I don't think anyone truly knows or understands the sheer long term damage the 4Kids dub did to One Piece as a brand, and that only just RECENTLY has it actually recovered from it

A thread:

One of the biggest barriers to entry in OP is it's length, and the series just celebrated it's 1000th chapter.

When the 4Kids dub came along, OP was more or less on the Skypiea arc (Chapter 237 to be exact) which was sizable but not monstrous undertaking to catch up to

For the vast majority of Americans the 4Kids dub was the first exposure they had to One Piece and it made this high adventure series into a shell of its former self.

Toilet humor, cringe-inducing dialogue, cutting whole episodes, over the top censoring, It scared everyone away--

--and right into the arms of Naruto, which actually took itself seriously and DIDN'T water down its source material for toddlers. Naruto became THE anime in the mid-2000's, while One Piece faded unceremoniously away when everyone stopped watching the horrible dub

You only ever get ONE first impression, and 4Kids completely botched it.

One Piece was a laughing stock in the anime community for YEARS. If you were an OP fan between 2004 to 2010 any attempt to mention it would be met by 4kids quotes and mockery

Also the 4Kids dub is the reason the official manga translation is so inconsistent with the original. ViZ wanted to keep it on par with the dub so it kept a lot of their changes

That's why 20 years later, Zoro is STILL being called Zolo

Funimation took over the dub in the late 2000's and it DID briefly air on Toonami, but because One Piece's image was so POISONED thanks to 4Kids its ratings sunk and it stopped airing halfway through Skypiea, and since then the new dub has only existed on DVD and Blu-Ray

and BECAUSE everyone was turned off by 4Kids, the series kept chugging ahead getting longer and longer and now its length is what keeps new readers from attempting to dive in.

Missed that perfect jumping on point and the train left without them, thanks to a bad first impression

Meanwhile in Japan, One Piece has become this generations Dragon Ball. It's an absolute titan of a franchise that's celebrated and beloved all over.

Yet in America even now, it has a very subdued presence outside of the core anime community.

Only recently has it been beginning to get the respect it deserves from the West, with movies now actually premiering in theaters, a Netflix adaptation coming, and YouTubers like Totally Not Mark showcasing the series in a positive light.

I'm convinced that had One Piece had a stronger start in the mid-2000's, it would have competed on equal grounds with Naruto rather than having Naruto blow straight past it

Nowadays, I can view the 4Kids dub and the infamous song (Which honestly I think kind of slaps, ngl) with a detached bemusement.

But I weep for what it did and how hard it fucked the series over and that its taken THIS long to gain its footing again.