Key conclusions
- There are 10 members of the Straw Hat Pirates, each with specific roles.
- The Fake Straw Hat Crew consisted of 8 members and was formed to capitalize on the reputation of the original crew.
- The Ideo Pirates consists of 4 members who joined the Straw Hat Grand Fleet.
Pirate crews in One Piece are usually quite significant. Most pirates seek power, and to some extent there is such a thing as strength in numbers. That being said, not every crew can afford such a large number of pirates.
While many who are the main antagonist tend to have squads of grunts in addition to higher ranking members, the other crews tend to be quite small in terms of their ensemble. This list will take a look at some of the smallest crews around One Piece series, and how they came to be.
6 Straw Hat Pirates
Number of pirates: ~10
- Crew: Monkey D. Luffy (Captain), Raronoa Zoro, Usopp, Sanji, Nami, Chopper, Nico Robin, Franky, Brook and Jimbei
- The main ship: Thousand Sunny, Going Merry (formerly)
The main crew of the series is quite small compared to most pirate crews. When starting his pirate career, Luffy only wanted to have 10 crew members. He's about 9 at the moment and Nami's brother, Zeus, is seen as an extension of herself rather than a full member. It remains to be seen who his final crew member will be, or if the amount he put on himself will be the actual final number of Straw Hat Pirates.
Although Luffy invites anyone he thinks is interesting enough to join his team, in practice each official team member has a specific job that they do after joining the team. Jimbei, their last official member, serves as the helmsman, using his strength and skill to maneuver the ship. Practical applications aside, it is recognized that each Straw Hat is a noteworthy pirate in his own right, as told by Marine Admiral Kizaru, who referred to everyone in the crew as monsters.
The crew increased in numbers thanks to the Straw Hat Grand Fleet, which Luffy swore in gratitude for the crew. However, they are not official crew members and Luffy does not even recognize them as subordinates, instead treating the group more like an alliance.
5 Fake Straw Hat Crew / Fake Kid Pirates
Pirates count: 8-4
- Debut: Chapter 598 (manga), episode 517 (anime)
- Crew: Demalo Black (Captain; fake Luffy), Manjaro (fake Zoro), Monblutain (fake Sogeking/Usopp), Drip (fake Sanji), Chocolat (fake Nami), Nora Gitsune (fake Chopper), Cocoa (fake Robin), and Turco (fake frankie)
- The main ship: Unknown
This team of imposters was created to capitalize on the reputation of the original. They tend not to resemble their counterparts, but have enough superficial similarities that the scheme has been successful for a while. They especially missed Brooke in their ensemble, despite him being a crew member during their debut. This is probably due to the fact that his membership status was recent and not widely known at the time of their creation. The fake Straw Hats are voiced by the actors of the real Straw Hats, but reassigned to a different team member. For example, their captain Demal Black is voiced by Sanji. Giving the game away even more, some fake Straw Hats will brag about their awards and connections, something real members usually don't.
Black, unlike Luffy, cares little for his subordinates other than using them to further his own ends. He tried to raise a large crew, gathering powerful pirates with large bounties to act as his subordinates, not too dissimilar from God. Among these crews were the Caribou pirates who wanted to kill them from within. However, this scam was quickly exposed around the time the Straw Hats returned to piracy. Caribou was believed to have buried most of the crew alive, but it was apparently not fatal as some were seen alive and later imprisoned.
At least four crew members continued this type of theft while they were stationed at Marine Corps Base G-4. Black, along with Manjara, Drip and Turko, posed as the Little Pirates, who were recently believed to be lost at sea.
4 New pirate giant warriors
Number of pirates: 5
- Debut: Chapter 706 (manga), episode 639 (anime)
- Crew: Khairudin (Captain), Stensen, Rhode, Goldberg and Gerd
- The main ship: Naglfar
This crew consisted of five former mercenaries originally from Elbaf. They worked for Buggy's Delivery and were universally recognized as the highest paid. However, after their leader, Khairudin, was rescued by the Straw Hats in Dressrose, he left the organization and formed a pirate crew in the spirit of the Giant Warrior Pirates. Khairudin became one of the seven captains of the Straw Hat Grand Fleet, an organization of subordinate crews devoted to Luffy.
Like the Straw Hats, each of these pirates has a specific role in the crew. Stensen is a shipwright, Goldberg is a cook, Road is a navigator, and Gerd is a doctor.
3 Pirate idea
Number of pirates: 4
- Debut: Chapter 799 (manga), Episode 744 (anime)
- Crew: Idea (Captain), Blue Jilly, Abdullah and Jeet
- The main ship: Untitled (formerly owned by Orlumbu)
The Idea Pirates were one of several crews formed as part of the Straw Hat Grand Fleet, a coalition of pirates sworn to serve the Straw Hats as thanks for their actions in Dressrose. Although some members were active pirates before forming the crew, others chose to become pirates to achieve this goal. Unlike other crews formed to serve the fleet, such as the Happo Navy and the Yonta Maria Grand Fleet, the Idea Pirates had no previous incarnation.
Four members of this crew were members of the Coliseum Corrida, who later participated in the fight against the Donquixote pirates. Notably, all four were cursed by Sugar, who turned them into toys to serve as slaves to Doflamingo, effectively erasing them from everyone's memory, including each other. After their release, they remained loyal to the Straw Hats and fought off those who sought to claim their bounty.
Idea, the captain of the crew, is an accomplished long-arm martial artist who has twice won the New World Central Fighting Tournament. Blue Jili is a Jao Kun Do style practitioner who belongs to the Long Leg Tribe. The other two members of the team, Abdullah and Jeet, are a pair of former bounty hunters who usually fight in tandem. They gained notoriety for bombing a government building at some point in the past. In keeping with the crew's martial arts theme, they are both based on and named after famous Canadian professional wrestlers.
Their ship had been gifted to him by Orlumb, who, having previously commanded the fleet himself, had the most ships and crew of any captain in the Straw Hat Grand Fleet. It is not yet clear if the Idea Pirates are looking to expand, as their goals have not been defined beyond wanting to serve Luffy.
2 Macro Pirates
Number of pirates: 3
- The head 197 (Cover Story), Episode 386 (Anime)
- Crew: Makra (Captain), Gyaro and Tansui
- The main ship: Untitled (destroyed by Hutchan)
The Macro Pirates are one of two crews that broke away from the Sun Pirates after their new captain, Jimbei, became Warlord. Because of this origin, they are a pirate crew made up entirely of fish. They are also notable for each of the members carrying a freshwater fish, with Makra being a pelican fish-man, Gyaro a goldfish-man, and Tansui being an arowana fish-man.
As a member of the Sun Pirates, Makra was one of their most ruthless members, and he knew how to kill people. Despite this, he along with Gyaro and Tansui loved Kaala, a former human slave that the team delivered to her family. Unfortunately, this act will split the crew as their captain, Fisher Tiger, is killed and Arlong is captured after Kaala's family contacts the Marines to detain them in exchange for them not noticing their slave status Koalas.
It is unclear how much this perceived betrayal shaped the philosophy of the Macro Pirates, but despite their history as members of the Sun Pirates, a crew led by former slaves, they seemed to have no problem enslaving others. In particular, they tried to capture Keimi, the kissing gourami mermaid, 31 times because of her high value as a slave. The Macro Pirates also tried to capture their former friend, Hutchan, at least once for similar reasons.
The camera crew is not particularly competent, as they were unable to capture anyone on screen. They used to be affiliated with the Flying Fish Riders, but due to their leader Duval having a change of heart, this is likely no longer the case. The small size of the crew is probably due, at least in part, to the general unpopularity of slavery among fishmen.
1 Foxy Pirates
Number of pirates: 3
- Debut: Chapter 304 (manga), episode 207 (anime)
- Crew: Foxy (Captain), Porche and Hamburg
- The main ship: Sexy Foxy (formerly)
The Foxy Pirates were once a gigantic pirate crew numbering hundreds of members. They tended to increase their size with Davy Beck fights, a pirate tradition where crews battle, with the losers often forced to surrender their teammates to the winners. One day they ran into the Straw Hats, trying, but failing, to humiliate them and steal their desired teammates. Despite goes does hass,sssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss on in them. Their captain is Foxy, whose Devil Fruit allows him to temporarily slow anything trapped by the rays he can emit.
However, even at their most competent, they are embarrassed by the much stronger pirate crews in the New World, most notably the Straw Hats. Since their initial failure, the crew has tended to be largely a running joke, mostly serving as a set-up for non-canonical events in the anime. The Final Saga confirms that the Foxy pirates have hit rock bottom, as only Foxy, Porche, and Hamburg are seen in a small boat that is not their former main ship, the Sexy Foxy. Although not explicitly stated, it is possible that most of the crew died along with their ship in one or more of Davy's skirmishes with other crew in the New World.
