One Piece

Shouldnt that say "In Japan" because from what I heard that's the situation there. Or you mean that the crappy pandering repels Western Readers?

Anyway, it applies to both West and Japan.

Repels Western readers.

A big part of it is that Japan is a country with a declining population, and a fairly steep one. There aren't all that many young people there anymore; the stuff the teenagers would've been buying in the 2000s is now going to creepy man/womanchild twentysomethings, and the writers are altering their stories to fit that, creating serious Values Dissonance with Westerners and really anyone outside those demographics.

but i'm a creepy twentysomething manchild and am turned off by the newer trend

Your creep level is too low then. Go level it up some.

Then you're not as creepy as the ones who like it.

Like I said, I dunno how much the trend affects OP in particular, though it would explain characters like Rebecca and Shirahoshi who are simultaneously sexed-up and innocent, but other series in multiple forms of media are definitely exhibiting the signs, like Castlevania for instance. Not only did the guy who's ran the show on those games for almost twenty years leave Konami on bad terms, but it was announced that the next "game" in the series would be an erotic pachinko machine. In the current state of Japanese pop-culture, they're banking on that to make more money than an actual video game.

edited 29th Aug '15 6:41:25 PM by HamburgerTime

I think that's a different conversation about Japan's video game market.

As far as this effects One Piece, I kinda doubt it. Shounens always have a weird fanservice element to them. Anime and manga in general are in the decline here in the west, no matter what your genre is, and One Piece becomes less popular as the new generation of anime fans don't really want to go back to 1999 and start catching up, when newer, better, more relevant series are right at your doorstep and only take a couple days to finish.

I think it does explain why newer anime are lot more Otaku pandering than what was popular in the Shonen "boom". Stuff like Sword Art Online, etc.

now that is scary

edited 29th Aug '15 6:53:04 PM by Saiga

Or Punch Line...

Basically, we're just a bunch of grumpy old men who hate the current generation.

You have rejected the new generation, I have merely adapted to the times.

Beep boop...I am not a robot, I swear.

Something that also must be understood about this phenomenon is that, to put it bluntly, the marketing departments for most Japanese entertainment companies couldn't give a rat's ass about what anywhere-other-than-Japan thinks about their product. For instance, Konami is probably perfectly aware that Westerners would rather have Castlevania games rather than pachinko porn, but the pachinko porn will make them so much money domestically that they neither care nor need to care.

So, some American-hosted forum thinks your series has too many weepy princesses? Who cares; the domestic consumers eat that stuff up.

This is fascinating and now I can finally put my finger on my problem with some of the newer stuff.

Thanks

edited 29th Aug '15 11:54:23 PM by zam

Oh God. That Pachinko thing. I just cant.

It's just the same old equation: making anime is expensive, most profits come from merchandise sales, otaku buy extremely more merchandise than the average viewer, appeal to otaku to get money. That's why a lot of shows nowadays, even non-fanservice focused ones, tend to have a designated episode for fanservice, or start off strong with fanservice and slowly die down.

Shimoneta is an example off the top of my head, though it is fanservice focused. Specifically, the first few episodes only have male-appealing fanservice by only tossing around naked girls and the like. Later episodes now put males in more sexualized episodes and have traditionally feminine appeals like BL mentioned. Basically, you gotta convince otakus that your show is worth watching, even if you're just tricking them.

Anyway this is pretty off topic of One Piece, kinda. One Piece's loss of popularity in the west is due to a lot of factors, fanservice most likely not being a major one. Oda just likes pink hair and big titties.

What are some of the other factors?

One Piece being over 10 years old for one. Nothing stays popular forever. Its still more liked than say, Naruto but yea.

Isn't One Piece currently still the top Jump series though?

At this point One Piece will be The Simpsons of J-manga/anime. A long-runner which has earned its king of the hill spot and will retain it even as quality fluctuates (though being a serial, the quality fluctuations in OP take longer to ebb and peak).

And what that article said wouldn't apply to OP, since trends in Japanese consumption would effect new media, not old. One Piece is one of those rare exceptions that has become totally mainstream within Japan (although it can be noted that it has a lot of "Yankee" themes, being a setting largely populated by roughneck outlaws).

@ Heavy: I must say I disagree. We were discussing why we, specifically, are losing interest in OP, which is relevant to why Westerners are losing interest in Japanese media in general, which is relevant to the article I posted. In my opinion, at least.

Yeah, that's the other thing, One Piece is still massively popular in Japan. It's not like those restaurants and theme park attractions are about to go out of business. One Piece's popularity only dwindles in the west, where it was never very popular to begin with, and only becomes less popular as the series becomes longer and harder to get into.

I mean you already have a hard time convincing someone to watch an anime from the 90s, and you have a hard time convincing people to watch any on-going series. Combine the two for a show as long as One Piece, it's almost impossible for those who aren't already caught up to get into it. Furthermore, when most fans of One Piece admit that the series doesn't really "get to the good stuff" for about 30-40 episodes, you're already asking for a lot.

Then, add in the factor that long-running fans of One Piece are likely to eventually drop it at some point. That means you have a higher chance of people dropping out of the fandom than entering it.

Most new fans of One Piece are young, usually in their tweens to teens, and don't even watch or read the first half of the series. Many get a rundown of what has happened, and generally start watching around Saobody, so that they can get caught up, and get to the most appealing parts (Marineford, Ace, Trafalgar, the crew being split up, reuniting, etc). And this age group already has a wide selection of more satisfying anime to watch, satisfying in this regard meaning that you'll get a beginning and conclusion all within a short time frame with little commitment.

I have heard someone argue (can't remember whether it was here or somewhere else) that Ace's death was the worst thing to happen to the series, at least as far as the fandom goes. It's the biggest twist of the biggest Wham Episode arc thus far, which, of course, means everybody knows it, particularly the screeching fangirls who only read the series for shirtless guys. As such, you get a lot of fans only interested in Luffy's arc and the characters/world surrounding him, to the detriment of the other Straw Hats and the supporting characters who are actually interesting.

That's any fandom tho, the most popular characters have the most vocal (read: obnoxious) fans and are the quickest ones to bitch.

But yea, I kind of agree with Heavy; One Piece is a pretty big case of Continuity Lockout as we're slowly approaching 1000 chapters and we're not even done with the series yet. Asking someone to read so much in such a short time is asking a lot.

But at the same time, we live in the age of the Internet where information is readily available; so people can either binge the series or just rock a wiki and read it up there. Its not as entertaining sure, but its less time consuming.

Can confirm,did the latter.Then went back to check the more juicy bits.

That is probably the way to do it at this stage. If you're trying to get someone into it, show them a particularly good but relatively short arc. Arlong or Drum would probably be best for early sections, later ones not so sure (Punk Hazard?)

Have them start at Sabaody. From there on, you'll have met everyone important, and you can pick up on the why they're important to each other during the separation.