If you've ever wondered why Naruto is more successful than One Piece outside Japan, Kosuke Yahagi, former Weekly Shonen Jump magazine editor will have answers to you. According to him, it all depends on the understanding of each story and the image style of each series.
In a 2019 interview, Yahagi explained that “One Piece” has a more complex storyline because it is built like a role -playing video game.
Each plot is a new world, with new characters and goals, making the story richer, but also harder to monitor. On the contrary, “Naruto” is more direct, with many action scenes, spectacular fighting and easy -to -understand plot at first sight.
Even Masashi Kishimoto, the author of Naruto, admitted that competing with One Piece in terms of the plot is almost impossible. Therefore, he decided to focus on making his manga more impressive in terms of images and easier to enjoy.
Another important point that Yahagi and other old editors mentioned is that One Piece has a very Japanese storytelling style, with theater drama and cultural reference materials that are not always suitable for Western audiences. It is compared to the movie Kabuki and the classic Yakuza movie, very rich in emotion and sometimes a bit too much.
On the other hand, Naruto has the same structure as Hollywood films, with the plot progressive in a clearer and easier guess. That makes the audience outside Japan easier to understand.
Moreover, Kazuhiko Torishima, former editor of “Dragon Ball”, added another interesting point: Naruto's design may have affected its global success. Blond hair and blue eyes made him more prominent abroad, because he was not like a regular Japanese character. And the topic of Ninja is always popular around the world, while pirates are not a new topic.
But while “Naruto” was more successful in the West at that time, “One Piece” was still the best -selling manga in history, with more than 500 million copies released. In the end, both are the huge works of the Shonen manga genre, each conquering readers in their own way.