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Shonen Jump announced that Funimation together with One Piece producer Toei Animation, Co. Ltd. publisher Shueisha, Inc. and broadcaster Fuji Television Network, Inc. have arranged to have One Piece animation broadcasted with English subtitles on One Piece official website.
The broadcasts will start on May 30th with episode 403, one hour after the episode has been aired in Japan, and will then be continued each week there after. At the same time Funimation will offer the series starting from episode 1.
Kanji Kazahaya, Director of Toei Animation had this to say about this next step:
"With digital technology drastically changing the media environment surrounding broadcasts, we've gained the understanding and cooperation of Shueisha, the publisher of the original manga, and Fuji Television, which broadcasts the show in Japan, the primary target audience. With help from FUNimation, our One Piece partner in North America, we've managed to make a One Piece simulcast a reality. With this simulcast, we'll be able to deliver a version of One Piece with much "fresher"　excitement and greatness than ever before to even more viewers in the United States than ever before. It's incredibly exciting."

Source: Shounen Jump


NEWS UPDATED ON 30th of June 2009.
===========================
Today the Shonen Jump website announced that they, for the time being, will be closing down the service for the One Piece Simulcasting.This was cause by an unauthorized individual deliberately accessing the servers and posting the 403rd episode online. So as of this point, no episodes will be sent for an unknown time period.

only for North America and Japan?

WOW AWESOME. I've been waiting for them to finally do this. Now bleach is all we need =D (though i think DB is doing a fine job as it is). I hope they'll offer episodes in 480p or some kind of high-quality streaming like Crunchyroll. But really this is phenomenal.

Well, I believe it will be available for the locations where Funimation has acquired rights to send it. When I entered the One Piece site I got a message saying that I didn't have the internet rights to view the content because of my geographical area.

Go to hell FUNi... Not only will I not be able to watch it because of region restrictions but they will send their internet bullies out to try to shut down all the subbers so I wont be able to watch it at all. Wake up streaming is not an acceptable option to fansubs.

/sign
Egoistic bastards....

Not really? I mean, this is pretty good news all things considered. Sure there are region problems and let's be honest, One Piece, like Naruto, Bleach, etc, are way too popular worldwide to just outright stop fansubbing for it, so there will always be fansubs, it's just now there is a more legal, more attractive alternative. Now if only I could get the DVD sets...

Anonymous deliveres!

Step 1.: Get Firefox!
Step 2.: Get the Modify Headers add-on!
Step 3.: Restart Firefox!
Step 4.: Open the Modify Headers add-on!
Step 5.: In the top left drop- down box, select add!
Step 6.: In the top left blank box, write: "X-Forwarded-For" (without ", of course)
Step 7.: In the top middle box, write: "12.13.14.15"
Step 8.: In the top right box, write: "Nvm"
Step 9.: In the top right corner, click "add"!
Step 10.: Open "Configuration" in the bottom right, and select "Open Modify Headers in a new tab?"
Step 11.: Save, exit the add-on, restart firefox.
Step 12.: Open the Modify Headers add- on. It should appear in a new tab.
Step 13.: Go to Funimation's website!
Step 14.: ???
Step 15.: Profit!

Aww crap! Unabled to view the website. Well One Piece has a huge fanbase so the fansubs won't shut down. Though I would have liked to be able to view the One Piece official website and get Funi's subs.

This isn't a new license, FUNimation has had the rights to One Piece for awhile and fansubbers have still been subbing it so I'm not sure what you're worried about. Even if FUNimation went after them again I doubt most of them will just stop unless they felt like they should.

I guess this is pretty good since they offer both languages plus FUNi is offfering from episode 1+

y/n?

Wow...this is like....just wow. This is freaking amazing news. One hour AFTER the original broadcast?!? That's even faster than all the fansub groups right now. Wow.

Now the only problem is going to the be stream quality. But I'll definitely be checking this out.

To be honest, this is how all licensed anime should be handled. Get the episode here ASAP.

I am being too harsh I guess. Probably right that it will have little effect on fansubbing. The positive is that distruibutors are maybe getting it or starting to anyway. I have some problems with the way FUNi does things in regards to their subs. 1 hr turn around is pretty nice but until they start delivering high quality video streams this is not a acceptable "legal" alternative to the way people are getting there OP fix in this case. I dont think its going to attract many viewers either who DL the HD subs unless they do manage to shut down their fansub competition. Atleast they arent charging for the stream , thats something too I guess.

I got the same problem, it will probably only for America.

EDIT:


Confirmed that it works, i can now access the site!

I wonder if Funimation will even send out any C&Ds. I know they didn't when Funimation first licensed One Piece.

lolwut?

I'm actually impressed at the quality of the stream, was expecting youtube type crap but this is actually watchable on a 720p monitor.

Works for me now too.
However, how do you get flash do dl chunks bigger than 7 secs?

Ugh, streaming freaking sucks. Always hated the quality and prefer having the file. Only a matter of time until Funi comes after the OP fansubbers. They already came after the FMA ones. =P

Fuck Funimation for this. I'm going to be pissed if KF and others stop.