Anime/Manga Why is One Piece so Popular?

[Palamon]

What is an anime everyone else seems to like, but you just don't like/don't care for it? Please be respectful.

I've never really been a fan of Gurren Lagann but everyone seems to love/praise it. Like, Yoko was cool, and Nia being voiced by Starfire's voice actress was awesome! But, Kamina's death just ruined the whole show for me, and the second half that followed it was really boring. The anime wasn't bad, I do think it was really well done, and had good writing. I just really didn't like it. It wasn't my cup of tea. Mecha never really are, anyway.

That's all for me, though. There aren't really that many "popular" anime I really didn't care for enough to mention in here, anyway.

 

[alisaie]

I suppose I could say Bleach for me? I tried both the manga and the anime and although the concept of the series seemed interesting to me I just never could really get into it. I'd say One Piece too, but seeing as I never actually tried getting into it I can't say the same for it, but I did try to get into Bleach.

Death Note is also another popular one that I never really cared for, either.

 

[Fairy]

Inuyasha. I had a group of friends back in the day that were just OBSESSED with it and I just.. never really got it? Like, I understood the plot but even years later after having tried re-watching it I still don't see the crazed appeal. It had this weird combination of having massively complicated world building and yet nothing ever seemed to happen with the characters?? Idk, it just didn't hold my attention.

Another one is Tokyo Ghoul. I like it and it was an entertaining watch... but I just don't get why people seem to go absolutely batshit over it. It had it's moments but it's not some groundbreaking phenomenon in anime. Idk tho I'm willing to be proven wrong!

 

[User Anon 1848]

I thought Naruto gradually got worse after the first timeskip and even before that a lot of its best elements were ripped off from Hunter x Hunter. I've never disliked main characters more than Naruto, Sasuke and Sakura.

Dragon Ball Super is mostly trash imo. Terrible animation, defanging Vegeta to the point where he's not interesting at all anymore (you can be a good guy without being a one note character), whoring out Frieza, bringing back Trunks for some fanservice and screwing up his timeline even though he had a complete arc already, new forms being introduced all the time and being rendered useless even quicker than in the Buu arc, rehashing old plot points and iconic moments that don't feel important because they've been done better already, the worst paced and most filler character-filled tournament arc I've ever seen in the form of TOP, ruining the characterization of Bardock, Roshi and others. Zamasu was one of the few redeeming parts of Super but his arc was a mess too. I really liked some of the slice of life episodes, other than that I don't have nice things to say about Super.

 

[Hyzenthlay]

I guess with me, you could say any popular, mainstream anime usually won't hold my interest, because I'm unbelievably fussy with... every single aspect, haha! I like my anime to be as unique as possible, hence my obsession with Ghibli.

One Piece, Fairy Tail, Bleach, Tokyo Ghoul... literally any high school anime... I want to give them a chance, but my experience of them isn't great, and most are crazy long!

Two exceptions to this would be Naruto and Dragon Ball Z Kai! I have fond memories of them!

 

[CiCi]

I absolutely adore One Piece, which is weird because I don't really like those bigger anime. Bleach, Naruto, Inuyasha, Dragon Ball; YuGiOh and Pokemon are the two exceptions. I have nostalgia for Pokemon even now, but I find YuGiOh's card games are tedious and boring (found out I love the "season 0" original manga the best ♥♥♥ Plus the Ancient Egypt bit is fun x3).

But One Piece is so creative and fun and makes me laugh. The characters are strong and well thought-out. The plot is intricate and everything is connected. There's always so much to explore through the lore and so much to come -- which is probably its biggest downfall. It's HUGE and intimidating, so most won't touch it unless they grew up with it. Still, it's going strong and, imo, hasn't slowed down at all. It's gotten more intense, actually. xD So while I have my fair share of complaints about it, I can't deny that Oda's story is fantastical in the truest sense and a lot of his male characters are got-dang sexy. (Ace, Law, Luffy, Zoro, Crocodile, Brook)

Outside of One Piece, I've always tended to like the underdogs or the unknowns, though. xXxHoLic, Sakamoto desu ga?, Iwatobi Swim Club (it's more than just sexy men, I swear ♥), so many of Junji Itou's works, and various horror manga and anime (like Corpse Party x3 Yay for gory fun).

I enjoyed the beginning of Death Note and loved the cat-and-mouse style chases between Light and L, but it fell apart for me after... Uh... Spoilers? For an old anime?:

Spoiler:

L's death

Yeah. That's when I stopped liking it.

 

[Ninetales]

Sword Art Online. It started off grand, however, the series was poorly executed. The concept of characters being trapped in a video game is quite intriguing to say the least and they could've done so much with it. Essentially, A character gets introduced and immediately you are drawn to them, only for the character to get killed off at the end of the episode. After this became I re-occurring thing I began to lose interest. It's so disheartening to see good characters get tossed away and forgotten about. My vexation with the plot and its lack of depth eventually drove me away from the series, which is a pretty difficult thing to do.

Also, I've never been able to understand the popularity of Blue Exorcist. I watched the first few episodes and the show failed to enthrall me. The characters came across as stale and admittedly I found myself bored as I viewed. Death Note as well. I gave the series a chance but I never fully got into it and ended up never watching it again.

 

[budube]

I liked the way Fairy Tail started, but grew up disliking it because of the unnecesary and overexploited fanservice which became basically the whole show.
Also, Naruto Shippuden got boring for me during the whole Sanbi arc, even while I kept watching the anime I still wasn't able to keep with the story because of how boring it became imo.
I don't see the appeal of Dragon Ball either somehow, even if I like some things of it.
Almost any school anime is a big pass for me as well.