2013-09-10, 10:27 AM
One Piece is as popular as it is for a couple of different reasons, and none of them being that "it's the best thing everrrrr!!!" (Note: Not saying it's bad, but a shallow, baseless, subjective reason like that is pretty much laughed at)
1: One Piece is old. It started in the late 90's iirc, when most gamers and anime/manga lovers grew up. Because it picked up on the perfect audience that will ever exist for these medias and never stopped it continues to hold that fanbase. Another similar franchise that is based largely on this is Pokemon. If Pokemon was released TODAY it wouldn't be nearly as popular as it is now because wouldn't have been released "at the perfect time".
2: One Piece is silly enough for young children, but has aspects that can appeal to older audiences. There's tons of "wtp is this pomegranate...?" in One Piece, but it works for kids, but still has moments of depth that an older viewer can appreciate which is important since most of its audience is getting older, just like with Pokemon. It helps that there's SOMETHING there other than nostalgia and time-investment to keep them reading and/or watching. It's essentially one of the "perfect shonen series" -- It has the retarded, ADHD characters that kids relate to and see themselves in and want to pretend to be when they're playing with their friends, but it also has cool characters.
It's not really complicated whatsoever.
1: One Piece is old. It started in the late 90's iirc, when most gamers and anime/manga lovers grew up. Because it picked up on the perfect audience that will ever exist for these medias and never stopped it continues to hold that fanbase. Another similar franchise that is based largely on this is Pokemon. If Pokemon was released TODAY it wouldn't be nearly as popular as it is now because wouldn't have been released "at the perfect time".
2: One Piece is silly enough for young children, but has aspects that can appeal to older audiences. There's tons of "wtp is this pomegranate...?" in One Piece, but it works for kids, but still has moments of depth that an older viewer can appreciate which is important since most of its audience is getting older, just like with Pokemon. It helps that there's SOMETHING there other than nostalgia and time-investment to keep them reading and/or watching. It's essentially one of the "perfect shonen series" -- It has the retarded, ADHD characters that kids relate to and see themselves in and want to pretend to be when they're playing with their friends, but it also has cool characters.
It's not really complicated whatsoever.