Key recommendations
- The Straw Hat Pirates have 10 members, each with assigned roles.
- The Fake Straw Hat Crew had 8 members and was formed to capitalize on the reputation of the original crew.
- Ideo Pirates consists of 4 members who joined the Great Straw Hat Fleet.
Pirate crews inside One piece tend to be quite large. Most pirates seek strength, and to some extent there is such a thing as strength in numbers. That being said, not every crew has the luxury of having that many pirates.
Although many who are major antagonists tend to have grunt squads in addition to their higher ranking members, other crews tend to be quite small in terms of their ensemble. This list will look at some of the smallest crews in the whole One piece series and how they got to be that way.
6 The Straw Hat Pirates
Number of pirates: ~10
- The crew: Monkey D. Luffy (Captain), Roronoa Zoro, Usopp, Sanji, Nami, Chopper, Nico Robin, Franky, Brook and Jimbei
- The main ship: Thousand Sunny, Going Merry (former)
The main crew of the series is quite small compared to most pirate crews seen. When he started his career in piracy, Luffy only wanted 10 or so crewmates. She is currently around 9, with Nami's friend Zeus being seen as more of an extension of herself than a full member. It remains to be seen who his final crewmate will be, or if the self-imposed total will be the Straw Hat Pirates' actual final tally.
Although Luffy will extend invitations to anyone he deems interesting enough to join his crew, in practice each official crewmate has a designated job that they do when they join the crew. Jimbei, their newest official member, serves as their helmsman, using their strength and skill to maneuver the ship. Beyond their practical applications, each Straw Hat is recognized to be a noteworthy pirate in its own right, as told by Navy Admiral Kizaru, who called everyone in the crew a monster.
The crew bolstered their numbers with the Straw Hat Grand Fleet, who swore to Luffy out of gratitude for the crew. That said, they are not official crew members and are not even recognized by Luffy as subordinates, treating the group more like an alliance.
5 Fake Straw Hat Crew/ Fake Kid Pirates
Number of Pirates: 8-4
- Debut: Chapter 598 (Manga), Episode 517 (Anime)
- The 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 Franky)
- The main ship: Unknown
This crew of imposters was formed to benefit from the reputation of the original. They tend not to look like their counterparts, but they share enough superficial similarities that this scheme was somewhat successful for a while. They especially missed Brook in their ensemble, despite him being a member of the crew at the time of their debut. This is probably because its membership is recent and not widely known at the time of their formation. The fake Straw Hats are all voiced by the artists of the real Straw Hats, but reassigned to different crew members. For example, their captain, Demalo Black, is voiced by Sanji's artists. Giving the game even more, some fake straw hats will boast of rewards and connections, which is not usually done by the actual members.
Black, unlike Luffy, cares little for his subordinates other than using them to achieve his own goals. He tried to cultivate a larger crew, gathering powerful pirates with high bounties to act as subordinates in a manner not too dissimilar to Buggy. These crews included the Caribou Pirates, who wanted to kill them from within. However, this scam was quickly exposed around the time the Straw Hats made a comeback to piracy. Most of the crew were believed to have been buried alive by the Caribou, but apparently this was not fatal as some of them were later seen alive and imprisoned.
At least four crew members continued this type of grift while being held at Naval Base G-4. Black, along with Manjaro, Drip, and Turco pretended to be the Kid Pirates, who were recently believed to be lost at sea.
4 New giant warrior pirates
Number of pirates: 5
- Debut: Chapter 706 (Manga), Episode 639 (Anime)
- The crew: Hajrudin (captain), Stansen, Road, Goldberg and Gerd
- The main ship: Naglfar
This crew consisted of five ex-mercenaries from Elbaf. They worked for Buggy's Delivery and were generally recognized as the best earners. However, after their leader, Hajrudin was rescued by the Straw Hats of Dressrosa, he left the organization and created a pirate crew in the vein of the Giant Warrior Pirates. Hajrudin 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 role to play in the crew. Stansen is the shipbuilder, Goldberg is the cook, Road is the navigator and Gerd is the doctor.
3 Idea pirates
Number of pirates: 4
- Debut: Chapter 799 (Manga), Episode 744 (Anime)
- The crew: Ideo (Captain), Blue Gilly, Abdullah and Jeet
- The main ship: Unnamed (previously owned by Orlumbus)
The Ideo Pirates were one of two 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 Dressrosa. Although some members were active as pirates before the crew was formed, others instead decided to become pirates for the sake of it. Unlike other crews formed to serve the fleet, such as the Happo Navy and the Yonta Maria Grand Fleet, the Ideo Pirates have not had a previous incarnation.
The four members of this crew were participants in the Corrida Colosseum, who later became involved in the fight with the Donquixote pirates. Notably, all four were cursed by Sugar, who turned them into toys to serve as Doflamingo's slaves and effectively erased them from everyone's memories, including each other. After being freed, they remained loyal to the Straw Hats and fought against those who wanted to claim their bounties.
Ideo, the captain of the crew, is an accomplished martial artist who has won the New World Central Fighting Tournament twice. Blue Gilly is a practitioner of the Jao Kun Do style, belonging to the long-legged tribe. The other two crewmates, Abdullah and Jeet, are a pair of former bounty hunters who tend to fight in tandem. They gained infamy for bombing a government building at some point in the past. In keeping with the crew's martial arts theme, both are based on and named after famous Canadian professional fighters.
Their ship was gifted to them by Orlumbus, who, having previously controlled a fleet himself, had the most ships and crewmates of any captain in the Straw Hat Grand Fleet. It is unclear if the Ideo Pirates are trying to expand, as their goals have not been identified outside of wanting to serve Luffy.
2 Macro Pirates
Number of pirates: 3
- Chapter 197 (cover), episode 386 (anime)
- The crew: Macro (Captain), Gyaro and Tansui
- The main ship: Unnamed (destroyed by Hatchan)
The Macro Pirates are one of two crews that broke away from the Sun Pirates after their new captain, Jimbei, became a Warlord. Due to this origin, they are a fish-man pirate crew. They are further distinguished by each member chasing a freshwater fish, with Macro being a pelican-eel-fish-man, Gyaro being a pop-eyed goldfish-man, and Tansui being an arowana-fish-man.
As a member of the Sun Pirates, Macro was one of its most ruthless members, being good at killing people. Despite this, he, along with Gyaro and Tansui, took a liking to Koala, a former human slave the crew delivered to her family. Unfortunately, this deed would fracture the crew, their captain, Fisher Tiger, was killed and Arlong captured, after the Koalas contacted the Marines to detain them in exchange for letting them overlook their status of Koala's slave.
It is unclear how much this perceived betrayal shaped the Macro-Pirates' philosophies, but despite their history as members of the Sun Pirates, a crew led by former slaves, they seemed to have little problem enslaving others. They especially tried to capture Camie, a 31-times-kissing gourami mermaid, because of her high value as a slave. The Macro Pirates also attempted to capture their former friend, Hatchan, at least once for similar reasons.
The crew doesn't prove to be particularly competent as they failed to impress anyone on screen. They were previously connected with the Flying Fish Riders, but due to their leader Duval changing his mind, this is probably 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 The Foxy Pirates
Number of pirates: 3
- Debut: Chapter 304 (Manga), Episode 207 (Anime)
- The crew: Foxy (Captain), Porche and Hamburg
- The main ship: Sexy Foxy (ex)
The Foxy Pirates were once a gigantic pirate crew with hundreds of members. They tended to expand their size through Davy Back Fights, a pirate tradition where crews fight, with the losers often forced to give up their crewmates to the winners. They once ran into the Straw Hats, trying, but failing, to humiliate them and steal their desired crewmates. Despite cheating a lot at Davy Back Fights, their members seem to be really good at the events they decide to participate in. Their captain is Foxy, whose Devil Fruit allows her to temporarily slow anything caught in the beams she can emit.
However, even in their most competent form, they are put to shame by the much stronger pirate crews of the New World, especially the Straw Hats. Since their initial failure, the crew tends to be mostly a joke, serving mainly as a fixture of non-canon 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 other than their previously established flagship, the Sexy Foxy. Although not clearly stated, it is possible that most of the crew, along with their ship, were lost in one or more Davy Back battles to another New World crew.
