Is 'One Piece' at DBZ's level of popularity in the past?

Brad Redfield · Post by **Brad Redfield** » Mon Jan 29, 2007 7:12 pm

SSj Kaboom wrote:It's not like I revealed anything about the story, or anything.

...completely ignoring the fact that it was one of the biggest plot elements in the last arc.

Sun_Wukong · Post by **Sun_Wukong** » Mon Jan 29, 2007 7:24 pm

One Piece must be at least somewhat popular here, or they wouldnt have put out all those PS2 games. But DBZ level? No way in hell.

Busaiku · Post by **Busaiku** » Mon Jan 29, 2007 8:06 pm

The manga is defintely as popular as Dragonball was, if not more so.
The anime, I'm not so sure. I believe it mangaes to land in the top 10s of Animation, but I have no idea how Dragonball/Dragonball Z/Dragonball GT did. DVD sales though, not sure on that, the Dragonbox singles are selling pretty consistently in the 25,000 or so range per release (on average), which isn't all that bad considering other new series not pulling in that much higher or even lower.
That's all in Japan of course.

I don't think many people have even heard of One Piece beyond a good portion of anime viewers. Manga sales haven't been all that hot (well, in comparison to stuff like Naruto or Dragonball in the past), and DVD sales are no doubt abysmal.
Though there is a good sized community that follows fansubs.

fps_anth · Post by **fps_anth** » Mon Jan 29, 2007 8:26 pm

SSj Kaboom wrote:
Brad Redfield wrote:SSj Kaboom, that's a gigantic spoiler you have in your post.

Oh, sorry. I knew it was a little spoilerish, but I didn't think it'd be that big a deal. It's not like I revealed anything about the story, or anything.

Meh, I was already presented with the spoiler of Franky becomes a member of the Straw Hats, so I guess another can't hurt me. I'm trying to avoid the manga as much as possible, considering that they are ahead of the anime. If I'm not mistaken, all the CP9 stuff is finished in the manga, right? (you don't need to answer that if it has spoilers!)

BlueSky · Post by **Kaboom** » Mon Jan 29, 2007 8:41 pm

fps_anth wrote: I'm trying to avoid the manga as much as possible, considering that they are ahead of the anime. If I'm not mistaken, all the CP9 stuff is finished in the manga, right? (you don't need to answer that if it has spoilers!)

Actually, I'm kinda doing the same. I'm in the process of going through the series on YouTube (F*** you and your "rights," 4Kids!), using Wikipedia as reference so I can skip over filler and such. I've watched two of the movies, as well. I'm still about halfway through the Skypiea, arc, so I really shouldn't be reading ahead. But when I heard they got a new ship and crew member, I couldn't resist but take a peek at the latest couple chapters... ^_^

Looking forward to the CP9 arc, though (Gear 2nd and 3rd ftw)

Mr.Piccolo · Post by **Mr.Piccolo** » Mon Jan 29, 2007 8:48 pm

I'm going to ask one time.. please don't spoil this for me.

*gulps* Aside from seeing characters that are apparently far from where I am in the manga (Franky and Robin), I want everything to be some sort of a surprise. Thanks. That was the one and only warning.

For the record, I've even staying away from episodes off of YouTube. Yup. I want to read straight from the manga and maybe someday, I can compare anime to manga like what I wanted to do with Dragonball (tear)...

As for my actual thoughts in the subject, I'd say manga-wise in Japan it's probably in the same pop-culture level or at least getting there. I mean they have a damn ship floating around..! But here, I think the amazing 4Kids dub is keeping some potential fans away. I mean I caught that Cartoon Network promo for OP on Saturday and Luffy doesn't sound like anything I pictured him like. I'll post more some other time
-Rick

EvilGamerX · Post by **EvilGamerX** » Mon Jan 29, 2007 9:24 pm

Oooo... One Piece.... I'll keep this short

Let's see... what was it... ah yes, I believe volume 25 holds the record for tankobon sales in Japan. So it definitely is way up there in popularity.

Will it ever be here? No. Why? The manga translation is crap. The anime was already ruined by 4kids, so I doubt it recovering, not to mention the fact that when compared to the manga... the anime falls way short. If things were properly done, it would be a huge success here. The amount of editing and dumbing-down for the anime in the US was way more than DBZ. Compared to how the manga translations for DBZ (at the beginning), One Piece suffered more to all the unnecessary pirate slang (Come on, they put "Shiver me timbers" when a guy was just supposed to be screaming). Back to Japan. One Piece is in the top 10, even makes top 5 once in a while for anime ratings. It usually goes... Not to mention being rated #1 in Jump pretty much every week, and eventually goes to #2 with bad chapters. Meanwhile big hits like Naruto, Bleach, and Reborn still flake to the middle of Jump sometimes. If anything is to be the new DBZ in terms of popularity for the shounen genre, it is One Piece.
Sazae-san, Chibi-Maruko-chan, Crayon Shin-chan, Doraemon, and then Detective Conan, One Piece, and the next Pokemon series toss each other around every week for that #5 spot. One Piece is the shounen series when it comes to popularity now-a-days.
I won't even be surprised if Toei eventually feels the need for a DBZ/OP crossover other than the 100 degree room specials. Whether it be on TV or on the silver screen.

I'm gonna stop now cause I need food.

caejones · Post by **caejones** » Tue Jan 30, 2007 8:45 am

Consensus is Japan yes, North America no.

My father is a big fan of DB and enjoys Naruto, but can't stand Onepiece. This comes from only seeing the dubs of each series.
'nough said.

Vhanos · Post by **Vhanos** » Tue Jan 30, 2007 11:27 am

Hard to say. The original Dragon Ball I can see a case but Z maybe not. I think it appears that One Piece isn't more popular in the states than Naruto because it doesn't have the action like Naruto does. Which reminds me about Dragon Ball. Z came to North America and was more successful first because it had more action than its previous counterpart.

EvilGamerX · Post by **EvilGamerX** » Tue Jan 30, 2007 1:08 pm

caejones wrote:Consensus is Japan yes, North America no.

My father is a big fan of DB and enjoys Naruto, but can't stand Onepiece. This comes from only seeing the dubs of each series.
'nough said.

Naruto dub is a good dub (not show) because the voices are fine and not much is edited. One Piece dub is a piece of crap, and I wouldn't even like One Piece if I only saw the dub. Using the dub as an example in this case is just stupid because the treatment of the dubs is on different levels. So basically if a company picks up the OP dub and does a good job, we could see a change of colors.... unless people are still influenced by the dub too much to not give a new dub a try.

From the previous post, I agree that here in the U.S., kids just want action action action. They don't care about plot, originality, or character development.

caejones · Post by **caejones** » Wed Jan 31, 2007 7:28 am

That's basically what I was saying... ^^.

fps_anth · Post by **fps_anth** » Wed Jan 31, 2007 9:04 am

All right, now that I've actually read some manga, I can say this. After 44 tankobon, One Piece has successfully completed four major arcs (Pre-Grand Line, Arabasta, Skypiea, Water 7/Enies Lobby). Kinda funny that Toriyama was able to fit all of Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Z in 42 volumes, and Oda used up 44 for four and still going! I wonder just how long One Piece will go on for...perhaps 175 volumes! It's happened!

Mr.Piccolo · Post by **Mr.Piccolo** » Wed Jan 31, 2007 9:46 am

This is probably going to sound weird but maybe one of the reasons that OP is longer is because the way the story is actually drawn out. From what I've read, compared to DragonBall everything is larger. Characters seem stretched out more and action scenes are seen with a few different angles. I don't know if this is coming out right.. Maybe it's because I'm too used to Toriyama's style of storytelling or because I haven't read enough One Piece. Probably a combination of both.
-Rick

EvilGamerX · Post by **EvilGamerX** » Wed Jan 31, 2007 11:52 am

I don't find things dragged out as much. In the anime, hell yes it is. I also like to see Arlong as it's own arc. To me, that was what gets people really into the series. Before it is just fun, and then once Arlong arc came... hooked. I mean, it did have really emotional scenes like Nami stabbing her arm to rid the tattoo, and Luffy catching her arm before she swings again or when he put the hat on her or when he shouted out to her that she is one of them (ナミ！！！　お前はおれの仲間だ！！！！). Also a lot of people will say Skypiea is dragged out in the manga, but after re-reading it all in a few sittings (I was re-reading One Piece, one volume a day... and Skypiea was a couple of volumes), I found it to be well done.

fps_anth · Post by **fps_anth** » Wed Jan 31, 2007 12:12 pm

EvilGamerX wrote:I don't find things dragged out as much. In the anime, hell yes it is. I also like to see Arlong as it's own arc. To me, that was what gets people really into the series. Before it is just fun, and then once Arlong arc came... hooked. I mean, it did have really emotional scenes like Nami stabbing her arm to rid the tattoo, and Luffy catching her arm before she swings again or when he put the hat on her or when he shouted out to her that she is one of them (ナミ！！！　お前はおれの仲間だ！！！！). Also a lot of people will say Skypiea is dragged out in the manga, but after re-reading it all in a few sittings (I was re-reading One Piece, one volume a day... and Skypiea was a couple of volumes), I found it to be well done.

Tru dat. The Arlong stuff really got me hooked. Skypiea shouldn't be considered dragged out, it was very well done. I enjoy Arabasta better, but Skypiea was still definately well done. "I can't jerk this ball off!"=best.quote.ever.

Gomu Gomu no Hanabi!

PiccoloDaimao · Post by **PiccoloDaimao** » Sat Feb 03, 2007 6:54 pm

No it won't. Dragonballz had an appeal that spanned to many people. It was appealing to almost every "clique" in the K-12 demographic. Plus America at that time had never seen an animated show that was based around fighting in that way (ie: the powerlevels and ki blasts). Not to mention some of the coolest animated fighting around, and badass characters to add to the list. You can also thank characters like Vegeta in the first run (96'-97') to make most people say "Holy S@#$"!

Sebastian (SB) · Post by **Sebastian (SB)** » Sun Feb 04, 2007 12:01 am

EvilGamerX wrote:I don't find things dragged out as much. In the anime, hell yes it is. I also like to see Arlong as it's own arc. To me, that was what gets people really into the series. Before it is just fun, and then once Arlong arc came... hooked. I mean, it did have really emotional scenes like Nami stabbing her arm to rid the tattoo, and Luffy catching her arm before she swings again or when he put the hat on her or when he shouted out to her that she is one of them (ナミ！！！　お前はおれの仲間だ！！！！). Also a lot of people will say Skypiea is dragged out in the manga, but after re-reading it all in a few sittings (I was re-reading One Piece, one volume a day... and Skypiea was a couple of volumes), I found it to be well done.

I haven't read the Skypiea arc, but I've seen the anime version & do indeed find it to be dragged out, but I found the conclusion of the arc to be well worth it.

QuantumDestiny · Post by **QuantumDestiny** » Sun Feb 04, 2007 12:09 am

chibi_goten wrote:
SSj Kaboom wrote: I mean, there's a replica of the Going Merry floating in Tokyo harbor, for pete's sake.
I just had to find it. One Piece is actually really good, I wasn't sure but I stuck with the manga like I was advised to do and it is funny, and has aspects of Dragonball in it. In England though, One Piece is just slightly under the popularity of what Dragonball was in it's peak, though I would say it's getting there.

There's a room on that boat with a large replica of Shenron, and DragonBall/One Piece crossover animation playing on screens around the room, 360degrees.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MHHFyzbHawE
Don't think One Piece is going to ever overshadow DragonBall, no one will ever let anyone forget it!

fps_anth · Post by **fps_anth** » Sun Feb 04, 2007 12:38 am

QuantumDestiny wrote:
chibi_goten wrote:
SSj Kaboom wrote: I mean, there's a replica of the Going Merry floating in Tokyo harbor, for pete's sake.
I just had to find it. One Piece is actually really good, I wasn't sure but I stuck with the manga like I was advised to do and it is funny, and has aspects of Dragonball in it. In England though, One Piece is just slightly under the popularity of what Dragonball was in it's peak, though I would say it's getting there.
There's a room on that boat with a large replica of Shenron, and DragonBall/One Piece crossover animation playing on screens around the room, 360degrees.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MHHFyzbHawE
Don't think One Piece is going to ever overshadow DragonBall, no one will ever let anyone forget it!

Does the crossover play 24/7? Or just at certain times? If it does play frequently, then that's big respect towards Dragon Ball. Think about it. Dragon Ball inside the damn Going Merry!

omae no kaasan · Post by **omae no kaasan** » Mon Feb 12, 2007 11:09 pm

Nope.

I doubt anything will ever top Dragon Ball because Dragon Ball is/was Dragon Ball. It's practically a rite of passage in Japan.

I'm continually amazed by the fact that at least one kid in each of my classes can tell me how many times larger Porunga is than Shenron.

I mean seriously.

If you wanna look at sales, yeah okay, it's the fastest-selling and it will trounce DB in size thereby stealing its place someday I'm sure. But it still says nothing about how well people know it.

Japanese people fucking know Dragon Ball. They just do.

A lot of Japanese people know about OP, but it's selective.

"Oh I like the deer thing!"

"The Devil Fruit thing right?"

"Yeah it's neat but I stopped reading around Skypiea."

Not exactly the same level as say being able to name almost 200+ moves from memory by simply watching someone do movements with their hands.

OP is huge. It's humongor huge. But it's [sadly IMHO] no Dragon Ball.

There's a room on that boat with a large replica of Shenron, and DragonBall/One Piece crossover animation playing on screens around the room, 360degrees.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MHHFyzbHawE
Don't think One Piece is going to ever overshadow DragonBall, no one will ever let anyone forget it!

WOW DID THAT EVER GET BLOWN THE FUCK OUT OF PROPORTION!!!

The event is a summer promotional island-wide 'festival' of sorts on Odaiba off-shore of of Tokyo where the Fuji Television station is located. There are multiple events going on, just one of which is the Merry ride.

There is/was no room on Merry like that. That is the sphere in the Fuji Television station seen here
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/c ... Odaiba.jpg

The replica of Shenron is nowhere near the boat. The boat has recent episodes and other promotional crap playing amidst the obscene crowds and merchandise.

The special showing was only seen for two years. One in 2003 that was a special Astro Boy, OP, DBZ crossover, then again in 2004 as the Kochikame, DBZ, OP crossover.

It hasn't played since to my knowledge.