i wish One Piece Wasn't so damn far behind on toonami

[CountFrylock]

it's just sad how One Piece has been treated in The United States From The 4Kids Incident to It's Eventual Landing Spot On Cartoon Network's Toonami To Where We Are Now....

 

what pisses me off about this is that this is something that would have never happened to DBZ a series that gets more love than any other anime you can think of...something that has always been on the air in some shape or form

 

but one piece? it's had several periods where it was nowhere to be found on american television!

[BUU8800]

It really is too bad it can't have a daily showing, at least for a year or two to reach the 700s, doesn't hafta be entirely caught up, but that era of cn is long gone. Of course even the dub is only in the 500s I suppose.

[ben0119]

If Toonami had more days I'd say One Piece should come on at least four times a week. *sigh*

[CountFrylock]

i mean one piece is one of the longest running anime's and yet it's just "Meh" In The USA simply because it came after DBZ and had to be introduced by 4Kids

 

DBZ Gets Super Special Treatment on everything but One Piece is like that show Toonami can't care to give a crap about....the one time they gave it a marathon was a bunch of Post Ennies Lobby Filler....

 

how the hell is that fair?!....it's the last toonami premiere of the night and is just treated like  "Meh Here's One Piece" But DBZ Gets huge banners and crap to celebrate every story arc or whatever

 

what a rip

[ben0119]

Actually Jason, Gill, and the others all love One Piece and said "no one has gone to bat for One Piece more than we have," which means it would probably have been canceled many times over if not for them.  So, this is likely the best treatment One Piece is going to get.  The Powers That Be only allow Toonami to continue to air it because it airs in such a low value slot that it doesn't matter if it does poorly.  It'd probably have to get like 400k total viewers on a regular basis to get axed.

 

I agree the 4Kids introduction was not fair.  Though I will add myself and plenty of others got introduced to the show that way and still loved it.  And if it was a failure they wouldn't have aired all the 4Kids episodes and even some Funimation episodes. 

 

But I think even without 4Kids, a good amount of people would still just see One Piece as "kiddy" and "gay."  It's lighthearted and silly at times, doesn't take itself too seriously.  Besides that, there's the art style.  It looks like a cartoon.  Doesn't really look like anime.  A lot of anime fans want their anime to look like anime.  So yeah, since One Piece looks like that, and has that character, and isn't "cool", a good deal of people aren't going to be open to it.  I mean, hell, you've seen what's popular here lately.  Edgelord nonsense like Akame Ga Kill, and Attack on Titan with its constantly angry I HATE EVERYTHING AND WANT TO KILL EVERYTHING Eren Jaeger.  Maybe these people would've liked One Piece if Luffy did things like ramming his fist through somebody and then activating Third Gear to inflate that arm and make them explode. :

[moose]

i mean one piece is one of the longest running anime's and yet it's just "Meh" In The USA simply because it came after DBZ and had to be introduced by 4Kids

 

DBZ Gets Super Special Treatment on everything but One Piece is like that show Toonami can't care to give a crap about....the one time they gave it a marathon was a bunch of Post Ennies Lobby Filler....

 

how the hell is that fair?!....it's the last toonami premiere of the night and is just treated like  "Meh Here's One Piece" But DBZ Gets huge banners and crap to celebrate every story arc or whatever

 

what a rip

 

Stop complaining.

 

One Piece is in a way better spot than years ago.

 

Yeah, it's not DBZ.... But NOTHING will match DBZ's popularity, because DBZ came out at the right time and you can't replicate that. It has nostalgia to back it up.

 

Yeah, it sucks 4Kids applafied it's already silly nature, but there's nothing we do about that. It had a shitty start, we can't deny that. But look at it now... we're alrwady 500+ episodes in with the dub... thats already longer than most dubs go for. The latest movie was brought over relatively quickly and is being put in US theaters, even (granted, it's a limited release, but so was DBZ, and it's actually being shown in a good amount of theaters either way). Games come out frequently, merchandise is sold in some stores (which only carry the more popular titles), and apparently its the most popular online streaming anime of 2016.

 

I'd say OP is doing fine. It doesnt need to the be the big deal it is in japan to be doing fine. Because that phenomenon is not going to happen again in the west. the closest we've gotten to that is AoT and OPM and they still pale in comparison to DBZ. So, yeah, stop comparing to DBZ and just look at what OP has accomplished on it's own.

[moose]

Actually I think even Japan gave up on anything succeeding DBZ (or OP too, over there) given how long-runners are essentially no more and making things seasonal makes things harder to explode in popularity due to not always being on TV.

[Sketch]

it's just sad how One Piece has been treated in The United States From The 4Kids Incident to It's Eventual Landing Spot On Cartoon Network's Toonami To Where We Are Now....

 

what pisses me off about this is that this is something that would have never happened to DBZ a series that gets more love than any other anime you can think of...something that has always been on the air in some shape or form

 

but one piece? it's had several periods where it was nowhere to be found on american television!

 

Hold up now, the Buu saga of Dragon Ball Z Kai should have aired years ago (and was dubbed quite a long time ago) and we are only just getting it now. So even Dragon Ball series have their fair share of hiccups when coming to America.

 

That's largely due to Toei of course. But also consider DBZ didn't air in America until all 291 episodes had already aired in Japan. We get Dragon Ball stuff much faster now but we still didn't get the Super simulcast until over a year after Japan started the series. Meanwhile, One Piece has been simulcast since 2009. It was not until just a couple of months ago that we were regularly getting the newest Dragon Ball content the same day as Japan.

 

When Toonami started One Piece at episode 207 in 2013 it was only about 60 episodes behind the FUNimation release. FUNimation has been very diligent with releasing the series and now the gap has significantly widened to about 140 episodes. I certainly don't blame FUNimation for not waiting for Toonami to catch up. What we're seeing now was released on DVD in April of 2015. That gap has widened largely because of FUNimation churning out the dub faster and partially because Toonami doesn't even air an episode every week a year.

 

One Piece was off US television from 2008 until 2013, this is true. DBZ was only off from 2008 to 2010 because of Kai and hasn't left since. It's a pity Nicktoons didn't pick up One Piece (and Fairy Tail and SGT Frog for that matter) but One Piece simply isn't the hit with kids here that DBZ has been and lacks the powerful nostalgia for adults who aren't anime fans.

 

There's no question that One Piece was dealt a bad hand from the get go but FUNimation and Toei have done a fine job making up for lost time and I am thankful for that.

 

I'll agree the one attempt at a One Piece marathon was pretty sad or at least poorly timed given what episodes aired, however Toonami has given One Piece plenty of chances and Adult Swim even tried it at 8:30pm briefly.  The fact that it is still airing shows how much they value the series. No other TV venue would treat it better and frankly no other TV venue wanted it. So the Toonami crew certainly doesn't deserve any ire for how they treat One Piece.

[CorbeauKarasu]

it's just 4Kids' fault. If One Piece and Naruto had come out at the same time both with decent dubs here in the States, they could have tag-teamed to match DBZ's popularity and ushered in a new generation of anime fans together. on the other hand, I feel like FUNimation is doing everything they can to make up for One Piece's unfair start in America; I feel like, in that sense, had they gotten the series back when it wa first introduced, their dub of it would have been very good, but not quite as good as their current dub is now, since they're trying extra hard to do right by the franchise.

[ameakooo]

I've always wondered how both Shippuden and One Piece would preform if they aired dub premiere episodes. it's obviously too late to go down that path now and would probably be too expensive as well, but it begs the question I guess.

[CorbeauKarasu]

All things considered, though, I find it humorous that, as a big fan, I'm following along with the series at four intervals simultaneously.

 

1. Watching the Toonami broadcast, which is finishing up the Thriller Bark arc

 

2. Buying the FUNimation DVD releases, which are now coming up on the timeskip

 

3. Watching the official simulcast, which is gearing up for the Germa 66 arc

 

4. And reading the scanlations, wherein the Germa 66 arc is nearing its climax

 

 

[Top Gun]

I think I was almost doing that at one point.  Years ago a few of us watched through the whole series up to that point in 3-5 episode chunks per week, and after we'd caught up to Japan we wanted to get a few other people hooked, so we wound up going through it a second time while simultaneously watching the premiere episode every week.  At some point in there I was also watching my DVDs and/or FUNi's streams to hear the dub from the beginning.  And I started the whole thing out when OG Toonami started airing FUNi's edited dub episodes of Jaya/Skypeia, and then finished out that arc with rips from CN Australia, which continued on from where our version left off (and strangely became less edited as the episodes passed).  Then you obviously throw on watching the current Toonami premieres.  So  yeah...when a franchise is this goddamn huge, it gets messy.

 

Come to think of it, the only part I never managed to see dubbed was that fun G8 filler arc after Skypeia.  At some point I still want to dig out my DVDs and go through the whole Sky Island Saga uncut, just to have everything rounded out.

[Admin]

excised all the BS to Dumpster Fire folder.

 

... you kids don't make me come back in here...

[ben0119]

excised all the BS to Dumpster Fire folder.

 

... you kids don't make me come back in here...

Luuv I'm not seeing that folder on the home page...

 

Don't tell me you did what you were thinking about doing...

[mochi]

Luuv I'm not seeing that folder on the home page...

 

Don't tell me you did what you were thinking about doing...

if you mean "deleted the dumpster fires folder" it seems to be what he did, now if you do something effed up in a thread the posts just get deleted

[CaptainStarwind]

Might as well post something at least somewhat on topic...

 

Ideally Toonami could have aired One Piece from the beginning and 2 times each night.  At least then we could have started from the beginning and, barring a marathon here and there, could have gotten to about the same point we are now without nearly as much of a wait. 

[ben0119]

if you mean "deleted the dumpster fires folder" it seems to be what he did, now if you do something effed up in a thread the posts just get deleted

But... muh entertainment.

 

Oh well, at least he deleted Babbling too.  The source of the toxic miasma, and a new one, have been vanquished by The Holy Light of Luuv.

 

Huh... no clip for the night to day transition and I can't remember the quote.  Something like -

 

The warm break of dawn comes and extinguishes the cold black evil of night, or something.  Thanks for ruining my joke, YOUTUBE!  You have failed me for the last time, Youtube!

 

[ben0119]

Might as well post something at least somewhat on topic...

 

Ideally Toonami could have aired One Piece from the beginning and 2 times each night.  At least then we could have started from the beginning and, barring a marathon here and there, could have gotten to about the same point we are now without nearly as much of a wait.

But that would make too much sense, and we wouldn't want to have that!  Friggin Demarco, and his Vince McMahon-like stubborn out of touch mismanagement, man.  Ugh.

[ben0119]

And now I can't act so silly or my sage posts will be vanquished to the Shadow Realm by Luuv!  CURSES! *shakes fist*

 

[Jman]

Might as well post something at least somewhat on topic...

 

Ideally Toonami could have aired One Piece from the beginning and 2 times each night.  At least then we could have started from the beginning and, barring a marathon here and there, could have gotten to about the same point we are now without nearly as much of a wait.

 

You're still dealing with a tainted product.  Although starting with a comedy arc and reinforcing everyone's negative feelings towards One Piece was incredibly dumb.

[mochi]

You're still dealing with a tainted product.  Although starting with a comedy arc and reinforcing everyone's negative feelings towards One Piece was incredibly dumb.

to be honest the only reason so many people on this forum are starting to hate one piece is moose

 

I liked the show till he started harassing me every damn day

[Admin]

I like One Piece.

 

mostly don't care what JMan thinks or Moose thinks.

 

I just watch stuff and make up my own mind.

 

and as an aside - not only do I not much care what other people think, I also have no real interest in regurgitating my opinion every 5 seconds, or jumping on every thread and post to express the same opinion over and over and over and over and over and over etc etc.

 

It's CRAZY I know.  But it'd be kind of nice to see more of it maybe.

 

I mean - I enjoy stuff.  I try to learn what's good about something if I don't get it.  And if I just can't connect with it, I sort of drop it and move on.  There's absolutely no need in me to stomp in and stomp all over people who are enjoying whatever it may be.

 

So it's difficult for me to understand people on the internet sometimes, who seem to have an almost infantile need to just draw instant conclusions and spew about them, not only that - but have that be the end of that.  No exploration.  No curiosity. 

 

the things that actually make life meaningful beyond just mindless animal cycles that people lock themselves into. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[ben0119]

You're still dealing with a tainted product.  Although starting with a comedy arc and reinforcing everyone's negative feelings towards One Piece was incredibly dumb.

That's the brain trust at Toonami for ya'.  But remember, Demarco is never wrong!

[ben0119]

to be honest the only reason so many people on this forum are starting to hate one piece is moose

 

I liked the show till he started harassing me every damn day

If you want to get back at Moose just make fun of One Piece.  :-D

 

And don't let a sad troll change how you feel about a show, affect your viewing experience.

[mochi]

I like One Piece.

 

mostly don't care what JMan thinks or Moose thinks.

 

I just watch stuff and make up my own mind.

 

and as an aside - not only do I not much care what other people think, I also have no real interest in regurgitating my opinion every 5 seconds, or jumping on every thread and post to express the same opinion over and over and over and over and over and over etc etc.

 

It's CRAZY I know.  But it'd be kind of nice to see more of it maybe.

 

I mean - I enjoy stuff.  I try to learn what's good about something if I don't get it.  And if I just can't connect with it, I sort of drop it and move on.  There's absolutely no need in me to stomp in and stomp all over people who are enjoying whatever it may be.

 

So it's difficult for me to understand people on the internet sometimes, who seem to have an almost infantile need to just draw instant conclusions and spew about them, not only that - but have that be the end of that.  No exploration.  No curiosity. 

 

the things that actually make life meaningful beyond just mindless animal cycles that people lock themselves into.

actually since that discussion about Voltron I'm more or less okay with Jman

 

the only other thing I'm gonna say is that it'd be nice if the ignore function actually made posts stop being visible

[Jman]

Since a certain someone isn't here, I will say that One Piece made a terrible first impression on Toonami.

 

4Kids took a silly show and made it sillier while excising or altering all the dramatic moments,  Then to add insult to injury, Toonami's first arc re-introducing OP?  One of the silliest arcs and reinforcing all the bad memories 4Kids gave people.

[MasqueradeOverture]

I've made the decision to drop Shippuden and watch One Piece at my own pace.

 

Life's too short for dealing with bullshit. 2.5 hours of decent anime on TV is plenty for my eyes.

[mochi]

Since a certain someone isn't here, I will say that One Piece made a terrible first impression on Toonami.

 

4Kids took a silly show and made it sillier while excising or altering all the dramatic moments,  Then to add insult to injury, Toonami's first arc re-introducing OP?  One of the silliest arcs and reinforcing all the bad memories 4Kids gave people.

to be honest I actually didn't completely hate 4kid's dub, because my first exposure to OP was the Shonen Jump Manga....which was printed before the 4kids dub, and Zoro was still called Zoro in it (for some reason 4kids called him Zolo)

 

also, I actually genuinely thought Veronica Taylor was a good Robin(western accent aside it's almost identical to her funi voice), and thought the Western accent suited her....she, Nami and Zoro actually had perfectly acceptable voices in the 4kids Dub, their direction was just crummy at times, and the lines made no sense, basically bad writing and excessive editing was the chief problem with OP's 4kids dub

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ewivMHT-z7k

 

as stated above, 4kid's version of the "what's your name" scene makes no sense

 

also.....I'm gonna get hate for this, I preffer Sanji's 4kids voice too.....because it sounds like his Japanese voice.....his funi voice is A LOT higher and breatheir than the Japanese voice was

[CaptainStarwind]

You're still dealing with a tainted product.  Although starting with a comedy arc and reinforcing everyone's negative feelings towards One Piece was incredibly dumb.

 

Showing it twice a week would have made the pacing seem at least a bit more bearable, and even then the earlier episodes didn't have much of a pacing problem.  It also would have covered Alabasta, an arc which (at least from my observations) a lot of people like.  Would there be a lot of people watching?  No, but they didn't pick up One Piece with the intent of having it kill in the ratings like DBZ Kai.  I think there at least would have been a steady audience of people watching from the beginning.

[Top Gun]

also.....I'm gonna get hate for this, I preffer Sanji's 4kids voice too.....because it sounds like his Japanese voice.....his funi voice is A LOT higher and breatheir than the Japanese voice was

...that voice sounded absolutely nothing like his Japanese actor. Like, I have no idea where you'd get that comparison.

[mochi]

...that voice sounded absolutely nothing like his Japanese actor. Like, I have no idea where you'd get that comparison.

his Japanese voice is MUCH deeper than his Funimation voice

 

his 4kids voice was like an extremely exaggerated imitation of his Japanese voice

 

the weird thing is with the exception of his voice every other Funimation va was specifically picked for their vocal resemblance to the 4kids cast....by Oda.....Oda actually liked the 4kids cast

[ben0119]

to be honest I actually didn't completely hate 4kid's dub, because my first exposure to OP was the Shonen Jump Manga....which was printed before the 4kids dub, and Zoro was still called Zoro in it (for some reason 4kids called him Zolo)

 

also, I actually genuinely thought Veronica Taylor was a good Robin(western accent aside it's almost identical to her funi voice), and thought the Western accent suited her....she, Nami and Zoro actually had perfectly acceptable voices in the 4kids Dub, their direction was just crummy at times, and the lines made no sense, basically bad writing and excessive editing was the chief problem with OP's 4kids dub

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ewivMHT-z7k

 

as stated above, 4kid's version of the "what's your name" scene makes no sense

 

also.....I'm gonna get hate for this, I preffer Sanji's 4kids voice too.....because it sounds like his Japanese voice.....his funi voice is A LOT higher and breatheir than the Japanese voice was

This.

 

And the original Zolo still does rings around Chris Sabat's pussy-ass Zoro voice any day of the week.  I never thought I would say such a thing, but... Chris Sabat simply isn't badass enough, murderous-sounding enough, to play Zoro.  The OG VA sounded like a legit psychopath who gets off on fighting and killing people with his swords.  Chris Sabat... BOOOO!

 

Oh, and ALL THE LUFFY VOICES SUCK!  JAPANESE, 4KIDS, AND FUNIMATION!  BLEH!  Is too much to ask a man to play Luffy?  Ugh.  I hate that screechy voice, and the technique women use to sound like boys, adding grit to their voice... boys do not sound like that.  Chagum, Yahiko... sound like boys.  Clinkenbeard does not.  ALSO, Luffy's testes should've dropped by then anyway... Guess Ace was right! >

 

Which reminds me, I never did lodge my formal complaint against Funimation for hiring Clinkenbeard to do the role.  Also, if Angel thinks Clinkenbeard is "really, really pretty", I have to question if she's really bi.  Cuz... oof.

[Jman]

Oh, and ALL THE LUFFY VOICES SUCK!  JAPANESE, 4KIDS, AND FUNIMATION!  BLEH!  Is too much to ask a man to play Luffy?  Ugh.  I hate that screechy voice, and the technique women use to sound like boys, adding grit to their voice... boys do not sound like that.  Chagum, Yahiko... sound like boys.  Clinkenbeard does not.  ALSO, Luffy's testes should've dropped by then anyway... Guess Ace was right! >

 

Blame Toei.  They apparently will only let Luffy be voiced by a woman and screen said voices.

[ben0119]

Blame Toei.  They apparently will only let Luffy be voiced by a woman and screen said voices.

Actually, blame Oda.  He personally approved all the Funimation voices, and probably the JP ones too.

 

[ben0119]

his Japanese voice is MUCH deeper than his Funimation voice

 

his 4kids voice was like an extremely exaggerated imitation of his Japanese voice

 

the weird thing is with the exception of his voice every other Funimation va was specifically picked for their vocal resemblance to the 4kids cast....by Oda.....Oda actually liked the 4kids cast

Well Nami sounds exactly like 4Kids Nami.  Zoro is... not as good as Zolo's voice.  Not sure about the others.

[moose]

to be honest the only reason so many people on this forum are starting to hate one piece is moose

 

I liked the show till he started harassing me every damn day

 

Its retarded to hate on a show just because you feel a forum member is harassing you.

 

Know that.

[moose]

his Japanese voice is MUCH deeper than his Funimation voice

 

his 4kids voice was like an extremely exaggerated imitation of his Japanese voice

 

the weird thing is with the exception of his voice every other Funimation va was specifically picked for their vocal resemblance to the 4kids cast....by Oda.....Oda actually liked the 4kids cast

 

That's bullshit. There's no proof at all that Oda approved the 4Kids voices. FUNI said that Oda approved their voice actors. And besides Luffy's voice (which is not all that alike either, FUNi Luffy is more raspier and boyish, while 4Kids Luffy is way more high pitched and soft) and Nami, none of the voices sound similar.

[moose]

I guess Nami has a somewhat similar voice, but she kinda just has a typical young women voice for both dubs so it's kinda redundant. FUNi Nami has better acting of course.

[moose]

Well Nami sounds exactly like 4Kids Nami.  Zoro is... not as good as Zolo's voice.  Not sure about the others.

 

I dunno, Sabat's Zoro didn't wow me when he first started (during Skypeia) because he sounded too much like Piccolo, but over the years he gotten way better and I honestly wouldn't trade him off for 4Kids Zoro anymore.

 

4Kids Zoro's voice was only tooted as good, because all the other dub voices around him were utter trash. But if you actually judge the voices it was a little too upbeat and energetic for Zoro... at least IMO. The voice suffices, I suppose. It honestly could'a just been the voice direction, but I honestly feel Sabat is the better voice now. Sounds more like how Zoro should sound, and it's more similar to his Japanese voice to boot. Not that that's always a requirement, but to me it works here.

[ben0119]

I dunno, Sabat's Zoro didn't wow me when he first started (during Skypeia) because he sounded too much like Piccolo, but over the years he gotten way better and I honestly wouldn't trade him off for 4Kids Zoro anymore.

 

4Kids Zoro's voice was only tooted as good, because all the other dub voices around him were utter trash. But if you actually judge the voices it was a little too upbeat and energetic for Zoro... at least IMO. The voice suffices, I suppose. It honestly could'a just been the voice direction, but I honestly feel Sabat is the better voice now. Sounds more like how Zoro should sound, and it's more similar to his Japanese voice to boot. Not that that's always a requirement, but to me it works here.

I judged them independently and Zolo's VA is much better.  As I said, his voice is just so... evil.  It's like the change from old to new Kenny voice.  New Kenny voice sounds too hard like somebody trying to sound tough that isn't.  Yet another case of a manly voice actor simply not being manly enough... to play Kenpachi.  By the same token, Chris Sabat is not manly enough to play Zoro.  The Zolo VA had GRAPEFRUITS!

 

So JP Zoro sounds just as unimpressively "tough?"  Boo.

[moose]

I judged them independently and Zolo's VA is much better.  As I said, his voice is just so... evil.  It's like the change from old to new Kenny voice.  New Kenny voice sounds too hard like somebody trying to sound tough that isn't.  Yet another case of a manly voice actor simply not being manly enough... to play Kenpachi.  By the same token, Chris Sabat is not manly enough to play Zoro.  The Zolo VA had GRAPEFRUITS!

 

So JP Zoro sounds just as unimpressively "tough?"  Boo.

 

I dunno. I never viewed Zoro's 4Kids voice as being "evil". He kinda kinda just sounded like a sarcastic mocking young man, which I don't think truly fits Zoro. Again, his 4Kids voice was decent but I think Sabat captures the characters intended personality more. It's more laid back and has an overall more serious tone than 4Kids Zoro. Here is the same scene (Zoro vs Mihawk) with the 3 different versions (Japanese, 4Kids, FUNi) --

 

Japanese version

 

https://youtu.be/Pvyakbw-6WY

4Kids/FUNi

 

Again, I don't think 4Kids Zoro is bad or anything. Just slightly too energetic and sarcastic, which I think are two traits that don't really fit Zoro, but the voice itself isn't bad. I just think the "stoic badass" that IS Zoro is more properly conveyed with Sabat's take.

[Sketch]

It took a while for me to warm up to Sabat's Zoro but I do feel he nails the tone and mannerisms. While I do believe Marc Diraison under the right direction could be a great Zoro he definitely sounded too energetic to be a proper Zoro. Naturally a laid back character in the main cast of a 4Kids dub wasn't gonna fly so the upped his sarcasm and gave him a more energetic delivery. It really doesn't suit the constantly napping, constantly drinking swordsman who only takes training seriously and isn't usually sarcastic. That whole clucking like a chicken bit is so incredibly not Zoro. All Zoro says to Usopp being a chicken is that he should man up. And to the opinion that Sabat doesn't sound badass enough as Zoro I must disagree.

 

Eric Vale's Sanji sounds more age appropriate than his Japanese voice I suppose but it's just no comparison. I agree that David Moo's performance was akin to an exaggeration of the Japanese actor but it sounds freak'n terrible and he can't really emote or yell using that voice. I feel Vale does well when Sanji goes into lovey dovey mode but when he gets angry it gets too high pitched and really lacks the bass I would like to hear in Sanji's voice.

 

Regardless of how good the actors portraying the rest of the Straw Hats could be the direction was largely terrible. So I don't know if Jason Griffith, Kerry Williams, Bella Hudson, etc could be really great in those roles with a decent script and good direction but the end product doesn't change regardless.

 

However in recent years I've found the thing that most kills 4Kids One Piece to me is the music. The never ending over the top music that saturates every scene and often overpowers the voices is so freak'n bad that even if these actors were giving the best performances they could it would still greatly drag down every scene.

 

I like the majority of the Straw Hats in FUNimation's dub just fine and might go as far as to say I prefer Stephanie Young to the Japanese actress for Robin and possibly Patrick Seitz to the Japanese actor for Franky. I prefer Japanese Luffy, Zoro, Sanji and Nami and am somewhat even on Usopp, Chopper and Brook.

 

All that said, I can't stand the old FUNimation dub of DBZ anymore or the old dubs of Sailor Moon and even the dub of Gundam Wing (though not inaccurate) has not aged well but lots of people in particular think the DBZ dub was and still is great. I don't think that dub is that much better than 4Kids One Piece. I honestly think if 4Kids One Piece had started airing on US three years earlier than it did then a lot more people would like it and be nostalgic for it but because One Piece's dub started at a point when people had easier access to information about anime and the series had been fansubbed for quite some time, people knew what they were missing out on and that affected their ability to accept 4Kids dub of One Piece. Certainly a decent amount of kids didn't know or care at the time just as was the case with everything before it.

 

With Naruto and Bleach around the goofiness of One Piece was going to be off-putting to the general audience eventually, regardless of who dubbed it. However, I do think when kids could compare Naruto and One Piece back to back on Toonami, Naruto was more broadly appealing because it was more violent, looked darker and overall seemed cooler. 4Kids dub of One Piece insulted its audience with the kinds of toilet humor jokes they were slinging around come Alabasta. A certain number of adults could appreciate it and a certain number of kids could but the broader audience no doubt saw it as obnoxious and a poor comparison to Naruto even at its silliest. The art style had to be another major factor there and likely still is. And while Naruto had a really kick-ass score on Toonami, the 4Kids dub of One Piece was terrible. Everything about One Piece's presentation was inferior to Naruto's on Toonami until the FUNimation dub started. Toonami never even advertised it was a different story arc much less a different cast. I couldn't tell ya if kids like One Piece more in 4Kids hands or FUNimation's but the 4Kids dub definitely hurt it's chances of appealing to the broader audience that latched on to Naruto and Bleach and none of them were able to hold a candle to DBZ. One Piece is a very silly show overall but very little of it's charms were visible in the 4Kids dub, all that was replaced by 4Kids humor that would not resonate with kids for long much less the majority of older anime fans.

 

Think of it like Teen Titans Go. Lots of adults like that show and tons of kids do but it certainly gets boat loads of hate from people on the internet for being obnoxious and lacking what they liked about the early 2000s Teen Titans series that was able to mix comedy, action and drama. 4Kids One Piece lacked the emotional core of the original series that balances out the bombastic action and silly comedy. It appealed to some people and plenty of kids but certainly not all. The biggest difference being TTG is spin-off while 4Kids One Piece was intended to be the original product and fell so incredibly short of that. As popular as TTG is now I don't think it is actually has gotten higher ratings then the better balanced Teen Titans series did but what kids will watch has certainly changed from back then so maybe that's not a fair comparison.

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Think of it like Teen Titans Go. Lots of adults like that show and tons of kids do but it certainly gets boat loads of hate from people on the internet for being obnoxious and lacking what they liked about the early 2000s Teen Titans series that was able to mix comedy, action and drama. 4Kids One Piece lacked the emotional core of the original series that balances out the bombastic action and silly comedy. It appealed to some people and plenty of kids but certainly not all. The biggest difference being TTG is spin-off while 4Kids One Piece was intended to be the original product and fell so incredibly short of that. As popular as TTG is now I don't think it is actually has gotten higher ratings then the better balanced Teen Titans series did but what kids will watch has certainly changed from back then so maybe that's not a fair comparison.

 

CN is using the 4Kids approach in both the advertising and content of their shows (obnoxious, in-your-face, audience pandering), which is super odd considering CN's style was the total opposite of that 15 years ago and got 5X the ratings.

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Since a certain someone isn't here, I will say that One Piece made a terrible first impression on Toonami.

 

4Kids took a silly show and made it sillier while excising or altering all the dramatic moments,  Then to add insult to injury, Toonami's first arc re-introducing OP?  One of the silliest arcs and reinforcing all the bad memories 4Kids gave people.

 

I'm pretty glad they didn't start from episode 1 though. We'd only just be getting to Skypiea now and still over a year away from HD episodes and we all know what happens to SD shows on Adult Swim. I'd rather not see One Piece in stretch-o-vision for 4+ years.

 

I do think they should have started right when Aokiji shows up. Sure people will briefly ask "whose that weird guy" regarding Foxy being their briefly but that's a small price compared to the Davy Back fight arc plus the filler after it before they go to Aokiji and Water 7.

 

It arguably would have been good to start at the latest dubbed episode but starting at Eniesobby and not showing any of Water 7 would leave the viewers even more lost than starting after Skypiea.

 

So where should they have started?

 

I guess Jaya wouldn't have been terrible, they'd have been to new to the air stuff in half a year and HD by 2014 but they'd be even more behind the home video release then and likely still lose potential viewers due to that.

 

Waiting to start until Thriller Bark dub premieres probably wouldn't have done great either people would be even more lost after Eneis Lobby. There was also a disturbing lack of activity for One Piece at FUNimation shortly before Toonami picked it up and it's even possible that FUNimation wouldn't have kept dubbing it had it not been picked up by Toonami.  The momentary boost in interest it got because of that certainly could have made all the difference there.

 

So I think starting with Water 7 would have been best but starting with Foxy wasn't the worst place they could have.