Due to the 2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami, One Piece: Unlimited Cruise SP’s original release date of April 7 (today!) was pushed back. It’s been confirmed that the latest issue of Jump is listing the new release date, which is May 26, 2011:

(click the image to enlarge)

So it was only delayed for about a month and a half, which isn’t bad at all!

If you would like to help with Japan disaster relief, click here to donate what you can to the Red Cross.

FUNimation just started an ongoing fundraiser to help with earthquake and tsunami relief for Japan. They’re auctioning off extremely rare and collectible anime swag and sending 100% of the proceeds to the GlobalGiving Japan Earthquake and Tsunami Relief Fund.

As luck would have it, they put an awesomely rare One Piece movie poster up for auction that was autographed by 15 English voice actors and staffers:

Check out the auction page for a complete list of everyone who signed the poster. There are just under 9 days left to bid and the price is already up to $102! I wonder how high it’ll climb before it’s over.

Keep an eye on FUNimation’s Relief for Japan page for a complete list of all current auctions. You can also use that page to donate directly to the fund if you don’t want to bid on anything.

If you didn’t already know by now, One Piece: Gigant Battle (DS) will be released in Europe this summer. Last week, Namco Bandai Games EU uploaded a video of some gameplay from the new localization. Looks like the audio will remain in Japanese, but the menus on the bottom screen are in English. Have a look (I recommend viewing full screen):

The tentative release date is set for June 2011 right now, but I can’t find any sites that are taking pre-orders. Here’s the official site if you want to watch some more videos.

One Piece Episode 490 was released a little later than expected due to the natural disaster in Japan (please donate to the Red Cross if you are able to), but it recently showed up for viewing on Hulu. Here’s the synopsis:

The world rejoices in the wake of Whitebeard’s death, and a host of powerful pirates vie for his position. Meanwhile, Luffy’s friends fear that Ace’s death may be more than the rubber-man can handle – if he ever wakes up!

Watch it on Hulu or right here:

A few days after Bandai Namco Games announced the postponement of One Piece: Unlimited Cruise SP for 3DS, they released a bunch of new screenshots, as if to reassure us that the project is not canceled! First, some box art:

Lookin’ good! Here are a few screenshots from some of the cutscenes (click to enlarge):

And here are some gameplay screenshots (click to enlarge):

You can see a bunch more screenshots over at andriasang! I only wish it was possible for our eyes to interpret the 3D with these 2D screenshots; I bet it looks so amazing in person~

Ever since the disastrous earthquake struck Japan on March 11, 2011, game releases and events have been getting pushed back or outright canceled. Today, One Piece: Unlimited Cruise SP has joined the list of delayed upcoming games.

The 3DS remake of One Piece: Unlimited Cruise Episode 1 and 2 was originally scheduled to be released on April 7, 2011 in Japan, but Bandai Namco Games announced today that the release date is now TBA, citing “various circumstances” as the reason. They apologized for the inconvenience and said they will let us know as soon as a new release date is finalized.

If you would like to help with Japan disaster relief, click here to donate what you can to the Red Cross.

Some new PSP-3000 silicon covers are headed to Japan in June. There are two One Piece designs to choose from and they each come in two colors. The one on the left has the Straw Hat Pirates emblem and it comes in black or white. On the right is the Chopper Man design available in pink or white. I really like the pink one!

AmiAmi has all four of these covers up for pre-order now. Their site is in English and they ship worldwide, so you don’t have to jump through any extra hoops to get them!

• Pre-order the Straw Hat Pirates PSP-3000 silicon cover (black) – 1,260 yen ($15.50)
• Pre-order the Straw Hat Pirates PSP-3000 silicon cover (white) – 1,260 yen ($15.50)
• Pre-order the Chopper Man PSP-3000 silicon cover (pink) – 1,260 yen ($15.50)
• Pre-order the Chopper Man PSP-3000 silicon cover (white) – 1,260 yen ($15.50)

If you’d like to help those affected by last Friday’s devastating earthquake in Japan and expand your One Piece collection at the same time, Play-Asia has an incentive for you. They’ve put together an ever-growing list of games, game accessories, figures, and toys where they will donate a certain dollar amount to the Red Cross with each purchase.

View the full list of items eligible for donations here.

Included in this list are two recently-released One Piece figures:

Pictured left is is the gorgeous Desktop Real McCoy statue that I gushed about earlier this month. On the right is a Three Musketeers Version of Luffy, part of the Door Painting Collection Figure line by Plex. Play-Asia’s picture of the D.P.C.F. Three Musketeers Luffy figure is horribly washed out and ugly. Check out Tomopop’s review to get a much better look at it.

• Buy the One Piece Desktop Real McCoy Statue 01 – $109.90 ($10 goes to Japan Earthquake Relief)
• Buy D.P.C.F. Monkey D. Luffy Three Musketeers Version – $86.29 ($15 goes to Japan Earthquake Relief)

If you’d rather pass on the games and other goodies, click here to donate what you can to the Red Cross.

Here’s another set of keychains that you should be able to find inside capsule machines around Japan right about now. These are called One Piece 2-Piece Metal Charms, and there are six designs that come in 3 colors: silver, chrome metal, and gold. The designs featured are pirate flag emblems and also Chopper for some reason.

If you can find ‘em, they’ll cost you 200 yen each. I think the silver ones look the best~

We wrap up our recap of Banpresto’s February One Piece prizes with keychains and something that doesn’t fit anywhere else. Let’s get started!

One Piece Pirate Flag & Figure Keychains Vol 1

These keychains are pretty cool because you’re basically getting two things at once. The emblems on the pirate flags match whichever character figure they’re attached to. I’m looking forward to see who’ll end up in volume 2!

One Piece Deformed Figure Keychains – Special Power Navy Set

This set of keychains focuses on the Marines with special powers. Also Luffy. They’re drawn in a deformed art style and the figures are about 6 centimeters tall.

One Piece Big Multi-Use Cloth

Hey look, it’s a cloth with many uses! I really like drawings on the front side of the cloth. And when it says “big”, it means BIG! This thing is around 43 inches wide and 31.5 inches tall. That’s over a meter wide! I wouldn’t mind having this huge thing in my house somewhere.

And those are all the things Banpresto released last month at Japanese game centers. Here are the previous recaps in case you missed them:

• Part 1 – Chopper Plushes
• Part 2 – Figures