One Piece: the improbable names that Luffy and his gang almost bore in French version

The publishing house Glénat launched in France in 2000 the series One Piece. Currently, the adventures of Luffy have 100 volumes in France! If today our favorite characters call each other by their real first name, that has not always been the case. Reissued in 2013, the French version of One Piece based on the original names of the mugiwaras. But that hasn’t always been the case…

They are known as Luffy, Usopp, Chopper, Zoro or even Sanji, but our beloved mugiwaras have not always proudly displayed their original first name. It was only in 2013 that Glénat decides to reissue the series One Piece with the original first and last names of the characters.

One Piece before the 2013 reissue

Whereas when it was released in France One Piece was published in the western reading direction, it was not until volume 16 that the French edition switched to the Japanese reading direction. But if the volumes were quickly published in “good sense”, the same cannot be said of the first names of the mugiwaras. Indeed, it was only in July 2013 that the reissue of One Piece in France begins. After 66 volumes, a translator is brought to trial, we will not know more. What must be remembered is that Usopp is no longer called Usopp, and that Sanji is no longer called Sandy! Previously white, the numbers of the reissued volumes are now yellow.

What we remember from this old edition is that Sanji was called Sandy, Usopp was called Pipo (like the lies), Zoro was written Zorro and Sogeking meanwhile becomes King Dutir (the “king of shooting », little pun, the translator had a great sense of humor). Our favorite characters from One Piece did not sail on the Grand Line but on “The Road of Peril”, and Luffy possessed the “Fruit of Gum-Gum”. The “Gomu Gomu no…” from Luffy’s attacks that you know had become “Gum Gum”. Even if today most fans would cry blasphemy, we still escape the worst. Fortunately now, even the French versions are faithful to the original Japanese version. Hang in there, the sequel is worse.

The promotional edition of One Piece

When a manga must be published in France, several editions are proposed before agreeing on the final version. Know that the first edition could have been 10 times worse than the one we had! While in 2000 there were still very few manga published in France, the publishers tried to Frenchify the works as much as possible so as not to confuse readers. It was then that a promotional edition of One Piece ultra-francized is proposed, and you will laugh.

Who remembers the old VF of one piece where Luffy was called Corentin?? pic.twitter.com/2wv4YpYlu1

— (sato) (@satoshipss) June 8, 2020

Luffy should have been called “Monkey D. Corentin”, Zoro: “Terence Sabrelong”, Nami: “Corinne”, Chopper: “Damien”. We continue ? If we tell you that Tashigi should have been called Magali, it’s still okay. But what if we told you that Smoker should have been called “Le Colonel Fumette”? And Crocodile: “Henry Sabledor”? In any case, we had a narrow escape, and this promotional edition was not retained. Despite everything, photos of the portraits of this slanderous edition had been taken, and made the rounds of Twitter. Unsurprisingly, fans laughed unrestrainedly at this translation. We can’t imagine One Piece without a Luffy or a Zoro!

I find these cult things, Colonel smoker who is called Colonel fumette is very strong https://t.co/T0xZmJ6yKB pic.twitter.com/w2SXvEK1T4

— (sato) (@satoshipss) June 9, 2020