Disney+ is continues to bolster its anime selection, as the streaming platform have recently added 92 episodes from ONE PIECE to its catalog with all episodes available to stream in both dubbed and subbed format.
The 92 episodes added to Disney+ are the same episodes that are available on Netflix in the UK, of which cover the entirety of East Blue and the beginning of the Alabasta. Interestingly, while the episode count is the same as Netflix the content differs slightly as the opening and ending songs are presented in Japanese (even when watched in English). It’s not entirely clear why this change was made, but the change was also made to Dragon Ball Z Kai when it got added to Disney+ earlier this year.
That aside, the version of ONE PIECE that is available to stream on Disney+ is the “HD REMASTER” version of the series.This 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 on Crunchyroll and BBC iPlayer.
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 gold version that FUNimation used at the time.
The addition of ONE PIECE to Disney+ means that we can now watch a variety of shonen shows, such as Black Clover, Bleach, Dragon Ball Z Kai, Dragon Ball Super, My Hero Academia, Naruto, Naruto Shippuden and ONE PIECE all in one place. Of course some shows, such as Naruto and Black Clover, are not yet fully available but it is amazing to see so much content available on one platform, especially when it isn’t dedicated to anime.
As it stands Episodes 1 – 92 of the ONE PIECE HD Remaster are currently available to stream on Disney+ in the UK in both dubbed and subbed formats and these same episodes can also be watched on Netflix in the same format. The original 4:3 version of ONE PIECE is currently available to streamed on BBC iPlayer (Dubbed), Crunchyroll (Subbed) or alternatively is available on DVD in the UK.
