Are you ready to give up your mundane life and explore a world of unimaginable possibilities, all while learning the values of friendship and becoming a pirate (possibly with some wacky abilities but definitely a quirky crew)? We're not _quite_ there, yet, but we _are_ talking about the fans and fandom of this beloved show, _One Piece_.
Plus, we have special guest, Greg Werner (from the [One Piece Podcast](http://www.onepiecepodcast.com/)) to navigate us all the way to the Grand Line, and beyond!
## Episode Outline
### Fandom Facts
**History and Origins:**
> One Piece is a long-running shounen manga series created by Oda Eiichiro (Odacchi to his fans) that is serialized in Weekly Shounen Jump. The story chronicles the adventures of Monkey D. Luffy, a boy who gained a rubber-like body after eating a cursed fruit as a young child, and his quest to find the One Piece and become the Pirate King. Along his journey, he fights many villains, makes new friends, and finds his nakama, most of whom join his crew, the Strawhat Pirates.
>
> — [Fanlore - One Piece](https://fanlore.org/wiki/One_Piece)
Since the first volume was released in 1997 (the same year as the Fifth Element, StarFox 64, and Final Fantasy 7, for reference), an additional 89 volumes have been released, over 850 episodes of the anime, 13 movies, 45 games (including GameSpy's "GBA Platformer of the Year" in 1995)... like, a lot of stuff. Lots.
**Search Data:**
One Piece has been increasing in popularity [up until around January 2016](https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=all&q=%2Fm%2F01_f03). After that, it starts to decrease in popularity but is still more popular than in 2004. Another interesting occurrence is a spike (and drop in) in interest around October 2010.
The top ten countries for _One Piece_, by search volume, are as follows: Thailand, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Phillipines, Vietnam, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, Algeria, Morocco (Canada is 43rd, United States is 49th).
[// Interestingly, trend correlates with increase in interest in MHA]: #
**Fan Demographics:**
We managed to grab demographics from a few different sources.
...One of which comes from the [One Piece Podcast itself](http://www.onepiecepodcast.com/2016/05/23/winter-2016-survey-results/) (circa 2016). In a survey with almost 700 respondents, this is what the data looks like:
- *Age*: The largest group is folks 21-25 (42%); 15-20 (32%); 26-30 (16%)...
- *Gender*: 76% male; 23.6% female; 0.4% other
Not demographic data, but some interesting data nonetheless:
- Only 4% of participants do not read the manga. 13% do not watch the anime.
- 25% of participants do not participate in the fan community
In 2011, NHK (a Japanese TV channel) had also conducted a survey of readers of the manga, which gives a slightly different set of age data... which doesn't exactly line up:
- < 18 (12%), 19-29 (43%), 30-49 (32%), 50+ (13%)
**Fanac Fast Facts**
- Archive Of Our Own has [over 12000 works for One Piece](https://archiveofourown.org/tags/One%20Piece/works).
- Top 3 Categories: M/M (6149), Gen (3624), F/M (2809)
- Top 3 Categories: Monkey D. Luffy (5149), Roronoa Zoro (4694), Vinsmoke Sanji (4318)
- Top 3 Relationships: Roronoa Zoro/Vinsmoke Sanji (2038), Monkey D. Luffy/Trafalgar D. Water Law (917), Roronoa Zoro/Sanji (882)
### [Last Episode's](https://fanthropological.com/halo) Famous Last Words
Due to a scheduling conflict, there are no famous last words for this episode. Sorry!
### Main Discussion
**Topics covered in this episode:** TBD
### Spotlight: [One Pace](https://onepace.net/)
> One Pace is a project aiming to match the One Piece manga more accurately than Toei's anime adaptation. We cut out filler scenes, reaction shots, padded sequences, and re-order scenes to stay truer to Goda's manga.
>
> — [One Pace - About](https://onepace.net/about)
### Famous Last Words
Our chance (and yours, if you're watching on [twitch.tv/thenickscast](https://twitch.tv/thenickscast)) to have some (in)famous last words about next week's topic before we've done any prep work! Next week, we'll be talking about the fans and fandom of _Vampire Chronicles_!
**Greg:** Is Anne Rice a Christian again, or isn't she?
## Where can you find us?
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- You can join us for the live recording of the podcasts and participate (or catch us when we're playing some games) at [twitch.tv/thenickscast](https://twitch.tv/thenickscast)
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[email protected]](mailto:
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## What is "Fanthropological"?
Every week, Fanthropological delivers over an hour of fandom-related "fanalysis" covering a different fandom every week and giving you hard data, history, special guests, and, of course, speculation!
We cover topics spanning the gamut of anime, manga, comics, video games, comics, movies, books, television, and, in general, geek culture.
## Credits
- All other music and sound for this week's episode were provided by Nick Green!
