One Piece in South Korea

One Piece (원피스) premiered in South Korea in May 2003 on the channel KBS 2. As like many other Japanese animations in Korea, the dub was edited for content to air on children's TV (One Piece received a "12" rating for these airing on KBS 2). As a result, most, excessive violence and anything deemed unacceptable for children and almost any element of Japanese culture was edited from the dub. This includes Sanji's cigarette becoming a lollipop, Zoro's swords (and another sharp implement) colored in black and dulled, Japanese text changed to Korean, and cleavage being erased and covered up (see more examples below).

However, an uncut version of the Korean dub ran simultaneously to the edited version on another popular children's Channel called Champ TV (these airing were rated "15"). The dub ran for four years (May 2003 - May 2007) and for six "seasons" (each comprised from 30-52 episodes each) up to episode 219, where the dub abruptly stopped. It wasn't until 2009 when another popular animation channel called Tooniverse picked up the dub and began airing the edited version from episode 1. In January 2010, it was announced that One Piece 7 (season 7) would be airing on Tooniverse in February 2010 from episode 220. This season featured the same cast as the previous seasons (except Chopper's voice actor was replaced) and featured less censorship (Sanji still has a lollipop and blood is erased, but few Japanese texts are changed to Korean and sharp implements are no longer colored black). The first ten One Piece movies (up to Strong World) have been dubbed into Korean with minimal censorship and have been broadcast on Tooniverse.

When Tooniverse dubbed Water Seven, Daewon Broadcasting, a South Korean broadcaster, began dubbing the dress from episode 1. Despite it being a more censored version, Tooniverse eventually gave up the copyright of the original One Piece, and Daewon Broadcasting is still broadcasting.

As of January of 2022, 1044 episodes have been dubbed in Korean.

The manga has been serialized since 1998. As of January 31, 2022, Volume 104 has released.

In North Korea, One Piece wasn't released there due to laws that prohibits foreign programming (mostly Western) from airing there.

Edits/Censorship (KBS Version)

 * All text is changed into Korean.
 * Sanji's cigarette is a lollipop.
 * Impacts and violence are occasionally whited out.
 * Clevage is either covered up or erased.
 * All blood is erased.
 * Any Insert songs (such as Family) are replaced with instrumental versions of the opening or ending.

Openings and Endings

 * Korean Opening 1 Entitled "Our Dream" (used in seasons 1-3)
 * Korean Opening 1 Entitled "Our Dream" (used in seasons 4-6)
 * Korean Opening 2 Entitled "Because of a Dream" (used in season 7)
 * Korean Ending 1 Entitled "Me to You" (used in seasons 1-3)
 * Korean Ending 1 Entitled "Me to You" (used in seasons 4-6)
 * Korean Ending 2 Entitled "To the Ends of the Earth" (used in season 7)
 * Korean Opening 1 Entitled "Our Dream" (used in uncut Champ Version for Season 3)

Trivia

 * Due to the 2019 Japan-South Korea trade dispute, One Piece: Stampede wasn't released in South Korea. However, it was later confirmed to release on February 13, 2020, and aired on Anibox (a Korean anime channel) on July 3 of the same year.

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