One Piece in Germany

In Germany, the One Piece manga is published by Carlsen Manga. Since the release of the first volume in January 2001, 108 volumes have been released, with the release of Volume 108 on April 1, 2025.

The anime series first premiered in 2003 on RTL II, Tele 5 in 2008, Animax Germany in 2009, and the MTV-owned VIVA (as of November 2011). Currently, One Piece airs on ProSieben MAXX. As of February 2025, a total of 1100 episodes have been aired on German television. No new episodes have been announced at this time.

The OVAs and most of the specials up to the earlier installments of Boss Luffy Historical Special, had been left unnoticed for television broadcast and home video. There were early plans for a DVD release of the TV show by polyband, but were dropped after the first DVD was already announced. From February 2011 onwards, German anime DVD publisher Kazé Germany had announced to be releasing all ten One Piece movies. In January 2012, Kazé announced that they had acquired the license to release the first 195 episodes on DVD. In addition, Kazé Germany announced the release of Episode 1000 on home video.

As a result of Germany being the only country in Central Europe to air the One Piece anime, many Czech and Slovakian fans recognize and associate the characters by their German names.

History

2001-2013

One Piece began publication back in 2001 in the magazine Banzai!. Part of a former collaboration between Carlsen Manga and Shueisha to publish manga on a monthly schedule. Carlsen also began publishing One Piece in volumes around that time period.

The anime series began airing with a German dub on April 22, 2003, on RTL II. In 2008, Tele 5 began airing the show as well. The pay-television station Animax Germany also began airing One Piece. However many of the earlier episodes that were censored on RTL II and Tele 5 were presented uncut.

RTL II stopped airing new episodes after Episode 314, with it being broadcast on May 28th, 2008. From that point on, Tele 5 finished airing the next batch of licensed episodes, ending with Episode 400 on March 5th, 2010. The series wouldn't be renewed for more episodes at the time. At the end of March 2010, RTL II would stop airing One Piece entirely, followed by both Tele 5 and Animax in late 2011. In September 2011, the MTV-owned channel VIVA picked up the rights and aired another rerun for the next few years; first of episodes 1-143, and later the remaining episodes up until 400.

In June of 2013, PPA Film, the studio responsible for producing the German Dub of One Piece until then, was announced to have entered insolvency, and as such, was unavailable for future endeavors such as the eleventh movie.

2013-onward

In September of 2013, the then newly formed TV station ProSieben MAXX first started with reruns of episodes 1-100 before continuing with episode 101 in April of 2014. They also stated that new episodes would be airing in September 2014. To promote the new season, ProSieben MAXX aired episodes 401 and 402 on April 21, 2014, as a preview. The preview was riddled with technical difficulties during the broadcast, though the episodes were available error-free online for some days. The broadcast of the season began formally on September 11th, 2014, and ended with Episode 456 on December 18. ProSieben MAXX would keep renewing the show for more seasons, re-airing older episodes in the meantime.

As of 2024, the dub has since shown all of Wano Country Arc. Additionally, the streaming service Crunchyroll offers all available episodes of the anime with German subtitles as of January 2022; WAKANIM was only allowed to simulcast new episodes since the Whole Cake Island Arc and only the day after Crunchyroll released the latest episode but stopped due to the merge into Crunchyroll around the airing of Episode 1012.

Due to the acquisition of Kazé by Crunchyroll, the series' Box 30 (Episode 878 onwards), the HD upgrade of Box 1, and onwards were released under the Crunchyroll banner.

Alterations and Censorship

From the beginning of the manga publication, the German version had some alterations, such as alternate volume covers (almost all having a blue background and a changed logo), name changes, or filling text for shouted attack names, and errors such as incorrectly listed bounties. Name changes are also edited onto Wanted posters, though it occasionally goes unaltered. Such as when Luffy's first wanted poster clearly reads his name as "Monkey D. Luffy".

As with the addition of name changes, most of the onomatopoeia for sound effects is visually edited out, drawn over, and replaced with German onomatopoeia instead.

Censorship

While the Manga is left uncensored in both dialogue and images, the only exception is found in Volume 18, where the swastika on Ace's back tattoo was erased, leaving only Whitebeard's face.

The anime is censored, though to much lighter degree. Unlike the 4Kids TV dub, the RTL II version started with minor cuts to leave out scenes mainly showing humans getting punched, so many episodes weren't censored. Compared to the 4Kids dub, the German version was much more lenient on censorship.

As the story continued and more episodes were licensed, there were more scenes RTL II toned down. After the network station licensed Naruto in partnership with Panini, and once the story got to the Water 7 arc, dialogue became more censored. Anything pertaining to "sterben" (dying) and "Tod" (death) was softened to people being "verschwunden" (vanished) or that people "einen auf den Deckel bekommen" (get a roasting).

When the airing channel of new episodes changed from RTL2 to Tele 5, the dub became mostly unaltered, with only scenes which showed people getting hurt/injured were cut out of the episodes.

VIVA and ProSieben Maxx showed the previously dubbed episodes in their uncut form (1 - 400), while the latter airs newly dubbed episodes completely uncut.

Name changes

Peepley Lulu's introduction as an example of Carlsen's renaming, with a closer translation of his name added upon re-release.(Note the "don" also having been visually altered to German onomatopoeia)

Name changes often occurred in the Manga due to complications with the transliteration of the Katakana ン which can be interpreted as m instead of a n. Most inconsistencies occured due to lack of official romanizations from from Eiichiro Oda during the period when the manga was first brought to Germany. In the German translation, many occasions of the official names transliterated into Latin script are also visually edited to retroactively fit the previously altered names. Since the German dub of the anime primarily references the German version of the manga, most of the name changes are placed in dialogue. Episode titles and scenes showing names on signs and Wanted posters remained unedited.

The names of many characters eventually differ from the Japanese version either by a distinctive spelling in the German manga, a complete name change, or by incorrect pronounciation in the German dub version of the anime. In some re-releases of volumes, characters are still referred to by their changed names, but the character's introduction box may provide the original name.

While most of these were transliterations of the Japanese name into English, a number of names caused confusions among readers, as some are extremely different to their Japanese counterparts. As a result, there are several German fans who are unable to recognize the characters by their English or even their Japanese names.

However, many errors still occurred, especially with Marine ranks, when translating the series into German.

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".
  • Due to this, his alias as gladiator in the Corrida Colosseum was changed to "Ruby".
• 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 Roux's name is changed to "Lucky Lou".
• Jango's name is changed to "Jacko".
• Kuro's name is changed to "Captain Black". (T) His alias Klahadore is changed to "Beauregard".
• Don Krieg's name is changed to "Don Creek" (Probably another way to write "Don Kuriku" or an attempt to avoid the mention of war or "Krieg" in German).
• 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", and "Okta" from Vol. 50 onwards.
• Kuroobi is called "Schwarzgurt". (German for "black belt") (T)
• Nico Robin as Miss All-Sunday is called "Miss Bloody-Sunday".
• Portgas D. Ace's name is changed to "Puma D. Ace".
• Portgas D. Rouge's name is changed to "Puma D. Rouge".
• Pudding Pudding'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". (T)
• Hiriluk's name is changed to "Doc Bader". ("Bader" is a medieval term for a barber who acts as an unlearned doctor)
• Bon Kurei's name is called "Bon Curry" (probably another way to write "Bon Kurei").
• Pell's name is changed to "Peruh".
• Matsuge is called "Wimper". (T)
• Hasami is called "Schere". (T)
• Tony Tony Chopper's name is shortened to simply "Tony Chopper".
• Dorry is called "Woogey".
• Brogy is called "Boogey".
• Galdino is spelled as "Gal Dino" in the manga.
• Mont Blanc Noland's name is changed to "Maron Noland".
• Mont Blanc Cricket's name is changed to "Maron Cricket".
• Wyper is called "Viper".
• Kamakiri is called "Fangschrecke" (German for "mantis"). (T)
• Ohm is called "Aum".
• Nefertari Vivi is called "Nefeltari Vivi".
• Nefertari Cobra is called "Nefeltari Cobra".
• Oars is renamed as "Oz".
• Little Oars Jr. is changed to "Little Oz Jr.".
• World Nobles are called "Tenryubito" in the manga, however in the anime they're called both "Weltaristokraten" (German for World Nobles) (T) and "Himmelsdrachenmenschen" (Literally meaning of "Tenryubito" translated into german). (T)
• Kaku's name is translated to "Ecki". ("Ecke" means "corner", also a common nickname for people named "Eckhard" in Germany) (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 Quichotte de Flamingo".
• Clover's name is translated "Dr. Kleeblatt" (German for "clover"). (T)
• Van Augur's name is translated to "Wan Oger".
• Laffitte'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").
• Franky's name is changed to "Frankie" (except in the dub).
• Mikazuki's name is changed to "Mondsichel" (German for "crescent moon"). (T)
• Itomimizu's name is changed to "Wurm" (German for "worm").
• 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").
• Kumashi is changed to "Bärsy". (compound of "Bär" is german for kuma and "-sy" which can be translated as the japanese term "-chan" here)
• The Going Merry's name is changed to "Flying Lamb", by the crew members also nicknamed as "Lämmchen." (Likely to fit with Merry's name as seen above, or vice-versa)
• Laboon's name is changed to "La Boum".
• Very Good is named "Berry Good".
• Heracles is called "Herakles", sometimes as "Heraklesn" due to his habit of putting a 'n' on the end of names and subjectives in the german manga.
• Daz Bonez's name is changed to "Jazz Boner".
• Jaguar D. Saul is named "Hagwar D. Sauro", in the flashback of Nico Robin's childhood he's just called "Sauro".
• Jean Bart's name is changed to "Janbar".
• Banchi's name is changed to "Ramirez".
• Caesar Clown is named "Caesar Crown".
• Vinsmoke Judge is named "Jajji Vinsmoke" (for the whole family, Vinsmoke comes at the end except in the dub)

Places

• Luffy's hometown is called "Windmühlendorf" ("Windmill Village") instead of Foosha.
• Nami's hometown is named "Cocos" in this version.
• The name of Laugh Tale is changed to "Unicon" for unknown editorial reasons. With Volume 96, "Laugh Tale" was also adopted in German, but "Unicon" has still been used in the dub of One Piece: Stampede for continuity as volume 96 wasn't translated until months later, even though the island's name is visible on the Eternal Pose and the island's name origin was revealed in Japan. The dub was made circa or more than one year before the German release of Volume 96 and premiered after the name origin was revealed in Japan.
• Holy Land Mary Geoise is called "Heilige Stadt Mary Joa" ("Heilige Stadt" means "Holy city/town/place", "Mary Joa" because of his Japanese name in katakana).
• Elbaph is renamed to "Elban".

Other

• The name of the Seven Warlords of the Sea is changed to "Die sieben Samurai der Meere" ("The Seven Samurai of the Sea"), based on the illustration of the Warlords as swordfighters in Yosaku's explanation.
• The Galley-La is changed to "Galeera".
• The Den Den Mushi is called "Telefonschnecke" as it first appeared in the story, later called "Teleschnecke" ("Tele" as in "telephone" and "Schnecke" is "snail" in German). Black Den Den Mushis are called "Abhörschnecke" (literally "intercepting snail").
• All Devil Fruits are named by the German translated meaning.
• Characters epithets are also translated into their meaning in German.
• The SBS corner of the manga is renamed to FPS ("Fanpostseite" means "Fan mail page")

Rokushiki

• The Rokushiki techniques are called "Formel 6" in the manga and anime. (T)
  • However, in the german translated version of the official Databooks and in the manga since the Punk Hazard arc they do use the word Rokushiki.
• The Geppou technique is translated to the English word "Moonwalk". (T)
• The Tekkai technique is translated as "Eisenpanzer". (German for "Iron clad") (T)
• The Shigan technique is translated to "Fingerpistole". (German for Finger pistol/gun) (T)
• The Rankyaku technique is translated as "Orkankick". (German for "Storm kick") (T)
• The Soru technique is translated as "Rasur". (German for "Shave") (T)
• The Kami-e technique is translated as "Papierschnitt". (German for "Paper cut") (T)
• The Rokuogan technique is translated as "Sechskönigspistole" (German for "Six king pistol") (T)

Note: The story trends towards using the original Japanese names instead of Germanizing them as it goes on.

Translation errors

• Aokiji was called being a Konteradmiral in the German dub of episode 225 which is the Shōshō rank in the Japanese version.

Anime Soundtrack

Intros 1 and 2 did not appear in the German anime, instead being replaced with a theme written to be played over Intro 1, "We Are" called "Die Legende" (The Legend). Up until the re-licensing of One Piece, all other intros were kept intact visually and instrumentally, with the only change being that the lyrics were re-written and performed in German. Intros 2, "Believe" and 11, "Share the World" have been omitted entirely. Later intros kept the Japanese vocals, the only remaining edit being the staff rolls having been changed to German and adding the localization staff.

Up until Episode 373, an instrumental version of "Die Legende" was also used for the next episode previews, until being replaced with an instrumental of "We Are" with the introduction of the 2008 remix as the opening theme.

Air Times

The One Piece anime airs on ProSieben MAXX (as of December 2021) from Monday to Friday around 6 PM in the evening.

German DVDs

Up to Box 26 (episodes 780 – 804), the episodes were only offered on DVD, but with Box 26 also on Blu-ray. Crunchyroll started to re-release Box 1 onwards on Blu-ray as well since January 2023.

The episodes 492, 542 and 590 have been omitted from the releases due to them being crossovers with Toriko, hence not licensed and dubbed.

TV Series

Cover	# of Discs	Release Date	Content
	6	May 25, 2012	Contains episodes 1 - 30 Bonusmaterial: TBA
	6	July 27, 2012	Contains episodes 31 - 61 Bonusmaterial: TBA
	6	September 28, 2012	Contains episodes 62 - 92 Bonusmaterial: TBA
	7	November 30, 2012	Contains episodes 93 - 130 Bonusmaterial: TBA
	7	January 25, 2013	Contains episodes 131 - 162 Bonusmaterial: TBA
	6	March 29, 2013	Contains episodes 163 - 195 Bonusmaterial: TBA
	6	August 29, 2014	Contains episodes 196 - 228 Bonusmaterial: TBA
	6	October 31, 2014	Contains episodes 229 - 263 Bonusmaterial: TBA
	6	March 27, 2015	Contains episodes 264 - 294 Bonusmaterial: TBA
	6	May 29, 2015	Contains episodes 295 - 325 Bonusmaterial: TBA
	6	August 28, 2015	Contains episodes 326 - 358 Bonusmaterial: TBA
	6	February 26, 2016	Contains episodes 359 - 390 Bonusmaterial: TBA
	6	June 24, 2016	Contains episodes 391 - 421 Bonusmaterial: TBA
	6	October 28, 2016	Contains episodes 422 - 456 Bonusmaterial: TBA
	6	February 24, 2017	Contains episodes 457 - 489 Bonusmaterial: TBA
	6	June 30, 2017	Contains episodes 490 - 516 Bonusmaterial: TBA
	6	October 27, 2017	Contains episodes 517 - 545 Bonusmaterial: TBA
	6	February 23, 2018	Contains episodes 546 - 574 Bonusmaterial: TBA
	6	June 29, 2018	Contains episodes 575 - 601 Bonusmaterial: TBA
	6	October 26, 2018	Contains episodes 602 - 628 Bonusmaterial: TBA
	4	August 19, 2019	Contains episodes 629 - 656 Bonusmaterial: TBA
	5	December 5, 2019	Contains episodes 657 - 687 Bonusmaterial: TBA
	4	May 7, 2020	Contains episodes 688 - 715 Bonusmaterial: TBA
	5	August 24, 2020	Contains episodes 716 - 746 Bonusmaterial: TBA
	6	December 3, 2020	Contains episodes 747 - 779 Bonusmaterial: TBA
	4	September 2, 2021	Contains episodes 780 - 804 Bonusmaterial: TBA
	4	November 4, 2021	Contains episodes 805 - 828 Bonusmaterial: TBA
	4	March 17, 2022	Contains episodes 829 - 853 Bonusmaterial: TBA
	4	May 19, 2022	Contains episodes 854 - 877 Bonusmaterial: TBA
	4	August 18, 2022	Contains episodes 878 - 902 Bonusmaterial: TBA
	4	December 1, 2022	Contains episodes 903 - 926 Bonusmaterial: TBA
	4	February 23, 2023	Contains episodes 927 - 951 Bonusmaterial: TBA
	4	June 16, 2023	Contains episodes 952 - 975 Bonusmaterial: TBA
	4	August 18, 2023	Contains episodes 976 - 1000 Bonusmaterial: TBA
	4	August 16, 2024	Contains episodes 1001 - 1025 Bonusmaterial: TBA
	4	May 16, 2025	Contains episodes 1026 - 1050 Bonusmaterial: TBA

Movies

Cover	Release Date	Title
	DVD February 25, 2011	One Piece - Der Film
	DVD March 25, 2011	Abenteuer auf der Spiralinsel! Jackos Tanz Festival
	DVD May 13, 2011	Chopper auf der Insel der seltsamen Tiere Die Könige des Fußballs
	DVD July 29, 2011	Das Dead End Rennen
	DVD September 30, 2011	Der Fluch des heiligen Schwertes Die Könige des Piraten-Baseballs
	DVD October 28, 2011	Baron Omatsuri und die geheimnisvolle Insel
	DVD December 16, 2011	Schloss Karakuris Metall-Soldaten
	DVD February 24, 2012	Abenteuer in Alabasta - Die Wüstenprinzessin
	DVD April 27, 2012	Chopper und das Wunder der Winterkirschblüte
	DVD August 31, 2012	Strong World
	DVD November 29, 2013	One Piece – Z
	DVD April 7, 2017	One Piece – Gold
	DVD June 22, 2020	One Piece – Stampede
	DVD (theatrical master) June 16, 2023	One Piece Film Red

German Blu-rays

Movies

Cover	Releases	Title
	Blu-ray September 30, 2011	Der Fluch des heiligen Schwertes Die Könige des Piraten-Baseballs
	Blu-ray October 28, 2011	Baron Omatsuri und die geheimnisvolle Insel
	Blu-ray December 16, 2011	Schloss Karakuris Metall-Soldaten
	Blu-ray February 24, 2012	Abenteuer in Alabasta - Die Wüstenprinzessin
	Blu-ray April 27, 2012	Chopper und das Wunder der Winterkirschblüte
	Blu-ray June 29, 2012	Strong World
	Blu-ray November 29, 2013	One Piece – Z
	Blu-ray April 7, 2017	One Piece – Gold
	Blu-ray June 22, 2020	One Piece – Stampede
	Blu-ray (theatrical master) June 16, 2023 Blu-ray & 4K Blu-ray (home media master) December 2023	One Piece Film Red

As of 2022, Kazé started to release the movies 1 to 4 also on Blu-ray in Germany, with Movie 4 being released in July 2022.

Trivia

• The German dub has received criticism for some of the following reasons:
  • Airing one episode that was originally an hour long in Japan (the Robin backstory episodes).
  • Airing only half of the Ruluka Island Arc, 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").
• Up to Episode 504, the episodes were broadcast in 4:3 format, cropping the HD 16:9 episodes (since Episode 207) to 4:3, unlike in Japan but similar to other international markets. Since Episode 505 there has been a change to HDTV and thus to the 16:9 format as Toei does not offer 4:3 after Episode 504.
  • Crunchyroll's German subbed episodes use the original formats of Episodes: 1 - 206 in 4:3, since 207 in 16:9.
• In the German dub, Satori, Hotori and Kotori are declared as sisters and also have female voice actors.
• On 1 and 2 July 2023, the Songs "Karte des Herzens" (Kokoro no Chizu) and "Übers Meer" (BON VOYAGE!) were sung live by the original singer Petra Scheeser during a concert at DoKomi 2023.
• The first release of One Piece Film: Red erroneously uses the video master, that was used for the (german) theatrical release. For the second release of the Blu-ray and Ultra HD Blu-ray, the correct home video master was released following the announcement of rectification at AnimagiC 2023.

Links

• German page about cuts in the German anime version