The ONE PIECE HD Remaster has arrived on Netflix, and more importantly, is available to stream in the UK in both dubbed (using the FUNimation/Crunchyroll English dub) and subbed formats.
As it stands sixteen episodes from the ONE PIECE HD Remaster are currently available to stream, with it covering the East Blue Arc. During these episodes viewers will see Luffy begin his journey as a pirate, recruit Zoro, and help Usopp in Syrup Village. We do expect that more HD Remaster episodes will be added in the future, due to a visual being shown in the Netflix application, but it is unclear what new episodes will be added.
So, what exactly is the ONE PIECE HD Remaster? Well, put simply it is a High Definition Remaster of the original series (namely the East Blue to Sky Island Arcs) and sees it presented in widescreen aspect ratio as opposed to the original 4:3 aspect ratio. Basically it is increased resolution, but cropped picture compared to the original DVD and streaming episodes. Additionally, the HD Remaster uses the original Japanese materials, so you’ll see Japanese text during the opening and ending songs as well as the original blue ONE PIECE logo rather than the localised version that FUNimation used at the time.
As it stands Episodes 1 – 16 of the ONE PIECE HD Remaster are currently available to stream on Netflix in the UK in both dubbed and subbed formats. The addition of the English Dub is important, as until now the only way to watch dubbed versions of the series was on BBC iPlayer or through DVD sets released by Manga Entertainment (now known as Crunchyroll) in the UK.
