One Piece in France

In France there is a huge difference in treatment between One Piece Anime and the Manga.

Edition
In France, the manga is edited by Glénat, a traditionnal editor of Bande Dessinée which has successfully diversified into Manga by obtaining the rights on major shonen such has Dragon Ball or Bleach (Naruto is edited by Kana, another big Manga editor).

Glénat has started the translation in 1997 and has nearly catched the Japan, since in the start of 2010, Volume 52 is released (Japan is at Volume 56 at that time). The success is there and One Piece is in the top 10 of the editor 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 (since learning foreign languages is not what young French does the best).

One of the most notable alteration concerns Usopp who is called Pipo (which is quite good since pipoter is basically what Usopp does all the time), is alias Roidutir for Sogeking is less fortunate since the japanese pun is obliterate by the literal translation (Sniper King)

One Piece animé in France
One piece Anime broadcast is much more chaotic. Indeed no major TV channel has acquired the rights and only a cable TV from AB group Mangas obtains the right on the 52 first episodes in 2003. However, after a disagreement, Toei stop the association with the French group.

Later with the development of the DTT (in 2005 in France), NT1 channel (also part of AB group) diffuses One Piece, but still only 52 episodes (Japan is at Episode 230 at that time).

The status change in April 2008, when Toei made a new agreement with another DTT channel Virgin 17 and Kana Home video for the DVD releases. In end 2009, 194 episodes are dubbed and 104 released in DVD.

Contrary to the Manga, the Character's name have been kept.