One Piece Hits Record Ratings

Zach Logan

Episode 446 has hit record ratings, whether you like it or not, with a 13.8% viewing in the Kanto region. Throughout the last couple of weeks on the podcast and on ANN we've been reporting a steady but noticeable jump for One Piece in the Japanese television ratings, and this is the most significant jump we've seen since it first hit 13 in early March, and since it first hit 12 a couple months before that:

On April 11, the 446th episode of the One Piece television anime series recorded a Kantō-area television rating of 13.8% — the highest rating the series has earned since moving to its current Sunday 9:30 a.m. timeslot in Fall of 2006. One Piece's previous high mark in this timeslot was 13.0%, set on March 7.

While other television programs has seen their ratings steadily drop in recent years, the top three anime series (Sazae-san, Chibi Maruko-chan, and One Piece) have largely maintained or even increased their ratings. From Fall of 2006 to Spring of 2009, One Piece's ratings largely stayed close to 10.0%. After publicity grew for the 10th One Piece film, television episode #421 earned a record post-move high rating (at the time) of 12.0% on October 11. Throughout last month, One Piece stayed at 11.9% or higher.

The 10th One Piece film, One Piece Film Strong World, earned over 4.7 billion yen (about US$50 million) at the Japanese box office since it opened last December. The 57th and latest volume of Eiichiro Oda's original One Piece manga had a record 3-million-copy first printing, and 2.17 million copies have been sold as of April 4.

ARTICLE: http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2010-04-14/one-piece-anime-sets-record-tv-rating-of-13.8-percent

You can complain all you want about quality, One Piece has been drawing in the viewers like nobody's business. To give you a good idea, Chibi Maruko-Chan last week only garnered a 12.4 and Sazae-San garnered an 18.3. One Piece is certainly getting closer. It has already far-and-away surpassed the other of the big three, and has beaten shows like Doraemon, Precure!, Detective Conan, Dragonball Kai, and Pokemon consistently and often. I'm guessing we'll find out soon how this episode stacked up against the competition.

Captain Hypersock

2010: Year of the Monkey D. Luffy!

People call me E

@Zach:

You can complain all you want about quality, One Piece has been drawing in the viewers like nobody's business.

Yes i do. But you know, it still One Piece, and One Piece is awesome so ppl watch it. These numbers does not mean that the animation is good. Ratings pwned recently because of Blackbeard stuff, not because of animation (which sucked). And with the war, ratingswill be good for sure, even ppl who dont watch it usually will check it to see how its going.

Zach Logan

@People:

Yes i do. But you know, it still One Piece, and One Piece is awesome so ppl watch it. These numbers does not mean that the animation is good. Ratings pwned recently because of Blackbeard stuff, not because of animation (which sucked). And with the war, ratingswill be good for sure, even ppl who dont watch it usually will check it to see how its going.

Oh I agree, the animation's been inconsistent, I'm just saying that the audience doesn't care. Story is what matters (and maybe the awesome music and voices).

Don Quichotte De Flamingo

haa, chibi maruko-chan is still that popular
nicce to see, loved the series when it was in german television(but it wasn`t for long)

and maybe with the WAR! OP will come even closer to Sazae-san
(but still the animation right now isn`t good at all^^)

goty

Yeah, i mentioned that in the episode thread earlier this week. Even for the older timeslot, 13.8 would still be fairly higher than the average.

Envy

@Zach:

Oh I agree, the animation's been inconsistent, I'm just saying that the audience doesn't care. Story is what matters (and maybe the awesome music and voices).

That's how I feel. As long as the animation is watchable (which it never really is, here. It's not the best animation ever, but still… could be far worse.), than I won't complain.

Although the better animation directors do make a HUGE difference.

Anyway, I'm curious as to what the highest rating One Piece received in its old time slot.

Silverblade

@Envy:

Anyway, I'm curious as to what the highest rating One Piece received in its old time slot.

1 ワンピース #095 '02/1/6(日) 18:00-174 19.1

Envy

Wow, so that's pretty high, huh?

Well I'm aware of the fact that some pretty big 'events' in the manga has caused its sales to increase quite a bit, so hopefully the ratings will be really good for the anime when those 'events' are animated.

Although I haven't really followed these ratings so I don't know how much such things could raise the ratings in reality.

aegisrawks

@Envy:

Wow, so that's pretty high, huh?

Well I'm aware of the fact that some pretty big 'events' in the manga has caused its sales to increase quite a bit, so hopefully the ratings will be really good for the anime when those 'events' are animated.

Although I haven't really followed these ratings so I don't know how much such things could raise the ratings in reality.

But Envy,it is quite simple actually
-The anime reaching an extremely crucial manga arc
-New viewers coming to watch the nime after movie 10
-And last but not least,Japan's love of Ace

I wonder why Toei never animated Ace's Coverstory, it could have been quite high rated. Expecially since that was the last chance at giving Ace some screentime.

Fire-Fist

maybe its the story which is responsible for rating and not the animation :)

dan2026

The animation has been pretty damn good for most of Impel Down.
Only a couple of mediocre episodes stand out. (even they weren't that bad)

I'm glad the One Piece anime is doing so well.
One Piece Banzai!

Aoi Neko

I wonder how Kubo and Kishimoto feel that One Piece doing better than Bleach and Naruto?

Envy

@Aoi:

I wonder how Kubo and Kishimoto feel that One Piece doing better than Bleach and Naruto?

Hasn't One Piece been doing way better than both of them for a long time now, though? I know at least in the manga is has been.

dan2026

@Envy:

Hasn't One Piece been doing way better than both of them for a long time now, though? I know at least in the manga is has been.

One Piece has been selling more that both series combined, for a while now.
It isn't even in the same ball park any more.

m00n

@Envy:

Hasn't One Piece been doing way better than both of them for a long time now, though? I know at least in the manga is has been.

It's even more extreme in the anime. In contrast to the volume sales, where at least Naruto was close to One Piece for a while, the TV ratings of those series have never been anywhere close to those of One Piece.

http://www.geocities.jp/animesityouritu/index.html

This is page for those interested in ratings. You will probably like it Zach. It has all anime ratings of the last 11 years. So there's One Piece rating for all episodes since ~ Ep 10 there xD. You can see that One Piece ratings drops by a half when moving to the new timeslot and have doubled back to pre-move ratings since then. Though I'm not sure if the you can say the same thing for the absolute numbers. I have no idea how these figures are made.

goty

AFAIK, those ratings are the same as asbolute numbers. Right after the change, OP got its lowest rating ever, a 5.1..
I remember someone around here was celebrating and saying the entire franchise was "dead" back then, heh. It didn't take much time to rise again, though.

dan2026

@m00n:

This is page for those interested in ratings.

Wow, Bleach and Naruto are doing absolutely abysmal compared to One Piece.
No wonder there is a rumour of one of them getting canned.

GrizzlayLeslay

I have a hard time believing that rumor, dan2026.

m00n

Bleach always had the ratings it has now. Maybe a bit higher but only a third or so. Naruto however droped from more then 8% to below 2% over the years.

dan2026

@Gerchak:

I have a hard time believing that rumor, dan2026.

I don't if it means the Bleach anime.
We shall see.

CupidKirby

@dan2026:

I don't if it means the Bleach anime.
We shall see.

I don't think either are going to get canned just yet. They're currently making the 4th Bleach movie and the next Naruto movie as we speak, though I don't know if that really determines much.

goty

If an anime is taken off the air everything related is affected, from manga sales to merchandise…that's probably what keeps Naruto and especially Bleach going.

BatrozX

@goty:

If an anime is taken off the air everything related is affected, from manga sales to merchandise…that's probably what keeps Naruto and especially Bleach going.

For what I have seen, the only thing maintaining the Naruto anime series alive is how well it's selling and being watched on the US, same goes for Bleach I think. The only place Naruto and Bleach sell the most is on the western market, obviously because they haven't advertised One Piece well on the west.

CodedTech

The higher ratings are probably due to the marketing push that went with Movie 10. The manga seems to be doing better also. Though it has been on a rise since Thriller Bark started.

@BatrozX:

For what I have seen, the only thing maintaining the Naruto anime series alive is how well it's selling and being watched on the US, same goes for Bleach I think. The only place Naruto and Bleach sell the most is on the western market, obviously because they haven't advertised One Piece well on the west.

Outside of Gintama (which just ended), Bleach's anime DVD sales were, by a large amount, much better than the rest of the Jump series (including One Piece). It has dropped a bit, but still probably the best selling Jump series.

Ratings for both are hardly abysmal either, Naruto (and probably Bleach) is still consistently in the top 20.

goty

Ratings for both are hardly abysmal either, Naruto (and probably Bleach) is still consistently in the top 20.

Make it top 40, lol. Naruto seems to get lower every week, and Bleach was #39 last week, it's having trouble to reach even the 2.0 mark. Not even the return to canon is saving it, since 267 registered another drop.

o-chan

Just to make a little commentary here, but while I do think One Piece is superior in writing and such I don't think it should be a crime to wish or hope Naruto and Bleach have higher ratings. I'm happy if both shows were doing well, and if they're not…meh.

O-chan

Master O

@CodedTech:

The higher ratings are probably due to the marketing push that went with Movie 10. The manga seems to be doing better also. Though it has been on a rise since Thriller Bark started.

Outside of Gintama (which just ended), Bleach's anime DVD sales were, by a large amount, much better than the rest of the Jump series (including One Piece). It has dropped a bit, but still probably the best selling Jump series.

Ratings for both are hardly abysmal either, Naruto (and probably Bleach) is still consistently in the top 20.

Wasn't the Gintama anime going on hiatus? To return in September?

UFO27

I don't think any specific date was given, but Gintama is definitely only on hiatus. This link is the directors statement.

As for the ratings, I'm honestly not surprised with all hubbub One Piece has been creating lately~ I don't particularly watch the anime, but it's still nice to here it's doing well.

Alienished

Naruto is like too emo nowadays. And I think japan people are less emo than people from the west so yea. If somehow one piece turns emo like naruto it will suffer the same fate.

And why is one piece anime low quality? I think it is pretty good, they did a great job on animating the manga, the emotions and actions are all pretty well done. Unlike bleach and naruto which actually suck more than the manga version.

InvaderP

Gintama on hiatus? Damn, I think the One Piece anime could also use something like a 2 month break. Whenever Oda takes a break or there's no Shonen Jump this week like now because of Goldenweek or something, the anime is getting DANGEROUSLY close to the manga, no actually the anime is already way too close.

x20a

ALL HAIL LEU~~LOUCH~~FFY!!!

goty

@InvaderP:

the anime is getting DANGEROUSLY close to the manga, no actually the anime is already way too close.

You're like 5 years late there pal. The anime is 35-40 chapters behind since Water 7.
I remember very well when Kokoro no Chizu premiered and people panicked over recent (back then) scenes, heh.

InvaderP

Yeah, but the manga is still closer to the anime than Naruto is close to its anime or Bleach is close to its. And the anime is getting closer. I just hope the Whitebeard War arc isn't a disaster because the chapters in that arc have two to three pages less than the chapters normally have.

Adamant

One Piece has done one or less than one chapter per episode since forever, and filler on top of that. It's not catching up any time soon. Naruto, on the other hand, stuffs its episodes with 3 chapters each or whatever, then do half a year of filler to fall back behind. I don't know what Bleach does other than sucking, but probably the same.

InvaderP

Yeah, you're probably right. Even if the Whitebeard War Arc would be dragged out as hell, it will still be better than Naruto. BAM.

dan2026

@Adamant:

One Piece has done one or less than one chapter per episode since forever, and filler on top of that. It's not catching up any time soon. Naruto, on the other hand, stuffs its episodes with 3 chapters each or whatever, then do half a year of filler to fall back behind. I don't know what Bleach does other than sucking, but probably the same.

Yeah Bleach does the same as Naruto.
An eternity of filler, followed by a small amount of cannon, repeat.
In fact the last I heard about 70% of the Bleach anime is filler episodes.

TLC

@Adamant:

One Piece has done one or less than one chapter per episode since forever, and filler on top of that. It's not catching up any time soon. Naruto, on the other hand, stuffs its episodes with 3 chapters each or whatever, then do half a year of filler to fall back behind. I don't know what Bleach does other than sucking, but probably the same.

Don't forget to add the part that despite the little content used, the pacing has gotten really good these days and that most of the filler is smart and actually improves the content.

Adamant

Yeah, unlike a lot of other action manga series, Oda actually makes sure a lot of stuff happens in each chapter, which makes it easier to do single-chapter episodes without having to stall with filler scenes too much.

CodedTech

@goty:

Make it top 40, lol. Naruto seems to get lower every week, and Bleach was #39 last week, it's having trouble to reach even the 2.0 mark. Not even the return to canon is saving it, since 267 registered another drop.

I don't think Naruto has ever been out of the top 20. Though with Bleach, it's ratings haven't really been consistent so far this year. I wouldn't say it is having trouble reaching even "2.0" when it has probably been above or near 4.0 as often as it has been below 2.0 this year.

As far as canon is concerned, I don't think that affects viewer-ship much (save for people on English-speaking forums complaining.) The same probably applies to pacing to an extent.

Insider2000

@x20a:

ALL HAIL LEU~~LOUCH~~FFY!!!

http://img687.imageshack.us/img687/7383/ahlcopy.png

That's….scary.

@Thousand:

Don't forget to add the part that despite the little content used, the pacing has gotten really good these days and that most of the filler is smart and actually improves the content.

For the first time ever, I feel bad that I'm not watching the anime.

I could watch it online, but I'd rather stick with Funimation. Best way I can support both Funimation AND One Piece.

1000sunny

Now if only One Piece can do this in America…..

Insider2000

@1000sunny:

Now if only One Piece can do this in America…..

Not One Piece's fault that the usual excuse for not watching One Piece is:

The art is ugly.
I just couldn't get into it the first few episodes.
I doesn't take itself seriously.

And then when they say those three reasons, ask them if they like Naruto:

Yes.
Yes.
BEST SERIES EVER.

I rest my case.

King Calamari

@1000sunny:

Now if only One Piece can do this in America…..

It would need to be on TV first.

LightningAce

Awesome. Probably gettin a ton of viewers because of the upcoming war wi9th Whitebeard…everyone wants to see that in all its animated glory.

1000sunny

Not One Piece's fault that the usual excuse for not watching One Piece is:

The art is ugly.

I just couldn't get into it the first few episodes.

I doesn't take itself seriously.

And then when they say those three reasons, ask them if they like Naruto:

Yes.

Yes.

BEST SERIES EVER.

I rest my case. _______________

Very true, on the surface One Piece looks like a comedy first and adventure/action series second. Series like Naruto and Bleach appeals to Americans favorite things in TV and books: violence, romance, and obviously little to zero decent plot

All One Piece needs is for a network to give them a chance on TV and do a GOOD job promoting it and I guarantee the fan-base will expand

I got in it because I loved the show as a 10 year old watching Toonami, and I've only recently rediscovered it and I am now obsessed. This is how you expand your fan-base and its a shame but I don't see it getting on TV anytime soon

Defai

@1000sunny:

Very true, on the surface One Piece looks like a comedy first and adventure/action series second. Series like Naruto and Bleach appeals to Americans favorite things in TV and books: violence, romance, and obviously little to zero decent plot

All One Piece needs is for a network to give them a chance on TV and do a GOOD job promoting it and I guarantee the fan-base will expand

I got in it because I loved the show as a 10 year old watching Toonami, and I've only recently rediscovered it and I am now obsessed. This is how you expand your fan-base and its a shame but I don't see it getting on TV anytime soon

Same exact way I got back into One Piece, I missed it from the old network, and wanted to see if it was still going. To my surprise there were hundreds of episodes available, and I only got through like 20 :D

YoungGun

The huge amount of promotion went into Strong World since December last year up to now clearly has had huge positive impact on the One Piece franchise as a whole. One Piece clearly benefits a lot from cross promotion between the medias.

Secondly, the anime is nearing boiling points in terms of plot and development. I would not be surprised at all if the anime scores even higher when we enter the next arc.

I do hope this strong result for both the anime and Strong World film will incentivise Toei to invest more to make One Piece animation even better ! Also, I am hoping Oda will create another OP feature film in the near future.

Greg

The only people that care about quality of animation and how it changes between animation teams are the people capable of reading this sentence in their native tongue.

Japanese children don't tune in and say, "WHAT THE SHIT IS THIS!!!??? HIROHITO FUKYUBUDDY'S ANIMATION STYLE IS HORRIFIC!"

They say, "Woah! Luffy is strong! And Buggy is funny! Hee hee."

The morning slot for OP is friggin' absurd. AB-FREAKING-SURD. It completely drains any fun from the viewing. I'd like 6 minutes alone with the exec that made that choice.

If OP was still paired with Maruko and Sazae it would be breaking all sorts of records with the momentum it has now.

BUT NOOOOO! 'SPORTS JUNK' IS JUST WAY TOO FUCKING INTERESTING.

No Maam

Wait , when exactly does it air ?