Why is One Piece less popular than Bleach/Naruto

[monir]

Didn't really want to post in the thread but the overwhelming desire to do a few factual checks swayed me away from my resolve.

Originally Posted by Dual247

i mean, come on people. we all know why its less popular. its the freakin marketing here in north america. the way this show is treated with the god-awful dubbed version, who the hell wants to get near that piece of shit? they changed it from what it is to what it isn't.

Actually, we don't _all_ know why One Piece is less popular, but a lot of us have our own theories and speculations on the matter. The fact is, One Piece never had such a big following outside of Japan even before the show would suffer the wrath of Fox Kids. Of course, there were considerable followings for the original version then (and still are) but those number pales in comparison to shows such as Naruto (or Bleach), i.e. simply compare some of the bittorrent stats for those shows.

on the other hand, we have naruto. that license is being treated as gold and with care over at cartoon network. they did it right and did it with justice. sure there are some edits here and there with some blood, but blood still exist. and then the voice dub, it actually sound decent, and at times, sounds great. there's no doubt which series is being taken seriously.

This is another argument that is seen often enough anytime this sort of topic comes along. I like to think that the most knowledgeable people are those who are behind the scenes' bringing these shows who are also known as the marketers/licensors. They obviously feel a show like Naruto will appeal to a wider range of intended audience than One Piece which is why there was such a huge bidding war went for sometime before Naruto was licensed by an American company. One Piece's licensing, on the other hand, was quite lowkey and remained vague
for sometime. Go here to get a feel for what I'm trying to say. It took place about 3 years back. The outcry about the 4Kids' atrocity began only after the dub started airing which also gave One Piece some recognition to few more new fans, inadvertantly of course.

if OP was marketing the right way from day 1 with materials true to the source, i have no doubt it'd be one of the top shows in america alongside naruto. and that's the bottom line cuz stone... cuz i said so

This one of the popular reasoning for people who likes to point out when asked why OP is less popular than Naruto. I, myself, don't quite share that reasoning though I understand, there might be some truth to it. I believe One Piece, even with it's original story (with those superb musical scores,) never had a chance among the target audience of the western market.

i mean, is it any wonder why one piece is more popular than naruto overseas? OP is the most popular series in japan.

I'm surprised that nobody asked the question, "which version of the OP is more popular in Japan - the animated version, the manga version, or both?" The answer is, the manga version of OP is one of the most popular manga published in Shounen Jump. Naruto manga is the other most popular manga that is being weekly published. On an unrelated fact, I think it was last year when it was published somewhere the earnings of the top 5 mangaka in Japan, and Kishimoto was residing the 1st place.

While OP and Naruto are indeed very popular manga-wise, animated OP has been steadily dwindling down in the TV rating in Japan for the past 9 months or so, which directly reflects it popularity among fans. Naruto, on the other hand, still comfortably makes the top 10 chart in the TV rating even with these craptacular filler.

What it tells us is that animated Naruto is more popular than the animated One Piece at this moment in Japan while the manga counterpart for both of these title are very popular.

Btw, here is a top-100 list for comic/manga titles that are selling in the US as of June 2006. Here is a refined version of that list that only shows the manga. I don't see One Piece in that list while Naruto, Bleach, and Nana are all their.

The obvious conclusion is that while One Piece's popularity is exclusively in Japan, shows like Naruto enjoys popularity inside in Japan and outside.

[Undertaker]

I won:t say it exclusively in Japon, As far as I know OP is definitely more popular in the surrounding area as well (China, Taiwan, Hon Kong and Korea)

I agree with assessment on the anime, with OP start to losing a bit to naruto but Manga-wise OP still hold the firm ground. I believe Vol. 24 (End of Croc fight) is still holds the record as the highest selling manga in Japan.

That being said, both are still beast of a series, I don't remeber any time in past twenty years or so to have two series this popular at same time, DB was the undisputed #1 before these two and before then, it was to Doremon series....

[Hiking_Bear]

Here are the numbers for most popular manga in Japan:

http://www.comipress.com/196

It looks like One Piece is on it's way to becoming Japan's best selling manga.

Here is poll of the most popular animated series in Japan from 2005:

http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/article.php?id=7455

The popularity of a manga doesn't mean that it's animated version will also be popular. For example, in the US x-men is the most popular comic book series, but the Simpsons and Family Guy are the most popular animated series.

[pinkflower80]

WHAT>!?!?!?!?!one piece is least rated then bleach and Naruto?!?!?!THAT CAN'T BE!!!that is werid. But some of my ideasfor the reason is for.

1) We don't have many anime Fans out there cause they are all "popular" and all that junk.
2) cause right nw they are playing REVIEW episodes of One piece which makes me amd cause i want them to play new ones.
3) cause peopel are stuipd for not liking it.
4) cause peopel are stuipd for not liking it.
And 5).......cause they are stuipd for not liking it!!!

THERE!!!! those are my idea for the reasons. HOPE TO TALK SOON!!!

[chitgoks]

i used to like naruto. but it hell got boring pretty soon.. even i dont like the manga anymore.. one piece is waaaaaaaay better.. even the fillers are waaaaaaaaay better than both bleach and naruto.

bleach's filler is making renji boring ... that group who's making the filler is a trying hard group wanting to try hard and delay the anime as much as possible

[pinkflower80]

Originally Posted by chitgoks

i used to like naruto. but it hell got boring pretty soon.. even i dont like the manga anymore.. one piece is waaaaaaaay better.. even the fillers are waaaaaaaaay better than both bleach and naruto.

bleach's filler is making renji boring ... that group who's making the filler is a trying hard group wanting to try hard and delay the anime as much as possible

OMG!!!! you DON'T like Naruto anymore?!?!?!shame on you!!!and you don't ;like Mangas anymore either?!?!?!?SHAME SHAME SHAME SHAME ON YOU!!!! no affense or anything. ad true that onepiece is WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY better then ANYTHING!!!!WOOT!!!!

[Chuixupu]

Whoa, someone needs to lay off the caffeine...

[nduns]

Originally Posted by Chuixupu

Whoa, someone needs to lay off the caffeine...

I know! I can't believe we went this long without brining up this little point:

Easy on the exclamation points and question marks. It's a waste of space.

[S_C_L-1]

Originally Posted by Chuixupu

Whoa, someone needs to lay off the caffeine...

or the bishis :P

[Climhazard]

Originally Posted by nduns

I know! I can't believe we went this long without brining up this little point:

Easy on the exclamation points and question marks. It's a waste of space.

I was tempted to bring it up, but i didnt want to start an all out flame war on an otherwise nice forum....!!!!!!!!!!!

[pinkflower80]

HEY!!!! is that refering to me?!?!!?

[S_C_L-1]

Originally Posted by pinkflower80

HEY!!!! is that refering to me?!?!!?

sry, but i really had to highlight that...

[pinkflower80]

Originally Posted by S_C_L-1

sry, but i really had to highlight that...

and WHY did you have to hight light that? Thats is just WERID!!!

[forest child]

to show you that you are using too many !'s and ?'s.

[S_C_L-1]

Originally Posted by forest child

to show you that you are using too many !'s and ?'s.

shouldve done it the other way around... cuz it looks like a question?

[pinkflower80]

*sweat drops* i TOTALLY knew that. but i can't HELP myself!!!I like to do that!!!!hehehehe!!!!!!!

[matsuno]

Originally Posted by pinkflower80

*sweat drops* i TOTALLY knew that. but i can't HELP myself!!!I like to do that!!!!hehehehe!!!!!!!

you are the most annoying person on this forum, bar none.

[Chuixupu]

I agree.

[S_C_L-1]

Originally Posted by matsuno

you are the most annoying person on this forum, bar none.

you have gained 30 reputation points with the S_C_L-1 faction

[pinkflower80]

is that what you guys really think of me? Ijust try to be funny. *balls out tears* How rude!!!