One Piece/Tropes K-P

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


Trope list for One Piece; K-P

"Just who in blazes had the gall to place a kitten in my path?!!"

    • As about less literal examples -- how about every single significant villain?
    • Averted hard with Smoker, whose first scene looks like it's about to be a typical kick the dog moment: a little girl bumps into him, spilling her ice cream cone and ruining his expensive uniform. The look on his face implies he's about to do something terrible... but then Smoker apologizes for his pants "eating" her ice cream and gives her money for a bigger cone.
  • Killed Off for Real: Rest in peace, Portgas D. Ace and Edward Newgate.
  • Killer Rabbit: Chopper.
    • A more literal example would be the Lapahn on Drum Island.
  • Kill the Poor: A flashback shows this happening in Luffy's home island in an effort of "clean things up" before a visit of the World Nobles.
  • Kneel Before Frodo: King Nefeltari Cobra at the end of the Alabasta arc.
  • Knight Templar: Many of the notable underlings of the Word Government. Some of the others, like Smoker, seem Knight Templarish, until you remember that The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything, like Straw Hats, actually are exceptions.
    • Admiral Akainu in particular deserves a honorary mention for blowing up a refugee ship out of suspicion that some people, targeted by the World Government, might be aboard.
      • And later on, almost killing Coby just because he was trying to talk some sense into the other Marines. They had technically achieved their objective, but were ruthlessly going after the fleeing pirates and leaving their wounded Marine compatriots behind.
    • And CP9, but especially Rob Lucci, whose personal doctrine of "Dark Justice" marks extreme Knight Templar tendencies.
  • Knight Templar Big Brother: Oddly enough, this can be played straight AND inverted. Ace has proved, with Blackbeard, that he's perfectly serious about pounding in anyone who even considers hurting Luffy. Luffy, despite being the younger brother, has recently broken into the One Piece world's most highly guarded prison, let loose hundreds of convicts, and wrecked havoc all across the Marine HQ all for the sake of rescuing his older brother, Ace.
  • Know When to Fold'Em: For a series stuffed to the brim with Determinators, there are at least a few moments when "cut and run" is thought of as a viable tactic. The most recent example is during the Whitebeard war, when the arrival of Shanks convinces Sengoku that taking on a fresh Emperor and his crew ain't exactly the brightest move. He's all too willing to make concessions just to keep the peace.
    • Also, when the Strawhats are surrounded by the powerful Haki-using Sentamaru, Kizaru (an Admiral), multiple Pacifista, and Bartholomew Kuma. They decide to run. It doesn't work.
  • Knuckle-Cracking: Luffy's Let's Get Dangerous moments.
  • Kraken and Leviathan: Aside from the world having some of the biggest (and most absurd-looking) sea monsters to exist, the Straw Hat Crew's new Team Pet is a literal Kraken..
  • Kryptonite Factor: People with Devil Fruit powers can have their abilities stripped away through contact with Seastone or by submerging them in water (which they're unable to swim in, and which cancels their powers). People who ate Logia Devil Fruits often have unique weaknesses. Such as sand is ineffectual against water, and electricity won't work against rubber.
    • Poison is ineffective against wax. Even Mr. 3 was surprised by that one.
  • Kryptonite Is Everywhere: While the Marines make liberal use of Seastone, they almost never use it offensively, instead making ship lining and handcuffs out of it.
    • The guards in Impel Down was shown using cannons loaded with Seastone nets, so they appear to be learning.
    • Smoker has his jutte tipped with the stuff.
  • Kudzu Plot: It's what you get when there's Loads and Loads of Characters and over 500 chapters.
  • Kuudere: Robin. Most of the time, she's calm and doesn't usually participate in the crazy antics the rest of the crew end up getting into. I say "most of the time" because during the later part of the Water Seven/Enies Lobby arc, she eventually burst into tears and begged Luffy and the others to save her.
  • Lady Land: Amazon Lily Island
    • Inverted when Sanji is sent to an island full of transvestites.
  • Lady of War: Nami; Nico Robin; Boa Hancock; Hina
  • Lampshade Hanging: Chapter 577 is appropriately titled, "Major Events Piling Up One After Another".
  • Lantern Jaw of Justice: What's hidden inside Hannyabal's chin? COULD IT BE DREAMS??!!
  • Laser-Guided Amnesia: After meeting the cute mermaid Camie, Zoro promptly deletes his memory of having met the not so cute mermaid Kokoro through sheer willpower. Here
  • Laughably Evil: Where do I start!? There's too many of them! Buggy The Clown, and even that is because he's sensitive about his nose. Wapol when he ate the fat out of his body and became slim. Mr. 4 and Miss Merry Christmas, and Mr. 2 Bon Clay before his Heel Face Turn. Foxy when he acts very arrogantly, only to be insulted and feel down. Spandam in every scene, where he isn't doing something horrible, including when he burnt himself with his own coffee. And some Lampshade Hanging of when Kaku of CP9 turned into a giraffe.)
  • Lawful Stupid: The World Government is ruled by a bunch of arrogant, disgustingly inept elites who are perfectly willing to ignore a massive prison break comprised of some of the worst criminals the world has ever known to save face and to focus on erasing out the remainder of Roger's legacy. Brilliant, guys.
  • Leaning on the Fourth Wall: On the last page of Chapter 597, Luffy says "The pirate 'Straw Hat Luffy' is going on a holiday for a bit", then at the bottom of page it is announced that the manga is going on a four week break, its longest so far. We get it, Oda.
    • There's also the part where in chapter 627, after a seven chapter long flashback arc (One of the longest, if not the longest so far), Jimbei tells everyone that he's sorry that it took so long to tell them the whole story. Almost as if Oda himself is apologizing to the readers for the flashback taking so long by having Jimbei say it for him.
  • Leave Him to Me: A heroic example. Even though Hody Jones has taken some of his crew captive, Jimbe tells Luffy not to fight Hody and leave him to Jimbe in order to stop the repeating cycle of hatred between fishmen and humans. However, considering the fact that Jimbe has been captured, along with the fact that Hody was the one who assassinated Otohime, he might've reconsidered.
    • Until the reveal that Jimbe had (mostly) planned for that to happen, with the intent of allowing Luffy to fight Hody and come across as a hero to Fishman Island instead of a Jerkass who beat the crap out of Hody For the Evulz.
  • Leitmotif: Each member of the Strawhat crew except the ships have one that play during their respective eyecatches.
    • Several of the movie villains, namely General Gasparde, the Wapol brothers, and Gold Lion Shiki all have recurring musical motifs in various tracks relating to them.
  • Let's Split Up, Gang!: During the flight from the Pacifistas.
  • Libation for the Dead: After the crew defeat Arlong, Genzo pours sake on Nami's adoptive mother's grave.
  • Liberty Over Prosperity: Luffy expresses little to no interest in treasure, and doesn't care if One Piece even exists. His main motivation for becoming Pirate King is to be able to have the most freedom. This goes even beyond safety or warnings, from fellow pirates and allies, or Lawful marines. He once declared war on the entire World Government because it got in the way of him saving his crewmate. He'll do whatever the heck he wants, and damn the consequences; we're lucky he's a good guy.
  • Light Is Not Good: Admiral Kizaru. That smile of his may fool you for a short time, but if you did any form of piracy in your life, then expect him to kick your ass, and a light-based explosion to blow you into itty-bitty pieces. The only reason why he doesn't go after the Seven Warlords of the Sea is because he's not legally allowed to. It's only mildly subverted (at least from his perspective) in that he believes he's right and the pirates, no matter what reason, are sinners.
    • Another Marine example is Fleet Admiral Sengoku, a man who is nicknamed after the Buddha, and can actually transform into a copy of the Buddha, yet he supports the fairly oppressive World Government's policies and tells Saul not to question his orders.
      • Sengoku has some morals, though. He did not like it when the WG decided to pretend the jailbreak didn't happen instead of putting out warrants.
  • Lightning Bruiser: The zombie giant Oars. No, really. I know what you're thinking. The words "giant" and "zombie" would imply he's slow moving, but in a battle, he would disappear from the scene to give a serious counter-attack. He avoided Franky's ammunition at point blank range and knocked him out with a kick. Some Lampshade Hanging was made on this. It was finally explained that since he had Luffy's shadow in him, he would have his agility. No, seriously.
    • Also Lucci, Kaku, and Jyabura of CP9 in their Zoan-produced forms, Nightmare Luffy, and Kuma.
  • Literally Shattered Lives: Aokiji's Ice-Ice fruit turns him into ice; it shatters when hit, but he can simply pull himself together like the T-1000.
  • Live Action Escort Mission: In the most recent flashback, Fisher Tiger ends up having a recently freed human slave girl on his ship. For some reason, she just won't stop smiling. After he's told about what the life of a slave is like, Tiger decides to bring the girl home. He personally brings her back and all seems good... until Marines show up and try to kill him.
  • Living Legend: There are several powerful pirates who fit in this category, most notably Silvers Rayleigh, the Number Two of Gold Roger himself.
  • Living MacGuffin: Robin, most likely the only person in the world who can read Poneglyphs, and Franky, for being in possession of the Pluton's blueprints, both become this during the Enies Lobby arc.
  • Living Weapon: We have a dog and an elephant that were once a gun and a sword before eating a devil fruit. They can still act as weapons, so this is a type 1. In chapter 649, we find out that Shirahoshi is a type 2. Being able to talk to and control FREAKING SEA KINGS makes her one of these. Her weapon name is even Poseidon.
  • Loads and Loads of Characters: Seriously. The author even gives names and backstories to background characters who don't have any speaking lines, and who may or may not turn out to be Chekhov's Gunmen several hundred chapters down the line.
  • Loads and Loads of Races: Humans, Giants, Merfolk, Fishmen, The Sky Peoples (Skypieans, Shandians, & Bilkans), Longarms & Longlegs, Snakenecks, Kuja, Minkmen, and Dwarves, at least (though some of the later ones might just be variants of human).
  • Logical Weakness: Numerous examples.
    • Luffy's rubber powers give him resistance to blunt force and bullets[1], but leave him vulnerable to blades. They also allow him to Won't Work On Me Eneru's electricity powers. Heat also makes him rather runny.
    • Crocodile's sand powers can be neutralized by getting him wet.
    • Kalifa's powers are based on coating her targets in soap; their effects are easily neutralized by rinsing off the soap with water.
    • Mr. 3's wax powers protect him from Magellan's poisons.
  • Loophole Abuse: The Davy Back Fight allows the team that wins each match to pick a member of the opposing team and force him or her to join their crew. After winning the second round and the Strawhats now may pick one person from Foxy's team, Nami considers choosing Foxy, who is set to compete in the Combat event against Luffy, so that they win by default in the third match and can easily get Chopper back. While some members of the opposing team hypocritically protest, Robin notes that this is legal, but none of the Straw Hats want Foxy with them.
  • Long Runner: One of the most famous. Running for almost 15 years with no end in sight and is the most popular manga of all time, bar none.
  • Lost Technology: Pluton and Poseidon.
  • Love Can Make You Gonk: Sanji is rather prone to this unfortunate condition.
  • Luffy Let Portgas D. Ace Die: Subverted. Said death was a Heroic Sacrifice.
  • Lucky Translation: During the Amazon Lily arc, when Luffy describes his balls, he uses the Japanese euphemism "gold balls", resulting in Marguerite and the rest of the Amazons believing that they're just that. The fan subs and the English manga used the euphemism "family jewels" to achieve the same effect.
  • Luffy Grabs A Sword: Happens twice. Once, while at Whiskey Peak when he thought that Zoro had killed a bunch of people that he was unaware were bounty hunters, failing to effectively use it. The second time was during Thriller Bark when he had a hundred shadows in him, which proved effective this time since one of the shadows was that of a marine swordsman (Somehow, having a shadow of someone who can use a sword makes you able to as well).
  • Luke, I Am Your Father: Luffy's father is the world's most wanted criminal, Monkey D. Dragon, and his grandfather is the legendary Vice-Admiral Monkey D. Garp.
    • And then, our expectations get twisted when it turns out that Ace's father is actually Gold Roger.
  • MacGuffin: The "One Piece".
    • The characters seem to think of it as something of a [[[MacGuffin]]] as well. Luffy turns down an offer of information about it because that would make his adventure less interesting.
    • Chapter 0 seems to hint that it may be a weapon of mass destruction through Golden Lion Shiki's assertion. Roger doesn't protest or confirm this, however...
      • Whitebeard finally gives some information on One Piece before he dies.
  • Mad Artist: Mr. 3 likes to think of himself this way when he's turning people into wax statues. His partner, Miss Goldenweek, counts as an antagonistic artist too, but she comes across as less "mad" and more "working on commission."
  • Made of Iron: Everyone, but especially Zoro; while Franky and Mr. 1 are literally Made of Iron.
    • In actuality, Mr. 1 is made of steel, so... yeah.
    • Rokushiki's Tekkai (Iron Body) technique harden's the body like iron.
    • Of special note is Jinbei, who somehow made a full recovery from taking a stream of lava through the ribcage.
  • Made of Indestructium: Anything made of seastone is apparently "stronger than diamonds", which leads one to question how it was cut.
  • Madness Mantra: Usopp likes to say, when faced with an enemy or place he just got a scare out of: "[Name] scary... [name] scary... [name] scary..."
  • Mad Scientist: Dr. Hogback, Vegapunk and, to a lesser extent, Franky.
  • Magic A Is Magic A: Most of the Devil Fruit powers are given some sort of expository explanation beforehand, and they tend to be used very consistently.
  • Magic Antidote: One Piece zig-zags all over this one. Generally, healing actually does take time in the series, but sometimes, medicines and concoctions take effect instantly (the big example here is Chopper's Rumble Ball, which seems to activate as soon as he bites it). Sometimes, though, it's hard to tell if healing is actually genuinely complete after a few minutes, or if the characters are such Determinators that they don't realize they haven't healed yet.
  • Magic Mushroom: Luffy once ate a mushroom which caused mushrooms to grow all over him.
  • Magic Pants: At least two-thirds of the Devil Fruit users.
  • Magnetic Hero: Lampshaded by Hawkeye in reference to Luffy: "This is... the most dangerous ability in this world!"
  • Makes Just as Much Sense in Context: "That geezer-tree and... a unicorn are having a drink!"
  • Making a Splash: While deadly enough on land, once in the water Fishman Karate of the fishmen can produce effects like splitting waves and throwing around streams of water with the force of cannons.
    • There's also Merman Combat, which is basically the merfolk equivilant of the above.
  • Mama Bear: Bellemere is the earliest example within the series. Chef Zeff and Whitebeard also serve as Papa Wolves. The queen of this, however, is Portgas D. Rouge for staying pregnant for nearly two years, by sheer willpower, to ensure Ace's safety.
    • Post Timeskip, Nami shows signs of this when giant children ask for her to help them get back home. She orders Sanji and the others to help them.
  • Man-Eating Plant: Lots of them on the Bowin Archipelago, the island where Kuma sends Usopp to. Episode 455 takes it to its logical conclusion by revealing that the entire island is in fact a Man-Eating Plant, which periodically tips its petals into the air, sending any unfortunate creature not holding onto something into its gaping maw.
    • Post-timeskip, Usopp seems to have taken to using them as weapons.
  • Manly Tears: Many and frequent, though Franky is especially prone to blubbering at the drop of a hat while fervently denying it.
  • Man of Wealth and Taste: Crocodile. Fullbody fancied himself one, early in the series.
    • And from what we've seen so far, Donquixote Doflamingo.
  • Marshmallow Hell: Nami's greeting to Usopp after the time skip.

"You've... been doing some growing of your own, I see."

  • Mask Power: Usopp/Sogeking after the Enies Lobby arc.
  • Master Apprentice Chain: Luffy was inspired by Shanks, who apprenticed under Roger.
  • Master of Your Domain: Life Return (Seimei Kikan).
  • Meaningful Echo: Queen Otohime always pinky swears with her children as a promise to make their future better. When she was dying, her oldest son Fukaboshi promises her that they will collect all the signatures she had long fought for and they will protect Shirahoshi, to reassure her that the future will be better. They seal the promise with a pinky swear.
    • Done again when the Straw Hats leave Fishman Island, Shirahoshi pinky swears with them that not only will they meat again, but that she'll be stronger when they do.
    • At his death, Roger proclaims that One Piece exists, sparking the Pirate Age. At his death, Whitebeard proclaims that One Piece exists, sparking the New Age.
  • Meaningful Funeral: Just try not to cry when they consign the Going Merry to the depths, we dare you.
    • Chapter 590: Ace and Whitebeard's graves.
  • Meaningful Name: Many names. Usopp is a combination of "Aesop" and the Japanese word "to lie"; the One Piece Blackbeard and Whitebeard are named Teach and Edward, respectively, after the real-life "Blackbeard" Edward Teach; a gangster-themed Supernova is named Capone; and Donquixote Doflamingo, a man who doesn't believe in dreams, is named after the most iconic dreamer in Western literature.
    • Ironically, Doflamingo shares one trait with his namesake, namely the fact that neither realize that their beliefs are merely a product of their own insanity.
    • Silvers Rayleigh has a triple meaningful - or even quadruple - name combined with Fridge Brilliance. For starters, silver is commonly held to be the second most valuable metal after gold, which is fitting as Rayleigh is Roger's second in command, and Roger is more well known by "Gold" Roger than his real name. The name 'Rayleigh' may be a reference to Lord Rayleigh, a physicist who explained the phenomenon known as Rayleigh scattering, an effect whereby light can be scattered by particles that are smaller in size than wavelength of light. Reference Rayleigh's fight with Kizaru, a light Logia. His name also sounds strikingly similar to Sir Walter Raleigh, who was a 16th century English explorer who ransacked a Spanish outpost. Also, there is the connection that Rayleigh's last name (Silvers) can also refer to Long John Silver, of the popular book regarding piracy of the nautical nature, Treasure Island. It could all just be a cosmic coincidence, but given Oda's track record...
    • Nami and Nojiko's foster mother was called Bellemere. Belle-mère means mother-in-law in French.
      • It can also mean stepmother, which is closer to being accurate in this case.
    • The country Kuma sends Brooke too is referred to as Harahettania, the land of poverty. "Harahettania" just means "I'm-hungry-nia" in Japanese.
  • Mechanical Monster: The Pacifistas, Made of Diamond and wielding firepower said to be the equivalent of a battleship.
  • Mega Manning: Blackbeard.
  • Meganekko: Tashigi. Robin occasionally wears glasses as well, although she qualifies more as a Hot Librarian.
  • Megaton Punch: Kuma prominently, though Luffy's pulled it off a few times.
  • Memetic Badass: Buggy is actually becoming an in-universe example.
  • The Men First: Played for comedy with T-Bone. Then played completely straight with Luffy, who goes through ridiculous lengths to protect his crew before his own well-being (Nami at Drum Island, Mr. 2 at Impel Down, etc.) and most recently Whitebeard, Badass, Father to His Men extraordinaire.
  • Merciful Minion: In the Arlong arc, Nami pretends to stab Usopp to save him from the fishmen.
  • Meta Origin: The Devil Fruit. Paramecia-type give you superpowers, Zoan-type transforms you into an animal, and Logia-type effectively give you complete control over an element. These powers can be given to humans, animals, or even inanimate objects, and most recently "awakened" Zoan-type Devil Fruits have shown up. As have Ancient and Mythical Zoans, making what was previously seen as the least useful type seem quite a bit more worthwhile; X Drake's Ancient Zoan turns him into a T-Rex, while Marco the Phoenix's Mythical Zoan turns him into exactly what you'd expect.
  • Miles Gloriosus: Usopp, of course. Though lately, he's gotten better at not running away at the first sign of danger.
  • Milestone Celebration: The Straw Hats finally get to the Grand Line in the 100th chapter of the manga. Oda had to severely truncate the Loguetown arc to make it so, however.
  • Million-to-One Chance: The reputed odds of someone possessing the Color of the Supreme King Haki. Though since 6 different characters have been confirmed to have it (Luffy, Boa Hancock, Shanks, Silvers Rayleigh, Whitebeard, and Ace), you get the impression that it's not as rare as people say.
    • Alternatively, it could be said those with this power find themselves at the epicenters of great events in history and it is fate that they meet up.
    • However, it needs to be pointed out that this series has Loads and Loads of Characters, and that's not even counting the virtually numberless masses comprising the various Red Shirt Armies and the civilian population. And as pointed out, the Marineford drew in nearly all of the most powerful characters in the series, so of course just about all of the characters with Overlord Haki are going to end up in the same place. In fact, it's a bit telling that an arc containing so many powerful characters introduced so few that actually have it.
  • Mind Screw: The Punk Hazard arc has been pretty much this so far, what with the dragon, the talking samurai head/legs, the bird woman, and the nursery full of giant children. Obviously, these things will be touched upon later, but there's now doubting how weird it all is.
  • Minor Injury Overreaction: Pearl.
  • Miser Advisor: Nami pretty much always has money on her mind. Occasionally in her eyes as well.
  • Misfit Mobilization Moment: The Straw Hats' Power Walk to Arlong's base of operations.
  • Missed Him by That Much: An amusing scene where Luffy and Buggy are standing right next to each other and keep looking in exactly the wrong direction to actually see each other. They even have a brief conversation without realizing who they're talking to.
  • Missing Mom: Several characters are affected or motivated by the lack or loss of their mother. Nami, Usopp, Robin, and most recently Ace.
    • Even more recently is Princess Shirahoshi.
  • Mistaken for Badass: Buggy the Clown received this treatment when a bunch of Impel Down escapees heard that he was on Gold Roger's crew alongside Shanks, even though he was just an apprentice. Throughout the remainder of the Marineford Arc, the convicts believed everything Buggy did was badass, so much so that they eventually joined his crew.
    • This trope was used again when the Impostor Straw Hats attempted to build a crew made of the strongest rookies they could find. Unfortunately, unlike Buggy, their secret is exposed and they lose their recruits. Guess Oda only wanted Buggy to be that lucky.
  • Modesty Towel: Used after Luffy defeated Crocodile while everyone is in their own gender baths. Gets averted when the guys are looking over at the girls and Nami decides to give them what she liked to call: Happiness... PUNCH! Made funnier by Vivi's horrified expression at Nami when she does this.
  • Monster Clown: In movie 10, Gold Lion Shiki employs one Dr. Indigo. With his crazy face-paint, ridiculous looks, and fart-noise shoes, he makes for a good Villainous Harlequin. He starts heading towards this trope once he drops his silly behavior and begins to conjure ghostly fire from nowhere and sling it around.
  • Mooks: And how. The low-class soldiers will charge in by the hundreds, then get carted back out again a short time later on a single, massive stretcher, never once questioning why they should willingly get themselves beat up or what's so great about the World Government or Marines anyway. The best example of mooks since the stormtroopers.
  • Moment of Weakness: When Luffy angrily tells Usopp in Water Seven that he can just get off their ship if he doesn't like how Luffy does things.
  • Monster Mash: Thriller Bark. It even has a nod to Thriller by Michael Jackson.
  • Mood Whiplash: The Water Seven/CP9 arc is the king of this trope.
    • Right after the Straw Hats and Aokiji team up to save a group of stranded civilians (and the former celebrates, complete with cheerful music), Aokiji informs them that he has to kill them. And then proceeds to curb stomp everyone.
  • More Hero Than Thou: Sanji and Zoro pulled this crap on Thriller Bark, until the latter knocked the former unconscious.
  • Mr. Vice Guy: Despite Nami's greed and Usopp's cowardice, both are decent, even heroic characters underneath.
  • Mr. Fanservice:
    • A large portion of the male cast fits into this trope: Luffy, Zoro, Ace, Smoker, and Trafalgar Law, to name a few.
    • For the ladies who prefer their men older, I present to you Shanks.
    • Sanji, who most recently became bait for a very different sort of Estrogen Brigade, much to his dismay.
    • Yorki: A drunken blonde cowboy pirate who loves singing and cute animals. Delicious.
    • After the timeskip, the whole Straw Hat male crew became this (except of course the unmistakably machinized Franky and the all-bones Brook). We have to mention Sanji's smart and small goatee, Zoro's mature atmosphere and manly scar, Usopp's whole new muscular build and much-much cooler style, and Luffy's scar and serious moments which tell that there is a lot more in him than he usually looks. Even Chopper evolved from the "just cute" part to become a multitude of baits with his differently looking forms for the furry-loving part of the Estrogen Brigade...
  • Ms. Fanservice: Quite a few, but Nami and Robin in particular.
    • There's also Hancock, Ms. Doublefinger, Porche, Kalifa, and Marguerite.
  • Mugging the Monster: Most of the Jaya arc has this in some form or another, with Bellamy and his crew being the muggers. The first time, Luffy and Zoro just shrug off their insults, despite either being able to beat the entire crew single-handed. Then Bellamy goes and robs Luffy's new friends. Big mistake. Later on, Sarquiss, Bellamy's first mate, accidentally bumps into Blackbeard and starts mouthing off. Blackbeard gives him a nice taste of the wooden dock for his trouble.
    • Immediately after the time skip, a random pirate crew posing as the Straw Hats come across the genuine Nami and Usopp, who give the imposters a small taste of what they've been learning over the past two years. Then the same fakes have the misfortune of threatening the real Luffy. Luffy nonchalantly dodges a bullet to the head from Fake Luffy's pistol (never mind that, since he's all but immune to blunt force, it'd probably bruise him at the most) and knocks out all of the Fake Straw Hats present with Haki.
  • Multi-Armed and Dangerous: Hatchan, Nico Robin, Omigumo, and Zoro when using his mysterious 9-sword style.
    • Also one of Whitebeard's allies, who has an octopus theme and six fully functional arms. Whether he's a fishman hybrid or a fruit user is yet to be seen.
  • Multiple Demographic Appeal: Adult female readers compose one of the manga's largest audiences.
  • Multiple Reference Pun: Sanji's parage shot and Nami's hometown Cocayashi Village (See entry on that page for details).
  • Musical Assassin: Scratchmen Apoo. (His own body is the instrument.)
  • My Death Is Just the Beginning: The whole point of the show. The adventures were launched when Gold Roger announced the existence of One Piece at his execution.
  • My Favorite Shirt: Luffy's hat is his greatest personal treasure, and perhaps the only of his possessions that would put him into an Unstoppable Rage if lost or damaged.
  • My Greatest Failure: Luffy has two: the defeat of his crew that scattered them over the oceans and being unable to save Ace.
    • Jinbe is also haunted by Ace's death and the fact that he indirectly let Arlong terrorize East Blue and contributed to Nami's tragic past.
  • My Name is Monkey D. Luffy. You took my True Companions. Prepare to get your ass kicked.
  • My Suit Is Also Super: Clothes stretch, grow, shrink, regenerate, and transform along with the wearer, with a few exceptions. No Hand Wave is attempted in-series, but Oda admits in his Q&A column that if Devil Fruit powers were portrayed more realistically, his manga would have a lot of unnecessary nudity.
  • Mysterious Parent: Dragon
  • Myth Arc: The past history of the world and the crimes of the World Government, as well as the long term plans of several villains.
  • Nakama: (Former Trope Namer). The heart and soul of the story. Luffy, especially, lives and breathes this trope.
  • Names to Run Away From Really Fast: Quite a lot of pirates and Marines, actually. Arlong, Don Krieg (krieg being German for war), Das Bones (Mr. 1's real name), Bartholomew Kuma ("kuma" being Japanese for bear, and not the Caring kind), Fleet Admiral Sengoku ("sengoku" means "warring states" and was a feudal period of Japan's history), Admiral Akainu ("akainu" translates as "red dog"), Marshall D. Teach (Teach being the real Blackbeard's assumed surname), Dracule Mihawk, Crocodile, Capone Bege, Captain Kidd, and, oh, who are we forgetting... KILLER.
    • Some of the protagonists have fear-inspiring names: Try Roronoa Zoro, for instance (the surname of a cunning pirate, and the forename of you know who).
    • Impel Down's Captain of the Guard Sadie-chan, who takes her name from the word "Sadism".
    • Inverted in a couple of cases. "Chopper" sounds scary, until you meet him and realize he's a cute li'l reindeer with self-esteem issues. A guy named Doflamingo sounds as threatening as potatoes, but he's actually one of the most deranged and frightening characters in the manga.
  • Nature Versus Nurture: Comparisons between Luffy and his various rivals are made throughout the series, notably with Crocodile and Moriah. The latter two became who they are due to a rather screwed-up chain of events, while Luffy remains who he is because he apparently chose as much.
  • Neck Snap: How Robin often gets rid of the Mooks that attack her.
  • Necromantic: One of the reasons that Dr. Hogback got into the profession of sticking shadows into corpses.
  • Never Mess with Granny: Doctor Kureha. One hundred and forty years old and will kick your ass if you so much as look at her funny.
  • Never Say "Die": Given that it was 4Kids that did the initial English dub, it comes as no surprise that the anime was a victim of this. It got to dark energy disk-levels of absurdities (as well as shoddy editing) with Nami's flashback.
  • Never Say That Again: When Franky is inside Chopper's body, Robin tells him to never make a face or speak again while he's inside Chopper.
  • Never Smile At a Crocodile: Obviously Sir Crocodile. It also applies to the Bananadiles (huge crocodiles with a small banana-shaped thing on their head) and to the rivers of Luffy's homeisland. The 10th film offers the "Land Gator", a huge, flat crocodile living on Merveille.
  • New Powers as the Plot Demands: An epedemic in the Enies Lobby arc. Each of the Strawhats, save for Robin (who doesn't get any major battles due to being captive for most of the arc) and Franky (since this arc is his debut as a fighter) displays a new attack, form, or weapon.
    • Zoro gives this trope something of a lampshading during his fight with Mr. 1. When he learns that Mr. 1's power grants him a steel body, Zoro thanks him. His reasoning? When the battle ends, Zoro will have learnt how to cut through steel.
  • Nice Hat: A number of characters: Luffy, Chopper, Robin (every now and then), Brook, and Ace.
  • Nice Job Breaking It, Herod: The government's attempts to find Roger's unborn baby.
  • Nice Job Breaking It Marines: The World Government tries to put Gold Roger to death so they can discourage piracy. Roger screws it up by inspiring the Golden Age of Piracy with his words about One Piece. Apparently having failed to learn from this mistake, they try it again with Ace, knowing that Whitebeard will surely try to prevent it. Killing both would send a much bigger warning. While they succeed in killing both, Whitebeard does as Roger did and confirms the existence of One Piece, ruining the entire plan. Then, Blackbeard shows up and steals Whitebeard's earthquake powers, putting the power to destroy the world in the hands of someone who would actually do it. See Villain Ball below for more details.
    • Immediately afterward, we find that Jinbei wasn't just blowing smoke when he said that several islands were safe only because of Whitebeard. After word of Whitebeard's death gets out, we find that several islands on the Grand Line and in the New World have instantly become hellholes now that the nearby pirates realize they can do whatever they want without fear of a reprisal from Whitebeard. Nice one, Marines; if you were trying to create peace, you just took a HUGE step backward from that.
      • To add icing to their failure cake, the Marines have run themselves ragged with their war on Whitebeard, and now lack the resources and people to properly protect all of the islands that they could previously protect. Oh, and now they also have a much stronger pirate to worry about who just couldn't care less about the balance that Whitebeard had provided. Epic Fail doesn't even begin to describe the consequences of their actions.
  • Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: To get rid of Luffy, Eneru traps the pirate's arm inside a huge ball of gold. Guess what Luffy uses to stop Eneru's Final Smash?
  • Nightmare Fetishist: Perona, who thought her animal zombies were the cutest things ever. Also Robin, who declared Thriller Bark's zombie cerberus "cute."
  • Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot: Brook, Franky, and Bartholomew Kuma.
    • Many others also qualify, but these three count on a more literal level. Franky and Kuma are both Robot Pirates and Brook is a zombie pirate with a touch of ninja thrown in.
    • Being a series about pirates, almost everyone fits this trope, with some hitting multiple levels. You have a pirate thief navigator, pirate fish kungfu, pirate robot gangster shipwright, pirate reindeer doctor, pirate pervert chef, princess bountyhunter...
  • Nobody Poops: Averted. Luffy has asked Brooke and Caimie if they poop. Also, it seems that there are toilets on the Sunny. It's probable that people do poop, we just never see it.
  • No Celebrities Were Harmed: It's a recurring gag. Notable examples include Jango (Michael Jackson), the Admirals Aokiji, Kizaru, and Akainu (based on Yusaku Matsuda, Kunie Tanaka, and Bunta Sugawara respectively), and Franky (Jim Carrey)'s Ace Ventura.
    • Eneru is based off Eminem.
    • King (Queen?) Emporio Ivankov closely resembles Tim Curry as Dr Frank-N-Furter from The Rocky Horror Picture Show.
    • Brook is probably based on Slash. It's more obvious when he's still alive.
    • Several of the pirates share the names and/or are based off of real life pirates. The most obvious being Blackbeard, but Captain Kidd and Bellamy as well.
  • No Export for You: One of the more teeth grindingly annoying instances of the UK getting absolutely shafted by Toei. Manga, bless them, keep trying; Toei is just plain stupid and price it far too high.
  • No Indoor Voice: Monkey D. Luffy in the 4Kids dub.
    • Tilestone of Galley-La in the original. It gets so bad that his coworkers force him to stand several feet away just to carry on a normal conversation.
  • No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: Crocodile thoroughly trounces Luffy and leaves him for dead in their first encounter, and Aokiji does something similar later on. The fight, if it can be called that, against Kuma is a slightly less malevolent example, since although the Straw Hats can do absolutely nothing to him, the crew is effortlessly defeated and scattered across the seas rather than being killed.
    • Then there's Luffy's fight against Magellan, the warden of Impel Down, whose poison powers force Luffy to get treatment that takes off ten years of his life. Though that one may be more of an epic Won't Work On Me.
    • Oars Jr. vs. three of the Seven Warlords of the Sea. It can't even be called a fight. Oars Jr. takes the full brunt of Kuma's Ursus Shock attack, gets his leg sliced off by Doflamingo's Razor Floss, and finally gets freaking impaled by Gekko Moriah's shadow spear.
  • No Hugging, No Kissing: The series eschews romance in favor of focusing on themes like camaraderie and friendship, and what romance there is usually just pokes fun at the concept as a whole.
  • Non-Serial Movie: There are currently ten movies produced by Toei Animation. While most of them can fit into the anime's continuity fairly well, there are a few, such as 3 and 9, that cannot.
    • The tenth, Strong World, was actually written by Oda, and so was mentioned In-Universe Manga and a few anime episodes were a prequel to the movie.
  • Noodle People: A number of characters are somewhat lanky, but this trope reaches its zenith with the women, who are very often frighteningly rail thin. They have gotten a little bit better due to recent Art Evolution, though.
    • Some characters are of average breadth... offset by a ridiculous height. The Admirals are a perfect example of this.
  • No One Could Survive That: Pell got nuked... and survived.
    • In many ways, Bartholomew Kuma firing a massive air-compressed bomb which the resulting explosion covered all of Thriller Bark was a massive case of this, as not only did everyone present survive, but Zoro got up to attack him, followed by Sanji on his feet as well.
      • Only mildly subverted that Kuma was aware that they survived his attack. Just not so much when he allowed Zoro to take in Luffy's pain.
    • More recently after a short fight with Magellan, Luffy was so badly poisoned that his death was all but guaranteed. Even when Emporio Ivankov healed him all it did was raise his survival chances to 2 or 3%.
      • Subverted again with Whitebeard getting ganged up on by Blackbeard's entire crew after losing half his head to the same Admiral that killed Ace, and dying. Granted, the losing half his head thing could be playing it straight.
      • Technically, the description of the wounds from the Marineford arc Whitebeard took at the time of his death are worth noting for this. Whitebeard had taken 267 slashes/stab wounds, 152 gunshot wounds, and 46 wounds from cannon balls, not counting the damage done by the Marine Admirals. All this while having been shown to have failing health for most of his previous appearances.
    • Franky, most recently, pressing a self destruct button because it looked like a pirate symbol. The incident was dubbed the Nightmare of Barujimoa
  • Normally I Would Be Dead Now: Happens every so often. Though usually it applies to Luffy and or Zoro.
  • Nosebleed: Deconstructed. Sanji, having not seen a woman for two years spontaneously has nosebleeds when he sees one, causing massive bloodloss and in need of a blood transfuision. Of course, he has a rare blood type and the Straw Hats are on Fishman Island, where its illegal to mix blood between humans and fishmen.
  • No Sense of Direction: Both Luffy and Zoro, although Zoro is much, much worse. Seriously, how does he do it?! In the G8 filler arc, he managed to get lost in a straight corridor.
  • No Swastikas: The flag of the Whitebeard Pirates, as well as Ace's back tattoo, while originally sporting manji (very similar to swastikas) are changed to vertically-aligned crossbones in the anime. The manga later followed suit after the author's editors told him the symbol was now off limits. In neither case does this diminish even slightly the sheer badass of either Ace or Whitebeard, making you wonder why Oda felt he needed it in the first place.
    • Later editions of the VIZ manga keep the mark with a short editor's note explaining that manji is NOT the same thing as a swastika.
  • Not Blood Siblings: While it was a common fan theory that Ace and Luffy weren't related, the real shocker was who Ace's real father was. Although, it makes it all the odder that Ace does look somewhat like Luffy and shares a lot of the Monkey family's quirks.
    • They all share the mysterious D initial, so maybe they are more distantly related.
  • Not So Harmless: Recurring villain Buggy the Clown and crew's recent appearances are beginning to suggest that they might mean business after all. It has also been said by Oda Buggy has the potential to be at Shanks' level, he just didn't train or face tough enough foes to gain experience.
    • Gin of Don Krieg's crew, who was so shell-shocked from his encounter with Mihawk and nearly starving to death that it would have been difficult to peg him as Krieg's actually pretty damn tough right-hand guy before The Reveal.
  • Not So Different: It gets rather unnerving following recent events when looking back on Luffy and Teach's initial meeting and seeing how similar they were. He even complimented and encouraged Luffy.
  • No True Scotsman: Jimbei and many other Fishmen rightfully consider Arlong a disgrace to their species by letting monstorous racism toward Fishmen turn him into a monstorous racist toward humans.
  • Not Quite Saved Enough: Luffy has spent the last year searching for Ace, going from the bowels of Impel Down Prison to Marineford, fighting insanely strong enemies, making unusual alliances, enduring his allies' heroic sacrifices, and literally gambling his life away so he can get to Ace, and just as he's been freed he's killed by a stronger fighter. At least Ace gets to say his last words.
  • Not Rare Over There: The Straw Hat Pirates decide to act like pirates for once and make off with a bunch of gold from the Skypieans... but it turns out that gold is extremely common there and they'd be happy to just give it away.
  • Now You Tell Me: Pretty much the entire crew at Vivi when they go traveling through the lands of Alabasta and get caught up by all of its various dangers and traps.
  • Nuclear Weapons Taboo: One has to wonder how Igaram's ship at Whiskey Peak blew up in a fireball depicted to be twice as big as Whiskey Peak itself. Not to mention how he could've possibly survived it.
  • Number One Dime: Luffy's hat
  • Obfuscating Stupidity: Compare Iceberg at the end of Water Seven to Iceberg when we first met him. He very nearly fooled even the secret agents who spent five years watching him with the act.
  • Obi-Wan Moment: Roger; Bellemere; Hiruluk; Tom; Saul
  • Obligatory Swearing: Perhaps in an effort to distance itself from 4Kids and the general perception of One Piece being overly kiddy, the uncut Funimation dub is one of the more foulmouthed dubs heard. Though the strongest they ever go is "shit" (courtesy of Buggy and Sanji), it is a bit jarring to count up a total of thirty swears in one particular episode.
    • Chopper has a similar tendency, though only when he's being complimented, showcasing his insecurity and dislike of humans by dancing in joy while insulting them.
  • Obviously Evil: Gekko Moriah, Spandam, the newer additions to Blackbeard's crew, Blackbeard himself, ALL Level Six inmates, Wapol, the Celestial Dragons, Captain Morgan, Donquixote Doflamingo.
    • Perhaps subverted in Moria's case with the revelation that he was just like Luffy at one point, since he had good Nakama) who were all wiped out by Kaidou, with him barely surviving. Imagine, Moria like Luffy!?
  • Ocean Punk
  • Oddly Common Rarity: Devil Fruits. In the East Blue Arc, they were rare. In the Grand Line, it's much more common for pirates to have them. Four of the nine members of the Strawhat crew (including Luffy himself) have Devil Fruit powers.
    • Remember, Devil Fruits were only stated to be rare while the story was still happening in the East Blue, and Don Krieg specifically stated that they were far more common on the Grand Line, going so far as to note that finding ways to effectively take on Devil Fruit users would be essential if he was to get anywhere on the Grand Line.
  • Odd Name Out:
    • The Seven Warlords of the Sea have Blackbeard, who doesn't have an animal theme.
    • The Blackbeard Pirates begin with Doc Q, who is not named after a historical pirate like the rest (although they later pick up Shiliew, who is also not included in this naming theme).
    • Of the Eleven Supernovas (including Zoro), only Luffy and Killer are not named after historical pirates.
    • The three ancient weapons are named Pluton, Poseidon, and Uranus. They're all classical gods, but the fact that Hades/Pluto and Poseidon/Neptune are two members of the "big three" gods led many to believe that the third weapon would be named after the third member of the trio, Zeus/Jupiter.
  • Official Couple / Happily Married: Very few, seeing how One Piece is in a world with No Hugging, No Kissing. In fact, most of the official couples are married though usually one of the spouses (usually the mother) is dead. Examples are Usopp's parents (mom dead, father a pirate), Vivi's parents (mom dead, father a king) and Princess Shirahoshi's parents (mom killed, father a king). Also Roger and Rouge, being Together in Death.
  • Offstage Villainy: Eustass Kid. The only rookie with a bounty higher than Luffy's before the timeskip. Reason being is his violent behaviour (read: killing anyone who laughed at him), yet we don't really see it ever happen. Until chapter 594, that is.
  • Oh, and X Dies: The Death of Portgas D. Ace.
  • Oh Crap: Rob Lucci who remained calm and determined during the extremely long and grueling fight with Luffy, finally was shocked to the core in the last seconds of the fight when Luffy refused to fall down even after taking his ultimate attack (much weaker version of which disabled Luffy for a time just a few minutes earlier) straight to the chest.
  • One-Man Army: Capone "Gang" Bege, one of the Supernovas, is literally this. His Devil Fruit power allows him to store miniaturized soldiers and supplies inside his body, releasing them (and transforming them back into full size) to do battle. This basically makes him a human-sized walking fortress.
  • One Steve Limit: Averted; there are two different characters named Scotch--a cyborg living on one of Kaido's islands and one of Caesar Clown's Yeti Cool Brothers (although it should be noted that the former is only named in one of the data books).
  • One, Two, Three, Four, Go: Opening 15, "We Go!", has the refrain "Ichi, ni, sunshine, yon, WE GO!"
  • Only a Flesh Wound: Massive amounts of blood loss keeping Roronoa Zoro down? Nope, he's good! Subverted when he initially seems to be recovering just fine from his battle with Kuma, only for his injuries to bite him in the ass much later.
  • Only Mostly Dead: Luffy, after getting covered in poison and thrown into level five of Impel Down.
    • Zoro, after his fight with Mihawk, then Hatchan, then much later, Mr. 1

Mr. 1:"What's your secret, swordsman? You've taken too many hits! You've lost too much blood! Don't you know you're dead?"

  • The Only One Allowed to Defeat You: Zoro has this mindset against Mihawk. And, to a more obsessive extent, Gold Lion Shiki feels this way towards Roger. So much so that he spends 20 years working on a plan to eradicate the "new age" that he feels is an insult to the age he and Roger lived in.
  • Only One Female Mold: Initially this was true except for the rare Token Loli; Oda finally decided to be just as outlandish with women as he was with men.
  • Only Sane Man: Nami; occasionally Zoro.
    • Robin is an interesting case, as while she is The Stoic (and, on the surface, the only vaguely sane crewmember), she also blithely accepts all of the crew's weirdness with a motherly chuckle while providing her own morbid brand of weirdness. She appears to be the only sane one, but doesn't really take the role of Only Sane Man.
    • In Buggy's Impel Down crew, Mr. 3 is the only one that can see Buggy isn't all-powerful.
    • As other pirates see it, the world is this to the Straw Hat pirates. No ordinary pirate would dare even disrespect the World Nobles. The Straw Hats not only have no idea who those people even are at first, but both Zoro and Luffy attack them (Zoro was stopped, Luffy succeeded). The reactions of the other pirates range from impressed to angry.
    • As of Chapter 579, Coby.
      • Smoker and Tashigi realized what the Marines were doing was wrong as well; Coby was just the first to say anything about it.
  • Only Six Faces: Averted hard. While in the earlier years there were some characters that looked familiar, particularly the women, now a days every single character has a very distinctive look. Even one shot characters that die the chapter they're introduced or random people littering the background. The only time characters look the same is when it's done deliberately due the the characters being related or being used to draw parallels between a character and another character with a similar world view from a previous generation. Of course, given the sheer size of the setting, this involves a lot of Gonk going around...
  • Ooh, Me Accent's Slipping: In the 4Kids dub, not only were the accents themselves both out of place and laughably fake (you'd think they'd never even ventured outside of Manhattan, judging by the Sanji's pathetic "Joisey" schtick), but they also had a tendency to stray quite a bit from whatever it was they were attempting.
    • The "best" example is probably Shanks, whose dubbed accent wandered all over the place, but seemed most like a bad impression of Bert the Chimney Sweep... though it's pretty much impossible to tell what they were after, really.
  • Opt Out: Vivi.
  • Organic Technology: The Den Den Mushi. There's an explanation on how they work in the SBS, but that just drives it home further. Of course, given the ridiculous nature of the series and SBS, they fit right in.
  • Our Angels Are Different: Winged humanoids (with the exception of Eneru, who has drums attached to a ring where his wings should be) that live in floating islands made of clouds. Their ancestors migrated there from the moon, when its resources were used up.
  • Our Dragons Are Different: A filler arc introduces the Thousand Years Dragons, a race of pacific, fur-covered dragons, and Ryuuma was said to have slain a flying dragon in the past. On Punk Hazard, an island wreathed in flames, there's a giant dragon.
    • Moreover, in contrast to the Sennenryu, which are eastern type dragons, the one on Punk Hazard is clearly a western type. And it's actually canon.
  • Our Giants Are Bigger: The entire series is crammed with 'em.
  • Our Mermaids Are Different: Mermaids have their fins split into two when they reach age 30. Guess this solves the Mermaid Problem.
    • In the SBS for volume 63 Oda explains that it's only the merMAIDS that split.
  • Our Werebeasts Are Different: Zoan fruits turn the recipients into werebeasts. They tend to be dangerous mass of muscle even if the template creature was relatively harmless (this is also a general tendency among werebeasts. A werehamster can be as dangerous as a werewolf.)
  • Our Zombies Are Different: Type V and C. Shadow-Shadow Fruit allows Warlord of the Sea Gecko Moria to steal shadows off living people, and then put them in corpses reconstructed by Dr. Hogback via surgery. These zombies retain the personality traits and fighting abilities of the original owner of the shadow.
  • Out of Body Experience: In a recent chapter, we discover that Brooke can have his soul leave his body. This might just be the thing that will help get him, Zoro and Usopp out of the situation that they're currently in.
  • Out of Focus: The Straw Hats have literally been pushed out of the story so that the focus could be shifted to Ace and the Whitebeard Pirates, only making cameos on the chapter covers.
  • Out of Sight, Out of Mind: Luffy has done this to some people before. Most notably: Alvida when she was still fat.
  • Outside the Box Tactic: A Devil Fruit power sometimes provides an unforeseen advantage against another power. One of the more prominent examples would be low-tier villain Mr. 3, whose power to create objects out of wax ends up temporarily providing the single best countermeasure against poisonous Implacable Man Magellan.
  • Overdrawn At the Blood Bank
  • Overprotective Dad: Genzo occasionally has shades of this in regards to Nami, such as threatening to kill Luffy if he ever makes her cry and complaining that her bounty poster is going to attract more suitors than bounty hunters. Said while holding a life-sized enlargement of the bounty poster.
    • Another one is Princess Shirahoshi's father King Neptune who locked up his daughter for ten years to protect her. However, it is justified as a Stalker with a Crush was sending her "love letters" in the form of swords and axes that could track her like a missile and are only stopped when they hit something.
  • Overshadowed by Awesome: Usopp.
  • Padding: One of the solutions the anime uses to avoid overtaking the manga. Albeit justified, it can be a bit grating.
  • Painful Transformation: Hody Jones underwent one after overdosing on Energy Steroids. Afterwards, Hody is seen as a bigger and much more powerful monster.
  • Papa Wolf: Don't mess with any of Whitebeard's crew members. He'll storm into a heavily fortified Headquarters with all his divisions and all his allies, just to save one crewmember.
    • Luffy too. Hurt one of his friends, strangers he's never met or even your own crewmates, and you better be prepared to suffer a CRUSHING defeat.
    • Zoro tends to be like this towards Chopper.
      • Or any allies, for that matter.
    • Garp is a Grandpa Wolf who was going to kill Akainu for causing Ace's death and he would have done so if Sengoku hadn't stopped him.
  • Parental Abandonment: Seems to be the root of some daddy issues Ace has. He disowns his biological father and even goes so far as using his mother's surname, "Portgas".
  • Party Scattering: The Straw Hats are scattered across the world by Bartholomew Kuma and only come back together after the Time Skip.
  • People Puppets / Razor Floss: Turns out Doflamingo's powers are a combination of these.
  • Personality Swap: In chapter 661, Law uses his "room" to punch out the hearts of Nami, Sanji, Chopper and Franky. In the next instant, we see Nami talking like Sanji, Sanji talking like Chopper, Franky talking like Nami and Chopper talking like Franky. Yes, this really happened.
  • Person of Mass Destruction: All Logia type Devil Fruits turn the consumer into this, with the sole exception being Smoker and possibly Caribou.
    • Some Paramecia type Devil Fruits can make the consumer this, the best example being Whitebeard who has the power to create shockwaves strong enough to destroy the world.
    • Princess Shirahoshi has the ability to summon and communicate with Sea Kings, a power if used incorrectly, could very well destroy islands. She isn't the first one to have this ability, as another mermaid princess had this power. Who was called Poseidon, the weapon that the Poneglygh of Shandora had described. So in essence, Shirahoshi is now the new Poseidon.
  • Person with the Clothing: Strawhat boy.
  • Pet the Dog: We know Smoker's not so bad after he buys ice-cream for a sad girl.
    • In chapter 650, a surprising one was revealed when Akainu spared Aokiji after winning their duel over who would be the next Fleet Admiral.
  • Phlebotinum Overload: If a human were to eat two devil fruits, they would be destroyed instantly. Blackbeard managed to do exactly this and stole a second power from Whitebeard, with the help of his first power.
  • Pilot Movie: An OVA was released by Production I.G. a year before the Toei anime began airing, featuring a completely different voice cast and animation style.
  • Pirate Girl: Almost every female character.
  • Pirates:
  • The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything: The Straw Hats rarely pillage and steal like typical pirates -- their one actual attempt backfired without them even knowing.
  • Planet of Hats: Amazon Lily: the isle of women. Also, Kamabakka Kingdom: the isle of transvestites.
  • Playing Both Sides: The Alabasta Civil War was manipulated by Sir Crocodile.
  • Playing the Heart Strings: The violin rendition of Bink's Sake has been used for devastating effect in the anime.
  • Playing with Fire: Portgas D. Ace.
  • Plot Tailored to the Party: Used quite a bit. Typically, each of the Straw Hats will manage to get paired off with an opponent that matches their abilities; Zoro goes head to head with swordsmen (or failing that, The Dragon), Sanji fights opponents who use martial arts.
    • Initially subverted in Enies Lobby: Kalifa's first opponent was Sanji, the Straw Hat who is least equipped to fight her. After he gets his butt kicked, Nami tags in, and lo, Nami's new weapon is the perfect counter for Kalifa's Devil Fruit.
    • Usopp generally subverts this by getting into fights with opponents that are quite a bit stronger than him (Chuu, Miss Merry Christmas and Mr 4, Jyabura), but then it's played straight on Thriller Bark where his cynicism makes him immune to Perona's powers.
    • Of course Robin usually inverts this: instead of facing the enemy she would do best against, she faces the few enemies which she can't defeat instantly by snapping their necks or spines, and has to get incredibly creative to find a way around it.
    • Inverted in the third movie, where Sanji fights a swordsman and Zoro fights a kick-based martial artist. Of course, it's all a setup for an Aww, Look! They Really Do Respect Each Other moment when the two admit that their opponents' swordsmanship/martial arts aren't as good as "that person".
    • Used for Luffy in the Skypeia Arc. His Rubber Man powers allowed him to automatically Won't Work On Me Eneru's electric attacks and nullify his Logia's ability. The fact that it was still a close fight is a testament to how high up in the Sorting Algorithm of Evil Eneru really was.
  • Plot-Triggering Death: The death of Gold Rogers lauches the Golden Age of Piracy, the setting of the story. Whitebeard's death, however, have caused things to take a turn for the worse.
  • Poke the Poodle: The Straw Hats' one attempt at actual piracy results in them stealing gold from people who consider it worthless and were already prepared to give it to them out of gratitude.
  • Possession Implies Mastery: It's unclear if this is the case for everyone, but in the Enies Lobby arc, Kaku and Kalifa are masters of their Devil Fruit powers by the time they need to fight, despite having had those powers for maybe a few hours.
    • Actually, it has been Averted at times. When Teach got Newgate's earthquake power, it was made clear he needed to practice, and still couldn't defeat Sengoku immediately. Not long after, he avoided Akainu, saying he wasn't ready to face the Admiral yet.
  • Post Episode Trailer
  • Power Glows: A few examples here and there. A few of Zoro's attacks briefly manifest a glowing aura around himself (probably for dramatic effect), while Sanji's Diable Jambe technique has his whole foot glowing red-hot. Averted with Luffy's Gear Second technigue in manga illustrations, while the anime plays it straight by giving him flush skin and a shiny, sweaty sheen, possible as a visual Shout-Out to Goku's Kaioken technique.
    • Hey, Gear Second shares the same sound effect as Dragonball's, why not visual as well?
  • Power Levels: Bounties are an imperfect version of this, with dorikis being closer to accurate, but failing to account for things like Devil Fruit powers.
  • Power Nullifier: One of the abilities of Blackbeard's Yami Yami no Mi.
    • Seastone as well. It nullifies Devil Fruit user's powers. Can be used offensively (for example, Smoker has a weapon tipped with it) but most often the Marines use it to restrain Devil Fruit users.
  • The Power of Friendship: The Straw Hats don't invoke this as much as you might expect from a group of Nakama, although they do work together on occasion.
  • The Power of Rock: Brook has this after picking up a guitar and becoming the Soul King.
  • Power Perversion Potential: According to Oda, yeah, Robin can sprout extra breasts and Buggy's penis can fly. Same goes for Luffy who can stretch all, yes all his body parts (his penis). And in the recent manga chapters, one amazon mistook his penis for a stretchy mushroom.
    • Let's not forget Robin's persuasive tactics against Franky. How direct!
    • Several H mangas have taken advantage of Robin's potential as a one-woman orgy.
    • Franky keeps his hammer in his speedo.
  • Power Trio: The Monster Trio of Luffy, Zoro, and Sanji. Bonus points for the latter two having no Devil Fruit powers whatsoever.
    • Formerly the Admirals Borsalino (Kizaru), Sakazuki (Akainu), and Kuzan (Aokiji). With Kuzan resigning from the Marines, and Sakazuki promoted, this is no longer the case.
    • Briefly on Sabaody, Luffy, Law, and Kidd.
  • Power-Up Food: Devil Fruit.
    • Played with by Luffy, who can heal/get stronger when he eats meat.
    • Done straight with Brook, who doesn't heal on his own, but can repair his skeletal body by drinking milk, since milk helps strengthen bones. Sanji immediately points out it doesn't work that way.
    • Attack Cuisine from Kamabakka Kingdom is the reason the okama there are so strong.
  • Power Walk: Several times, but the most iconic was the first: The Walk to Arlong Park.
  • Precursors: The lost civilization from the "Blank Century" which created the Poneglyphs.
  • Prehensile Hair: Kumadori; more recently, Sandersonia and Marigold, and even more recently it appears Onigumo manages to be both this and a spider-hybrid at the same time.
  • Prison Episode: When Luffy breaks into Impel Down, the Marine Forces' top maximum-security prison, in an attempt to free his brother Ace, and arrives just barely too late.
  • Privateer: The Seven Warlords of the Sea.
    • To a private degree: Arlong.
  • Protagonist-Centered Morality: Tons of it. It's a running theme of the show. Similarly Luffy broke free an awful lot of criminals from prison in an attempt to free his brother.
    • Then again, they're practically saints compared to The World Govenment and a lot of the people associated with it.
    • Lampshaded at one point with Luffy yelling at Toto that he can't trust Aokiji because he's a Marine. Cue a confused look from Toto and Luffy remembering that the Marines are usually the good guys.
  • Proud Warrior Race Guy: The Viking-inspired Giants from the island of Elbaf, itself described as a "Warrior's Paradise". Also Wiper, and the Shandian Warriors, inspired by Wiper's ancestor: Calgara.
  • Psycho Electro: Eneru
  • Psycho for Hire: Two Words: Rob Lucci. While the Marine Corps's doctrine of "Absolute Justice" is already quite Knight Templarish, Lucci takes this Up to Eleven with his "Dark Justice". He has admitted he enjoys killing. At the age of thirteen, he murdered 500 hostage soldiers for the crime of allowing themselves to be captured, before taking the pirate captain's head. Much later, Lucci says that while executing missions perfectly is his duty to the World Government, for him it's all about the blood.
    • Some of the Seven Warlords of the Sea are Psychos For Hire, especially the demented Donquixote Doflamingo. They've all proven they're a threat, so the Government made a deal with each one, freezing their bounties if they'd agree to only attack other pirates.
  • Public Domain Soundtrack: Episode 126 Plays the New World Symphony.
  • Public Execution: The fate of some captured pirates, like Roger.
  • Public Secret Message: The main character returns to the scene of a major battle, ostensibly to honor the dead. Reporters on the scene photograph him, and his crew, scattered around the world, see the article, realize it isn't the kind of thing their captain typically does, and notice a simple message written on a tattoo.
  • Pulling Themselves Together: Buggy can do this, as well as any logia user.
  • Pummel Duel: There's a variant of this trope in the fight between Luffy and Lucci. At one point, they exchange blows repeatedly, and Luffy uses Rapid-Fire Fisticuffs, but Lucci uses Rapid Fire Claw Pokes Of Doom.
  • Punch Clock Villain: Bon Clay, former member of Baroque Works.
  • Punch Parry: Particularly in the Luffy vs. Rob Lucci fight.
  • Pungeon Master: Brook and his Skull Jokes.
  • Pure Awesomeness: The mere presence of very powerful people is sufficent to knock out weaker ones.
    • Essentially, Haki (the superpower that lets characters like Raleigh, Hancock, Luffy, and Sentomaru pull their more outrageous stunts, including the knocking people out and hitting Logia users) is powered by a person's force of character. So yes, in One Piece, the most impressive superpower is really fueled by awesomeness
  • Put on a Bus: The Sabaody Archipelago arc has Kuma send Luffy's entire crew to various islands via his Devil Fruit power.
  • Putting on the Reich: The guards at Impel Down have an awfully familiar sense of style.
    • Amusingly enough, the 12th opening shows Hannyabal and bunch of jailers doing what is unmistakably the Heil Hitler salute, just as the extremely cheery theme goes "Yay!"
    • Played frighteningly straight by Hodi Jones and his crew, whose extreme measures and fervent nationalism brought on by oppresion by racist humans mirror almost exactly the situation that brought about Nazi Germany. This only gets more obvious when in the latest chapter, Hodi's crew is seen getting people to declare their allegiance by stepping on a likeness of the former Empress' face, who advocated tolerance between humans and fishmen. This practice is a dead-on representation of Imperial Japan in the 1600, who got the Christians to renounce their faith by stepping on a likeness of Christ.
  • Pyrrhic Victory/Villainy: So how is winning the Whitebeard War going for you Marines? Numerous New World towns are basically damned, since they were under the protection of Whitebeard, and now that he's gone, the pirates in those towns finally were able to do whatever they want, like steal from and kill the people. Also, killing Whitebeard has resulted in a NEW age of piracy. The situation got so bad they had to move their headquarter to the second half of the Grand Line.
    • It backfired so spectacularly for former Fleet Admiral Sengoku, that he forced himself to resign along with Garp.
  1. ↑ Although this is apparently only because One Piece's firearms aren't so advanced yet--it's been stated that a modern round could pierce Luffy
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