Is the One Piece dub catching up to the sub?

For many years, the One Piece English dub has been notorious for being far behind the Japanese subbed episodes. Funimation, now a part of Crunchyroll, only began working on the English dub in 2004, five years after the anime originally started airing in Japan in 1999. This significant time gap between the English dub and Japanese subs remained the norm for a long time, leading many English-speaking fans to watch the subbed episodes to keep up with the latest developments in the story.

However, in recent years, something has been changing about this gap. Dubbed episodes have been released much faster than subbed episodes, causing the gap to narrow significantly. In fact, the latest batch of dubbed episodes is now less than three years behind the subs, which is a major improvement compared to the five-year gap that was once standard. At the current rate, it seems only a matter of time before the English dub catches up completely to the Japanese subs.

To predict how long it will take for the dub to catch up to the subs, it’s essential to look at the speed at which new dubbed episodes are being produced. In 2022 alone, Funimation released Episodes 759 through 914 in English, which is around the beginning of Luffy’s first match with Kaidō. That makes a total of 156 new dubbed episodes, averaging at around 13 episodes per month.

In comparison, the subs put out Episodes 1005 through 1045 in 2022, a total of 46 episodes that averaged around three to four episodes per month. Though there’s still a 131-episode difference between the sub and the dub, it seems more surmountable given how quickly the dub is catching up.

If the dub and the sub continue at their current pace, by the end of 2023, the dub could make it up to Episode 1070, while the sub should be up to Episode 1093 at the most. By March or even February 2024, the dub could theoretically be releasing episodes within weeks of their original Japanese broadcast.

The reason for the recent increase in dub production may have to do with the changing nature of anime viewing. In the past, it was acceptable for a dub to be a year or more behind the sub, but now most anime are expected to be dubbed within a few weeks or months of their Japanese broadcast. With One Piece being such a popular and long-running series, it was necessary to close the gap between the English dub and the Japanese subs. Whoever made the decision to ramp up production likely recognized this and took the appropriate measures to speed things up.

The fact that the dub is slowly but surely catching up to the subs is a positive development for fans of the English dub. It means that those who prefer to watch the dubbed episodes can do so with less risk of being spoiled by those who watch the subs. Without this development, English-speaking fans would still be at the beginning of the Whole Cake Island Arc, missing out on significant plot developments. With the dub now catching up, it’s possible for English audiences to have conversations with their sub-only friends about the latest episodes without worrying about spoilers.

Overall, it’s exciting to see the gap between the One Piece English dub and Japanese subs closing. It’s a sign of the changing nature of anime viewing and a testament to the efforts of those working behind the scenes to bring the English dub up to speed. Fans of the series can look forward to a time when they can watch the latest One Piece episodes in English within weeks of their original Japanese broadcast.

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Luffy, Zoro, Sanji, Nami, Usopp, Chopper, Kaido, Bigmom