Ask John: Does One Piece Still Have a Future in America?

Question:
With 4Kids ceasing the English production of One Piece, I wonder if it still has a future in America. With poor video game sales, a failed card game, and almost no marketing for any of these products, I fear that One Piece may have lost it’s chance to continue in America. Although this isn’t the first time an anime has failed, only to be revived later by another company. For instance Dragonball, Dragonball Z, and Sailor Moon all had low ratings with their intial run on the Fox network and were cancelled after a few episodes. But when they were picked up by different companies and aired on Cartoon Network, they gained higher ratings and uncut releases. But One Piece is a different story, and I wonder what is your opinion with One Piece’s future in America.

Answer:
Considering the massive success of the One Piece franchise in Japan, the series’ innate quality and characteristics, its reception by America’s hardcore otaku community, and the marketing blitz the series received in America, One Piece should have followed in the footsteps of Dragon Ball Z, Naruto, Yu Yu Hakusho, Inuyasha, and Yu-Gi-Oh and become a major, mainstream smash hit. But that didn’t happen, primarily for one reason. 4Kids Entertainment terribly mishandled the property, almost fatally wounding it. One Piece is a unique show that has a broad Japanese audience of both mainstream children and hardcore anime fans. In fact, the show’s success may be attributable to its ability to appeal to both children and teen and young adult viewers. But for its American release, 4Kids tried to alter the show’s formula. By applying countless changes, from replacing not just the original music, but even the style of the original music, and applying condescending edits like censoring violence and mature references – for instance, changing Sanji’s trademark cigarette to a lollipop – 4Kids changed the entire spirit and tone of the series. The authentic Japanese One Piece is an absorbing, humorous adventure series. 4Kids’ One Piece is a blatantly artificial and shameless commodity constructed by committee and totally out of touch with the show’s true audience and the show’s original charm. Furthermore, the series’ original American television broadcast didn’t put it before the audience most likely to support the series’ domestic video games, card game, DVDs, and other merchandising. Series like Dragon Ball Z, Naruto, Yu Yu Hakusho, and Inuyasha have, as much as possible, embraced their original Japanese characteristics and tried to reach the American audience most interested in watching these shows. 4Kids did the opposite with One Piece by trying to force it onto a certain American viewer demographic and ignoring the audience that most wanted to watch the show.

Predictably, 4Kids’ attempt to mould One Piece into a cash cow failed, and the company has ceased its support for the show. In certain instances, such failure would be the end of a show’s life in America. Series like Digimon, Bistro Recipe, Moncolle Knight, Hare Tokidoki Buta, and Mashurambo have aired on American television then faded into obscurity. But One Piece is different because it’s such a massive hit in Japan, and a show with tremendous untapped American commercial potential. Doubtlessly there are American licensors aware of how popular One Piece is in America’s fan community. And doubtlessly there are American licensors eager to try their hand at marketing One Piece to American consumers with a different strategy than 4Kids’ failed strategy. According to unconfirmed rumor, even Toei Animation is unhappy with 4Kids and the failure of One Piece in America. I wholeheartedly believe that it’s only a matter of time until the One Piece anime franchise is re-launched in America, probably under the care of a new licensor. One Piece is one of Toei Animation’s current flagship titles, and it’s a major potential cash cow for the studio. In other words, I think that One Piece is too big of a property for Toei to dismiss as a failure.

I’m not so certain about the future potential of One Piece in America. Although I’ve only got a gut instinct to go on, I fully expect to see One Piece eventually re-licensed and re-launched in America, but I do wonder if its initial failed release will be an intractable blow to the series’ American potential. Even if the One Piece franchise gets re-released in America, it will be haunted by its past stigma of failure, not to mention thousands of edited and censored, English dubbed only One Piece DVDs currently on the market. I have no doubts that One Piece could be more successful during a re-release than it was during its original American release, if a re-launch is handled effectively. But I do wonder if One Piece can possibly ever succeed in America in the future quite as well as it could have if it had premiered positively in America the first time around. But curious speculation aside, I don’t think American fans should worry about One Piece anime disappearing from America. The Sailor Moon anime eventually lost its support from DIC but was picked up and distributed successfully by AD Vision and Geneon. Warner Bros. and Nelvana ceased their distribution of Cardcaptors, but Geneon still supported Card Captor Sakura. The future may prove me wrong, but at this point in time, I’m confident that we’ll eventually see One Piece land in the hands of another American distributor now that 4Kids has ceased producing the show.