The next Dragonball?

Sun_Wukong · Post by **Sun_Wukong** » Sun Oct 17, 2004 10:43 am

What do you think has taken place of DB in Japan over the past 7 years that there has been nothing new DB related on TV?

My guesses are either:

-Fullmetal Alchemist
-One Piece
-Naruto

I'm gonna have to say its a tie between Fullmetal Alchemist and One Piece. As crazy as it may sound, I think Naruto has a bigger fan base in the US than in Japan.

Thoughts?

Meri · Post by **Meri** » Sun Oct 17, 2004 11:06 am

Sun_Wukong wrote: I'm gonna have to say its a tie between Fullmetal Alchemist and One Piece. As crazy as it may sound, I think Naruto has a bigger fan base in the US than in Japan.

Yep, from what I've heard from people in Japan, Naruto does seem to be more of a fan-hit here. I mean, I'm sure it's popular to some extent, but it doesn't match One Piece in terms of popularity, merchandising, etc.

While FMA is insanely popular, I wouldn't call it the next DB simply due to the length of the series. Naruto and OP are both epic, long-running shonen shows, while FMA just ended at, what, 51 or 52 episodes? I don't doubt its popularity or quality, but to be the next DB, it at least needs to be on TV for a looooong time.

That's just my take on it, though.

Jerseymilk · Post by **Jerseymilk** » Sun Oct 17, 2004 11:11 am

Definitely and without question One Piece. It's big in Japan. Naruto and Full Metal are popular, but One Piece is much moreso. And it is like DB in that it has the most similar elements of the three. Let's remember that Oda made One Piece as a homage to DB in the first place. And like Toriyama and DB, One Piece has a very unique style and feel to it. I'm not saying that Naruto and Full Metal Alchemist aren't great series. I love both of those as well.

Sun_Wukong · Post by **Sun_Wukong** » Sun Oct 17, 2004 11:20 am

FMA is crazy popular in Japan. They even have travel towels and cooking supplies related to it O.o. But yeah, One Piece has been around a few years longer than FMA so its not suprising.

Zackarotto · Post by **Zackarotto** » Sun Oct 17, 2004 7:21 pm

Meri wrote:FMA just ended at, what, 51 or 52 episodes?

51.

I love FMA, anime and manga both... I don't want to say it's because it can get so "dark" or "serious" but that's sort of the direction I'm heading in. It just captures certain emotions, feelings and horrors in the drawings, perfectly. It's got that realistic edge to it that makes it 1-up the competetion, just like certain Squaresoft / Square-Enix RPGs. Like it's a different world. I don't know.

(And that's something I came up with before knowing about any connections with Square-Enix and FMA...)

The S · Post by **The S** » Sun Oct 17, 2004 10:53 pm

It's sad that it seems to me that the One Piece anime is doing quite poorly over here. It's like, the second least popular show on the Fox Box (#1 being "The Cra(m)p Twins".

Sun_Wukong · Post by **Sun_Wukong** » Mon Oct 18, 2004 6:29 am

Well have you seen the dub? Its not suprising its doing so poorly over here. Its actually worse than the Shaman King dub.

Jerseymilk · Post by **Jerseymilk** » Mon Oct 18, 2004 7:03 am

The S wrote:It's sad that it seems to me that the One Piece anime is doing quite poorly over here. It's like, the second least popular show on the Fox Box (#1 being "The Cra(m)p Twins".

It actually doesn't suprise me. I always had a feeling that if One Piece was broadcast on American TV Saturday mornings it wouldn't do well. My reasoning being that I just don't kids over here will get One Piece. From the look of the show, to the humour. I think that companies like WB, tend to be really narrow-minded when looking for anime shows in Japan to bring over here. "Hey! This show's mega-popular with kids in Japan! We have to buy the rights and broadcast it over here too! That way we'll make lots of money off of merchandising to North American kids!" Just because a show works in one country, doesn't mean it will work in another. Every culture is different.

Meri · Post by **Meri** » Mon Oct 18, 2004 9:57 am

The S wrote:It's sad that it seems to me that the One Piece anime is doing quite poorly over here. It's like, the second least popular show on the Fox Box (#1 being "The Cra(m)p Twins".

According to...? Official stats, please.

Caracal · Post by **Caracal** » Mon Oct 18, 2004 12:41 pm

I'd have thought Naruto would do the best out of the three. I've never seen nor read FMA so I can't give any comments about that but I've flicked through the first manga book for One Piece and found it rather dull and crap. I'd have thought Ninjas would be more popular than Pirates.

IncredibleGuy · Post by **IncredibleGuy** » Mon Oct 18, 2004 12:55 pm

Sun Wukong wrote:Well have you seen the dub? Its not suprising its doing so poorly over here. Its actually worse than the Shaman King dub.

My sisters like the Shaman King dub.

Jerseymilk · Post by **Jerseymilk** » Mon Oct 18, 2004 1:23 pm

Caracal wrote:I'd have thought Naruto would do the best out of the three. I've never seen nor read FMA so I can't give any comments about that but I've flicked through the first manga book for One Piece and found it rather dull and crap. I'd have thought Ninjas would be more popular than Pirates.

Well, I would think it's not suprising that pirates are more popular in Japan over ninjas simply because pirates are different. It's Japan, ninja series and movies are a dime a dozen. Example? The Japanese are crazy about Anne of Green Gables. The Canandian province of P.E.I. gets tons and tons of Japanese tourists every year that come to see the place where the main character lived and to see the Anne of Green Gables museum. Why? The red hair. A rarity in Japan of course. Ninjas? Common part of Japanese culture and history. Pirates? Not part of it. Sure there were Asian pirates, but when you think of a true pirate, you think of the European type, like Black Beard. Japan has a habit of going nuts over anything that's "alien" to them and their culture/country.

laserkid · Post by **laserkid** » Tue Oct 19, 2004 12:26 am

excellent analysis, and the flipside is also true,m we eat up ninja stuff over here, anyone remember how insanely popular Snake Eyes was in GI Joe, and need I mention the Ninja Turtles, stuff thats outside the "norm" is often interesting to a culture.

Zackarotto · Post by **Zackarotto** » Tue Oct 19, 2004 2:10 am

Jerseymilk wrote:The Japanese are crazy about Anne of Green Gables.

There's actually an Anne of Green Gables anime...

Another thing, the Fullmetal anime ends without taking care of everything... There could easily be a FullMetal Alchemist 2. I thought I heard word of it, but I couldn't find anything about it on ANN (where I thought I heard it). Maybe I was thinking of Gundam Seed 2? Who knows...

Mangawise I'm not up to the end of the anime, but I've been going at it as fast as scanslations can come out. One thing I can say is that the anime does a lot of things differently. Major things. Do they think they can write better than the mangaka? I don't even know if it ends in the same place.

There's also a Fullmetal Alchemist movie coming next year. We'll just see what happens.

Izlude · Post by **Izlude** » Tue Oct 19, 2004 2:35 am

Bah Fox Box ratings have yet to be released for this month, there is no telling how One Piece is doing, but I think it'll succeed, hell, Shaman King did last year, prompting it to have another season not to mention an Uncut Bi-lingual dvd release. I cant think of the last time a 4Kids property failed really...

Although, I think 4Kids needs to drop the Fox Box and hit up Toonami.

omae no kaasan · Post by **omae no kaasan** » Tue Oct 19, 2004 11:42 am

One Piece. No contest.

It would be careless of me to say that without pointing out my bias as biggest foreigner OP fan in the universe (http://www.thegrandline.com/onepiece.html) but I can also say that with complete confidence.

Now, if it is a question of which series is the most like DB, then there's no contest that Naruto is replicating DB almost to the point of stealing DB's formula. In fact recently a character went through a "power up" and looked laughably similar to a Super Saiyan. Some of the areas of the story are even a level down from DB. When a saga took a year to accomplish in real world, the end gave you a sense of completion. In Naruto's most recent foible, over a year of straight fighting (real world) just took place and ended with a pathetic sigh and result that changed nothing.

FMA has most of its fans among young manga readers of both sexes, female teens, and youngster's mothers. Personally, I liked the whole "guy with special powers and destroyed body because of traumatic event" when it was centered around the anti-hero in Akira, then pulled off with the hero in Trigun. Now we've got it again with FMA and JUMP now has to have their traumatized teen with partially destroyed body with the boring D. Gray Man.

And yet, OP takes the best parts of DB, tears them apart, and reworks them, adds a soul to the characters, leaves a tinge of shounen manga with characters surviving by the strength of their heart NOT loss of limbs, blood, etc. and pumps new life into the action/adventure shounen manga.

OP rocks my fucking world and it will rock yours too. There's a reason it is the fastest selling manga of all time.

Jerseymilk · Post by **Jerseymilk** » Tue Oct 19, 2004 1:28 pm

(sigh) And yet no matter how many times I tell people, they don't believe me or agree. The two main reasons being that "it's too childish" or that they find the visual style "off-putting". But, I really have failed to see during my following of this series how One Piece is any more childish than DBZ. As for Oda's artwork, yeah, it's very different and "outside" the stereotypical "anime look," but that just makes it more refreshing and makes Oda's style as unique and as easily recognizable as Toriyama's. Fantastically summed up though omae.^^

omae no kaasan · Post by **omae no kaasan** » Tue Oct 19, 2004 4:26 pm

I've flicked through the first manga book for One Piece and found it rather dull and crap

holy SHIT

Let me get this straight. You "flicked through" one volume of thirty-four. You saw 1/34 of the story. You know nothing about the characters. You don't know even half of the main characters, and only a handful of the overwhelming supporting cast. You have not seen how the elements introduced in the first volume have been made into pivotal pieces of information that fans are dying to find out now. You have not seen any of the real villains and you know essentially nothing about the overall story and yet you think it is

"rather dull and crap"

Excuse me, but what a stupid mf.

I at least read through Naruto before I called it a complete DB rip-off.

Funny how Naruto fanboys (not to be confused with Naruto fans) cling to Naruto like a pacifier then when I sit their ass down and make them see the OP story, their eyes open and they realize what dumb fucks they've been to put down OP.

Super Sonic · Post by **Super Sonic** » Tue Oct 19, 2004 9:28 pm

I personally liked the One Piece manga. The only reason I don't buy the graphic novels is because I'm too cheap to buy what I already own in Jump.

The S · Post by **The S** » Tue Oct 19, 2004 10:29 pm

According to...? Official stats, please.

Actually, I no longer have them. Mirage sent me an e-mail sometime early this month (the 2nd I believe) bragging about TMNT being the #1 rated show on Fox Box during the whole premiere day. I deleted it shortly after reading it, but I can remember that the next two after TMNT were "The WINX Club" (bah) and "F-Zero GP Legend" (...). Also, it was rather strange and interesting that Kirby: Right Back At Ya! was nowhere on the list.

Kanzenshuu

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