Japanese popularity of Dragon Ball vs. One Piece

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Re: Japanese popularity of Dragon Ball vs. One Piece

Post by omae no kaasan » Wed May 18, 2011 8:46 pm

Yeah, pretty much no matter how you slice it, OP is crushing what DB had to scale as we speak.

Got class will elaborate later.

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Re: Japanese popularity of Dragon Ball vs. One Piece

Post by Super Sayian Prime » Wed May 18, 2011 9:21 pm

One Piece is destroying what Dragon Ball is doing now. But as I mentioned before, if there was a proper way to compare who Dragon Ball did in the 80s and 90s I wouldn't be surprised to see it doing better than One Piece (however, there really isn't as there is no investor reports, as well as accounting for the difference in population, and inflation). Obviously individual manga volume sales are lower than One Piece, but as I mentioned readership for JUMP was at its height with Dragon Ball in circulation, as well as Dragon Ball delivering what is some of JUMP's highest ever anime ratings.

It is difficult to say which was the larger success. Worldwide it's no question.
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Re: Japanese popularity of Dragon Ball vs. One Piece

Post by omae no kaasan » Wed May 18, 2011 10:21 pm

I wouldn't be surprised to see it doing better than One Piece (however, there really isn't as there is no investor reports, as well as accounting for the difference in population, and inflation).
That's why I said 'to scale'.

Granted there's no way I'm interested in the topic enough to dig up data so the burden of proof is on me but One Piece is doing the kinds of things DB never did:

Selling cars
Selling apartments
Selling razors
Selling Domino's pizza
Selling plane tickets
etc.

Basically it's appealing to all age groups in not just an emotional aspect, but a financial one as well and that's juggernaut.

Dragon Ball was loved by all ages and the products were vast and varied but I've never seen a kid's comic sell so many mature goods/services.

The amount of money involved in licensing and the resulting sales is probably disgusting beyond all comprehension. A panel of former manga editors recently suggested Oda makes as much as $15 million a year in licensing from his one series. Now imagine that each company paying that price tag must make a profit off the money spent.

Yow. That's a lot of yen flowing through the system.

Culturally speaking, One Piece is now entering the phase of a national icon. A few years ago my ears perked up whenever there was mention of One Piece on a variety program but now it's the norm with segments devoted to aspects of the series on prime-time broadcasts and passe comments/nods to the series in conversation amongst tarento without the need for explanation.

I think the moment I first thought, "Okay wow, One Piece is now king.", was when freaking Sanma performed a rare brief sketch segment with a One Piece theme.

Dragon Ball had families watching and fans of all ages.

But OP is selling something to every member of that family.

Of course there's also the unofficial argument that 'Japan's economy was partially supported by Dragon Ball' so hey, who knows. :wink:

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Re: Japanese popularity of Dragon Ball vs. One Piece

Post by GS7X7 » Wed May 18, 2011 10:59 pm

It sounds like it's bigger in Japan...

I'm still curious how many volumes the top-selling DBZ/OP manga volumes sold and how much money DBZ/OP's top movies made, even though it sounds like OP is more popular there.
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Re: Japanese popularity of Dragon Ball vs. One Piece

Post by JulieYBM » Wed May 18, 2011 11:10 pm

Oricon didn't begin taking count until 2008 so there aren't any real concrete, public figures. Even then, with sixty volumes (and the past half dozen having sold two million in the first week)...there really isn't a comparison. One Piece has two hundred million copies sold, which I believe is a record. One Piece movie ten, Strong World, destroyed records too. There is no documentation of Dragon Ball being anywhere near as popular in Japan as One Piece is now.
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Re: Japanese popularity of Dragon Ball vs. One Piece

Post by GS7X7 » Thu May 19, 2011 10:13 pm

Maybe One Piece is beating Dragon Ball but Oda himself was heavily inspired by DB and is a huge Toriyama fanboy.

So.... DB is being beaten by a work it helped inspired, heh.
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Re: Japanese popularity of Dragon Ball vs. One Piece

Post by JulieYBM » Thu May 19, 2011 10:32 pm

GS7X7 wrote:Maybe One Piece is beating Dragon Ball but Oda himself was heavily inspired by DB and is a huge Toriyama fanboy.

So.... DB is being beaten by a work it helped inspired, heh.
That's not really a big deal. Everything gets inspiration from somewhere.
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Re: Japanese popularity of Dragon Ball vs. One Piece

Post by kaioshoryuken » Fri May 20, 2011 1:00 am

Still kinda ironic though, ^^ even though DB and DBZ was very influential and clearly still is lol.

I think part of it has to do with it being a very different time in the anime world now, than when Dragon Ball and Z debuted. A significant portion of the anime fanbase is getting younger, and the anime they grow up with is different.

Like for instance, you ask a 13 year old what DBZ is, they're not going to really know much about it unless they have a passion for classic anime... and the mediocre job done with Kai didn't help at all. Yes, it may have brought some new fans into the series, but when watching Kai they're missing out on what used to be an excellent anime (and still is) in its heyday.

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Re: Japanese popularity of Dragon Ball vs. One Piece

Post by GS7X7 » Fri May 20, 2011 2:54 am

I haven't seen Kai yet.... is it really that terrible?
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Re: Japanese popularity of Dragon Ball vs. One Piece

Post by Rocketman » Fri May 20, 2011 3:27 am

GS7X7 wrote:I haven't seen Kai yet.... is it really that terrible?
Kai beats the absolute shit out of Z. The vast majority of people saying Z is better are simply blinded by nostalgia.

E: Fair enough.
Last edited by Rocketman on Fri May 20, 2011 4:30 am, edited 2 times in total.

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Re: Japanese popularity of Dragon Ball vs. One Piece

Post by Kingdom Heartless » Fri May 20, 2011 3:34 am

Rocketman wrote:
GS7X7 wrote:I haven't seen Kai yet.... is it really that terrible?
Kai beats the absolute shit out of Z. The only people saying Z is better are those blinded by nostalgia.
This is really starting to irk me... to act as if you have insight into the mind of every Dragon Ball Z fan around is ridiculous. Heck, the whole "you only like it because" argument is something I've seen the moderators specifically frown upon.
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Re: Japanese popularity of Dragon Ball vs. One Piece

Post by GS7X7 » Fri May 20, 2011 3:53 am

I think if DBZ had had a decent live-action movie that Kai would be a lot more popular in Japan.

What they unleashed didn't do much to give DBZ a good rep with Japanese teenagers.
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Re: Japanese popularity of Dragon Ball vs. One Piece

Post by What Up Namek! » Fri May 20, 2011 1:02 pm

Rocketman wrote:
GS7X7 wrote:I haven't seen Kai yet.... is it really that terrible?
Kai beats the absolute shit out of Z.
Sure....if you like butchered fight scenes. :mrgreen:


I think Dragonball might still be bigger than OP if you count all the merchandise sells from the dozens and dozens of video games, books and toys that have came out over the last 20 years.

OP japanese volume sells might shit over DB's but i'm not too sure about the anime. Different ratings system and one being on at a better time slot makes it hard to compare.
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Re: Japanese popularity of Dragon Ball vs. One Piece

Post by Rocketman » Fri May 20, 2011 1:04 pm

What Up Namek! wrote:Sure....if you like butchered fight scenes.
Butchered fight scenes are far better than fight scenes that stop every two seconds so the opponents can stare at each other and/or cutaway to watch secondary and tertiary characters doing nothing.

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Re: Japanese popularity of Dragon Ball vs. One Piece

Post by What Up Namek! » Fri May 20, 2011 1:40 pm

Rocketman wrote:
What Up Namek! wrote:Sure....if you like butchered fight scenes.
Butchered fight scenes are far better than fight scenes that stop every two seconds so the opponents can stare at each other and/or cutaway to watch secondary and tertiary characters doing nothing.
You should learn to fast forward.

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Re: Japanese popularity of Dragon Ball vs. One Piece

Post by VegettoEX » Fri May 20, 2011 1:43 pm

Your petty, sarcastic comments about the artistic merit of Kai aren't really relevant here, folks. Thanks.
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Re: Japanese popularity of Dragon Ball vs. One Piece

Post by Castor Troy » Fri May 20, 2011 1:48 pm

This is like comparing the popularity of the NES back in it's heyday in comparison to the Xbox 360 today.

Different times, climates, economics, even adjusted for inflation etc can never give us an accurate answer.

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Re: Japanese popularity of Dragon Ball vs. One Piece

Post by GS7X7 » Fri May 20, 2011 1:56 pm

If OP is so big then why don't they just give it a better time slot?

(geeze, no wonder that "released ahead of time" OP ep was such a big scandal, given how big OP is in Japan that had the risk to cost em a lot of money.... makes me wonder if it effected the ratings much for that week)
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Re: Japanese popularity of Dragon Ball vs. One Piece

Post by JulieYBM » Fri May 20, 2011 2:05 pm

GS7X7 wrote:If OP is so big then why don't they just give it a better time slot?

(geeze, no wonder that "released ahead of time" OP ep was such a big scandal, given how big OP is in Japan that had the risk to cost em a lot of money.... makes me wonder if it effected the ratings much for that week)
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Re: Japanese popularity of Dragon Ball vs. One Piece

Post by Jayy » Fri May 20, 2011 7:41 pm

Dragonball in it's prime definitely trumps One Piece. I mean it's not very often in to 1990's anime break into the western world and become huge success. I'm saying with all honesty One Piece wouldn't have been able to do that 8 or so years ago when that came out.

Everyone knows Dragonball for it's action and for it's plot. This doesn't apply to One piece unfortunately outside of Japan.
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