NEETaku Asks: What Is Up With One Piece’s Runtime?

Posted on by NEETaku

Like it or not, it is a known fact that we have been conditioned to expect certain things to happen a certain way. We expect movie previews to last 15 minutes. For gas prices to go up during summertime. And for Donald Trump to put his foot in his mouth each time he steps out on stage. Seriously…it’s like an eternal truth that Trump is going to do/say something stupid whenever he gives a speech.

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As it pertains to anime, we have been conditioned that the opening theme will last like 1:00-1:30, the episode itself will last around 19-22 minutes and the ending theme finishes the entire thing off. However, some time in the middle of its 700+ episodes, the creators of One Piece decided to forgo this tried and true formula and just do things their own way. Now instead of a minute or so title sequence, we get a full length, 3 minute opening theme. After that, we get another 3 or so minutes of the narrator explaining the entire premise of the series. You know…just in case some weirdo decided to start watching One Piece by skipping to episode 560! THEN…we get a recap of the previous episode that last another 2-3 minutes!

SO!!! Taking into account that an entire episode of One Piece last around 22 minutes, the actual runtime of the footage for the episode itself lasts 13-15 minutes!! 13-15 minutes of actual story footage!!

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I just don’t get why this sudden drastic change was implemented. Was the anime catching up to the manga and they needed to slow it down? Were they trying to implement that silly 15 minute runtime that almost all Cartoon Network shows seem to be running on now? What?! I just don’t get it. I mean right when you just start to get into the episode…POOF! It’s over before anything really goes down.

The only logical reason I can come up with is that they want to keep people coming back to watching the series. But that idea falls flat given that most people, including me, have been watching this thing since the late 90s! If we were going to stop watching One Piece, we would’ve done it 500+ episodes ago. We’re always going to be wanting more of the series, yet the creators seem to be only giving us so little. I’ve searched all over the web and NO ONE can explain this!

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Are they even still searching for that thing?!

Regardless of the reason for gimping us on action, it needs to change now! Go back to having a short intro and screw all the prologue nonsense! We don’t need to be reminded every episode that Luffy wants to be the King of the Pirates, TOEI! Just give us what we want and be done with it!

I’m NEETaku and this was Just…My 2 Cents!!

 

11 thoughts on “NEETaku Asks: What Is Up With One Piece’s Runtime?”

  1. Another reason I simply can’t get into One Piece. Cutting down on screen time, like you said, might be to delay narrative so that it can create some lag behind the manga. Still, I imagine it’s frustrating to watch.

    DBZ moved at snail’s pace too, but not by shortening screen time. They just spent all 22 minutes not doing anything 😀

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  2. I really don’t get recaps of narrations at the start of every episode. It seemed for awhile every anime was doing it and then they kind of disappeared but lately there are a few that have brought them back. Seriously, if we are watching the series we don’t need it. If we aren’t watching it, we don’t care. I kind of get if there’s been a gap or something doing a bit of a previously on section but it doesn’t need to eat into the run time every episode.
    I haven’t watched One Piece but I think if I was and it had gotten that bad I would be seriously considering dropping it.

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  5. I don’t appreciate shows that waste a viewer’s time. Using underhanded methods like this is a good way of cutting episode costs, but given how popular One Piece is there is no need to penny pinch.

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