Monte
Active Member
This leaves me conflicted. On one hand it's a good pick up and One Piece is a good show. On the other, it's One Piece and it's neverending. It's just another long running show that's going to take up space. And it's so dang slow for once a week thing. I just think we could get shorter series coughTigerandBunnycough at least until Bleach is done.
Yes this is an issue I have aswell. I LOVE one piece, but one thing i have actually liked about toonami is the variety of different shows it's been able to give us; I actually liked that they haven't been able to replay all the series they've aired because it gave them an excuse to change things up and gives us something like we've never seen before. It made toonami feel like it was always airing something fresh. What i don't like about the epic long shows is that they will take up those time slots FOREVER.... Bleach, Naruto and One piece will take up the first three slots with all their other aquisitions being pushed back to no ealier than 1:30am ... and the closer you get to to 3:00am the more it seems to hurt the show as there are not as many viewers up that late. Heck it makes the possibility of movie nights even hard since you want to get in those shonens first before the movie, which means the movies have to start even later.
I kinda would not want them to include yet another epic long series unless they were able to get an extra hour to their time... and even then i would want those epic series mixed in with the shorter series so we don't have the same exact 3 shows ALWAYS leading the line up. Keep the epic shows but at the same time give the line up the ability to change. I think it would keep things feeling fresh.
Given how many false starts One Piece has had on American TV, I hope that they choose a later arc to start from. I guess it would be alright if they picked up where Toonami last left off, but Water Seven seems like the best starting point to me, since that's where the series transitions to widescreen. Not to mention that the rest of Skypiea is pretty inconsequential as far as canon arcs in that show go.
Yes one of my fears is that one piece will get a false start... if they start from the beginning with their once a week airings i feel like a lot of viewers will be turned off by the series and not give it chance later on when it gets really good. Honestly, i feel like One piece isn't that good of a fit for a late night toonami; always felt like a show more at home at an earlier time. Like above, i would rather save one piece for when toonami had more time and started earlier and ran into late night.
Frankly to be even MORE ideal, i would prefer One piece air everyday monday through friday like DBZ kai did on Nick so that they could quickly plow through the early episodes and get to the better parts before slowing things done by going one episode a week.
I also have some mixed feelings about starting later in the series... I actually dropped the anime and stayed only with the manga because i feel like that the later the series goes on the more terrible the pacing gets. Episodes drag on so much that it can be kind boring to watch... one chapter of manga was not meant to translate to one episode of anime. I so easily get bored out of my mind because of how slow the pacing can be... heck i almost wish they DID make more filler episodes just so that canon episodes would be better paced. One piece is a series that could desperately use the DBZ Kai treatment to get rid its terrible pacing. It be truly amazing if Toonami actually had the budget to edit down the episodes so that they would be better paced. Viewers and fans would enjoy it more I'm sure.
Though i do hope toonami atleast decides to skip weak filler arcs... with how far ahead funimation is with dubbing it should be a problem for them to skip the episodes nobody cares about (i hope toonami does the same for Naruto and its infamous filler seasons... nobody likes them, so just skip them). Really it will take long enough to tell the canon story as it is much less have to spend even MORE time on filler whose only reason for existing was to WASTE time.
I have to ask why you think One Piece moves slowly early on. In the beginning we were actually getting 3-4 chapters a week while these days, it's only one.
Different kind of slow. The pacing of the early episodes are fine, but the action and story elements are a tad weak. Its not as interesting and entertaining to watch as later stories which is why people feel its something of a "slow" starter. Its starts out mediocre but gets really good later on... However because of One Piece's length, "later on" is like 30 episodes in. Though opinion varies from fan to fan, i feel like the series doesn't really pick up until the Arlong arc when we are dealing with Nami's tragic backstory and the awesome fights that that arc brings. Some might go earlier with Don Krieg, while others go later with Louge town, or the grand line
But yes, in later episodes, episode pacing becomes a HUGE problem for one piece.