Discussion The Popularity of One Piece Among Adults

[tonyyao82]

Hey everyone, just a recent One Piece fan. I know NHK did a survey on One Piece and I do wonder what makes it so appealing to adults. I would like to share these thoughts here.

http://www.mangatherapy.com/post/3601503033/one-piece-popularity

When and how did everyone get into One Piece in the first place?

 

[MaiSiaoSiao]

I first watch one piece like 8years ago.Was switching tv channels then i saw OP.watch it for aw few episodes then the tv station stopped airing it.7years later.I overheard my classmates talking bout OP.So i decided to watch op from ep1.Up till now XD

 

[Geez]

Mangatherapy summed it up well!

At first, i was only interested in naruto, bleach and co. and ignored One Piece because of its particular design. But, reading a lot of different mangas makes your tastes evolve, and once you started OP you can't imagine a second to stop... it's insane !!!

I'm not an early fan, but i did my best to catch up the delay. Now, i cannot understand why certain people insist on ignoring OP, it's like:

- "Yeah i LOVE big action movies"
- "Really? Did you see Avatar?"
- "Eww no, they're too blue."
-

 

[saladesu]

I got into One Piece when I was 14 or 15, so I guess I wasn't an adult then

I think like most others I was into Naruto and Bleach first, and the length and artwork of One Piece bothered me and I avoided it like the plague. But my brother convinced me to read it, kept saying it was the best manga ever, and after like 2 months I succumbed

Now I'm the one trying to convince others to read it, but as one would expect 600+ chapters is rather daunting...

As for what makes it appealing to adults, I would say it's its humor and lightheartedness. After a hard day of work it's something happy to look forward to, I guess? At the same time it also has a blend of maturity and epicness and much emotion to make you invested in the characters.

 

[Shiki_Dance]

I remember reading the article about OP's popularity among adults and thinking, "hey, that's ME!"

I didn't start reading OP until... maybe about 3 years ago now, meaning I was already in my 20s by then. Then and now, I'm not a big follower of manga and anime. A series here and there when I have the time (being a graduate student, that's not often), and I adore the Miyazaki films, but most of the popular stuff is formulaic and uninteresting to me. OP was and is a huge exception.

I think the main point is the storytelling. Oda's style is very suited to an older audience. Younger people get into the angsty drama (romance being a big part of that), while an older audience will find that style of drama juvenile and frustrating. It's no fun to read/watch. We've dealt with all that already, don't need to go there again (ugh, middle school memories...). The drama in OP is much more mature. The characters are personally dealing with their emotions and the situations in a way that makes more sense to us.

That said, OP has this sense of child-like wonder at the world and, even at it's most dramatic moments, never forgets that this sense of adventure and discovery is really close to its heart. Adults embracing their inner child appreciate this while a younger audience may not feel that it is possible to be completely serious and hilariously silly at the same time.

And there is such honesty in the way Oda tells the story. You can feel his earnestness and love for the characters. He does what he feels like doing, and the story is better for it.

Ok, I could gush forever, but I will wrap up with saying that I, too, was one of those people that it took a few tries - getting further each time - to get into the series. The artwork turned me off. Not that I liked more traditional anime style (I actually really, really don't), but because it just wasn't... very good. The further I got and the more Oda settled into his own personal and unique drawing style, the better OP became. Recently, I think the artwork has become simply stunning with lush backgrounds and dynamic page layouts.

I guess it's worth mentioning, in order to get a vague idea of where I come from with my views (obviously everything I said is a matter of my own opinion), that I received my undergraduate degree in Fine Arts and I'm currently working on a graduate degree in computer animation. So basically, I decided to pick a career where acting like a kid for the rest of my life is not only possible, but required to be good at my job. As a visual storyteller, Oda is a huge inspiration to me.

Wow, long post. Sorry.

 

[tonyyao82]

Wow, guys. Thanks for the responses.

I heard about One Piece and saw an episode on 4Kids. But, honestly, I never got interested in it. Until after the time-skip. One of my cousins kept talking about it religiously, so I finally decided to catch it.

I do feel that the family theme is very prevalent towards adults. I'm sure there are teens that worry about these issues, but adults want people they can trust and be alright around.

Nico Robin proclaiming her will to live and the Straw Hats raising their fists in support of Vivi are two of my favorite moments.

 

[Schabrak]

Seems like my tenth anniversity was in january, meaning I'm a fan for a whole decade + 2 months.^^ I remeber reading about OP in the last volume of DB[rls Nov/Dec '00 and it was advertized with "the jouney will go on" starting in Januarry '01 and loved it since, well as a die hard fanDB of , I got hooked up with Luffy, Zorro and Nami the moment I led the book in my hands.

 

[matzik1212]

i'm not an old fan of OP i heard about it since long ago but at first i didn't felt attracted to start this series 'cause (i'm ashamed of myself) i didn't liked luffy at first(now of course he's one of my favs) ...i don't know but at first i thought luffy's appearance was kinda strange and annoying so i didn't give it a try until one day and thank' god for that 'cause i fell in love again just like how happened with naruto

 

[Uriel]

Well, I'm a huge fan of One Piece, but it did not started that way. Naruto was my thing and I followed it convinced that it was the best. Then I discovered Hunter X Hunter and my taste evolved quite significantly to start to consider story over art (And knowing Hunter X Hunter it's the only way xD) and then I knew Bleach. They were both fine and I avoided One Piece because the art did not appeal me at first.

Last year I was bored so I decided to give it a chance and...Oh damn. Got me COMPLETELY. I quickly forgot about my opinion of the art and suddenly could see the awesome of it comparing with the rest.

 

[Bhoot]

Well when i was younger , me and my mom used to sit together and watch One Piece . It was one of the very few times that we got to spend together since she is generally very busy with work .

Well , but around the Arlong arc, One Piece stopped airing on Cartoon Network . Well then i had no relation to it , until like 6 months or so ago when i started reading One Piece . [I came to this forum coz of Fairy Tail , but ended up reading One Piece a lot as well]

Now i m only 18 so i m not sure u can call me a full grown adult though

 

[Aikidoka]

Well, technically I'm now an adult...=P

In all seriousness though, what Shiki_Dance is IMO by and large true. One Piece appeals to both the young and the old with its style, unlike other manga who usually can only appeal to one demographic. I'm finding myself mostly growing out of Bleach, for instance, sticking to it more because of loyalty than an active interest.

Then there's the other reason, in that those of us who were teenagers when One Piece was still new are now adults. Dang I feel old...

 

[Reaper00]

Well i heard a lot of One Piece before i got into it but for some reason i never look for it, until i saw it in 4kids and thought ohh so this is One Piece needless to say i notice the lollipop and other stuff and even with all that i like it so i look for it online and it blew my mind, its amazing.
Ever since then i have seen all the tv episodes and read all the manga its by far my favorite manga and anime ever.
I remember the first time i saw the drawings and thought thats an unusual drawing style but still like it because it wasnt the same face as most mangas out there and it has so many epic moments in its story that its really hard to say this is the best one well at least for me.
I just love One Piece!!!

 

[RichardMNixon]

I remember being irritated by Usopp's nose and Enel's ears when I first saw it but other than that the art never really bothered me. Never liked Naruto though. I was a big fan of Yakitate Japan and a friend told me that One Piece was basically the same anime.

 

[Nefnora]

I started watching the One Piece anime ten years ago, pretty much as the anime started.
At that time, animes were still hard to obtain in the west, even fansubbed ones. You were considered a hard-core anime fan even with as little as ten gigs. And I was an anime hogger. I watched pretty much anything and everything I could get my hands on. Needless to say, One Piece made my list and it immediately was one of my favorites.
Oddly enough, I never disliked the art, though love isn't the right word either. Guess I'm an exception, but when you've suffered ten years of cartoon network and all the crap they put out, One Piece is heaven.

I switched to the manga when I found out there was one. At some point, the anime became too slow for my taste and I dropped it. I dropped the manga for a while too, during the Enies Lobbies arc and Impel Down. The fighting just didn't attract me. But now we're back to the story and I'm back all in .

That is the first reason I like OP and many other manga so much. So many stories are so fantastically and magnificiently deep! The emotions, the humor, the fun, the mystery, the adventure, the laughter, tears and even anger. I don't mean to badmouth western series or comics, but... They never gave me a thrill anywhere close to that.

 

[Razh]

I picked it up on German RTL II. Not sure if it was 2000. or 1999. (depends when it started airing there). It's a funny story, really. One day my brother bought some Songoku figure and on the back of the box, there were pictures of another product. It said One Piece and there was some skinny boy with a straw hat, a pirate with 3 KATANAS!!! (OMG SO COOL), a blond guy in suit and a red haired girl. I instinctively liked it, because, who doesn't like pirates?

Then, like a week after that, I watch RTL II for it's anime afternoon (do have some knowledge of German) and suddenly, there's announcement of new anime coming. Imagine my surprise. Talk about synchronicity...
As a result, this song stuck on as a One Piece theme for me. Anyway, after a while, they started cutting out some scenes, like Luffy's punches connecting and stuff like that, but, by that time, I already had monster connection, so I freed myself from TV. Eventually, I realized that you can actually read manga on internet (WOW!).

Now I'm 26, and still stuck to it. I can't even say how many times we played pirates with rubber boats when we were kids. Imagining sea battles, fighting with weird monsters or imaginary pirates... It's a child's dream come true, but it also has enough depth to keep a grown up interested.

 

[kidopitz27]

i first saw OP when i was in highschool and it's on Anime form already and then i just like the first time you ate a food and it became your favorite food that is what OP feels for me

why OP is popular among adults?

OP started on year 1997 (i'm 7 years old when it was release i think internet doesn't exist in the mass yet i think?) so a lot of Japanese read it in the normal way buying manga if you are a Japanese at that time my estimates of age is like 10 to 15 years old and up until now you still follow it and now your 20-25 yrs old and you are an adult and maybe that's why a lot of people like OP because they've read it since they were still kids

 

[perroloco]

Lord Uriel wrote:
Well, I'm a huge fan of One Piece, but it did not started that way. Naruto was my thing and I followed it convinced that it was the best. Then I discovered Hunter X Hunter and my taste evolved quite significantly to start to consider story over art (And knowing Hunter X Hunter it's the only way xD) and then I knew Bleach. They were both fine and I avoided One Piece because the art did not appeal me at first.

Last year I was bored so I decided to give it a chance and...Oh damn. Got me COMPLETELY. I quickly forgot about my opinion of the art and suddenly could see the awesome of it comparing with the rest.

Exactly the same thing for me, except I never got into BLEACH nor didn't like ONE PIECE's art, I read it in Shonen Jump since it came to the US, around 8 years ago but something wasn't right, it just didn't hook me. Personally I think it was the format, 3 chapters per month is just bad IMO, is hard to explain since 1 chapter per week makes you want to see more, but 3 chapters per month means wainting a month for the next 3 chapters! :S
Maybe that's why I have never liked monthly serializations LOL
BTW I remember you from Cemzoo

 

[Uriel]

Exactly the same thing for me, except I never got into BLEACH nor didn't like ONE PIECE's art, I read it in Shonen Jump since it came to the US, around 8 years ago but something wasn't right, it just didn't hook me. Personally I think it was the format, 3 chapters per month is just bad IMO, is hard to explain since 1 chapter per week makes you want to see more, but 3 chapters per month means wainting a month for the next 3 chapters! :S
Maybe that's why I have never liked monthly serializations LOL
BTW I remember you from Cemzoo

I'm still on Cemzoo :P

I got into Bleach because friends recommendation and while playing D&D they used some references all the time. In order to follow those, I started to read Bleach. Which I follow just for the habit instead of the passion I've for One Piece.

 

[DarkRage]

I picked it up on German RTL II. Not sure if it was 2000. or 1999. (depends when it started airing there). It's a funny story, really. One day my brother bought some Songoku figure and on the back of the box, there were pictures of another product. It said One Piece and there was some skinny boy with a straw hat, a pirate with 3 KATANAS!!! (OMG SO COOL), a blond guy in suit and a red haired girl. I instinctively liked it, because, who doesn't like pirates?

Then, like a week after that, I watch RTL II for it's anime afternoon (do have some knowledge of German) and suddenly, there's announcement of new anime coming. Imagine my surprise. Talk about synchronicity...
As a result, this song stuck on as a One Piece theme for me. Anyway, after a while, they started cutting out some scenes, like Luffy's punches connecting and stuff like that, but, by that time, I already had monster connection, so I freed myself from TV. Eventually, I realized that you can actually read manga on internet (WOW!).

Now I'm 26, and still stuck to it. I can't even say how many times we played pirates with rubber boats when we were kids. Imagining sea battles, fighting with weird monsters or imaginary pirates... It's a child's dream come true, but it also has enough depth to keep a grown up interested.

hehe nearly same op history i got.
started also watching one piece on RTL 2, but started a bit later with it, first time i watched it was arlong arc. Since then im hooked to it.
Normally watched rtl2 for pokemon and db then one day i started watching one piece, so it was my first anime of the big 3, after that came naruto and then after a while bleach.

I started really late with reading the manga 4 years ago, when i was 18, so u can say the manga got me as an adult, but the anime got my attention long before.

And still one piece is the only manga and anime i'm 100% satisfied with, not like naruto or bleach.

And i still can identify mayself with zoro a lot, beer, fighting and same sense of direction (i even get lost on ways i go every day and in my hometown, really small town...and yeah i'm never drunk when i get lost xD)

So i think one piece is suited for adults, especially since mf arc because it started to mature there, people really die etc... pain suffering...

so i will read one piece till the end and wait every week for the chapter to come out, because for me one piece is like a drug even more addictive than cocaine and heroin only without the sideeffects

ps: now i can't get the song out of my head, feel like a child again THANKS!!!

 

[Uriel]

The german op is so much better than the spanish one :O