Discussion Does One Piece anime pacing turn people off?

[weixiaobao]

As a huge fan of One Piece manga since the late 90s. Yes, I remembered picking up the last volume of Dragon Ball and I remember picking up my first volume of One Piece. One Piece, by all meant, should be a great manga that can be translate to anime. And yet, I was hugely turned off by the 4kids dub. On the Japanese version, they are fun and all but I can't stand the pacing. I don't watch One Piece anime for a really long time now ever since the sky island arc.

I wished they are redoing the whole series. Chances are, they won't since they already made those movies and they gonna have an Arlong arc special in a couple of weeks. But most of the time, what I heard people who don't know anything about One Piece complained is the shear amounts of episode. I think One Piece make a huge mistake. Naruto has 100+ episode fillers that we can easily skipped, and that wouldn't jeopardize the pacing of the canon stuffs. Bleach has many original filler arcs that we can also skipped and wouldn't jeopardize the pacing of the original story. One Piece, on the other hand, stretched each story arc out so thin.

(Also, you can't really compare Bleach/Naruto's first few episodes with One Piece. One Piece is so much older that the latecomers has the benefits of improved anime techniques).

So here is my comparison on the pacing of the anime taking out the fillers. I only compared ones with similar chapter size (weekly rather than monthly).

1) Death Note- the gold standard- it jammed almost 3 chapters of content into 1 episode.

2) Fairy Tail- I didn't know why I enjoyed fairy tail anime so much until I did this comparison chart. It jammed a little more than 2 chapters per episode. Some arc has way way better pacing than other going as much as more than 3 chapters per episode. Though since the anime caught up to the manga, I don't know how the future pacing going to be.

3) Bleach- taking out the filler arcs- a little more than 2 chapters. The beginning of Bleach and Soul Society arc has especially good pacing. But as you can see for the later stuffs, even with the good ratio, we all know there is very little content per chapter anyway. Quality-wise, I may have rank it just above One Piece, because some of the fights are unoriginal and dragged out way too long in later arcs. I have not watched later Bleach arcs.

Naruto- is tied with Bleach- it has about 1.75 chapters per episode, but naruto chapters has more content. This does not taking into the consideration of the infamous 100+ episodes of fillers.

4) Hitman Reborn- About 1.6 chapters per episodes, when I watched this series, I did skipped out quite a lot of fillers.

5) One Piece- has the most horrid pacing of all anime, I've ever watch. Overall, about 1.35 chapters per episode. But the later stuffs from Enies Lobby up, the ratio went as low as 1 chapter per 1 episode. Imagine that, a chapter you can read in 5 minutes is stretched out to 20 minutes. I meant it is even more horrid considering fight scenes that supposed to take place at fast pace. I think it only going to get worst. I don't watch One Piece lately, I know that the animation has improve like 3x better than before. But >___<

In my heart, One Piece will be the king of weekly shonen jump, but damn, it kinda hard to convert anime fans over to this side.

 

[Ledoke]

Oda has a very hard to animate style of pacing the story, OP has a lot of pages on which we see stuff happening in few places simultaneously, you can't do that with anime or you will end up with lots of split screen action or fast camera switching, those thing aren't good in huge quantities so they have to focus on one thing at a time and prolong the action a little so it won't fell like you're constantly jumping from one place to another.
The biggest problem I have with OP anime is the quality of art, it look like they're rotating artists(is this how production of long anime shows works?) and most of the time they get someone really bad, I mean srsly sometimes there's no shadowing on characters and it looks like they were drawn on a napkin during a coffee break.

PS. Using a chapter/episode ratio to compare Bleach and One Piece is kinda absurd, srsly, Oda would fit a standard Bleach chapter on one page...

 

[weixiaobao]

PS. Using a chapter/episode ratio to compare Bleach and One Piece is kinda absurd, srsly, Oda would fit a standard Bleach chapter on one page...

I already mentioned that, tbh. I gonna quote myself here, "But as you can see for the later stuffs, even with the good ratio, we all know there is very little content per chapter anyway." In honesty, as much as Naruto manga is inferior to One Piece. Naruto anime is superior to One Piece. Bleach, meh, I haven't watch it after Soul Society. But one could argue the pacing for bleach anime was super for the first three arcs, however, you can't say anything about that for One Piece.

I do watch some One Piece anime reviewers on youtube, and the pattern is that they say Enies Lobby pacing sucks. After I did the comparison, I can now see why.

Oh and 1.35 ratio is an overall. One Piece can stoop so low as .65 chapter per episode as see in Post War Arc.

 

[Impossibility]

To a certain extent, I would have to agree. The pacing of the One Piece anime is sometimes just painful. But at the same time, there's a trade-off. Fillers are, for the most part, completely and utterly terrible, there are few exceptions. They often confuse the plot, and sometimes blatantly contradict the manga. I've pretty much stopped watching the anime versions of every single manga I follow. The only anime I currently tune into with any regularity is the remake of HxH, and they have the advantage of years of manga material to work with. The reality is that the animes often find themselves having to make tough decisions so as not to preempt the manga. The only logical options are fillers or slow pacing. Generally, you have two extremes. One Piece has its slow pacing, and Naruto had those god-forsaken two plus years of filler (I hurt just being reminded of it). I think it is incumbent on the writers to balance these two techniques. I don't think the perfect balance has yet been achieved.

 

[hyper_megaman]

because the anime is catching up to the manga

u can't blame them for trying to drag

the naruto anime stays true to the pacing of the manga, BUT because of that, they frequently have to have fillers because they catch up

101 fillers with naruto ending with a rasengan, that's just as bad.

 

[weixiaobao]

u can't blame them for trying to drag

erghhh, I can totally blame them for dragging it out. Claymore, Full metal Alchemist, and Soul Eater once caught up with the manga and so they decided to ended differently. Hunter X Hunter (original) and Black Lagoon only did a full arc. Once they caught up, they just make more ovas. Bleach and Naruto did huge filler stuffs that we can chose not to watch.

Anyhow, it just greedy. Most likely, it isn't Oda's fault. I meant they could have took half a year off. They have plenty of other gigs (by that I meant the voice actors, etc): movies, live shows, and video games. I meant geezzzz. I could careless if I don't love One Piece as much as I do. I just really frustrated because I am such a big fan.

 

[hyper_megaman]

erghhh, I can totally blame them for dragging it out. Claymore, Full metal Alchemist, and Soul Eater once caught up with the manga and so they decided to ended differently. Hunter X Hunter (original) and Black Lagoon only did a full arc. Once they caught up, they just make more ovas. Bleach and Naruto did huge filler stuffs that we can chose not to watch.

Anyhow, it just greedy. Most likely, it isn't Oda's fault. I meant they could have took half a year off. They have plenty of other gigs (by that I meant the voice actors, etc): movies, live shows, and video games. I meant geezzzz. I could careless if I don't love One Piece as much as I do. I just really frustrated because I am such a big fan.

it would be annoying if they took 1/2 a year off between each arc

greedy, maybe, but them doing this might be for protective reasons instead. an anime series that stops frequently would lose its viewers. inconsistency/unpredictability can make people lose interest

---------- Post added at 12:27 AM ---------- Previous post was at 12:25 AM ----------

i would like them to remake the anime though

at the end of th manga series, if they would dedicate their efforts in remaking the entire epic with perfect pacing and zero time concerns, i would pay for such a remake

 

[Ledoke]

@weixiaobao
I don't think Bleach's or Naruto's fillers are any better than OP's pacing, if you were to only watch the anime they are even worse because you have to wait months for the main story to continue, dunno about you, but I would prefer to watch a slow show rather than wait half a year between episodes... unless the fillers are good but that rarely happens.

If I remember correctly the anime during Enies Lobby arc started to get very close to the manga so they did whatever they could to prolong it(they even did some absurd things like stretching the "jump from the roof" scene with flashbacks to last something like 4 episodes) and in the end the anime even got on hiatus for a few episodes to let Oda write more stuff(I'm not sure about this but I think OP is the only anime ever to go on a long hiatus and come back).

I don't really mind the pacing since i only watch the anime to hear the voice actors and see the attacks in motion but I understand why you hate it, sure I too I would prefer if they were to release one 30 minutes episode a month or maybe a longer movie like episode with every manga book release but we won't get that... why should they change things if they give them enough money?

 

[weixiaobao]

@weixiaobao
I don't think Bleach's or Naruto's fillers are any better than OP's pacing, if you were to only watch the anime they are even worse because you have to wait months for the main story to continue, dunno about you,

I got no problem with that. I don't watch anime weekly. I watch them in bunches or until an arc is over. I did the same with certain manga. The only one I read if they are released is one piece, bleach, naruto, fairy tail, hitman reborn, and claymore.

(I'm not sure about this but I think OP is the only anime ever to go on a long hiatus and come back).

I don't recalled that I know Oda took 4 weeks off between the time skipped.

I don't really mind the pacing since i only watch the anime to hear the voice actors and see the attacks in motion but I understand why you hate it, sure I too I would prefer if they were to release one 30 minutes episode a month or maybe a longer movie like episode with every manga book release but we won't get that... why should they change things if they give them enough money?

I don't think you got what I meant like at all. I refer they do stuffs like for American tv shows. Let say they do 1 season per year of 26 episodes (they would give 26 weeks for the manga to catch up) or 2 seasons of 13 episodes or do one arc or mini arc as a whole and then went on break. Just think of each saga or arc like an entire series, most original anime is only 13 or 26 or 52 episodes long anyway. And beside there are plenty of stuffs to waste our time on.

Also, I feel that the argument that it will lose some fans that way. I don't think so, One Piece is huge. We read the manga weekly, we probably can't wait for the anime show to come back from break. Also on the consistency, >___< pacing of each arcs are so different, where the consistent in that.

why should they change things if they give them enough money?

Lastly, if you accepted this, then there is no argument. I recalled reading Oda (whom I think is the most sincere hard working man ever) tell his fans in the sbs that he won't do the sbs for the 11th chapter in the volume because it would be too big and cost them more money. And he apologized (jokingly) that he wasted so much money from his fans.

Is there a problem with this? If you think from your angle there is none, but there anime fans out there criticize One Piece heavily for the anime.
Gosh, I love One Piece so much that I got pissed everytime someone dissed One Piece. But sometimes, they are right about the sheer volume of the episodes.

 

[hoeru]

I think most watchers wouldn't bother a slow pacing if drawing style, animation quality and interpretation of movements weren't changing that much not only from one episode to another but also scene-wise sometimes (Nami's Gust Sword from Episode 557, the anime's interpretation of Luffy's new Gear 2). Since Enies Lobby there aren't that many scenes where one could say that all of it is balanced.

Heck, but I'm still glad that that scribble kid who ruined the Enies Lobby finale hasn't been doing whole episodes again since the time skip.

 

[BurnSchulz]

You have to remember that 100 Episodes of Filler will be 100 Weeks of Episodes dont worthy...
That was the Problem with naruuto. It pisses most of the people of that they decided to put so much filler in it.

I like the way one piece goes. So no episode is too much filler and besides, its not really filler because its just always stuff wich was only hinted in the manga.
Like the Cover stories with the SHs after Sabaody. All of this was canon, but they made episodes out of it to tell people.
That would have been more awkward if they let that away... A shame that after the short Buggy series, and Corby and Helmepo no other cover stories besides the SHs is included in the Anime...
All of this is canon, and they could use that as some kind of filler- replacement. Would be better to have some episodes of this stuff in one piece as the bunch of crappy Feudal-Samurai-Filler episodes where all of the SHs are Samurai and with a ridiculous story.
I think one piece makes really well. And i rather want to see a episode with stuff thats canon to the manga than with a season full of meaningles Filler stuff.

I once thought why make every week one episode when every week is one manga chapter out and its barely enough for one episode.
Maybe they should do one episode every two weeks.

 

[RezzieThaRapper]

tbh... only time I've been put off is during Enies Lobby... it took 6 episodes for them to jump of the ledge onto the rocket man... so much flashback... I went into a fetal position upon the last two (watched it on hulu... in a single session, and didn't skip anything... looking back I should have)

 

[k-dom]

It certainly turned me off since I stopped watching it. That and the crappy openings....

 

[fcToho]

Yeah, it turned me off as I'm not watching the anime anymore.

The beginning of One Piece had good pacing doesn't it? (East Blue) Or maybe my memory tricks me.

I would definately pay for a well made One Piece Kai thingy.

I just can't stand fillers, non-cannon flashbacks/summarys, repetition, bad pacing etc.

 

[chess4]

yall complain way to much. if they did the anime like the manga it wouldnt make sense. jsut like during the fishman island arc, the mangas didnt show how zoro and crew got released from the cage, but it did in the anime. a lot of the manga is left up to the imagination. when u flipped the page, the strawhats are in a completely different area.

its all about the profit and i aint mad, hell i would do an episode a chapter as well......get yo money oda

 

[weixiaobao]

yall complain way to much. if they did the anime like the manga it wouldnt make sense. jsut like during the fishman island arc, the mangas didnt show how zoro and crew got released from the cage, but it did in the anime. a lot of the manga is left up to the imagination. when u flipped the page, the strawhats are in a completely different area.

its all about the profit and i aint mad, hell i would do an episode a chapter as well......get yo money oda

I really difficult to read what you just wrote and rofl, I don't know if I am going to take you seriously once you started your sentence with yall. And thank gosh, not every artist thinks like you or fans that just accept what you accept. Because hell, you love low quality shit, then please go ahead.

This is a huge observation. As fans, we just want improvement on our beloved series. The trend is that it hard to get people who only watch anime into liking One Piece. People who read One Piece are more likely to watch it.

And I have already stated like a bzillion of time that it doesn't matter if the fillers are 100 or 200 episodes. I can simply chose not to watch it.
However, there must be a balance. Beside, it not like I am going to die for not watching Naruto in one or two years. There are plenty of other series out there in the meant time.

What is the point of this thread? Well, I already know it not like going to change anything. I think my main original point was how to get people who only watched anime into the One Piece series. I have persuade quite a few friends into reading the manga. But damn, it is a difficult process.

 

[hoeru]

I think my main original point was how to get people who only watched anime into the One Piece series. I have persuade quite a few friends into reading the manga. But damn, it is a difficult process.

Well, One Piece is one of the big four tv animes of the last 10 years within the Top 5 of TV rankings in Tokio IIRC, and the most successful manga of the last ... well, ever since it already sold way beyond 200 million tankobon. It's not like the fanbase is forced to support it to make it grow even further by promoting it to non-fans - even though it's always good to promote the seriesses one likes. One Piece actually can't grow better in TV as it would need to beat the real classics running for like 30-40 years - which is sort of impossible.

About the anime: Even though it is popular, I don't think you can convince people who started off watching seriesses and movies like -uh- let's say Ghibli movies and Gundam and Macross seriesses and such - the high budget quality stuff with big names - just by "go watch it, it's good stuff", unless the One Piece humor and action really hits them by the first few episodes. I think that might be one key.

Nevertheless, OP is the first (and only?) anime with a pirate theme on the open sea. Maybe that's a bait to lure some watchers. And it's not like "One Piece on TV" uses much CGI aside from the floating sea and ship models to appear flashy and modern (it wouldn't fit anyways)...

But the best way is:

Spoiler

HIDE THE 4KIDS VERSION!!!!!!

 

[Uriel]

Well, I don't think it's THAT bad but then again I'm skipping the latest chapters of OP anime due the awful arc and awful adaptation (Luffy getting owned by Hodi is...sinful)

 

[hyper_megaman]

it would be annoying if they took 1/2 a year off between each arc

greedy, maybe, but them doing this might be for protective reasons instead. an anime series that stops frequently would lose its viewers. inconsistency/unpredictability can make people lose interest

---------- Post added at 12:27 AM ---------- Previous post was at 12:25 AM ----------

i would like them to remake the anime though

at the end of th manga series, if they would dedicate their efforts in remaking the entire epic with perfect pacing and zero time concerns, i would pay for such a remake

to make it clear, i have not followed the anime

in general, all anime adaptations annoy me with their pace

i'm defending one piece's anime dragginess relative to other animes (relative scale)

on the absolute scale, i'm not touching it until they remake it with perfect manga pacing

 

[k-dom]

The chance they are remaking it are near 0. Who would want to remake 20 years of manga when the current adaptation already sells good despite its quality ?