Funimation Licenses One Piece Film Gold, Plans Theatrical Release

Funimation Films announced on Wednesday that it has licensed One Piece Film Gold and will release the film in theaters in the United States and Canada from January 10-17.

One Piece Film Gold opened in Japan on July 23. As of September 8, the film had earned 5,007,520,000 yen (about US$48.8 million) at the Japanese box office.

Original manga creator Eiichiro Oda served as the film's executive producer and was credited with the original work. Oda also served as the executive producer for the previous film in the franchise, One Piece Film Z. Additionally, Oda designed the various new costumes for the Straw Hat crew for the film, drew the rough drafts for the new characters, and also drew the film's first visual (pictured above).

Hiroaki Miyamoto (One Piece episodes 352-679, assistant director forOne Piece: Baron Omatsuri and the Secret Island) directed the film, and Tsutomu Kuroiwa (live-action Black Butler film, live-action Liar Game: The Final Stage film, live-action The Perfect Insider TV series) wrote the script. Masayuki Sato designed the characters for animation, and also served as chief animation director. Kazuo Ogura was the art director, while Nobuhito Sue was credited for art setting.​