Not only are almost 90% of One Piece readers adult, most of the adult readership is at or past middle-age and quickly getting older, a far cry from the kiddy image stereotypically associated with many shonen manga titles.
According to Kinokuniya statistics recently highlighted by NHK, One Piece reader demographics are almost 90% adult, and a majority of those are past 30:
1-12 – 3.0%
13-18 – 10.5%
19-29 – 37.4%
30-49 – 36.9%
50+ – 12.2%
Although NHK’s broadcast highlights “bonds of camaraderie” as being one of the secrets to One Piece’s success, there is a certain amount of suspicion that these answers are merely because “kizuna” (“bonds”) was proclaimed 2011 “kanji of the year” in the wake of the tsunami.
Unsurprisingly, the irony of a work romanticising wholesale piracy receiving such wholesome praise escapes comment.
Having run for some 15 years, there is also some suspicion that the mature character of One Piece’s readership is as much due to the ageing of readers as it is the title’s undeniably broad appeal – the last time TV trotted out these statistics, readers were apparently significantly younger:
I’m also in the 19-29 bracket
At first i disliked one piece but alas I was wrong it’s good
It’s got some of the old school spirit manga lacks nowadays
It’s been running so damn long, of course its original fans are middle-aged by now.
when Dragonball started i was in grade school when it ended,i was cramming all way through college still i can’t find or what the hell is One Piece?!Is it just another gold coin?I’ve spent a fortune of buying Jump for years!
This isnt make One Piece a “Seinen” or an “adult manga”, OP tards.
I want to see the video…
and im about to hit 40s in a few year… if oda yet to finish the series
Just because you get older doesn’t mean you have to stop liking comics and cartoons. :3
wait there saying that people the like the show have gotten older and still like the show
who cares?
I mean most big mangas have run for a lot of years and you just read them because you wanna know what will happen.
Just look at berserk. Hope it will finish soon. Im soon 25 and I have to say most mangas these days are bad and boring. Same with the anime. Pretty much only shit that get released today.
Now I know ppl like to watch anime for the fanservice and moe and loli -_- but I wish they would release more serious animes like in the 90s or early 2000s with heavy plots and so on.
More like the showa era manga would rule
is that any surprise?
Guess what, people age!
This proves only one thing: kids watch Queen’s Blade and shit, others know what’s good 😉
I love Queen’s Blade, but I certainly wouldn’t take it over One Piece.
I’d take Queen’s blade anytime over One Piece.
And yes, I’m an adult.
As a middle aged man, I have no problem with this
Over 30 and…
http://i1013.photobucket.com/albums/af258/Mrbigall/IMG_0134.jpg
OK it’s for me, my wife and my kid. We all love OP.
“most of the adult readership is at or past middle-age”
“1-12 – 3.0%
13-18 – 10.5%
19-29 – 37.4%
30-49 – 36.9%
50+ – 12.2%”
“and a majority of those are past 30”
Ok then. Say middle age = 30+
3 + 10.5 + 37.4 = 50.9
36.9 + 12.2 = 49.1
According to the math the majority of the readership isn’t at or past middle age. This artical is confusing.
“Adult readership” – not including the 13.5% who are not adults.
it’s been running forever. What’d they expect!?
49.1% does not a “majority” make. Neither is over 30 considered “over the hill” by any but the most committed ageists. Of course, Artefact has never been one to let the facts get in the way of his narrative, so why should math or common opinion be any different?
It’s a majority of the adult readership. And where did anyone say anyone was over the hill?
Btw
I’m glad Bleach..err…I..mean
Bitch is getting cancel!!!
Sorry, but the new chart doesn’t look all that different from the old one. The “Over 50” and “Under 18” demographics are basically the same, and there’s about a 5% shift to the “30-49” from the “19-29” demographic.
Valid observation. It’s just a natural fluctuation.
Why are people getting upset when someone says they don’t like One Piece?
As a watcher of the show, anyone who is brand new to the series will find the first 100 episodes pretty slow and the second 100 pretty hit or miss. Things don’t really get going until like 250 episodes in, that is a lot of time for a demo that only get fan service these days.
One Piece is not for everyone, some people can’t wait for the character set up they just want action and OP spends a lot of time standing around talking.
Thats why you should read the manga instead 😛
FYI, the series is gonna end soon.
LOLs
For me only the first 10 episodes were a bit slow. After that I loved this fucking series and still do over 10 years later! That things don´t get going untile 250 episodes is a completely subjective point of view of a minority!
ODA SAMA lmao well when it goes on for 15 years people bloody AGE!!! I expect to be in my forties by the time it ends!!!
What a coincidence! Most of Japan is middle-aged or older. DERP
another useless surey.
What’s a ‘surey”?
I think you meant survey.
Ever hear of spell-check?
Baka.
Ever heard, fucktard.
This proves that 90’s kids and older know what awesomeness is while the younger generation keep bitching about never gonna read it because they hate the art style.
I’m a 80’s kid, and believe me, the i disliked the art style at first, but i fucking stayed because the story is way better then naruto and bleach could ever be. The story is so good, that it will make you cry for a boat.
The first reason why I read Onepiece is because of their artwork. They are very distinct and unique. I hate animes who looks exactly the same.
Hey I picked this up like 2 years ago and I love it, and so do my friends 😛 Fuck all the kids bitchin about artstyle or some shit!
I actually started to like the art style. It’s simple but since when is that a bad thing? I like me some Asano Inio too, but simplicity is nice when done right. I feel the same way about Oda’s work as I do about Miyazaki or whoever did Toki wo Kakeru Shoujo
People who hate the Art Style because it’s “Original” and classified as a “Anime” style. One Piece is the only Anime that’s different and not comparable to the rest of Anime. People just mad because they couldn’t draw it. Akira Toriyama’s Dragon Ball’s Art Style is unique of its’ own, and that’s why he’s making billions and Eichiro Oda’s One Piece is catching up into the billion mark! Unlike Naruto and Bleach. Naruto and Bleach was selling millions of copies during Volume 1 – 27, but it dropped in price after people got sick of it.
And Artefact’s out-of-control One Piece bashing continues.
It doesn’t matter who One Piece’s audience are. Oda is making tons of money, and little Artefact is only making worthless shit writing controversial articles for Sankaku.
Where was there any One Piece bashing in this article?
This Just mean that that One Piece manga/anime is good enough to be running for 15 years and have the same readers/watchers.. No one get tired of one Piece once begin to read/watch…
I got tired of it years ago after about 100 episodes.
Around that same time that I discovered that there were much better anime that don’t drag on forever with their similar lame story arcs and recurring enemies.
Give it a rest…
Whether you like the art style and length of this story or not to keep a series going for 10+ years in the current economy is well-deserved accomplishment!!
I think this is quite logical.
let’s say we got guy named Marvin. it is 1997 and Marvin is 19 years old. it was 1997 when one piece firsts got published.
He becomes a fan and reads every volume.
now it’s 2012. it’s been 15 years since then.
now our guy named Marvin is 34 years old.
So what’s so bad about it?
Hello there Marvin.
Nothing against that, but I was thinking about the kind of topic they will discuss when they are finally old men.
19yo and I just started watching one piece on 4th of march 😀 I’m currently at ep 149
How the hell do you get “most are middle age” form 12.2%?
Middle-age is a fluid term, but often it’s considered around 35-50, which is a large part of this graph.
one piece the only good shonen
All shonen titles are trash except one piece,
I think that’s why this demographic for a shonen title is even possible.
for dragon ball eh~ “adult love beams” the first
mainstream anime worldwide and it’s bad,I only realize that when I lost my virginity
everyone knows why shonen titles are shit coz of
narufag/blech best example why shonen titles are shit
yotsubato. Read it.
I guess you’ve never watched the “Toaru Majutsu no Index” Anime. That was the best Shonen Anime I’ve ever seen in my life.
The publisher/author should release 2 chapter every 2or3 week / a month
Then maybe in 5 years it will end
And Oda can die after that. lol
No way! Even if it’s still 10 years or so away I´m already curious what Odas next work will look like!
He releases one chapter every week, you know…
For 15 years years and with very few breaks!!
do u even read the manga?
and lots and lots of mind numbing filler.
Haters gonna Hate, while Oda laughin all the way to the bank.
:>
All the way to his wife.
What’s the difference?
Yea women need to be more up front about those fees.
One is upfront about fucking you and the other fucks you through hidden fees.
And yet looking at the more recent episodes I’d say Onepiece is repositioning its market segmentation for a younger audience. (except for the freakishly large boobs thing that is)
i started one piece when i was 16, now im 18
still loving the series
Naruto is way cooler. Btw I’m 12.
@Anon 15:32: And you shouldn’t even be on here. If your parents find out you are in deep shit knucklehead.
Under Code 1337 of whichever country you reside, You are going to get arrested for coming to this site before 18.
For a twelve year old you have good spelling and grammar.
When I was 12 I spoke properly, so it doesnt mean they cant 😛
don’t forget to grow up and leave that series once it ended. i know some poor girls who’s still into sasori even though he’s already DEAD
Worse, his body is now being used as Kankuro’s puppet.
He is now a man’s sex toy.
Wouldn’t have guessed it. :p
Naruto, One Piece and Bleach suck.
GTFO troll.
ya mother….
doNtZ biLivE DIz aNoN guZ if YOU CANt 1337z u 4!n72 12 yrZ!!!!!!111!11!!
English, do you speak it?
love one piece my age is 28, love it love it love it
durr im 50 years old and still love superman spiderman and green lantern. Im so ashamed.
Nami and Robin are hot.
I’m in the 19-29 bracket.
most of us are i bet it the same shit on bleach too
I love how they have been reading it since 15 years ago, when they were still teens XD
At the rate its going I feel lucky to have been born a little later and picked this up 2 years ago when I was still 13 XD Because I might not live to see the ending.
One thing Im worried about is Oda aging, though… ;_;
Just by looking at the chart I can tell how many wizards there are.
Wizard Right Here! And Collects One Piece!
that means you’re 28years old
Close enough. 27.
18 turning 19 next week
Not that surprising, this series started like almost or more than a decade ago, during that time most of the soon-to-be long time fans were still either teenagers or around 20+ years old.
Naruto and Bleach are way better than Overrated Piece.
Hahahahahaha!
Wait, you’re serious…
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!
Oh sorry, I forget one: Fairy Tail.
When is Luffy going to find the legendary “One Piece”? Maybe after another 25 years and 20-30 islands later lol. Hilarious when they find said treasure and hey there is nothing there and Luffy smiling like an idiot saying “ah well it was for the adventure after all”.
Hahahahahaha
Oda would have trolled so many One Piecetards lol.
No life for piecetards
The series should end.
Down vote me, and feel good.
It’s just sad thinking about the 50+ years old people who read OP, since they probably won’t see the ending of this great manga.
Well, i hope for them who won’t live that long, at least they have a good ending for their life.
I think if you’re in Japan you should be ok
You be surpise how many adults watch Avatar the last Airbender.
you be surpise how many adult men watch my little pony friendship is magic.
You’d be surprised at how un-surprised most people would be to that fact. There are plenty that watch Chowder, Phineas and Ferb, and tons of other American cartoons as well. Beats watching most of the other trash that’s on tv these days.
It is a poor state of affairs when animated series are more interesting than whatever live action stuff they put on TV.
Stop watching shitty live-action shows, then, and watch good ones, like Breaking Bad.
you have seen what is passed of as 3D porn in this country haven’t you?
this is meaningless, arent 90% of japanese people OLD people? i can guess that the % of YOUNG people who read one piece is at least 40%… you have to think that in japan the ratio of young old its like 1/10
Are you that fucking ignorant? Or are you just that stupid?
-.- one pice ta pa el wuevo no pasa nada son para mierdas esa series de cagada -.-
im sad after reading your comment 1º becose you cant speak english and 2º becose your hate for the series its maybe caused the lack of OP in your shity language
this stupid old cat approves!
Pro-Tip: When you post on a website using a foreign language, chances are that you won’t be understood by 90% of the users, and the message will be lost.
And as one wise man once said:
“ENGLISH, MOTHERFUCKER, DO YOU SPEAK IT?”
English sucks.
My first language is Spanish and I can’t understand shit of what he wrote with that kindergarten orthography.
Si lees como escribes, no es un espanto que no te guste One Piece.
THAT IS SO CREEPY, THEY ARE PROBABLY ALL PEDOPHILES
Most characters in One Piece are busty adult woman, why should they be pedos?
>he probably thinks OP is Index
silly knobs
nice you misspellowed noobs
Most characters are young adult males, actually.
Female characters are almost exclusively busty adult women, yeah, but One Piece fans are nowhere near exclusively male.
first anon is a failled troll
I though one piece sucks myself, the char designs are horrible and it had like no plot at all. SOme of the dubmest chars I ever seen too. I really don’t see what the point to this series is.
One Piece no plot… LOL You pwned yourself there idiot!
You have no idea what you are talking about.
I also dont understand the popularity of one piece. I watched over 90 episodes cause I was dead-stubborn and after those episodes I still thought that the show sucked. So I thought it must be a kids show since thats the impression I got.
Now this? Wth? Well, whatever floats your boat i guess.
I wouldn’t expect a lolicon pedophile to be interested. How many of you still read shonen or anything besides smut anyway?
Lets be honest k?
Son, what is wrong with you.
it appears you is actually a name for a japanese actor.
did you misstype son as sun?
When you keep something going on for XX amount of years, the children become older, the older become elder.
Just end this shitty series already.
You obviously don´t read or watch this “shitty” series so why should you fucking care if it ends or not? You haters are ridiculous as always!
Children? One Piece was always popular most with late-end teenagers…
You’re confusing it with Naruto which basically has the same demographic as the Pokémon anime in Japan.
If One Piece is “shitty”, i don’t know what to say about Naruto @_@… i’m ashamed that so many westerners love it so much.
And i don’t know even more what to say about (this time) this TRUE crap for retarded people named Bleach.
You’re “ashamed” that a certain region of people like something that you think is of low quality?
Because they HAVE to have high standards like you?
You’re pathetic.
What’s so sad about that “certain region” are the same people that don’t buy or support Naruto and Bleach. That’s why Bleach Anime is getting canceled…
“Yo, do you read one piece?” – “Ehh… no~, but my grandpa is into this shit.”
why don’t u start with ending your life
^butthurt Bleach fan
Made my day.
I doubt most people who says something is shit actually gave it a chance and watched/read it.
END IT ALREADY!!! too long, DAFUK!!! oneshitpiece sucks!
no pal, you suck [dicks].
….
hmm that’s good kids cant buy manga anway
>he doesn’t know manga in japan only costs 5 bucks
americans, god their dumb
Not true since manga in japan is cheap.
Well K-on! has a huge fan base of middle aged (creepy) men. What’s the big deal.
creepy otaku are no longer human
‘creepy otaku are no longer human’
We are luminous beings, not this crude matter.
(Bonus points if you can spot the movie reference…)
I have never seen a movie with the specific quote of “creepy otaku are no longer human”, though I’m sure the subtext is in many of them.
It’s a sad thing if you think that successfully placing your quote is worthy of bonus points…even if you got the syntax wrong.
one word…
sad
if its sad to have a manga going on for 10 years, an anime going 300+ episodes, a couple of movies, tons of merchandise, I want to see what’s “good”.
I never watched One piece, and never will.. i hate the art style; that alone is a huge turn off for me, and the ridiculous amount of episodes is also a discouragment to start watching now anyway
Just short of being banned, GTR now stinks on the front page and in the forum too.
“Berserk sucks nowadays”
Too deep for you?
“I got through One Piece in less than 2 months. That was about 2 years ago, so maybe 3 for you guys.”
I actually watched 600 episodes in, like, one weekend. I just skipped through all the redundant stuff.
Protip: Watch every fifth episode. You won’t miss out on anything, really.
I got through One Piece in less than 2 months. That was about 2 years ago, so maybe 3 for you guys.
I got addicted. I used to like Bleach but, absurd as it may sound to someone who hasn’t given One Piece a fair chance, I can’t take it seriously anymore because I watched One Piece. This is what Shounen should be.
I’m sorry, but if you favor art over story then I truly feel sorry for you.
who cares about the art style when the story is good
well I think the art style is a hit or miss. It’s either you like it or don’t. I’m not a one piece fan myself, but if it’s still got their middle aged fans, then they must be doing something right.
Same here, never found the art or character design the slightest bit appealing. The ridiculous length of the series is a huge barrier for entry as well.
Well, Berserk sucks nowadays so your argument is invalid!
Fuck off retard!!!
I favor Art over story. I basically know every story there is anyway, now those stories are just repeating themselves. But I like the style of one piece… it’s just the story sucking, meaning repeating itself over and over again.
Take Berserk for example. There the story pattern is gradually changing, which makes it interesting.
Not at all.
Consider how old One Piece is for a moment, and then it suddenly makes sense.
Indeed. For a series to keep it’s fans for that long it’s quite an accomplishment.
Amen, bro!
i wonder why people get a hard on on this, manga/anime is just a fantasy, an escape from reality when reality sucks ass. At least manga reader can keep on living to be an elderly rather than some rock star that end up committing suicide at 27. I’m 25 now, if the the manga continues for another 20 years at least i got one more reason to keep on living in this goddamn forsaken,bullshit,fucktard, suck ass world.