Losing interest in One Piece?

[Ichigo-]

I'm always puzzled, I just don't see why people are not really interested in One Piece. Personally I think the anime is really well made and I love it alongside with Naruto & Bleach of course.

It's one of the most popular animes in Asia, not that it matters but why isn't it that popular here in the US though?

[J Dude]

It's one of the most popular animes in Asia, not that it matters but why isn't it that popular here in the US though?

John touched on this recently I believe and made a pretty good point. Look at how pirates are stereotyped here in America. People over here are just more fascinated by shinigamis and ninjas rather than pirates, who are stereotyped as being either your typical fat scrub with a bandanna or your peg leg eye-patched captain with a beard, a hook for a hand, and a parrot on his shoulder. I'm not sure how accurate that really is as to why One Piece isn't all that popular over here, but it does seem to make sense.

If you want my opinion, One Piece is in a whole different league than Bleach. One Piece just keeps getting more awesome, has a very small amount of filler for a near 300 episode show, while in my opinion Bleach was really only awesome until the end of Soul Society and its just lost its touch after that. I guess I should point out that I haven't watched the anime ever since the Hueco Mundo arc started up. Bleach had just gotten really average after Soul Society ended in my opinion. Not to put the blame solely on the large amount of filler that came around after Soul Society, but even the Arrancar stuff after that, which was based off manga material wasn't anything special. I can't comment on Naruto, but I really don't have any interest in watching it and probably wouldn't watch it unless I'm just that bored to see it. I haven't seen anything about it that's made me want to jump up and down like a schoolgirl and go watch it.

[Levon]

It's one of the most popular animes in Asia, not that it matters but why isn't it that popular here in the US though?


I think its popular just not super mainstream popular like 4Kids tried to do. Thank god it failed!;) If it had done so well 4Kids wouldn't let it go.

But still popular enough that FUNi saved it. They know the DVDs will sell well to fans.

[Cupi~chan]

OP is not very popular in the US, too bad. If the people will give it try at least couple of episodes, they' ll love it.

I have to say, I didn' t like OP at first, it took me time and lots of episodes, but once I got into it, the rest was just awesome! It' s my favorite show right now, right in front of Naruto.

[Black Cat]

cuz 4KIDS ruined it

[tenshi_a]

Look at how pirates are stereotyped here in America. People over here are just more fascinated by shinigamis and ninjas rather than pirates, who are stereotyped as being either your typical fat scrub with a bandanna or your peg leg eye-patched captain with a beard, a hook for a hand, and a parrot on his shoulder.

I thought Pirates Of The Carribean made pirates cool again?

I don't recall pirates being totally washed out in the eternal "Ninjas VS Pirates" thing.

Having said that... maybe One Piece would be more popular if all the pirates went around going "ARRRR JIM LAD", and, well, more like the famous pirates of legend.

[Daishikaze]

My guess is its like many of the really good Shounen shows, It just doesn't resonate with the English speaking audience. I've not seen OP yet, but there are alot of great shounen shows that are popular everywhere else except The US, England, and Austrailia. I do hope that they release this series in full instead of copping out because its not a huge seller.

[Ichigo-]

I thought Pirates Of The Carribean made pirates cool again?

I don't recall pirates being totally washed out in the eternal "Ninjas VS Pirates" thing.

Having said that... maybe One Piece would be more popular if all the pirates went around going "ARRRR JIM LAD", and, well, more like the famous pirates of legend.

I totally agree with you, things like Pirates of the Carribean definitely has made pirates live again. As an American, I love pirates to start and I'm just not quite sure why wouldn't anyone else. They've always been a mystery in our text books and I remember having class discussions on them in our class for history.

I guess the internet is still not powerful enough to take on Cartoon Network and such. So it's a fair guess so say if Naruto is taken out that the audience will die down too? It's really puzzling to me still.

[LordGdawg]

In my experience after asking all my friends who admit to watching anime it just because of the way the show looks.That's it no special exsitential (sp?) reason ;no qualified literary objections; just the way the show looks; but I kept talk about it and they eventually caved in and watched it and now we have more die hard fans

[f2akid]

cuz 4KIDS ruined it

Definitely.

That always bugs me about One Piece when I ask myself why I only know 2 friends who enjoy One Piece, and the ironic thing is they're the only ones who actually bothered to watch a subbed episode to get into it.

Simple fact: 4kids ruined One Piece for good, it got off on the wrong foot with western audiences because of 4kids and it would take something very significant to fix it, not just slightly above average dubbing by funi. 4kids Piece comes across as mediocre at best(relax, relax, I mean to the neutral), anyone I know who doesn't watch anime and saw an episode of this thought that.

If you go to ANN and check out One Piece's section, look at the ratings, the pattern is almost perfect for it to make top 5 anime on the website. Only problem is theres one part of the ratings that sticks out like a sore thumb near the bottom (I think its the worst ever rating) and if you look at that particular section closely they are ratings for the dub. This has tainted the overall score for it and it doesn't even make top 50 because of the blip in the radar. All thanks to 4kids.

Thank you 4kids, you really know what people want.