Today on November 21, 2013, the NEW YORK TIMES, one of the best selling newspapers in the U.S., hosted an ad for the blockbuster selling manga series, ONE PIECE. This full page ad can be found on Page A15.
This was apparently partially to celebrate ONE PIECE selling over 300 Million copies of Eiichiro Oda's creation. 130 Million of these having been sold since 2009. In every sense of the word, nothing in manga or comics sells quite like this series.
To give a little perspective. Last year, Shueisha published four collected volumes of ONE PIECE and those sold over 23 Million units. It's closest competitor KUROKO NO BASUKE's five volumes of the same year sold just over 8 Million copies. That doesn't even calculate in back issue sales.
-Kristoffer Remmell (FoxxFireArt) is a freelance graphic artist, writer, and over all mystery geek.- Follow for news updates: @ FoxxFireArt
So let me get this straight Monkey D. Luffy is outselling every hero and team book from the big 2? The petty and vengeful part of my brain is cackling right now.
@the_stegman: Oh I'm not bothered by this, I find it justice for DC screwing up Question and Marvel telling kids murdering a real hero is fine as long as you feel slightly bad about it.
So let me get this straight Monkey D. Luffy is outselling every hero and team book from the big 2? The petty and vengeful part of my brain is cackling right now.
Manga has been outselling US comics for a long time now.
So let me get this straight Monkey D. Luffy is outselling every hero and team book from the big 2? The petty and vengeful part of my brain is cackling right now.
Lame romance manga's, that no-one here knows about does that as well.
DC and Marvel are probably pretty jelly right about now.
DC and Marvel Disney, Fox and Warner Broscan make blockbuster movies , One Piece still hasnt reached that level.
Fixed it for you, an also they start being apart of blockbuster after how many years of failed attempts ?
.... point taken. But DC and Marvel are there, let's see how long it will take Manga to get there after the horrible taste that was Dragonball Evolution.
DC and Marvel are probably pretty jelly right about now.
DC and Marvel Disney, Fox and Warner Broscan make blockbuster movies , One Piece still hasnt reached that level.
Fixed it for you, an also they start being apart of blockbuster after how many years of failed attempts ?
.... point taken. But DC and Marvel are there, let's see how long it will take Manga to get there after the horrible taste that was Dragonball Evolution.
Comic books made it back from,
Steel, Batman and Robin, Supergirl, The FIRST Captain America movie, Catwoman etc. All it needs is one good movie and boom the doors will open
DC and Marvel are probably pretty jelly right about now.
DC and Marvel Disney, Fox and Warner Broscan make blockbuster movies , One Piece still hasnt reached that level.
Fixed it for you, an also they start being apart of blockbuster after how many years of failed attempts ?
.... point taken. But DC and Marvel are there, let's see how long it will take Manga to get there after the horrible taste that was Dragonball Evolution.
Comic books made it back from,
Steel, Batman and Robin, Supergirl, The FIRST Captain America movie, Catwoman etc. All it needs is one good movie and boom the doors will open
It needs this to be good and make money.
1-Big Budget, Evolution had only 30 million.
2-A LOT OF ADVERTISING. Despite what hard core anime fans say Goku or Luffy isnt a household name like Superman. So they need to get the word out there.
3-Good story duh, but Studios will have trouble translating a story like One Piece to have mass appeal.
Overall it needs a +100 million dollar budget and +25 million Dollar advertising budget.
But I really dont care, Call me when they make a Naruto or Bleach movie because I despise the One Piece crew and would never want to watch it.
I never did see the appeal behind One Piece. The art work sucks, the characters are not all that great.
I would take a shonen like Claymore over One Piece any day of the week.
I see what you mean, I only liked One Piece due to it character bonds, and that it depicted friends as I felt friends should be depicted but once that ran it corse I started to get bored of it. Now I can't read it without getting a head ache.
@dccomicsrule2011: As someone who likes One Piece, I can clarify that for you.
It currently has the most complex and intricate plot out of all shonen & a lot of other manga too. You may not like the characters, but they are all truly great. Each has a touching backstory & interesting abilities, and their interactions with each other are great. The setting constantly changes with one creative place after another. It has almost as a big a variety of characters as entire DC & Marvel organisations, including villains & supporting characters. It also provides one of the greatest combinations of different genres, and excels at each one too, from comedy to action, drama & sorrow. Also creative powers from the awesome to the ridiculous.
Many could care less about the art work, because that is a trivial surface thing, and largely subjective I should add. The art work is what sets it apart from most other manga, and plot, suspense & characters are far more important than art work by a mile anyway (especially for a continuous story as opposed to an episodic one, like most comics nowadays). Also, the artwork fits the series. It's kind of like imagining Spongebob with all the characters looking more like the actual sea creatures; that would just be horrible.
Even with American comics, I am far more concerned with how good a story is than how pretty it looks.
@dccomicsrule2011: I never said there's a problem with you not liking One Piece, and I'm not trying to change your mind. You're free to like what you want. You simply said you didn't see the appeal, so I gave reasons why other people saw the appeal.
I've been reviewing ONE PIECE for the front page news section of Anime Vice for about a year now. I review the latest chapters every week. The chapters are on same day English release with Japan through VIZ Media. The website has a free sampler HERE to check out what you'd be getting with the subscription.
The subscription is normally about $26 USD for one year. The magazine is published weekly and averages around 200 pages of content. That is an absolute steal.
Volume 61 may be a good jumping on point, since that's the beginning of the time-skip era.
"DC and Marvel can make blockbuster movies, One Piece still hasnt reached that level."
I beg to differ. ONE PIECE FILM: STRONG WORLD, the 10th movies of the series, was released in 2009. It was the number one movie in Japan for three weeks straight. On its first week, it set a new nation wide sales record in Japan. It would go on to gross ¥4,700,000,000 ($53 Million). It also just came out on DVD/Blu-ray in the US this month.
In late 2012, ONE PIECE FILM: Z was released. This movie broke STRONG WORLD's previous record.
Having said that. Seeing how ONE PIECE alone outsells all the combined books of Marvel and DC several times over. That says less about ONE PIECE and more about your tastes.
And that's just their sales in Japan. ONE PIECE is sold and translated internationally. If you were to combine their numbers with their sales outside of Japan, it would probably double or triple the numbers.
Manga basically markets itself better. They also don't try to artificially connect every single book. They are their own worlds to explore. Not to mention no yearly crossover events.
Sometimes you'll have crossovers, but they're primarily a single chapter that never ties into the plot. They're just for fun.
"DC and Marvel can make blockbuster movies, One Piece still hasnt reached that level."
I beg to differ. ONE PIECE FILM: STRONG WORLD, the 10th movies of the series, was released in 2009. It was the number one movie in Japan for three weeks straight. On its first week, it set a new nation wide sales record in Japan. It would go on to gross ¥4,700,000,000 ($53 Million). It also just came out on DVD/Blu-ray in the US this month.
In late 2012, ONE PIECE FILM: Z was released. This movie broke STRONG WORLD's previous record.
Whatever happens in Japan means nothing after I heard they have Air Sex contests. So call me when they have a worldwide release and make over 300 million (average marvel movie box office)
In late 2012, ONE PIECE FILM: Z was released. This movie broke STRONG WORLD's previous record.
Whatever happens in Japan means nothing after I heard they have Air Sex contests.
ok, what? No, seriously.. what?
So call me when they have a worldwide release and make over 300 million (average marvel movie box office)
I don't think it's really useful to compare the movies. Because:
1. Manga aren't really made for creating movies out of them, each has it's own individual world, extremely diverse settings, power systems, transformations.. it's impossible to capture all that in one go. Luffy's stretching hand looks cool in anime, but it will look exceptionally weird and pathetic in movies.
2.The big 2 have had decades of practice with movies. Shonen jump has.. Dragonball evolution. They will need time to reach that level.
3. The comparison is directly about quality of the source material, the number of issues sold. There is literally no reason to bring in something that isn't source.
Log in to comment