Ask John: Why Isn’t There More Pirate Anime?

Question:
With the huge popularity of pirate themes right now, why aren’t there any pirate anime besides One Piece? There are many space/air pirate shows, but I haven’t seen any others featuring traditional sea pirates.

Answer:
The Pirates of the Caribbean movie trilogy has been exceptionally successful and popular in Japan (along with most of the rest of the world), but it hasn’t actually touched off a trend in pirate themed entertainment. After all, the American success of CG animated films like Shrek and Toy Story set off a chain of full CG animated movies from a variety of studios. And the success of “March of the Penguins” has led to the development of multiple penguin themed movies. But there haven’t been any seafaring pirate movies made to ride to coat-tails of Disney’s franchise. And despite the popularity of the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise in Japan, there haven’t been any seafaring pirate anime introduced since the debut of “Curse of the Black Pearl.”

I don’t know exactly why there is no current pirate anime besides One Piece. In fact, even One Piece itself is an anomaly because it has been very successful, but hasn’t spawned any clones. I can only think of two possible explanations. The absence of sea pirate anime may be blamed on Japanese creators, or it may be blamed on Japanese anime viewers. The absence of sea pirate anime could be due to the difficulty of composing interesting stories involving pirates. Most anime produced these days is based on earlier material – manga, novels, or games – and there just aren’t any manga, novels, or games about traditional pirates. If Japanese creators don’t want to compose stories about pirates, or aren’t able to invent interesting stories about pirates, then naturally there won’t be any pirate themed anime. Alternately, perhaps the Japanese interest in One Piece and Pirates of the Caribbean is rooted in the unique characteristics of these individual franchises, and not specifically in the pirate story context that they share.

In fact, while pirates may appear in anime with relative frequency (in titles like Laputa, Porco Rosso, The Enemy is the Pirate, Elementar Gerad, and Dirty Pair, just to name a few), anime specifically about pirates and pirate adventure are really not that common. There are several, but their number is rather small in comparison to the total amount of anime produced during the past 40 years. Actual sea faring pirate themed anime include the 1966 television series Prince Pirate; the 1971 Animal Treasure Island movie, the 1978 Treasure Island television series, and the 1987 Treasure Island motion picture – all three based on Robert Louis Stevenson’s classic novel; the 1992 Ellcia OVA series; and the 1998 Doraemon: Nobita’s South Sea Adventure movie. And, of course, there’s the One Piece anime that premiered in 1999. Fans can also look forward to Doraemon again encountering pirates with the June 29th broadcast of the “Pirates Special!! The Great Decisive Battle of the Pirates: A South Seas Love Story,” in which Doraemon and Nobita will meet “Pirate Johnny,” played by actor Johnny Depp.

Anime about pirates in other settings include Space Pirate Captain Harlock, Space Pirate Mito, Sol Bianca, and Desert Pirate! Captain Kuppa. In total, that may be about a dozen examples (that I know of) of specifically pirate themed anime, but that’s a dozen examples spread out over four decades while it’s not difficult to name a dozen “harem” anime or love simulation game adaptations from a single year. So relative to other genres, there really aren’t a lot of pirate themed anime.

I think I’ve established with certainty that there are multiple examples of traditional pirate themed anime, but the theme is not especially frequent in anime, and the phenomenal success of the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise has generated only one Doraemon TV special, not a surge in pirate themed anime or manga productions. Perhaps Japanese creators and consumers aren’t especially interested in the concept of pirates (with occasional exceptions). Or perhaps in the same way that there are many live action masked hero and giant monster movies and TV shows but few anime versions, Japanese viewers may simply prefer pirates in live action rather than in manga or anime form.