In this new sub-column of Anime Breakfast, which we have titled Chara, we will chat with you a bit about the character of Nami, co-protagonist in One Piece, and the importance of her role in Eiichiro Oda’s ecosystem
As you have been able to see, in these dozens of weeks spent together, Anime Breakfast is not just a place to explore our favorite series, but a real corner for discussion of every aspect linked to the oriental culture of animation. We also passed through the Tops and the VS, this week we want to introduce a new sub-heading which we have entitled Chara. And what is Chara? Simply, a new place where we can talk about our… favorite characters! And given the historical moment, given the arrival of the live action on Netflix (we’ll tell you about it shortly, I promise), why not start with one of the protagonists of One Piece? One of the most iconic and appreciated of the entire series: Nami!
Fight as Long as You Live | Anime Breakfast Chara: One Piece, Nami and the beauty of freedom
Key character and pivot of the entire Arlong Park arc, Nami is, from the very beginning, an integral part of the Straw Hat crew. And despite being one of the first to be hired (almost at the same time as Zoro, so to speak), she is also the last of the first tranche of crew to officially join Luffy. A stormy past torments her, as well as a promise she made to herself many years before. Before continuing, please be careful from here on out, because we will talk without restraints about the first part of One Piece (until the end of the Arlong Park saga, no further), so there may be spoiler unwanted.
Nami’s past is, like that of the other members of the crew, rather difficult to digest. The wickedness and brutality of Arlong, the fish-man pirate, are immediately expressed with his objectives: fully exploit and dominate the Coco village, home to his Arlong Park, through taxation, violence and cruelty. Nami sees her adoptive mother, Bellemere, die before her eyes during Arlong’s first invasion and therefore decides to try to take back her house with what she has of hers: her innate cartographer skills .
Desperate Situation | Anime Breakfast Chara: One Piece, Nami and the beauty of freedom
She works for years in chains in Arlong’s Map Room, creating for him accurate maps of all the places in the East Blue and, in the process, raising as much money as she can to, quite literally, buy back Coco Village. She needs a hundred million berries, an amount that a normal human being would hardly collect even over the course of his entire life. Nami is therefore forced to betray the trust of her sister and her fellow villagers, pretending to be the fish-man’s ally and secretly collecting the agreed sum from her.
Sum which he reaches just as Luffy and the other members of the crew are in Arlong Park. Once he has declared his intent to repay him completely to Arlong, the pirate sends Nezumi, a corrupt marine to the core, to confiscate Nami’s money who, exhausted by years of physical, verbal and psychological violence, she collapses to the ground. Luffy sees her and, firmly determined to have her in her crew and as her friend, entrusts her with his straw hat and leaves for Arlong Park. She definitively this time.
Duel that defies description | Anime Breakfast Chara: One Piece, Nami and the beauty of freedom
The ensuing battle is epic and exciting, we admit, but that’s not the key to this article. In this article we just want to analyze a little more in depth the role, the character and the simple complexity of a character like Nami. Intelligence, cunning, cunning, ability to manipulate situations and people, strong practical sense and indomitable courage: our trusted cartographer has a whole host of qualities that could very well belong to a femme fatale.
Although she may seem like an extremely selfish woman and exclusively interested in the God of money, this facet is only linked to the difficult life she had in her youth, starting from the death of her mother. The meeting with Luffy determines his shift. In a dialogue she has with Zoro on the Baratie, Nami confesses to the swordsman that she cannot have friends. Only then will we discover the reason for so much suffering and confinement from human interactions: Arlong took away everything she had of herself, even the possibility of forming lasting relationships with other people.
Luffy’s intervention will be enough to unleash an emotional whirlwind in her that will ultimately lead to the aforementioned collapse and her subsequent request for help from her friend and captain. Help that will certainly not go unheeded, on the contrary. In subsequent story arcs, Nami will evolve again and again, while remaining a bewitching femme fatale, towards that generous, extroverted, curious and empathetic woman that the young captain of the Straw Hat Pirates had seen from the beginning. Since before the young woman could even try to express herself.
Nami-chwan!
Our brief analysis of the first part of Nami’s character’s life in One Piece ends here. A young and promising woman who knows how fundamental the universe created by Eiichiro Oda will be in the course of the narrative. Those who have only seen her in action in Live Action should know that she is not just a young, attractive (Emily Rudd is decidedly wonderful) and astute cartographer, but a character capable of shifting the balance of entire narrative arcs. . Between marines, pirates, World Government, Fleet of Seven and so on, this young woman with orange hair will make you dream. In every sense!
This episode of Anime Breakfast ends here! Let us know what you think of Nami’s character in One Piece below in the comments and stay tuned with us at TechGameWorld.com for all the news on cinema and TV series!
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