General & Others Would One Piece Be Better if it was a Seinen Manga?

[pg13]

Given the length of series, the fact that it’s a Manga about Pirates (who are some of the most ruthless disgusting individuals in history), and the fact that a majority of readers are Adults now, Current Demographic is probably 95% Adults at this point, the Original Audience who were as young as 13 years old in 1997-2002 are now 36-41 years old. If a series is going to last this long does it not benefit from having a Seinen Approach? Or does that ruin the point of the series?

 

[HA001]

With zoro as mc

 

[Fn Lucci]

The themes of the world government hold up perfectly fine. So do the pre time skip arcs. Being shonen isn't the problem.

 

[Cruxroux]

Probably yes.

 

[TheAncientCenturion]

Seinen means more than adult violence, it also means more mature themes and a more mature outlook. That means Luffy can’t be the MC, 50% of the gags need to be cut and the story would be far more cynical about the concept of following your dreams.

I doubt it would be better, One Piece’s charm is in its silliness—even if that goes overboard nowadays—and a bunch of young adults going in an adventure for some romanticized treasure. Stripping that away for a jaded cast and more explicit cruelty won’t match what you’re taking away

 

[Kung-Fu Dugong]

You're mistaken about the One Piece's demographics. Most people who read it/watch it are still young (more than 50% is 5-29 years old, if I'm not mistaken). Yes, due to it being a (extremely) long running series, a lot of the audience is old now, but there are still a lot of kids/teens who start reading/watching it by the day. It's targeted mainly for young people, although Oda recognizes that a lot of his readers are mature now.

We must take into account that Oda have only been a shonen author for all of his life. He designed his magnum opus to be a manga for kids/teens... the mc (Luffy) can't possibly fit in a seinen manga, especially at the point we are now. I don't think that he would be able to do great focusing mainly in adult themes.

As bad as One Piece may have been in the last arcs, it's better than going fully seinen now IMO.

 

[BattalGazi]

Being seien itself would make series less popular and we would loose the happy atmosphere also structure of One Piece doesn't allow seien.

 

[Rumble]

It would be better if the adults grappling with this actually grew the fuck up.

 

[RiShin]

It wouldn't change all that much because One Piece has dark themes that were applied. If it was senien. Oda could of shown more of it instead.

Senien series can be funny for example Sunken Rock and Prison School. So Oda could go all in on his pervy gag with Sanji and Brook. It will be annoying regardless.

Next is we can see Zoro and Brook chopping up people when they slice them after doing their finishing move.

Sure One Piece will lose some of its popularity imho.

 

[Bisoromi Bear]

No

 

[pg13]

Seinen means more than adult violence, it also means more mature themes and a more mature outlook. That means Luffy can’t be the MC, 50% of the gags need to be cut and the story would be far more cynical about the concept of following your dreams.

I doubt it would be better, One Piece’s charm is in its silliness—even if that goes overboard nowadays—and a bunch of young adults going in an adventure for some romanticized treasure. Stripping that away for a jaded cast and more explicit cruelty won’t match what you’re taking away

You do Realize One Punch Man is Seinen right?

 

[TheAncientCenturion]

You do Realize One Punch Man is Seinen right?

OPM is a trash web comic

 

[pg13]

You're mistaken about the One Piece's demographics. Most people who read it/watch it are still young (more than 50% is 5-29 years old, if I'm not mistaken). Yes, due to it being a (extremely) long running series, a lot of the audience is old now, but there are still a lot of kids/teens who start reading/watching it by the day. It's targeted mainly for young people, although Oda recognizes that a lot of his readers are mature now.

We must take into account that Oda have only been a shonen author for all of his life. He designed his magnum opus to be a manga for kids/teens... the mc (Luffy) can't possibly fit in a seinen manga, especially at the point we are now. I don't think that he would be able to do great focusing mainly in adult themes.

As bad as One Piece may have been in the last arcs, it's better than going fully seinen now IMO.

One Piece has one of the Highest Adult demographics for a shonen. In 2011 their survey showed 12% were ages 1-18.

 

[Owl Ki]

When I looked up Attack on Titan and found out that it was in the shonen section, I really stopped caring about the supposed difference between shonen and seinen.

 

[Kung-Fu Dugong]

One Piece has one of the Highest Adult demographics for a shonen. In 2011 their survey showed 12% were ages 1-18.

Even then, 43% of the readers were young adults (19-29). And things possibly changed now with One Piece on Netflix, the live action series, etc.

Here you can see recent data about the % of each age range in terms of traffic on the One Piece's japanese website: https://www.similarweb.com/website/one-piece.com/#demographics