Sponge Bob Square Luffy

I am not sure if this is a fan art or an official collaboration, but it certainly looks like it was done by the original maker of Sponge Bob. In the states, generally when you go around asking people if they know One Piece, the answer is normally no, but if you ask them if they know or have seen Naruto, many people will say yes. I am not sure if One Piece is broadcast on TV (it probably is, as it can be found on Hulu), but I have never seen it once on TV in LA. However, I did see Naruto a couple of times. In some stores that sell J-Pop products in LA, you can find the manga books of both in English. Therefore we should consider why is One Piece more popular in Japan, but not in LA, if not the whole USA? I did ask some people (Taiwanese and Japanese) why they do not read or watch One Piece, but are into Naruto. They said that the reason is because One Piece is way too long, and they do not feel like catching up. Thinking back, I remember I once had the same thought. Back in 6th grade, Naruto only had some 15 volumes when One Piece already had 10 or a dozen more.

If this mash-up picture was done by the original anime-maker of Sponge Bob through a legal collaboration, we should consider how much impact it will have in the USA. First, since One Piece is not as popular as Naruto, maybe hardly anyone will notice that it is a mash-up between Sponge Bob and One Piece; perhaps people are just going to think it's Sponge Bob and his friends in funny clothes. Conversely, it could be a promotion of One Piece in the USA for people who knows Sponge Bob, which probably makes up 99% of the American population. Through this photo, or mash-up products (if there is any), American people might start gaining interest in One Piece.

Last night, while I was studying for the final, and reading the "Japanamerica", I found another point that is interesting in this image. The author quoted a Japanese guy saying that they never understand American jokes and what American kids like. Sponge Bob is one of those examples that people find it funny in the USA, but never really got it going in Japan. In the same way, One Piece is also popular in its homeland, but not the USA. In this sense, this picture is a combination of two works that is not popular in each other's country, even though I still do think Sponge Bob has more reputation in Japan than One Piece does in the US. However, just like Prof. Alisa said in the class, jokes are really hard to translate across languages, so perhaps there are some jokes or cultural factors in One Piece that American audience may find hard to digest.

I found this mashup on the blog: http://9gag.com/gag/148325

Can't really imagine this pirate crew getting anywhere in the New World.