General & Others Pacing of the anime

[dirtyLarry]

Felt the need to post that here: Why on earth did the creators of the anime start to completely butcher the pacing over the course of the story?

Just for a comparison - back in the old days, things looked like this:

- chapters 1-99 were done in 52 episodes (almost 2 chapters per episode)

So let's go a bit further:

- chapters 301-399 were done in 77 episodes (still a very good ratio of almost one and a half chapters per episode)

Those were all well paced episodes and although the animation quality was questionable at times, the pleasant pacing made up for that and then some.
But now look at the mess that is today's anime:

- chapters 801-900 were done in 136 episodes (!!!!!!)

That is insanity! Wano finally has some good animation quality, but the main thing that has been ruining the OP anime has been some of the worst pacings I've ever seen on any show.

Why can't they fix the obvious?
They should go back to the pacing of old, even if it means that they have to do seasons or simply do more breaks. The quality that the OP anime would gain would be inmeasurable.

 

[RZ.119]

Easy, they don't want to catch up to the manga

 

[dirtyLarry]

Easy, they don't want to catch up to the manga

Then do seasons for crying out loud.
I understand that they would probably argue that way, but this is a very poor excuse. There is no way they should throw away the possibility of creating a well-animated AND well-paced anime just because they couldn't put out an episode every week this way.
Financially it shouldn't be that bad either, since they could save literally half the production costs by just ... well, doing half the episodes with the way better pacing from their early days.

 

[RZ.119]

Then do seasons for crying out loud.
I understand that they would probably argue that way, but this is a very poor excuse. There is no way they should throw away the possibility of creating a well-animated AND well-paced anime just because they couldn't put out an episode every week this way.
Financially it shouldn't be that bad either, since they could save literally half the production costs by just ... well, doing half the episodes with the way better pacing from their early days.

There's definitely buisiness deals behind the scenes stopping that.

People seem to forget it, but anime is entertainment made my passionate people paid by businessmen

 

[MD Zolo]

I think OP occupies a prime-time slot in their TV network and they don't want to lose that slot. By doing seasons, they will risk losing it.

 

[Lampyris]

Then do seasons for crying out loud.
I understand that they would probably argue that way, but this is a very poor excuse. There is no way they should throw away the possibility of creating a well-animated AND well-paced anime just because they couldn't put out an episode every week this way.
Financially it shouldn't be that bad either, since they could save literally half the production costs by just ... well, doing half the episodes with the way better pacing from their early days.

Have one look at this list, the latest Japanese animation TV ratings, which will answer all of your questions:
https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2019-10-04/japan-animation-tv-ranking-september-23-29/.151871

Do you see any seasonal anime there? There's one, a show in its final episode that didn't make the list last week. But otherwise these are shows that are on every single week, full of fillers or reruns.

One Piece is on this list almost every single week going back for many years. You can check it for yourself. It stays in that time slot because it brings these large, consistent ratings despite the issues the anime faces. Seasonal anime actually get shoved into late night time slots, where they get poor ratings and depend on sales or streaming money. Most anime do not make money, publishers and other entities take a loss in order to promote a manga or light novel on TV. They have to be quality or else people will show no interest in purchasing the source material, but most anime fail at doing that because they can't afford the costs or assembled together the wrong staff.

One Piece is a rare anime that makes a lot money, it's Toei's second biggest property and it promotes the manga and merchandise endlessly every week. When the status quo is this good, and you're only adapting half a chapter most of it outsourced cheap to the Philippines, there's going to be a lot corporate resistance to changing the business model. But they're trying anyway. Quality has improved in WCI and Wano. They're probably thinking: if we make this much money while things look this bad, imagine if we actually tried to make it look good. Nothing everything can be changed though. Oda needs his break every month and the anime can't do that.

Are the fillers the answer? They might be. Fillers have a reputation of being rating killers over the long term, but if it's good filler I don't think the viewers would mind. But why don't they just write good filler arcs, and actually writing good filler arcs are expectations vs reality. Based on all the New World mini-filler arcs, it's bound to be terrible and turn off viewers if it goes on for months. Directors are scared of filler arcs for that reason.

All I can tell you is to stick to One Pace, and tell your friends about it.

 

[Leo]

Then do seasons for crying out loud.
I understand that they would probably argue that way, but this is a very poor excuse. There is no way they should throw away the possibility of creating a well-animated AND well-paced anime just because they couldn't put out an episode every week this way.
Financially it shouldn't be that bad either, since they could save literally half the production costs by just ... well, doing half the episodes with the way better pacing from their early days.

I'd love to have seasons, hell even Toei may wanna do Seasons as well but in reality they can't.
Don't know if I'm wrong but Toei, FujiTV and Shueisha all have to agree for them to do seasons but networks such as FujiTV doesn't want that since if we're talking about the "caring" side they'd probably think One Piece will lose viewers for just ditching this longtime show and then renew it as seasons or if we're talking about the "bad" side they'd probably won't do seasons cause money money money money. Same may be said with Shueisha but who knows.

 

[Monkey D. Luffy]

Then do seasons for crying out loud.
I understand that they would probably argue that way, but this is a very poor excuse. There is no way they should throw away the possibility of creating a well-animated AND well-paced anime just because they couldn't put out an episode every week this way.
Financially it shouldn't be that bad either, since they could save literally half the production costs by just ... well, doing half the episodes with the way better pacing from their early days.

If only Toei thought of that during the days of DBZ. I'd go as far to say that I'd prefer Naruto's filler hell over One Piece fillers. At least Naruto's filler hell are non-canonical side stories you can ignore. In One Piece, if there's crying for one page and the chapter is 20 pages long, expect half of the episode to be all about crying.

 

[JazzMazz]

Felt the need to post that here: Why on earth did the creators of the anime start to completely butcher the pacing over the course of the story?

Just for a comparison - back in the old days, things looked like this:

- chapters 1-99 were done in 52 episodes (almost 2 chapters per episode)

So let's go a bit further:

- chapters 301-399 were done in 77 episodes (still a very good ratio of almost one and a half chapters per episode)

Those were all well paced episodes and although the animation quality was questionable at times, the pleasant pacing made up for that and then some.
But now look at the mess that is today's anime:

- chapters 801-900 were done in 136 episodes (!!!!!!)

That is insanity! Wano finally has some good animation quality, but the main thing that has been ruining the OP anime has been some of the worst pacings I've ever seen on any show.

Why can't they fix the obvious?
They should go back to the pacing of old, even if it means that they have to do seasons or simply do more breaks. The quality that the OP anime would gain would be inmeasurable.

Have one look at this list, the latest Japanese animation TV ratings, which will answer all of your questions:
https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2019-10-04/japan-animation-tv-ranking-september-23-29/.151871

Do you see any seasonal anime there? There's one, a show in its final episode that didn't make the list last week. But otherwise these are shows that are on every single week, full of fillers or reruns.

One Piece is on this list almost every single week going back for many years. You can check it for yourself. It stays in that time slot because it brings these large, consistent ratings despite the issues the anime faces. Seasonal anime actually get shoved into late night time slots, where they get poor ratings and depend on sales or streaming money. Most anime do not make money, publishers and other entities take a loss in order to promote a manga or light novel on TV. They have to be quality or else people will show no interest in purchasing the source material, but most anime fail at doing that because they can't afford the costs or assembled together the wrong staff.

One Piece is a rare anime that makes a lot money, it's Toei's second biggest property and it promotes the manga and merchandise endlessly every week. When the status quo is this good, and you're only adapting half a chapter most of it outsourced cheap to the Philippines, there's going to be a lot corporate resistance to changing the business model. But they're trying anyway. Quality has improved in WCI and Wano. They're probably thinking: if we make this much money while things look this bad, imagine if we actually tried to make it look good. Nothing everything can be changed though. Oda needs his break every month and the anime can't do that.

Are the fillers the answer? They might be. Fillers have a reputation of being rating killers over the long term, but if it's good filler I don't think the viewers would mind. But why don't they just write good filler arcs, and actually writing good filler arcs are expectations vs reality. Based on all the New World mini-filler arcs, it's bound to be terrible and turn off viewers if it goes on for months. Directors are scared of filler arcs for that reason.

All I can tell you is to stick to One Pace, and tell your friends about it.

That and the fact I also think that they may have a corporate mandate to lag behind the manga for roughly a year. Its been a pretty consistent thing, and I think it makes sense in terms of marketing. Have the manga cover a certain aspect than boom, year later, sell merchandise by adapting that big moment in the chapter.
With the amount of chapters Oda produces though shrinking, that really hasn't helped the anime.
The One Piece anime is never going to be a studio passion project, but that's not to say the staff on the show aren't passionate about the series(a lot of them are massive fans, and some have worked on the show for more than a decade), but also, One Piece as a show, in terms of its general aesthetic, isn't exactly a magnet for the majority of talented animators. There have been some animator stories where animators have tried to get a fellow animator on board, but they just declined after they see how complex some of the character designs are, I think that the case for Katakuri.
Also, Kaido's dragon is apparently a massive pain in the ass to animate...

 

[Diamond]

Toei just has no incentive to change since people keep watching. Fillers would be an improvement at this rate even if they are nowhere near Oda's writing quality. I'm also kind of wondering how the audience is putting up with the show as it is. The pacing has been kind of unbearable lately.

At this point I'm hoping One Piece will warrant an abridged version once the show is finished.

 

[dirtyLarry]

Have one look at this list, the latest Japanese animation TV ratings, which will answer all of your questions:
https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2019-10-04/japan-animation-tv-ranking-september-23-29/.151871

Do you see any seasonal anime there? There's one, a show in its final episode that didn't make the list last week. But otherwise these are shows that are on every single week, full of fillers or reruns.

One Piece is on this list almost every single week going back for many years. You can check it for yourself. It stays in that time slot because it brings these large, consistent ratings despite the issues the anime faces. Seasonal anime actually get shoved into late night time slots, where they get poor ratings and depend on sales or streaming money. Most anime do not make money, publishers and other entities take a loss in order to promote a manga or light novel on TV. They have to be quality or else people will show no interest in purchasing the source material, but most anime fail at doing that because they can't afford the costs or assembled together the wrong staff.

One Piece is a rare anime that makes a lot money, it's Toei's second biggest property and it promotes the manga and merchandise endlessly every week. When the status quo is this good, and you're only adapting half a chapter most of it outsourced cheap to the Philippines, there's going to be a lot corporate resistance to changing the business model. But they're trying anyway. Quality has improved in WCI and Wano. They're probably thinking: if we make this much money while things look this bad, imagine if we actually tried to make it look good. Nothing everything can be changed though. Oda needs his break every month and the anime can't do that.

Are the fillers the answer? They might be. Fillers have a reputation of being rating killers over the long term, but if it's good filler I don't think the viewers would mind. But why don't they just write good filler arcs, and actually writing good filler arcs are expectations vs reality. Based on all the New World mini-filler arcs, it's bound to be terrible and turn off viewers if it goes on for months. Directors are scared of filler arcs for that reason.

All I can tell you is to stick to One Pace, and tell your friends about it.

Well, those are points I certainly understand, it's just really difficult to accept it.

They could make a great anime out of OP, if they just sticked to a "two chapters per episode" pacing, focus on quality over quantity and simply accept the fact that they have to make seasons.

It would probably generate less money, yes, but the end product would be infinitely better. The current pacing of barely half a chapter per episode is not acceptable. It's really hard to watch because of that.

Maybe I'm too much of an ideologist here though. I guess most people are fine with getting poor to mediocre content every week, instead of waiting a bit longer and instead getting something really good for it.

 

[Topi Jerami]

It's beyond repair imo. One Piece anime has been officially garbage for years. Since Punk Hazard arc I guess?

 

[Yo Tan Wa]

Remember Wedding Cake in Manga, that's how the entire Anime feel everytime i feel like giving it a try.

It's straight Garbage i dont know how folks can keep watching it. Animation might be improved somewhat in Wano, bt the real problm is bad pacing.

Seasons would have less eps, more Quality, and potential fans would also be more open to give it a try, if the sheer amount of eps weren't this many and rather better.

 

[Kai. Do]

Cause of money.

Toei just can't help but churn out a One Piece Episode every week it seems.

Thank god the Wano Arc animation and art it a lot better than Whole Cake Islands, but that doesn't help the pacing.

I honestly think the One Piece Anime should be released in seasons and not weekly. Weekly releases leaves less time for making the episodes/resulting in sub quality animation, and also directly attributes to the poor pacing.

Since Oda is taking more breaks nowadays than he used to, the anime is catching up faster to the manga than ever before. That means Toei has to make up for it by either: 1: poor pacing/dragged out scenes, or 2: filler.

I'd say the best way to enjoy the anime is just wait for when a arc is finished airing, and just watch all the episodes at once, its a lot more bearable and enjoyable imo.

In the mean time there are plenty of new anime series debuting every year, so I guess it helps to find something else to watch to keep your company while we wait for One Piece.

 

[Monkey D. Luffy]

Look how Toei adapts this page.

 

[Finalbeta]

The anime should catch up honestly the gap is too wide. 6 months or more

 

[Dark Hound]

Look how Toei adapts this page.

The worst moment I've seen (I don't watch the anime much anymore)
was with Holdem at the top of the house...

Just pure cringe re-used shots with silences, and stupid mini fillers, re-used conversation and words

"HOLDEM !"
"COME HERE !"
"OK !"
"YOU PUNK"
"THAT'S IT I'LL KICK YOUR ASS
"Jack is gonna come..."
*Ultra long unnecessary flashback*
"Damn I'm really angry"
"Hahahahahaha come here fool"
"HOLDEMMMMUUUUU !"

One Piece anime is over for me

 

[Tyki_Mikk]

The problem start already when they start the Wano arc this year.
They should make at least 10-15Filler Episodes before begin with Wano. Now they are very close to Oda who use many breaks in a year while the anime just make sometimes only a break. That is the big problem of Toei, they could make a good way with Wano, they should start with wano in next year and not this year...

 

[KiriNigiri]

They can't afford to take a seasonal break, as they'd lose their prized timeslot, and doing fillers will conflict with the merch that coincides with the broadcast. The anime is just gonna be stuck with this abysmal pacing since it's ultimately an advert tool for the manga and merchandise surrounding it. Given the circumstances presented, the team is doing a pretty good job with Wano thus far.

 

[Monkey D. Luffy]

I'm going to make everyone in this thread depressed. I've compiled the Post-TS arcs and calculated what their lengths would've been in the good old days before the end of Enies Lobby.

Return to Sabaody Arc

• Episode Count: 6
• Old Piece Count: Around 3 or Less

Fishman Island Arc

• Episode Count: 51
• Old Piece Count: Around 25 or Less

Punk Hazard Arc

• Episode Count: 46
• Old Piece Count: Around 23 or Less

Dressrosa Arc

• Episode Count: 118
• Old Piece Count: Around 59 or Less

(It may be even shorter, "Around 51 or Less.")

Zou Arc

• Episode Count: 29
• Old Piece Count: Around 14 or Less

(WTF? This short intro arc [like Laboon or Jaya] is almost the length of Alabasta Arc?)

Whole Cake Island Arc

• Episode Count: 95
• Old Piece Count: Around 47 or Less

(Like Dressrosa Arc, could be even shorter, "Around 39 or Less.")

Post automatically merged: Oct 31, 2019

I'm doing a little project. It'll answer my question, "has One Piece's pacing reached or exceeded DBZ's?"