Nami (One Piece)

Infobox animanga character
color = orange
name = Nami
series = One Piece


caption =
first = Manga Chapter #8
Anime Episode #1
last =
creator = Eiichiro Oda
voiced by = Japanese
Akemi Okamura (Ep. 1-69, 79+)
Wakana Yamazaki (Ep. 70-78)
Megumi Toyoguchi (OVA)
English
Kerry Williams (4Kids)
Luci Christian (Funimation)
Alison Lestor (Odex)
nickname = "Cat burglar Nami" (Dorobō Neko no Nami), "Nami-swan" (Sanji: Original Version), "Nami Baby" (Sanji from Funimation dub)
age = 18
gender = Female
species = Human
born = July 3
occupation = Pirate
(Straw Hat Pirates, Navigator, treasurer)
relatives = Bellemere (adoptive mother, deceased)
Nojiko (sister through adoption)
paux1 name = Bounty
paux1 = 16,000,000 Belinihongo|Nami|ナミ is a fictional character from Eiichiro Oda's shōnen anime and manga series "One Piece". She is the navigator and the second to join the Straw Hat Pirates.

Creation and conception

In the first version of "Romance Dawn", the pilot for "One Piece", there is a character called Silk, who is the daughter of a pirate and just like Nami grew up without her real parents. Appearance wise, Silk is almost exactly like Nami in both face and dress, although Silk has longer hair. While some aspects of her personality are close to Nami's, she is still very different.

In the second version of "Romance Dawn", there is another Nami-like character, called Ann. Ann, like Silk, has clothes similar to Nami's. Ann's personality though is much closer to that of Nami, but is still a long way off from the one Nami was ultimately given by Oda.

Character outline

Personality

Nami is greedy and will do anything, aside from endangering her friends, for money, due to her past. After having gathered money for 8 years (and even before that often stole things due to her family being poor), Nami is naturally accustomed to it. Even after being freed from Arlong, she decides to keep gathering money, stating that what she gets is all hers now, but thinks of her friends as more important. (While on Sky Island, Luffy asks her, "What's more important, adventure or your life?" She responds, "My life. Followed by my money.") She is very manipulative and often takes advantage of Sanji for his devotion to her and Usopp to maintain her weapons. Roronoa Zoro manages not to fall for her deception, but ends up a victim like the rest, usually due to debt and blackmail. Nami also tries to avoid fights, and is one of the less adventurous and brave members of the crew. Her two favorite things are money and mikan (mandarin oranges), often translated to tangerines (the English manga uses "tangerines"), because of her love of her foster mother, Bellemere.

Abilities

Nami is an excellent navigator and has the ability to recognize and analyze even the slightest changes in the weather through sheer intuition, thus saving the ship and the crew from the very unstable Grand Line weather on multiple occasions. She has the innate ability to sense changes in the weather and can even predict the appearance of the supposedly unpredictable cyclones of the Grand Line. She often claims that she feels a change in atmospheric pressure when predicting the weather. She is also an excellent thief and pickpocket who can steal small items such as keys on light encounters without the victim noticing.

She is also a cartographer. Her dream is to draw a perfect map of the world. The first map Nami plotted was her home island at the age of 8.

Nami is not as skilled a combatant as some of the Straw Hats, although she is able to wield a staff, and can take down normal pirates or marines with few problems. She is able to unleash quick and moderately powerful strikes, and during the Arabasta arc and beyond, uses a weather manipulating staff, to fight.

Plot overview

Appearances in other media

Along with other "One Piece" characters, Nami appeared in a "Shonen Jump" special, where Enel attacks Tokyo and Odaiba, in "Cross Epoch" the short story created in cooperation by Oda and Dragon Ball creator Akira Toriyama, as well as in the video games "Jump Super Stars", "Jump Ultimate Stars", and "Battle Stadium D.O.N".

Trivia

*Nami acts in the roles of treasurer and quartermaster.
*Her two favorite things are money and "mikan" (mandarin oranges, a symbol of prosperity and wealth in Japan), often translated to tangerines (the English manga uses "tangerines"), because of her love of her foster mother, Bellemere.
*Her nickname, "Cat Burglar", comes from "dorobō neko", which can also mean "manstealer" in Japanese.

Reception

References