Ranking the Straw Hat Pirates

 

One Piece is such a great anime. It's about friendship and standing up for what you believe in and following your dreams. While there is an underlying feeling of hope throughout, it also touches on some darker themes as well. A main one being discrimination. Even though a bulk of it is hidden behind comedy and a childish feel, there are absolutely devastating moments that will make you cry. I love this anime. Much of the cast has eaten Devil Fruits, which give them various powers and makes them unable to swim in the ocean. 

The main cast is who makes up the Straw Hat Pirates. They are a group of what may seem like random people who are under Captain Monkey D. Luffy as he is on a mission to become king of the pirates. For the purpose of ranking the crew, I am only including the permanent members rather than anyone who at some point was part of the crew. There are no bad members, rather ones that I connect with and enjoy more than others. 

1. Tony Tony Chopper

Chopper is precious and if anything happens to him I cannot keep watching the show. I mean, I will keep watching but I won't enjoy myself. Chopper is my absolute favorite character with one of the most devastating backstories. He is the fifth to join the Straw Hats and is a reindeer who ate a Devil Fruit that turned him into human hybrid. 

Before he ate the Devil Fruit, he was an outsider in his reindeer community because of his blue nose. Once he gained more intelligence from his powers, he tried to befriend the humans who attempted to kill him, thinking he was a yeti. Being cast aside by everyone, he becomes the assistant to the Dr. Hiriluk, who saved him. 

His main goal is to cure every disease. All he wanted were friends, and after his only friend died, he became a doctor. After initially turning down multiple offers to join the crew as their doctor, he remembered that his first friend had told him to follow his dream of traveling the world and curing every illness. Tony Tony Chopper is the most precious member of the crew and my absolute favorite. I love that all he wants is to eat, have friends, and help people. I balled my eyes out during his backstory. One of my cats is named after him. He is definitely my #1.

2. Nico Robin 

Originally an enemy of the Straw Hats and has Devil Fruit powers that grow body parts (her arms as seen in the picture) from objects. I find Nico Robin incredibly intriguing given the way she was introduced. 

Her backstory is also very sad as she is the only survivor of her island leaving her hunted and untrusting of everyone. She is also one of the few people who can read Poneglyphs, which is illegal. Her main goal is to find the Real Poneglyph which tells the true history of the world, specifically the century that has no history. 

After being captured and sentenced to death, the Straw Hats save her in a heart-wrenching scene where so begs to live. She is the sixth to join the Straw Hats as an archeologist and historian. She is also a very good fighter, and having gotten her powers at a young age, is adept at using it to her and the teams advantage. I just love how smart she is and that she is logical rather than overly emotional like other members. I do dislike how sexualized her character is, but that honestly is just an anime thing I think. 

3. Monkey D. Luffy

Monkey D. Luffy, or just Luffy, is the main protagonist of the series. The show begins with him afloat in a barrel that is brought aboard by the Navy. He ate a Devil Fruit that essentially turned him into a rubber man, so he is very stretchy. 

He is very easygoing and laidback, always choosing to have fun and enjoy himself. His dream is to become the Pirate King, which he has be obsessed with since he was a child. While Luffy's carefree demeaner can sometimes work against him, the thing I love about him is how fiercely he stands for what is right. He will defend his friends with every ounce of his ability. He is a dreamer, and that is what the show is about. 

His backstory is somewhat more mysterious until further on in the show, where we find out who his dad is. He has a brother (not by blood), who we get flashbacks of as they grow up. His powers evolve the most throughout the series as he learns to use them in various ways. I really love how happy he always ends up, especially when he is well fed. 

4. Roronoa Zoro

Zoro is the original member to join Luffy. He is a very serious person and often trains to better his sword skills. He has strong belief in himself that he can become the greatest swordsman alive, and, as seen in the picture, often fights with three swords. 

Zoro is terrible at directions and gets lost so often that it is a running joke throughout the series. Like Chopper, he initially turns Luffy down when asked to join his crew. At the time, he is a captured criminal that is going to be executed. 

After Luffy frees him, he pledges loyalty to him and promises never to lose another fight. I like how determined Zoro is. He will always try his hardest to achieve his goals and will stand behind his captain and crew. Unlike the previous three, he does not possess Devil Fruit powers, and instead comes by his skills through hard work. 

5. Nami

Nami is the second person to join Luffy after he frees her from the fish-man pirate Arlong. She is a thief and cartographer who dreams of mapping the whole Grand Line. She recruits Luffy to help her stop Arlong since he has captured her whole village and rules with fear. 

Nami is very smart and sneaky. I really like that she is often the voice of reason and keeps the Straw Hats in line as their navigator. With her staff, she later learns to control the weather, and like Zoro, she does not have Devil Fruit powers. 

Like Nico Robin, I think in the later seasons of the show, she is given less and less air time and sort of relegated to being a sex symbol. While that definitely rubs me the wrong way, in the earlier seasons she definitely has more personality and is shown that not only is she smart, but she is a fairly good fighter for someone with no training. 

6. Sanji 

Sanji would definitely be higher on this list if it wasn't for the long running gag of him getting a nosebleed every damn time he sees a woman (namely Nami). That bit annoys me so much that he's further down on the list than his character deserves. 

Sanji is suave and very secretive about his history. He is the crews chef and one thing he despises is when people waste food. He was the 4th to join the Straw Hats after they travel to his floating restaurant. While his backstory is incredibly tragic as well, it serves as a main plot point in later arcs. Just know that there is a reason he is as secretive about it as he is. 

Sanji is a brilliant cook and keeps the Straw hats fed. He also has a unique fighting style where he only uses his legs. It seems to be a combination of breakdancing and karate. He is rarely seen without a cigarette, even while in the middle of a fight. He is fiercely loyal to his friends, sometimes to his detriment. 

7. Franky

Like Nico Robin, Franky is initially a foe to the Straw Hats, although a minor one. Eventually they find a mutual enemy and he joins the crew as their 7th member. 

I don't know why all these backstories are so tragic, but Franky, after being abandoned by his pirate parents, he becomes a worker in a shipyard. After his body is damaged, he builds himself new parts and becomes a cyborg and becomes the leader of a crew that steals ship parst. 

Once he joins the Straw Hats, he builds them a new ship, the Thousand Sunny. His dream is to circumnavigate the world in a ship he built. He is able to repair and enhance the Thousand Sunny when damanged. While he hasn't eaten a Devil Fruit, his cyborg abilities do allow him many advantages since he is essentially not as weak and vulnerable as non enhanced humans. He can sometimes be the comedic relief in tense situations and has a great friendship with Chopper. 

8. Usopp

Usopp has grown on me a bit, but still is fairly annoying with his lack of common sense and propensity to lie. He is more emotional than others and, along with Chopper, cries often when distressed. He doesn't have to be convinced to join the Straw Hats, as he always wanted to be a pirate, and gave them their first ship, the Going Merry. He was the 4th crewmember. 

Usopp is the sniper, possessing varations of a slingshot throughout the series. He also has created different alter egos for himself to get over his nerves and disbelief in himself. Although he is not physically strong, he does possess a type of Haki in which he can sense the auras of people. 

In my opinion, isn't a terrible character at all, he just gets annoying at times. There are moments that he shines however, one being when Nico Robin joins the crew. 

9. Brook

Although Brook is technically dead, he survives due to the Devil Fruit he ate, which gives him the ability to revive himself, he lives as a skeleton. He joins the Straw Hats uneventfully (in my opinion) because he was previously a pirate who wished to travel the world. 

He plays the violin and fences, and later develops the ability for his soul to leave his body and travel. Since he is a skeleton, he cannot eat or drink. 

Brook is my least favorite simply because of how pervy he is. He is constantly asking every female character if he can see their underwear. The Straw Hats honestly wouldn't really change that much without him, but he is useful in fights. 

While there are various other crewmembers throughout the series, and Jinbe does end up becoming a full member, they don't feel as permanent based on what the crew has had to go through. Both pre and post time-skip, these nine individuals have had to face various foes to fulfill each of their dreams. I do wish the post time-skip arcs did focus more on the adventure/dream seeking aspects, it makes sense with the direction the show went. It became darker, grittier, but still gave that same sense of  hope even in dire situations. One piece is a long running anime series that has something for everyone. With not too many episodes left before it ends, let's hope it ends in a satisfying way.