The new one piece TCG was announced a couple days ago. I’m a big one piece fan so I’m super excited (been reading it for about 16 years now). I’ve been tempted to buy some boxes of the old One Piece card game but for some reason it just does not resonate with me. They haven’t really revealed many of the cards for this new set but I like the direction they’re going with the artwork.
I’m thinking about preordering a couple Japanese boxes and a bunch of American boxes (when I can), but I am worried about how they’re going to translate Zoro’s name. If it’s “Zolo” I’ll probably just stick to the JP boxes.
One Piece never really seemed to take off in America, at least in my experience. If you’re not in America, how popular is it in your country? Do you think it has any chance of becoming a commonly played card game if the core game is good? I’m pessimistic about it’s chances of actually seeing much play in America.
I work in a school, and anime is very popular, but I’ve never seen a single student watching or talking about One Piece here. They always seem to watch Naruto, Haikyuu, Jujitsu Kaisen, and Attack on Titan. The card shops I’ve frequented usually have anime lovers but I’ve only met One Piece fans playing board games or tabletop rpgs for some reason.
Why would they translate Zoro as Zolo? Ignoring the fact that Zoro is already an established name and character in English, that’s what the localization team’s job is. They don’t just take the origin language and then run it through google translate and print it
I don’t know if TCGs based on anime really work, unless the anime already has a card game in the actual lore (like with Yugioh). I remember Naruto was extremely popular back in 2006-2007 when I was in middle school, but that didn’t stop the Naruto CCG from failing.
With that being said, I was a big One Piece fan as a kid and I will definitely check this out. I hope they retain some of the original artwork from the East Blue saga. I’m not a fan of the recent art, especially for the female characters.
VIZ translated it as “Zolo” for the American release of the manga. It might have been for copyright reasons. I think the 4kids dub of the Anime also used “Zolo”. I saw VIZ in 2020 just wished happy birthday to “Zolo” on twitter so it has me worried. I don’t know if VIZ still has any say in the english translation or not anymore.
Edit: I looked it up. Seems VIZ started using “Zolo” after 4kids botched the dub and called him “Zolo” because they were afraid he would be confused with “Zorro”. Also looks like they are going to go with “Zolo” for the card game as well from the marketing material.
Just wanted to say I agree with you on the art style for the female characters. I just ignore it personally but it’s embarrassing to see. I tried getting my wife into the anime but she was so turned off by the artwork for female characters she just could not get into it (she saw what they looked like post time skip). It’s a real shame since she actually really loved the backstories and personalities of the female characters.
I was a big One Piece fan years back but got burned out reading weekly since there seemed to be no end in sight. (IIRC Oda mentioned that it’s ending in a few years but I will wait till I see it)
Was OP the last of the “big 3” to get a dub? I remember all of my friends being way more interested in Naruto and Bleach at the time.
The TCG might have some success in Asia but I can’t imagine it having any momentum in the west. When it comes out I might buy a few singles of some cards I like but for the most part I’ll be giving it a pass.