One Piece

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What do you get if you throw pirates, fantasy, supers, action, comedy and hot babes into a blender, then cook it low and slow for 20 years and counting? You get One Piece.

Plot

20 years ago, the world's most famous pirate, Gol D. Roger (commonly misheard as "Gold Roger", both in-universe and out) was captured by the Marines. Right before he was executed, he revealed to a listening world that his legendary treasure, reputed to be the greatest the world had ever seen, was lying hidden in "One Piece" and he dared whoever listened to find it and claim it for themselves. Thus began the Great Pirate Era, as scores upon scores of thrillseekers, brutes, dreamers and bastards alike began flocking to the sea in pursuit of One Piece and the title "King of the Pirates" that its recovery would bestow upon them.

20 years since the Great Pirate Era began, enter our hero: Monkey D. Luffy, a typical shonen-esque manchild who, armed only with freakish strength, inexhaustible determination, a surprising amount of charisma and a Devil Fruit that has turned him into living rubber, sets out to find the One Piece and become King of the Pirates with his loyal crew, the Straw Hat Pirates.

Geography

The world on which One Piece takes place has no official name, but is sometimes nicknamed "The Grand Blue" by fans due to the naming theme of its major quadraunts. Unlike our world, the One Piece world is dominated by oceans, with thousands if not millions of comparatively small islands scattered across the vast seas. The sole continent is The Red Line, which lies atop an unbroken ridge of crimson stone that stretches in a complete circuit from the north pole to the south pole and rises hundreds of miles above the ocean's surface. Combined with the equatorial sea called The Grand Line, this divides the world into four quadrants; distinct seas called the Four Blues; North Blue, South Blue, East Blue and West Blue.

We don't know much about the Four Blues except that the East Blue is generally considered the "weakest" of them; it has the tamest weather, the fewest pirates, the least conflict and its people are generally closest to Earth normal. Which makes it all the more shocking that some incredibly strong people, including Gol D. Roger and Monkey D. Luffy, were born in the East Blue. Also, the North Blue is home to the Vinsmoke Kingdom/Germa 66, a bunch of powerhungry bastards who want to seize power from the World Government and who sell their elite troops out as mercenaries.

The Red Line is just as mysterious. We only know about two points on it; Reverse Mountain, where four enormous channels carry seawater up from the Four Blues and then down into the Grand Line, and Reverse Mountain's polar opposite of Mariejoise, the Holy City where dwell the Celestial Dragons and from which the World Government is ruled.

Cutting the Four Blues off from the Grand Line are the Calm Belts; miles-wide expanses of unnaturally calm, still water, devoid of currents and wind. Add to it that these are the breeding grounds of the Sea Kings, an array of giant oceanic monsters, and the Four Blues are effectively cut off from each other. Only the Navy can freely traverse the world by a combination of exclusive access to proprietary technology and maintaining a stable of badass warriors so strong they can kill Sea Kings as if they were swatting flies.

The Grand Line is where shit starts to get really fucking weird. For starters; every island in the Grand Line exists in its own permanent seasonal climate - Spring, Summer, Autumn, or Winter - but also has four seasons in synch with the wider world around it. This means you have sixteen possible seasons to take into account when you land on a given island; Summer-Summer could see you burning in a heat-scorched desert, whilst Winter-Winter would be a frigid artic climate at its absolute worst. Adding to the chaos, each island is made of a unique mixture of magnetic minerals, giving it a distinct magnetic field - so regular compasses, which work fine in the Four Blues, go absolutely apeshit in the Grand Line and are no use. Instead, you have to rely on a special device called a Log Pose, which can record the field of an island and unerringly track towards it - when you arrive on that island, it will reset itself by locking onto the field of the next nearest island. This leads to the existence of a secondary type of Log Pose called an Eternal Pose, which registers one magnetic field and never resets, so it can always guide to that specific island.

The side-effect of these crazy seasons and magnetic fields is that the sea of the Grand Line is absolutely nuts. Weather is random and unpredictable to the point you could go from a tropical spring day to dodging icebergs to wrangling a gale to back to sunshine in the span of five minutes, the currents are constantly shifting around, and to cap things off the water is full of monsters.

Oh, but it gets worse. See, the Grand Line is divided into two halves; the stretch from the entry at Reverse Mountain to Mariejoise is known as Paradise. This is because the next half, the so-called New World, is like Paradise turned up to eleven. The magnetic fields of the islands can fluctuate on an hourly basis, necessitating the use of a special triple-needled version of the Log Pose (sometimes referred to by fans as a "Tri Pose") to be able to navigate. The monsters are bigger and fiercer, the weather is nastier and crazier, and the people are the meanest, nastiest, strongest, toughest sons of bitches around. Nobody has ever reached the end of the New World except for Gol D. Roger and his crew, which is one of the reasons why he was considered the King of the Pirates. To even get to the New World, you need to either go over the Red Line through Mariejois, or dive down to the sea floor and go through the tunnel underneath it, which is the home of the fishmen and merfolk.

Also, high above all of these are the White Sea and the White-White Sea; "sky oceans" made up of clouds with a density akin to either water or land and inhabited by their own alien civilizations. These regions are as little-detailed as the Red Line and the Four Blues.

Races

Aside from the obligatory humans, the world of One Piece is full of strange humanoid races, though we don't know much about any of them.

Giants are known to inhabit this world, and are native to the Viking-flavored island of Elbaf. They are huge, strong and generally an honorable race.

Fishmen are a race of aquatic humanoids with physical traits of various fish - these traits appear at random for each child, so parents of one species may have features of an entirely difference species. Their size varies wildly, and they can be incredibly large. What distinguishes them from the merfolk is that they are always bipedal. Fishmen can breathe underwater and are roughly ten times stronger than the average human, although that varies between individuals. Whilst fishmen and merfolk live at peace, there's a long and bloody history between them and humanity. Despite this, fishmen and humans are capable of crossbreeding.

Merfolk inhabit the deep sea of the Grand Line and are distinguished from their fishmen relatives by always appearing as human from the waist up, and a fish from the waist down. When female merfolk reach the age of 30, they gain access to a low level of shapeshifting that allows them to split their tail into two fin-footed legs, allowing them to walk on land, as well as fuse it back together to restore their incredible swimming speed. Like fishmen, merfolk vary widely in size. Merfolk and fishmen can interbreed, in which case their offspring will randomly be either fishman or merfolk.

Fishmen and giants are known to be able to interbreed, creating hybrids called "Wotans". Some fans have speculated that the many absurdly large humans who show up throughout One Piece canon may actually be Half-Giants or the distant descendants of human/giant interbreeding.

Long-Arms, Long-Legs and Long-Necks are human subspecies characterized by unusually long and flexible bodyparts. These races are probably based on the Japanese yokai Tenaga-jin, Ashinaga-jin, and Rokurokubi respectively. We don't know much about these races, beyond that Long-Arms have a reputation as thieves and tricksters.

Triclops/Three-Eyes are another human subspecies, distinguished by the presence of a third eye in the center of their forehead. Not much is known about them as we only see a character of mixed parentage, but they can apparently achieve a "true awakening" with their third eye, which lets them hear the Voice of All Things.

Minks are a race of beastfolk who are found only on the wandering realm of Zou, an island-sized landmass that sits atop of a gigantic elephant named Zunisha that eternally roams the sea. It's unknown where they originated from, with fans speculating that they may have some connection Zoan type Devil Fruits, but like fishmen and merfolk, their animal species is random and not defined by strict parental heritage. They possess superhuman physical abilities, including the ability to generate powerful electrical attacks via an energy/fighting style they call "Electro", and can achieve a super-powered berserker state called "Sulong" by staring at the full moon.

Dwarves exist in the world of One Piece, but are tiny, inches-tall wingless fairy-like people known for their skill at gardening. Far stronger than what their size would suggest.

"Skyfolk" are a collection of human subspecies who inhabit the Sky Oceans. They can be distinguished by the vestigial wings sprouting from their backs.

Lunarians are a near-extinct human subspecies. They have silver-white hair and brown skin, sport black wings which are fully functional unlike the Skyfolk, and have a constant plume of fire burning from their upper back. They have the natural ability to produce flames, and are exceptionally tough. As mentioned, they are near extinct, with only one known survivor existing. Furthermore, the World Government has created artificial Lunarians called Seraphim, which are also cyborg clones of powerful individuals, to serve as living weapons and replace the Warlord system.

And Deities did exist, once upon time.

Politics

Each island in the world of One Piece is nominally under its own independent authority, creating a vast, chaotic patchwork of kingdoms, republics, and gods know what else. However, in practice, everybody bows to the authority of the World Government, who have set themselves up as the supreme authority of the world. The World Government enacts its might through its control of the Navy, also known as the Marines (in European sense); the single largest coherent fighting force in the world, officially dedicated to enforcing law and order and beating back the pirate hordes. There's also the global intelligence agency, Cipher Pol, as well as the SSG, a science division led by Dr. Vegapunk that is responsible for fielding dangerous Pacifista and Seraphim robots as the Navy's fiercest weapons.

The World Government was founded 800 years ago, during something known only as "The Void Century", because all details have been deliberately scrubbed by the World Government. They have ruled for the 700 years since the Void Century ended without serious challenge. The nominal leaders of the World Government are the Celestial Dragons, the descendants of the royal families of the twenty kingdoms who united to form the World Government during the Void Century. However, 700 years of being treated as divinely blessed rulers of the world have made the Celestial Dragons hideously decadent, corrupt, self-serving and cruel, concerned for little other than indulging their every whim, no matter how petty, perverse or petulant. The true managing of the World Government is done by a council called The Five Elder Stars, and whilst officially they merely guide a democratic republic made up of the world's united kingdoms (at least those willing to pay the exorbitant annual tax/bribe that the World Government demands for membership), the truth is that they take their marching orders from an unknown leader.

It bears emphasis that the Celestial Dragons are complete and utter bastards, but because a combination of social exultation and the fact they are surrounded by ridiculously strong warriors who are paid ludicrous amounts of money to defend them against the merest thought of harm, nobody stands up to them. And, as the saying goes, the fish stinks from the head down; the rest of the World Government is just as corrupt and self-serving, and even the Navy, the ostensible face of law, order, truth and justice, is full of petty tyrants, murderously self-righteous fanatics, and every other asshole you wouldn't want in the military.

Challenging the might of the Navy and the World Government are The Four Emperors of the Sea; four New World-based pirate captains who are so ridiculously badass and powerful that they might as well be fucking gods and whose influence spans across the New World. The Four Emperors consist of Kaido (a ridiculously strong and tough giant who can shapeshift into a dragon, generally considered the most powerful being alive period), Charlotte "Big Mom" Linlin (a deranged giantess matriarch who can eat souls), Whitebeard (an ancient but badass warrior who can create continent-sinking earthquakes with a thought), and "Redhaired" Shanks (the youngest of the group, and the only one without a Devil Fruit, meaning he got the role through sheer combat skill and badassery).

The other major threat to the World Government's authority is the Revolutionary Army, a worldwide underground movement founded by Monkey D. Dragon (son of the legendary Navy hero Monkey D. Garp and father of our series protagonist, Monkey D. Luffy) for the purpose of taking down the corrupt government. Lacking the raw might of the Four Emperors, the Revolutionary Army instead wages a guerilla campaign, trying to subvert WG-aligned nations and recruit independent ones.

Somewhere in between, although nominally on the side of the World Government, are The Seven Warlords of the Sea; a set of seven super-strong privateers who have accepted legitimacy in the face of the World Government's forces in exchange for being willing to aid them in opposing the Four Emperors and any other major-league threats. At the time of the story's start, the Seven Warlords consist of Dracule Mihawk (the world's greatest swordsman), Crocodile (a genius strategist with the power to turn into and manipulate sand, as well as disintegrate anyone he touches), Gecko Moria (a giant necromancer with an island-ship full of zombies), Bartholomew Kuma (a hulking cyborg with the power to "push" anything he wants to anywhere he wants - it's more dangerous than it sounds), Boa Hancock (an incredibly beautiful Amazon queen who can petrify anyone who thinks lustful thoughts about her), Jinbei (a fishman martial arts master), and Doflamingo (a sadistic genius with the power to create and control string, a Celestial Dragon by birth but outcast from his peers and pissed off about it). Future members included Trafalgar Law (part of the Worst Generation, a surgeon that can warp reality into his personal operating theatre), Edward Weevil (a super strong mama's boy who claims to be Whitebeard's son), Blackbeard (more on him later), and Buggy the Clown (a starter villain who bluffed his way to the position). By Chapter 956 of the manga, the entire "Warlord" system was replaced and the pirates who filled it have had their bounties reinstated and now actively being hunted down by the World Government.

Also worth mentioning here is the existence of Impel Down, the great prison of the World Government reserved for pirates, which is technically an independent but allied nation. Impel Down is an artificial island consisting of a tower constructed from the surface of the sea down to the sea floor, and is divided into six levels, known as the Six Hells. Level 6 is top secret; nobody but the high-ranking government officials are supposed to know that it exists. Layer 1, Crimson Hell, is an artificial forest where every leaf and blade of grass is a razor sharp blade (the name comes because it's been stained red with blood), which is also infested with venomous spiders - the inmates are chased through the forest once every day. Level 2, Wild Beast Hell, is a labyrinth where the corridors are stalked by a variety of dangerous predatory animals, as well as four super-nasty Zoan-empowered guards. Level 3, Starvation Hell, is a desert-like super-heated oubliette; prisoners are tossed down here and left with the bare minimum of food and water to keep them alive in the perpetually scorching hot environment - the "sand" is actually made up of the desiccated remains of countless prisoners who died here and disintegrated. The heat comes from Level 4, Blazing Hell, where prisoners labor endlessly to stoke ridiculously huge fires that burn night and day, heating up a lake-sized cauldron of blood. Ironically, Level 5 is the Freezing Hell, a super-chilled snowy wasteland where prisoners struggle to survive in the face of the cold and the roving packs of hyper-aggressive arctic wolves (who btw, were moved from Level 2 because the wolves were too vicious and hunted down the other beasts from that level). Finally, Level 6, Forgotten Hell, is an oubliette reserved for the worst of the worst - the strongest, nastiest, most outright overpowered badass rogues ever to cross Impel Down's doorstep. Being unable to hurt them in any of the other hells, or simply because their crimes are that heinous, Impel Down doesn't even bother trying to torture them, but just tosses them down here in the dark to rot.

And then there's Blackbeard, a scheming and sinister bastard who dreams of claiming the One Piece and with it the title of King of the Pirates. Formerly a member of the Whitebeard Pirates, he murdered his own captain to steal the Dark-Dark Fruit, a uniquely powerful Logia Devil Fruit, kicking off a chain of events that eventually got Whitebeard himself and also Portgas D. Ace (son of Gol D. Roger and adoptive brother of Monkey D. Luffy) killed. Then many bricks were shat when he somehow stole Whitebeard's Tremor-Tremor Fruit powers, gaining the abilities to use two Devil Fruits at once. Which should be impossible...(The story implies it has something to do with having a weird body that among other things removes his need for sleep).

Superpowers

As a shonen action series, naturally, One Piece is full of fighting. What separates it from a "vanilla" pirate series is the use of outright superpowers. Whilst there are plenty of examples of typical shonen-esque "just that strong" badasses and wacky martial arts, there are a couple of major sources of superpowers that pop up during the series.

Devil Fruits

The most ubiquitous form of power in the One Piece world, and certainly the most famous, are Devil Fruits. These magical (or possibly archeotech, but fuck it, we'll stick with magic) fruits come in countless forms, united by the shared rules. Each specific fruit grants a single solitary power; you eat one bite of it, you get the power, and that fruit goes inert. Nobody can gain any benefit of that fruit until you die, whereupon the fruit "reincarnates" and becomes active again. Once you eat a Devil Fruit, you become vulnerable to water; immersion in standing water makes you weak and woozy depending on how much there is, and once it gets deep enough, you're basically totally paralyzed - doesn't matter how badass you are, if you fall into deep water, you become immobile and sink like a rock. This is why you travel with non-Fruit users; to save you from drowning. Also, you can only ever have ONE Devil Fruit power - if you try to eat another Devil Fruit, you'll die. You will literally disintegrate on the spot. There is a single exception to this rule; a villain named Blackbeard somehow acquires the power of a second Devil Fruit, and this is treated as a Big Fucking Deal by anyone who knows of it.

Also, you apparently can gain a Devil Fruit's power by cannibalizing its current holder before they die.

In addition to whatever powers they grant by default, Devil Fruits can undergo a mysterious phenomena called "Awakening". Very little is known about this phenomena, except that the end result is that it drastically augments the user's Devil Fruit abilities in some way. The earliest canonical example, Doflamingo's String-String Fruit, gave him the ability to transmute inorganic material in his surroundings into string his command, as well as producing string from his own body.

Devil Fruits are divided into three major categories, based on the type of powers they bestow. Whilst each Devil Fruit grants its own unique power, there can be a certain amount of redundancy; the existence of a Flare-Flare Fruit, which is the Logia of Fire, does not prevent the existence of the Magma-Magma Fruit (Logia of Magma), nor the Hot-Hot Fruit (Paramecia that lets you raise your temperature to "steel and stone melts in your presence" degrees).

Paramecias (or Paramythias, depending on the translation) are the most common of Devil Fruits, and can largely be summed up as "The Devil Fruits which aren't Logias or Zoans". Seriously, Paramecias have the widest variety of possible powers, all wrapped in a single word or concept. Whilst the average pirate aware of Devil Fruits may consider them the weakest of the three Devil Fruit categories, the truth is that they operate on Stand logic, where it's less the fruit's strength and more the user's creativity that defines how powerful a Paramecia user can be. To put things in perspective, of the Seven Warlords and Four Emperors who have Devil Fruits, there is a grand total of one Logia (Crocodile) and one Zoan (Kaido) - the others are all Paramecia users. Doflamingo, for example, has the String-String Fruit, which lets him create and control string. This seemingly innocuous power lets him do shit like create "blades" of monofilament wire that can cut battleships in half from miles away, control people like puppets, pseudo-regenerate by stitching wounds back together as fast as he takes them, "fly" by grappling from cloud to cloud, and create expendable clones of people by making string "dollies" of those people which are under his perfect mental control. Or Kuma, whose Paw-Paw Fruit gives him pawpads on his palm that let him teleport himself and others to anywhere on the planet, compress air into explosions, or "push" the fatigue and pain out of one person and into another person. The smart sailor knows that a creative Paramecia user can be one of the most deadly beings on the planet.

Zoans are Devil Fruits that allow the user to shapeshift into a specific animal (yes, including Humans), with each Zoan Devil Fruit granting access to two forms; the animal form, and a hybrid form. Of all the Devil Fruits, Zoans have the most redundancies, with many cases of specific Zoan Devil Fruits for specific species. For example, the Cat-Cat Fruit has specific Devil Fruits that let you become a lion, a cheetah, a leopard, a tiger, a jaguar, etcetera. Zoans have two notable subcategories; Ancient Zoans allow the user to become a prehistoric animal, like a dinosaur, whilst Mythic Zoans grant the forms of magical creatures, such as phoenixes or dragons. Whilst the average pirate would consider Zoans to be more powerful than Paramecias, the same people who know of the potential strength of the Paramecia often consider Zoans to be the weakest type of Devil Fruit. Whilst they do seem to grant an overall increase in physical abilities, they are the definition of a one-trick pony; you can turn in a specific animal, and that's that. Creativity can help, but it can only go so far in this case.

Zoan Devil Fruits are worth noting for the existence of two related phenomena. The first are Zoan Items; by unknown means, a weapon or tool can be "infused" with a Zoan fruit, turning it into a living creature that can shapeshift from item to animal and back (as well as into a hybrid form). This effectively can create very unusual but powerful weapons. Canon examples include a cannon that was "fed" a Dog-Dog Fruit, allowing it to shapeshift into both a warhound and a half-dog half-cannon that could move and fire itself, and a sword that was "fed" an Elephant-Elephant Fruit. The second phenomena are the SMILES; these are an attempt to artificially replicate Zoan Devil Fruits, and whilst they can work, they are incredibly flawed. 9 out of 10 will simply afflict the user both with the "super-drowning" weakness of a Devil Fruit and an inability to express any emotion other than smiling and laughter. Of the 10% of SMILES that actually do grant a power, the result can be anything from "permanently have your body mutated into a part-animal in a useful way" (for example, a Horse SMILE turning you into a Centaur) to "gain a limited form of Zoan-style shapeshifting" to "have your body permanently deformed in a useless way by part-animal traits". This last result is particularly common and results in some truly appalling freaks of nature, such as one guy who found himself becoming the "tongue" of a giant hippo.

Logias are the rarest and generally accepted as the most powerful of the Devil Fruits, period. These are elemental Devil Fruits, giving the user the ability to create and/or manipulate a single specific element. Usually, the user can also transform their body into that same element, which makes them virtually impossible to harm, but there are exceptions (the most notable being the Dark-Dark Fruit). Some Logias have unexpected secondary powers as well - the aforementioned Dark-Dark Fruit can nullify an opponent's ability to use their own Devil Fruit powers if the Dark-Dark Fruit's user can touch their opponent.

Haki

The most well-defined of the "super martial arts" in the series, Haki (strength aura) was the big revelation at the halfway point of canon, offering the most viable alternative to Devil Fruits as the "main" superpower of the setting. At its core, Haki is the standard shonen "willpower affects reality" affair, but there are three distinct Haki skills.

Armament Haki is the offensive Haki branch; by concentrating their will, the user can reinforce their body to nullify damage, and increase their own striking power. It's particularly useful in that Armament Haki can penetrate Devil Fruit-granted resistances; a skilled user could punch a Logia (who can normally just turn into elemental matter to let the blow pass harmlessly through them) or the eater of the Gum-Gum Fruit (which turns the body into living rubber, making the user immune to blunt force), and as such it's the most commonly seen and used of the three Haki branches.

Observation Haki strengthens the user's perceptive skills, in ways ranging from augmenting their ability to sense danger to full-blown combat-usable precognition.

Conqueror's Haki is the rarest of the three Hakis, and is the only one that can't be taught - you're either born with it, or you're not. It's basically a telepathic assault, allowing the user to knock the weak-willed unconscious or send them fleeing in irresistible terror through the sheer presence of their emotions.

Rokushiki

A World Government-controlled set of six super-powerful martial arts techniques, Rokushiki (The Six Powers/Six Styles, in English) were introduced as kind of a prototype to Haki, but quickly were forgotten once their users were defeated. They consist of:

• Geppo (Moonwalk): The ability to "fly" by literally walking on air, mechanically described as kicking so hard and fast that the user "pushes" off of the air as if it were a solid platform
• Tekkai (Iron Body): The ability to clench the muscles so tightly the skin becomes virtually impenetrable except by the most ridiculously strong.
• Rankyaku (Tempest Kick): The ability to strike so hard and fast that the wind pressure forms a projectile blade that can cut through steel and stone. Usually used as a kick, but it can be done with punches too.
• Soru (Shave): The ability to move with incredible speed, to the point the user can seemingly teleport, mechanically described as being able to kick off from the ground ten times in the span of one second.
• Shigan (Finger Pistol): The ability to jab a finger with such speed and strength it can punch through steel or leave bullet-like wounds in flesh.
• Kami-e (Paper Art): The ability to move with incredible flexibility, allowing one to "flow" around attacks with impossible grace and agility.

In addition, those who have mastered Rokushiki can use the hidden Seventh Technique, the secret art of the Rokuogan (Six King Gun), a powerful two-fist thrust that delivers a bone-pulverising shockwave into whatever it strikes.

Whilst two of the known masters of the Rokushiki are also able to use a technique called Seimei Kikan (Life Return) to manipulate their own bodies in unnatural ways, it is not a formal part of Rokushiki training but instead something they sought out on their own.

The Straw Hat Pirates

The main characters are a small pirate crew who triumph over their usually much more numerous foes by sheer quality of asskicking skills. Being Shonen Protagonists, they aren't really interested in treasure and rarely engage in looting; they're all about the adventuring.

Monkey D. "Straw Hat" Luffy is the captain of the Straw Hat Pirates. Initially a no-name standard Shonen idiot protagonist who is largely remarkable for his Gum-Gum Fruit powers that turned his body into living rubber, it eventually turns out that he is stupidly connected. The straw hat he wears and is so associated with? It was given to him by his mentor, Redhaired Shanks... yeah, the same Shanks considered one of the Four Emperors of the Sea. And he got that straw hat from his old captain, Gol D. Roger. If that's not impressive enough, Luffy's grandfather is Monkey D. Garp, one of the most powerful warriors in the Marines, whilst Luffy's dad, Monkey D. Dragon, is the leader of the World Revolutionaries, a globe-spanning conspiracy aiming to topple the World Government. Luffy's one of the pinnacle examples of how Devil Fruit potency depends in large part on the user's creativity, having taken what an idiot would consider "lame stretching powers" and created an arsenal of evastatingly powerful attacks by exploiting all of the rubbery properties of his anatomy. He's even created several super-powered states, called "Gears", that exploit his biology; Second Gear accelerates his blood-flow to give him a monstrous speed and strength boost, whilst Third Gear sees him inflate his own bones to turn his extremities into gigantic versions of themselves, Fourth Gear expands his body due to injecting air in his muscles to act as a balloon and release punches and kicks with devastating force.

Zoro is the crew's first mate, a one-eyed, green-haired man with a ridiculously high damage threshold, no sense of direction, and devoted to mastery of the Three-Sword Style. See, when he was a kid, he favored two swords, but the only person who could beat him was the daughter of a swordsmanship dojo named Kuina; when she died in a freak accident by falling down some stairs whilst looking for a whetstone, he begged Kuina's father for the right to carry her sword with him as Zoro set out to become the greatest swordsman in the world. So now he fights with his swords gripped tight in his fists and Kuina's family sword gripped in his mouth. How does that work? Fucked if we know!

Nami is the ship's navigator and treasurer. An orphan, she grew up as one of the two poor but beloved adopted daughters of a Marine officer turned tangerine farmer. When she was young, however, her home was invaded by a murderous fishman pirate named Arlong, who murdered Nami's mother. Discovering Nami's prodigious talent for geography and mapmaking, he offered Nami a deal; if she would work for him in the interim, he would let her build up a fortune to "buy" her homeland's freedom from Arlong's rule. Of course, he never intended to honor his word, but by the time the piper came calling, Nami had met up with Luffy and he was eager to show Arlong what he thought of those kinds of games. Because of her backstory, Nami is a greedy little bitch, and she's the only member of the crew motivated by the lust for treasure and riches over adventure. Her dream is to draw a perfect map of the whole world.

Usopp is the ship's sniper; son of Yasopp, a marksman so skilled he was recruited to be a part of Redhaired Shanks' crew, Usopp's dad left his wife and son behind to become a pirate. When Luffy rocked up to Usopp's island, he took a liking to the slick-talking youth and invited him onto the crew... though first he had to deal with a murderous ex-pirate who had infiltrated the home of Usopp's closest friend. Usopp is a master marksman specialized in the use of a slingshot, as well as being pretty damn cunning... which is good, because otherwise he's a pathetic weakling. His dream is to prove himself to be a great warrior of the sea.

Sanji is the ship's cook. A flamboyant figure, Sanji fights with a kicking-based martial arts style because he wants to avoid damaging his hands, due to their importance in his role as a chef. Having narrowly avoided starving to death alongside his adoptive father, the pirate captain turned professional chef "Red Leg" Zeff, Sanji's biggest berserk button is wasting food. Harming or offending women is a close second, as Sanji is a raging pervert who is desperate to score with a pretty lady. He has a secret past that ties him to the power figures of the North Blue. His dream, which he inherited from his adoptive father, is to the find the legendary All Blue, a mythical sea in which one can catch all the fish species of the world.

Tony-Tony Chopper is the ship's doctor, and the first crewmember to be recruited in the Grand Line. A reindeer who ate the Human-Human Fruit, this granted him human-level sapience and the ability to shapeshift into different humanoid forms. Native to the Drum Kingdom, a Winter Island in Paradise renowned for its masterful doctors. Already on shaky grounds with his herd due to his blue nose, becoming a Zoan saw him ostracised from his former kin, until he was taken in by the kindly Hireluk - a well-meaning quack who wanted to be a doctor more than anything. When he died due to the cruelty of Drum's former king, Chopper vowed to become the greatest doctor in the world. Years later, he'd get the chance to really pursue his dream when Luffy arrived.

Nico Robin is the only survivor of the island of Ohara, a nation of scholars that was levelled when Robin was a little girl for daring to investigate the forbidden lore of what had actually happened during the Void Century. As its sole survivor, she was hunted throughout her life, until she came to be a member of the Straw Hat Pirates. She serves them as the ship's archaeologist, being one of the few people in the world who can decipher the mysterious Poneglyphs that hold the secret to the location of the One Piece. She wields the Flower-Flower Fruit, which lets her produce copies of various body parts wherever she likes... it's a lot less lame than it sounds.

Franky is the crew's shipwright; a self-made cola-powered cyborg with a tragic backstory from Water 7, one of the greatest shipyards in the Grand Line, if not the world. Flamboyantly goofy, Franky may seem like a dummy, but his skills at building and cracking skulls are no joke. His dream is to have built a ship great enough to sail all the way to the end of the Grand Line, just like his mentor did, and he joined the Straw Hats after building their second ship, the Thousand Sunny, to see his dream realized.

Brook was once a member of the music-loving Rumbar Pirates, who entered the Grand Line from the West Blue many years ago. However, they were slaughtered by an unknown enemy, and only Brook survived, thanks to his Devil Fruit, the Revive-Revive Fruit, allowing him to return to his body upon his death. Unfortunately, he got lost in some pretty nasty fog after dying, so by the time he got back to his body, he had decayed down to a mere skeleton. Whilst it makes him a freak even by Grand Line standards, it has its upsides, like letting him run so fast he can walk on water or channel the freezing chill of the underworld through his sword. He signed on as the Straw Hat musician after they saved him from being stranded in the foggy depths of the Florian Triangle by the cruelty of one of the Seven Warlords. His dream is to reunite with his long-lost pet, Laboon, an Island Whale (because he's a whale the size of an island... a large island) who his crew left behind at Reverse Mountain when they began their fateful journey into the Grand Line.

Jinbe is a fishman (whale shark, officially) who used to sail with the Sun Pirates, a crew of fishmen (and a few human ex-slaves) dedicated to battling the slavers until their captain was fatefully slain, which led to the group going their separate ways. He then became a Warlord of the Sea in order to be able to protect his homeland to some extent, but ultimately joined Luffy's crew after some misadventures with the Straw Hats. He was the last individual to join the crew. As a fishman, Jimbei is not only built like a damn amphibious ogre, but is also a master of Fishman Karate and Fishman Jiujitsu, super-powered martial arts that combines waterbending with fisticuffs. His dream is to ensure a lasting peace with merfolk, fishman, and humans for all time.

In addition to the above, there have been three characters who traveled with the Straw Hats for extended periods of time, two of whom are considered "Honorary" Straw Hats, because they would have liked to join but circumstances prevented them from doing so.

Vivi is the earliest of these "guest party members"; the princess of the desert kingdom of Alabasta, she joined the Straw Hats for help in taking down Crocodile, of the Seven Warlords, because he had created a conspiracy to overthrow her father's kingdom and conquer it as his own in hopes of recovering a superpowerful ancient weapon. Despite her deep friendship with the Straw Hats, ultimately she had to stay in Alabasta and retake her place as princess.

Carrot was the second of these "could have been" Straw Hats. A cute, perky, surprisingly tough Rabbit Mink whose Sulong form was both badass and beautiful, Carrot sails with the Straw Hats during two of the longest arcs - Totland and Wano - and so it was a legitimate surprise to many that she ultimately turned down the idea to continue sailing with them after the Wano arc. She instead was named the new leader of the Mink Tribe, due to her exploits with the "Straw Hat" crew. She was just as surprised at the news, along with the fans.

Yamato is basically skub incarnate because Yamato has the body of a beautiful, super-stacked hot young giantess, but is obsessed with being seen as the reincarnation of the legendary super-heroic former Shogun of Wano, Kozuki Oden, which includes insisting to be male despite the very, very female body, which has... look, you really don't wanna know what kind of flamewars this has caused. Aside from being a super-strong giant, Yamato also has a Mythical Zoan Devil Fruit that is basically a Winter Wolf. Initially, practically everybody thought Yamato would join the Straw Hats due to their ties with Ace and desire to go out to sea like Oden did, but in the end, despite Luffy extending the offer to join, Yamato turned him down after realizing that the new Shogun of Wano, a kid aged into a young man named Momo, needed someone to train him into a badass able to protect his country. The offer to become a formal member is still on the table, but for now Yamato's Straw Hat Pirates membership is purely honorary. Also, Yamato is the child of Kaido but is totally opposed to him and his plans.