“One Piece” Returns to Cartoon Network! North American Broadcast to Resume This Month!

FUNimation, a major company that brings Japanese anime to America, has announced that the popular anime One Piece will begin broadcasting on an animation entertainment channel in America on May 18. The anime will broadcast late night every Saturday on Cartoon Network’s anime block, Toonami.

One Piece will be broadcast at 1 a.m., with Soul Eater, the current anime in this time slot, moving to 1:30 a.m. The broadcast will begin with episode 207, picking up where the anime left off when its broadcast on Cartoon Network was suspended in 2008.

One Piece being picked up in North America is also a strategy by Toei Animation. One Piece is hugely popular in Japan, and it’s popularity is increasing in North America, Asia, and Europe. For this reason, the broadcast is hoped to propel One Piece to the height of Dragon Ball and Naruto in these markets.

FUNimation:
http://www.funimation.com/

Toonami:
http://video.adultswim.com/toonami/

Source:
http://animeanime.jp/article/2013/04/14/13682.html (Japanese)