Personal Feelings Vs Money

Today, I am going to give an example of why personal feelings should not be used to evaluate products.  

When evaluating products, you need to know both the market you are going to sell the item and the costs.  Today I will focus on making sure the market and the license / IP mix using One Piece as an example.

One Piece is one of the most popular anime/manga properties in Japan.  In some rankings, it is higher than Naruto and just lower than Dragon Ball Z.  All 3 are top Shonen Jump properties and have a huge hardcore anime following.  Naruto and DBZ both did very well in the US.  BDZ games were a mainstay for THQ and even spawned a horrible US Real Life Action Movie (please do not watch it...)   Naruto also is also very successful in the US.  One would expect that One Piece, a anime / manga based on a pirate theme would be successful.  But that is not the case.  One Piece has been released in the US twice and both times have met with very limited success.

I believe, and please tell me if you disagree, that the reason Naruto and DBZ succeed where One Piece fail is because the content does not work well when translated to the US because of cultural differences. 

DBZ would probably be pitched in a boardroom as Monkey King meets X-men.  Super heroes with the abilities to fire energy balls is actually very acceptable to US culture.  People may not be familiar with the Monkey King references, but combat is actually the main focus of the story.

Naruto would probably sold as a Comedic Ninja story.  The powers and abilities that the characters have in the beginning are actually normal ninja abilities that American's are used to from how Ninja's are depicted in the US.  As Naruto and company grow older, their stronger and more outlandish powers are acquired by a "natural" progression and thereby easily acceptable.

One Piece would hypothetically be summed up as Pirates of the Caribbean meets Anime.  You have an idiotic captain who is seemingly not that bright trying to become the Pirate King.  The overall pirate setting would translate well, but Luffy's actual power does not resonate with audiences in the US.  He is made of rubber?  When I first heard of it, I thought it would be extremely stupid.  In the Japanese version, the voice actor is a female and Luffy is made to sound more childish and playful which is his nature in the manga.   In the US version, he sounds a lot older and is voiced by a man.  The way he acts and sounds do not mix.

It will be interesting to see if an Anime like Fairy Tale would do well in the US mainstream.  I find the manga a lot more compelling than the anime.  

Also, its important to know that if you hate it, it still might sell.