Film licensing rights are vastly different than anime or TV show rights. This is why the One Piece anime can get licensed onto multiple streaming platforms, but the films cannot. Furthermore, the One Piece media empire has its hands on several deals, including exclusive partnerships with Crunchyroll and Netflix. It becomes complicated to decide which films to license to whom. The question then becomes which One Piece films are still unavailable to watch?
Altogether, eight of the fifteen One Piece films aren’t available to watch legally in the United States. These titles include the first seven and the eleventh One Piece motion picture.
Funimation would begin dubbing and distributing the One Piece films with movie 7, Episode of Arabasta: The Desert Princess and the Pirates. Except for One Piece 3D, every following One Piece movie would become available in the US. Crunchyroll would inherit the film rights of the films dubbed and licensed by Funimation after the two companies merged. Interestingly, Episode of Chopper Plus: Bloom in Winter, Miracle Sakura, the eighth film in the franchise, wasn’t available for the longest time in the United States. It was recently added to Netflix, but only in its native Japanese subtitles.
Although it is confusing why no company has licensed the earlier One Piece films at this point, the cost to license these films is likely too steep to justify bringing them overseas. The reception of the early films is notably mixed, possibly explaining why no corporation has bothered owning the rights. However, there are some standout titles among the movies, specifically Baron Omatsuri and the Secret Island. At some point, these One Piece features will likely find their way to the US through legal means, but it will probably take some time.
