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As members of the Big 3 that have garnered global fanbases over time, it is natural to compare Naruto and One Piece. While one can plausibly enjoy the story of a ninja struggling his way to the top while navigating personal hardships and emotional turmoil, they might also be drawn to the story of a rubber-bodied boy who dreams of freedom and reaching the final horizon, all the same while as he gathers a crew of misfits.
It is also worth mentioning that both stories have authors/ mangakas that are friends or friendly rivals in real life. As such, both have paid homage to each other's magnum opus in their stories.
Debating whether One Piece is better than Naruto or vice-versa might be never-ending but it is probably more productive to gauge which story does a certain aspect of storytelling better.
5 Ways Naruto is better than One Piece and 5 ways that it does not even hold a candle to the latter
1. One Piece does better: World-building
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It is no secret that Eichiro Oda is a master-class storyteller. While Kishimoto is no slouch and his ways of expanding the lore involve the battle between the Senju and the Uchiha, thereby reflecting racial and eugenic issues in the real world, One Piece takes more risks.
The world also lends itself easily to this story, which involves traveling to diverse islands with their individual idiosyncrasies. Some islands float in the sky, while others simply become Halloween-based or Alice-in-Wonderland-esque settings, having been created entirely due to Devil Fruit powers.
There is even an island on the back of a giant walking elephant, not to mention the various mysteries of the world!
2. Naruto does better: Fight scenes
While One Piece has epic and crazy fight scenes, they remain most memorable due to the adrenaline rushing through viewers while watching the show. Naruto does that and more - Kishimoto has unique power systems, with genetically based jutsus, and the mechanics of the fight often imply that someone weaker can find a way to outsmart someone stronger.
Naruto's training with Jiraiya while mastering Rasengan, Rock Lee's battle against Gaara, and Shikamaru being a delight every time he brings his lazy genius to the battle - all of these are epic instances of how fights in shonen can be fantastical while being extremely logical.
3. One Piece does better: Comedy
One Piece undoubtedly does comedy better, even though Naruto also has various lighthearted moments. But the very notion of a rubber boy who can swell up and punch using a humongous fist lends itself easier to comedy, while Oda also manages to maintain comedy in some of the more serious moments without causing the scene to lose its gravitas.
Zoro using Usopp as a sword, the running gags with Sanji and his nosebleeds, Usopp and Nami showing their recurrent cowardice and even the possible final antagonist Blackbeard showing his comical side from his very introduction, are some instances of Oda's comical genius.
4. Naruto does better: Performance in the West
Unlike One Piece, which is gaining popularity after its competitor has finished its long run, Naruto not only benefited from a Funimation dub but was also made available on Toonami, a service renowned for bringing the best anime action to Western fans.
Additionally, it better resonated with Western audiences due to its serious design and punk rock sensibility, making it the ideal anime for viewers who were sick of cutesy cartoons and Dragon Ball's idealistic tropes. For encouraging the West to take anime a little more seriously, Naruto deserves major props.
5. One Piece does better: Best-selling manga of all time
One Piece became the best-selling manga of all time partly because of its length, but there are longer manga too. It is undoubtedly a great piece of fiction that managed to outlast its peers in the sales department, including the other members of the Big 3.
One Piece is not only one of the best-selling graphic novels of all time, with lifetime sales that are only slightly behind but swiftly catching up to those of Batman and Superman comics, but also has lifetime sales that nearly double those of Naruto. It even holds the record for the fastest-selling graphic novel of all time, according to Guinness World Records.
6. Naruto does better: Gateway anime because of consumable length
Despite the fact that One Piece is a commercial powerhouse, its vast and always-expanding length is a significant barrier to attracting new readers and watchers.
It's a series that seems to have no beginning and a too-deep beginning, and its extensive body of work serves more to terrify potential fans than to draw them in.
Naruto offers readers a far more approachable reward because of its shorter duration and clear conclusion and can serve as a better gateway anime because of its Western appeal and shorter storytelling.
7. One Piece does better: Breaking the shonen format
By featuring different and unique ways of storytelling that are simply not based on power-ups, One Piece does break the shonen format more often. Thriller Bark and Punk Hazard are great instances of the same where, instead of character match-ups, there was a tendency to try new ways of storytelling.
Furthermore, Luffy is not the only major player in the universe with several characters with different motivations and allied to different factions playing relevant roles throughout.
Buggy and Crocodile in Cross Guild, Doflamingo's secrets and history with the Celestial Dragons, Moria's hinted return, Lucci and Kaku with their awakened Fruits, and even the unknown fates of Big Mom and Kaido all hold out potential storytelling options open even after their defeat.
8. Naruto does better: Character deaths
If there is one thing that has consistently annoyed One Piece fans, it is the inability of the mangaka to write off any of his characters unless they were in the past. Pell should have died in Alabasta, while several of the Scabbards should have perished too.
However, the only fake-outs are not them; the story is filled with a host of characters who seemingly die only to return with some exceptions.
In opposition, Naruto is adept at sending off fan favourite characters with tearful, emotional goodbyes. Jiraiya the sage met his tragic end while Itachi died revealing the truth about his clan to his brother. The story is filled with characters who die, who stay dead, but despite that, remain relevant in the hearts of the characters who are alive and carry the story forward.
9. One Piece does better: Diverse appearances
One Piece excels at making viewers of anime remember it, if only for a moment. A variety of colors may be found in the backgrounds and cartoony characters within a matter of seconds, partly due to the diverse races, Devil fruit abilities and mutations readily breaking the mould of the usual anime. This is not to suggest that Naruto lacks admirable characters or imaginative worlds, though.
Based only on appearance, there are undoubtedly many characters that fans love. But it's obvious that Kishimoto ran out of ideas at some point when examining the series of dark rocks, forests, and green outfits during the Great Ninja War.
10. Naruto does better: Animation
The actual action and speed of the graphics more than makeup for Naruto's slight lack of variety in art style. Even though One Piece is immediately inventive, its time with Toei Animation is noted for being full of subpar backdrop and character graphics as well as a few overtly dramatic pauses.
Here, Naruto easily outperforms its contemporaries because most combat and non-fighting moves are executed superbly.
