Standard of Storyline

[velcry]

I'm gonna start off by saying that I'm SERIOUSLY not out to start a flame war or anything, it's just that as I was reading my weekly dose of manga yesterday I realised that One Piece has one of the best, if not the best, storylines out there!

This is especially so when you think of the other leading manga out there, such as Naruto or Bleach. I mean, the amount of time Oda spends fleshing out his characters, giving them credible backgrounds, motives, purposes, is just amazing. And the way the whole story has story arcs/threads running through it is simply wonderful! Think about it, we first got a hint of the "100 Unrecorded Years" saga back when Luffy was fighting Crocodile, and a hint of the Whitebeard vs. Blackbeard Saga when Luffy met Ace. This certainly beats the crap out of other storylines which have some new character pop out from nowhere all of a sudden, in order to advance the plot.

And that's why it pains me so much when I realise that OP is not reaching out to as large an audience as it should! For some unfathomable reason the producers decided to market the manga/anime/game for younger audiences, with the result that older audiences who might be able to appreciate the complex storyline better miss out on it.

Haha. And as far as I know OP has been slipping in the sales charts in Japan too... anyone noe where to get updated manga rankings in Japan?

 

[Hermie]

I completly agree with everything you said! ^___^ ever since I got into OP I've been pushing the series on everyone else.


I think they use to post the rankings on the AP forums, but since it is thursday, that is of course down....


(btw, there is a 398 spoiler and pic out. I'm sick at the moment, but I'll try to make the thread later today)

 

[G-ology]

I have to agree, too.. your whole post reflects completely my opinion!!1

And its very sad, that the best Manga of all time doesn't get attention it should get..

Some manga rankings in Japan would interest me 2!!

P.S.: Could i use your post as my sig in a german board? (I'm touched XD) :P

 

[aburame]

Ditto. <3 One Piece is amazing. It has captured my heart like no other manga.

I am SO excited about the Lost Century... the story is SO promising.

 

[Kazu-kun]

Ditto. <3 One Piece is amazing. It has captured my heart like no other manga.

I am SO excited about the Lost Century... the story is SO promising.

Wait a second isnt it the "Lost History"
Well that doesnt matter. I agree.
What really really REALLY disturbs me is the fact that people in my school and people in my middle school don't really like it. I was really confused. People said that they read like the first volume and decided that they didn't like it. I told them u have to at least read from the Louge Town arc to really like it. As for the middle schools that was the most critical to me. I have one freind who was held back a year (I'm a sophmore in high school) and the people in the middle school, they just watch way too much anime. I think 5 out of the 10 people who go there like at least 15 different series (espicially shojou for some reason but a lot of the people there really like naruto, FMA, and Konjiki no Gash Bell/Zatch Bell) and the reason they gave me for not liking one piece was "The art looks too generic." That right there really pissed me off cause a lot of the people in that school like Konjiki no Gash Bell. I was really angry when they said that because it put the phrase in my mind "Konjiki no Gash Bell artwork is worse than One Piece?" No offense to people who like Konjiki no Gash Bell, I myself am a huge fan, but I have to say, the style which Gash Bell is drawn is just looks really cheap and awful

 

[aburame]

\

"The art looks too generic."

Um, are they sure they are using the right words? One Piece is anything BUT generic! If anything they should be complaining that it's too stylized :P

Yeah, I get that a lot too. Except it's like, "the art's just ugly!" or "it's too childish". Grrrrrr. I even had someone tell me the art was BAD before. That's the first indication that whoever it is has no idea what they're talking about. <3

 

[Kickmeister]

Wait a second isnt it the "Lost History"

I think they call it the "Lost century" because it's 100 years that are completely lost.

 

[Miso]

OP surely has a wonderful story. Overall the whole world/setting is nicely and thoroughly arranged. Everything has a reason and fits well.
And as you already said: you get your hints for the further story arcs and background stories quite early which gives you the overall impression of an authentic world.
You're right. There really isn't any manga which gives me the same feeling considering composition and arrangement.

Regarding popularity: I have heard that it is one of the most popular Shonen series in Japan.

 

[xallisto]

Its as big as bleach here in the West, Arlong Park is a massive fan site.

 

[shinwei]

And as far as I know OP has been slipping in the sales charts in Japan too... anyone noe where to get updated manga rankings in Japan?

I've seen some manga sales rankings at mangaupdates.com and manganews.net, and I'm pretty sure that every time a new volume of One Piece comes out it stays at the top of the list for a loooong time. One Piece has been the #1 manga in Japan for the majority of the time that Oda-sensei has been working on it (since '98 I believe). It is WAY more popular than both Naruto and Bleach in Japan, and my friend who just came back from Japan was always complaining that people would rather read One Piece than talk to her.

The reason why its not so popular here is because of the extremely poor marketing. The dubbing for the One Piece anime is flat out horrible compared to Naruto. Also, One Piece is a peculiar manga that really doesn't start out strong - it starts out actually kind of humble and builds up and up and up. Naruto and Bleach both started out really strong with really cool background concepts that are pretty much laid out at launch. In my opinion both of those manga have begun running out of steam a long time ago and are beginning to fall into many cliche traps that plague shonen manga. One Piece has since eclipsed pretty much every manga in creativity, storyline, and setting.

Furthermore, One Piece began airing in Japan just before the mainstream popularity release of DivX, and as such "missed the boat" with the fansubbing community. DivX marked the big boom in fansubbing and groups started popping up all over the place and all of a sudden quality became a huge issue. By the time this happened, One Piece already had so many episodes under its belt that most groups decided to forgo it, and it took over a year before #Kaizoku-Fansubs was finally formed. Naruto, on the other hand, started airing right in the middle of the big fansubber boom, and enjoyed the spotlight of being picked up as soon as episode 1 was aired by many many fansubber groups - sending it to the top of the popularity list on the internet.

So... that's why.

So I don't know what your talking about when you say One Piece is slipping in Japan. As far as I can tell its as strong as ever.

 

[njt]

haha... I read the first post, and stopped there. Don't want to get spoiled yet . Anyways I just borrowed all 40 volumes that are out from my cousin in law, going to read and read and read . Then will, hopefully, translate it...(hopefully it keeps me interested .

 

[xallisto]

It will NJT its hard to put it down i read them all in 2 weeks :P thats some work i tell you lol.

Yeah OP is bar far the better manga at the moment and for the past 7 - 8 years.

Anyway time to get out of here ....... Flashily rofl

 

[Gold Knight]

I just recently read up to chapter 400 as of today and well, I'll just throw in my opinion, since I had a problem with this myself while reading.

I think the biggest problem is America's attention span. These storylines, while marvelously planned and detailed, are FULL of dialogue, AND loooooooooooooooooong.

The Alabasta arc went from Vol. 18 to Vol. 23, chapters 156 to 216.
The Sky Piea arc went from Vol. 24 to Vol. 32, chapters 217 to 303.
The current storyarc went from Vol. 34 to the current volume, 42, and STILL hasn't been concluded.

There are a lot of subplots that are waiting to come out as a bigger part of the story that have been ignored for a large part of the series.

I know Oda plans to get to it all in time, but impatience is the biggest issue if you are going into One Piece. It's good if you enjoy the stories immensely, but I'm speaking from a perspective where I don't think I enjoyed the stories as much as you all did, and it was very, very tedious for me to get through some of the chapters. Still, I won't argue that it's a fun story overall and very detailed. One of my favorite things about the series is the great villian cast, though, the world exploration, and the grand finale Luffy fights (even the ones where he lost were impressive). That's pretty much about it.

 

[xallisto]

I Think its awesome that its 400 chapters long and we still know next to nothing about the most important things, like Shanks, the Shichibukai, White & Black beard, Gol D Roger and loads of other things, i really love it it just keeps you wanting more.

 

[Gold Knight]

It could just the feeling like I had to read all the chapters in two, three sittings (which I did) that might have soured the experience for me a little bit. Ah well, I'm caught up now

 

[Sephcloud]

I will have to agree on every single point on this. One piece is out of every aspect a wonderful work. The storyline is planned years ahead, the drawings hold one of the highest quality standards (if not the highest) I've ever seen. And as Xallisto also mentioned, you have barely seen nothing of it yet. While both Naruto's and Bleach's drawers are now getting lazy and doing the fights more and more boring (especially Naruto's) One Piece's only get better and funnier. So in short words we can all agree on that
ONE PIECE ROCKS!!!

 

[tonitoniluffy]

Yeah i think its the comedy within the fights and its villians in this wacky but cool world of the GRAND LINE is just awesome !! i mean you don't know what's going to happen !! for example the fight with the cp9 you could never predict whats going to happen !!

another example how luffy fought crocodile you couldn't guess what he uses to beat him !!

and the devil fruits make many different cool techniques possible!

if you compare them to other fighting mangas and animes like BDZ, naruto or even bleach most of their battles are won but one super move that they always use !

Another thing unique about one piece is that the main characters and even some villians (bon clay,...) are likable and have great chemistry with each other ! i love the mugiwara crew !! even when they are doing nothing and just sailing its very fun ! and great to watch its like you really know their characters !

Also each crew member had a very interesting past and have big dreams !! which makes one piece an epic !

oh oh one more thing they don't have all those flash backs.... and telling boring stories of each minor characters back grounds like (naruto the anime)


anyways i'll stop here !

 

[white silver]

And that's why it pains me so much when I realise that OP is not reaching out to as large an audience as it should! For some unfathomable reason the producers decided to market the manga/anime/game for younger audiences, with the result that older audiences who might be able to appreciate the complex storyline better miss out on it.

My FIRST online manga I've read was Naruto from "Naruto Manga Returns".  By the time I've read it, it was already at chapter 200+, it was then I was so hooked and addicted to manga since and I've been browsing through sites such as "mangaviewer" and other MSN manga sites as well. 

From the beginning I thought Naruto was the overall BEST manga ever created (my last Anime I've watched was Dragonball/Z/GT and please don't laugh).  Naruto had its great storylines but then it starts to slip off at times especially for the very notorious "fillers"!  Then came Bleach, FMA, Gensomaden Saiyuki, RAVE Master, HxH,  (man I was just soooo late, they were at their latest chapters and I browsed all day, EVERYDAY just to keep up) and then followed by downloading lots and lots of fansub Anime, which was really quite new to me!

Then One Piece came along, and seriously I've never read Manga like that in my life, some chapters were just SO DA** FUNNY I couldn't stop laughing even while I was sleeping, I loved the characters, storyline and each chapter gives me more intesity than the previous ones (especially the CP9 ARC).  The other thing that made me this excited was a game called Shenmue.  And man, I was downloading the anime like crazy in IRC.  And to think that it has not reached out to large audiences really pisses me off!  One Piece is the GREATEST Manga I have read in my life, the Anime is almost just as good.  I've seen the Eng Dub for One Piece, especially for Gold Roger's voice (sounds like the Ox-King in Dragonball, EEEEEEOOOOOWWW!!!!) I felt so sick after hearing it! I'll never watch the Eng Dub for One Piece again NEVER!  No wonder it wasn't as popular as Naruto and Bleach in other countries!!  I really hope they finish this ARC soon cause I really can't wait to know more about the Whitebeard Pirates, Shanks as well as the Shikibukai!! 

Godspeed Mugiwara Pirates!!!    

 

[xallisto]

Welcome to the boards Kunai

 

[white silver]

Thanks