One piece and Dragonball similarities?

[samuraix123]

Hello Everyone!
Toonami will be airing One Piece soon and I was just curious, is there any similarities between One piece and Dragonball? because I believe there is similarities between Dragonball and Naruto?
But some of the characters in this beginning video of the Dragonball and One piece crossover seem to have similarities?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mNVhFSYy4Xg
Also if anyone was curious about proof of One piece coming to Toonami, Here ya go!!
http://toonami.tumblr.com/post/45048940 ... e-them-all

[Chuquita]

One Piece to DB...One Piece is kind of like Dragon Ball if Toriyama was the type to plan stuff out far in advance while dropping dozens of foreshadowing hints along the way, had a bigger affinity for world-building, and only slept 3 hours a night. XD (I was stunned when I first read Oda only sleeps from 2am to 5am).

The style of humor is similar, but it's a bit more manic than DB's even if it is in the same vein. (I guess I could say the same for Luffy as opposed to Goku; Luffy's way more energetic whereas Goku's more " :3 " )

OP's definitely worth the watch/read imo; it's got a very rich world and a huge variety of characters (a good chunk, if not most of whom serve a purpose in the story and sometimes return many arcs later; Oda never forgets anyone in One Piece).

[Retan]

One piece is pretty bleh to me no offense to anyone who enjoys the series, but I'd prefer toonami add something else!

[B]

The similarities between the two series are really on the surface; they're both an art student's wet dream. Colorful worlds, varying shapes and sizes of characters, silly techniques, etc. One Piece is a little more in love with its universe than DB. The story leans on the dramatic, tear-jerking side that DB only rarely thought of stepping in. It's an easy, accessible series to get into.

(start with the anime, skip whatever filler arcs you run into, and once you get to Water 7, hit the manga running and don't look back)

[MCDaveG]

Well, simmilarity for me is in the shonen mechanics, stronger enemies, stronger the protagonist tries to be.
But never found the humor simmilar, most times in One Piece, the humor is this WTF otaku muhahaha, retarded character face fueled stuff. That's because the series is for kids.
I was more in line with Dragon Ball pervert and Goku humor. But I laughed few times trough the first 500 episodes.

[dbboxkaifan]

It's enjoyable but the animation/design is pretty awful at times which shows no efforts were put whatsoever, disappointing yes but kids don't mind such small details.

Luffy's "Kaio-ken" battle was quite cool, though.

[The Monkey King]

Yeah both mangas have their similarities and I like the fact the Luffy and Goku are good friends

But in terms of story, setting, drama and characterization One Piece is superior to Dragon Ball by far.

[MCDaveG]

My biggest beef with OP is the setting. Because I'm bored to the damned hell about pirates and stuff, so I like how in DB there is world of variety like ours (including pirates and stuff), not just Planet Pirate.

[BlackCatScott]

Well Eiichiro Oda is a huge admirer of Akira Toriyama and you can definitely see some similarities. I suppose even Goku and Luffy have their similarities because they both can be pretty stupid and childish but when the going gets tough they get the job done (by that I mean owning the villains!) they also have quite a liking for food! Even with the voices there are a few similarities - as far as I know there is a few Japanese voice actors that worked on DB who also now work on One Piece. That's the case with the English Funimation dub of the show as well. Chris Sabat voices Zoro, where as Sonny Strait voices Usopp and Luffy is voiced by Colleen Clinkenbeard.

What I would say is I've only been watching One Piece for a year or so which isn't very long, but I have never been as hooked on an anime since Dragonball Z back when I was a kid. It takes a bit of time for the anime to kick in, but stick with it and soon you should have the thought I had which was just "Right... I love this."

Great series and it's set to run for a very long time. I would recommend everybody at the very least check it out!

[Black_Liger]

Same sound effects? xD

I would like to get into one piece, I'm a real music geek and one piece has a great soundtrack.

[DarkPrince_92]

Same sound effects? xD

Great. Thought I was the only that noticed. First time watching an episode and hearing the same sfx without Dragon Ball, mind was blown.


And then.... Krillin/Usopp have the same english VA with no variation. SMH.

[Super Sonic]

Same sound effects? xD

And then.... Krillin/Usopp have the same english VA with no variation. SMH.

You want variation? Watch Season 4 Voyage 3 with Usopp and Luffy's fight. While you can tell it's him, he doesn't sound like Krillin there.

[fogdark]

Ah, yes, One Piece. Taking Dragon Ball's voice actors and actresses out of unemployment since 1997. Seriously, almost everyone important who worked in Dragon Ball has played some character in One Piece. And the funniest part is that, thinking about who voices who, Son Goku ended up being Pikachu's foster parent
Now about similarities, yes there are some. One Piece and Dragon Ball both follow the adventure of the protagonist, as he goes through lots of different adventures, makes friends, and gets more powerful. You may think the similarities are on the surface only, and while that may be true I still think it goes beyond that.
Toriyama's and Oda's methods to create their manga are quite different, complete opposites even, but in the end, they both created stories where humor and gags are all around, when suddenly we have a big epic moment that make you super excited, only for some joke to happen after that.
Both series have the same feel, the same "spirit" if you will, and that's what makes so many comparisons between the two occur, I think...

[samuraix123]

Thanks for all the replies everyone!

[Big Momma]

The similarities between the two series are really on the surface; they're both an art student's wet dream. Colorful worlds, varying shapes and sizes of characters, silly techniques, etc. One Piece is a little more in love with its universe than DB. The story leans on the dramatic, tear-jerking side that DB only rarely thought of stepping in. It's an easy, accessible series to get into.

(start with the anime, skip whatever filler arcs you run into, and once you get to Water 7, hit the manga running and don't look back)

I'm with B on this. I love the artwork in OP...and I can say that 80% of the people I know who won't get into One Piece/slam on it list Oda's art style as one of(or the main) reason. I'll admit that the art in the beginning is simple, but later on it gets amazing.

Same sound effects? xD

I would like to get into one piece, I'm a real music geek and one piece has a great soundtrack.

Agreed. One Piece has an amazing and inspirational soundtrack.


(As far as catching up goes, I mixed manga/anime up through Alabasta, skipped Skypeia, and strictly read the manga from Davvy Back on...of course I went back to Skypeia later, though.)

[Cold Skin]

My biggest beef with OP is the setting. Because I'm bored to the damned hell about pirates and stuff, so I like how in DB there is world of variety like ours (including pirates and stuff), not just Planet Pirate.

This and the exagerated length are keeping me from diving into that franchise.

The problem I have with One Piece is that opening a page from manga 50 or seeing episode 350, you feel like you're seeing exactly what you saw when opening manga 3 and seeing episode 7.
You recognize the same people, likely on a boat or some island, with the same crew (once did they leave one out) that hasn't changed a bit except for maybe clothes.
Even if it's obviously entirely wrong, you can't help but feel "reading the 50 previous volumes will be a waste of time given that nothing seems to have changed and the plot seems to lead nowhere, with still no final "the-entire-world/universe-might-be-destroyed" battle on the horizon".

When doing the same for Dragon Ball, skipping from manga 10 to manga 40, you're like "What the?! Who are those characters?! What kind of place is this?! What are all those transformations? What the hell is going on with the God-like planetary-wide fighting?"

But surely, the characters, story, world, and all seems interesting and I can understand why this is the N°1 manga nowadays. I got often caught watching a whole bunch of episodes simply because I happened to randomly catch one episode and had to watch how the whole thing would be solved, and even bought some Movie Anime Comics with great funny moment and badass fighting moments when Luffy gets mad! There's a real ambiance to it, when they are in underground bars lit by torches, in an island's castles, on a ship in a middle of a storm.

But the only things preventing me from diving into it fully are the points mentionned above: too long of a commitment for an overall setting and characters that look too much the same over time and easily get boring quickly on me.

In order, for the three main manga stories nowadays, it goes:
1) Dragon Ball. Collecting manga, anime comics, Kai episodes, movies.
2) Naruto. Having watched a few episodes here and there, having played Ultimate Ninja Storm Generations 2 to get a quick go through the Naruto and Naruto Shippuden story until the end of Pain, and finally reading the manga from the beginning of the Great War + watching episodes from the beginning of the Great War.
3) One Piece. Having watched episodes here and there and bought/read Movie Anime comics for their amazing ambiance.