One Piece Rip-Offs

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One Piece is the best-selling manga in the world, it is more popular than even Dragon Ball or any other series of Japan. It is for this reason that I find it odd that the best-selling manga for 17 years does not seem to have any cash-in mockbusters, it is unlike Pokemon or Yugi-oh which've spawned several of mockbusters... One Piece has none.

Some people claim Fairy Tail to be a rip-off, but it's more of a bandwagon "it has similarities, thus it is an atrocity" sort of reasoning.

I like to know some actual One Piece rip-offs if there are any?

Rave, the previous work from the author of Fairy Tail, feels way more like an One Piece ripoff than Fairy Tail itself. Mostly because the art was much more similar.

But yeah, I don't think I've ever seen any real "ripoff" around. It's less merchandise-driven than Yugioh or Pokemon, so that may be the difference.

edited 10th Jun '15 7:28:52 AM by Cozzer

I think it's because of Oda's unique style that makes it harder to imitate unlike Pokemon, which is formulaic and basic for merchandise.

That's actually a good observation. You'd figure there'd be a trend with Adventure anime, but there really isn't.

I think the question of merchandise is really it. One Piece is so popular that it runs mostly under its own steam, which is very rare for an anime, and a story about adventure on the high seas doesn't lend itself to easy merchandising unlike moeblob series or more strictly action shows.

Which isn't to say there isn't a shitton of OP merch out there in Japan, just that it's not what's driving the revenue for the franchise.

Maybe it's just because I saw the crossover episode, but Toriko seems One Piece like. Headstrong hero, "let's go on an adventure around the world" kind of plot, exotic character designs.

Plus Toriko and Luffy really seemed to get along.

Good point. Though Toriko seems to borrow heavily in terms of character design from Jojo's and Fist of the North Star, so it's harder to see the resemblance because of the visual differences.

For someone to Follow the Leader, there needs to be something clear and identifiable to follow. For the given examples of Pokemon and Yu Gi Oh there's clear gimmicks of monster collection and children's card games, respectively. But One Piece doesn't really deviate all that far from standard adventure shounen, so there's nothing specific to copy

@Soble: I'd Read Toriko, if I were you. It's awesome.

But yeah, Oda's unique artstyle is hard to imitate, though he himself ironically worked with Nobuhiro Watsuki as an assistant.

Its sad that both One Piece and Groove Adventure Rave fell victims to terrible dubs by 4kids/Tokyopop. And only One Piece got a redub, and only in English Speaking countries (Latin America got the 4kids version and has never been redubbed)

Well, there was a pirate craze in 2003, which was six years too late but better late than never? But honestly, do you want there to be an influx of pirate shows or stretchy protagonists?

And while I'm in a questioning mood, do you remember any Dragon Ball cash in? The closest thing I can think of is Super Sonic, and that was just one (at the time) throwaway element of a completely different series. I'm told there were a couple for Sailor Moon but I honestly can't name them. What about, Sazae-san, Slam Dunk, Detective Conan, Golgo 13, Attack On Titan.

In this country, one of the more famous comic cash ins is The Fantastic Four on The Justice Society Of America, which other than being superhero comics, are nothing a like at all. Would we even recognize a One Piece cash in for what it was without admitted intentions? Maybe Nartuo and Bleach are those cash ins? With video games it's pretty easy Donkey Kong-Miner 2049er-Congo Bongo, then Great Giana Sisters-Alex Kidd-Sonic The Hedgehog-Crash Bandicoot. Pokemon-Monster Rancher-Digimon. Digital Devil Story-Dragon Quest release new games in the style of Pokemon, Spectotrobes goes Dinosaur King-Fossil Fighters. Games in general (Magic The Gathering-Yugio-Duel Monsters-Duel Masters) Comics don't seem to be as blatant about it. Larger pop culture trends sure, but not each other and One Piece isn't quite one of those yet. It hasn't quite reached the international or multimedia scope of a Dragon Ball yet.(I'm sure it will eventually)

I don't really watch or read any new shounen, but I can certainly tell that there are certain themes and elements that adventure series like to copy or take inspiration from One Piece. Immediately when I watched Hunter x Hunter 2011, the opening narration that plays for many of the first few episodes are very familiar to the "Wealth, fame, power," speech that One Piece is pretty famous for.

But at the end of the day, One Piece itself took a lot of inspiration from Dragonball, so I think we can look to that as the source. Dragonball left a pretty big mark on the shounen world.

On the topic of other "copied" series, I'd say Attack on Titan, as someone mentioned earlier, has been copied a bit here and there. At least in the theme of "humanity is struggling against an impossible creature/force and it's very bloody and grim." But that's going off what my more serious anime watching friends have told me of recent shows to come out.

Following the leader is easy.

Super Kid is a blatant rip-off of Dragon Barru.

Aren't there manga like that predates Attack On Titan?

Is that so?

People had been calling Rainbow Sea a copycat of OP since the day the concept art was out, though the similarity ends there.

Well, I've come across Wedding Peach, which is called a Sailor Moon ripoff. I have no desire to read enough of either to confirm it though.

Still, haven't found anything on One Piece. I know one year after it started Digimon V-Tamer 01 was already referencing it, but no ripoffs. I might look up Super Kid but have no desire to read it at the moment either.

It sure is. It just scream "I am a mockbuster."

It's not a manga, it's an anime.

To be honest, the quality is decent, the story, however... the main character even have a name reminiscent of Goku! The story isn't bad per se, just utterly uncreative. One could dub over the names to the Dragon Ball counterparts and this could literally be the same show, explained off with "some this and that made us look like this, but otherwise we are still ourselves...!" for the slightly (but very similar) different character designs.