiri was destroyed and he got his next sword Shusui, the swords were changed in the eyecatcher to fit the story.
 * Episodes 207 to 241 showed only Luffy's new eyecatcher, but during some of them the theme of a Straw Hat other than Luffy's was playing.
 * Episode 517 to episode 532 showed only Luffy's new eyecatcher.

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Liste der Eyecatcher