One Piece has become infamous in recent years for its infallible use of callbacks to tie loose ends and parts of the story together, creating a narrative that is tight and consistent. So much so, it almost seems like its creator, Eiichiro Oda, can really do no wrong. Well, except for one thing. If there's anything to ever rag on One Piece's character designs and writing, definitely rag on how the series portrays its female characters, even its best ones. And, sadly, this list will be going over some of the most confounding and least explained traits of the series' premiere female lead.
Nami is the navigator and near second captain of the Straw Hat crew whose knowledge and skills have more than made her valuable to the crew and whose backstory and character arc more than made her valuable to the fans. As developed as she is (in more ways than one), here are a few things about Nami that really could be explained better, if at all.
10 Running in High Heels
Perhaps a more forgivable trait given that it's not exactly uncommon for people to run in high heels, Nami loses points here for her obscene over use of high heels. For fans of the series, especially the anime, one might notice that there's a suspicious amount of running in One Piece, whether it be to scrounge up keys for some handcuffs, to escape cyborgs and zombies, or just runaway from a giant, poisonous cloud. And Nami does it all in high heels. Whether it be her costume of the week or her synonymous brown sandals, Nami's feet are consistently at an uncomfortable incline, making one wonder why she just doesn't get some running shoes or, at least, take them off.
9 "Cat Burglar"
Nami's nickname in the series is the "Cat Burglar" which would make a lot of sense in the early series, but doesn't really hold water in the most recent arcs. For one thing, there are several cases in the series that require stealth and stealing of some kind. Sure, she stole the handcuff keys in Fishman Island and is a kunoichi in training in the current arc, but what about grabbing copies of the Poneglyphs during Whole Cake Island, being part of an infiltration team during Dressrosa (instead of just watching the ship), or even helping Luffy escape prison within the current arc? There's a lot of inconsistency in what would otherwise be a genuinely interesting character trait that is instead just used for convenient plot solutions.
8 Physique
On to one of the most frequently commented on elements of Nami and every female character ever in One Piece (or, at least, after the time skip), Nami's breast size, waist line, and maturity are, at one end, healthy and at the other...structurally unsound. Oda himself has said that he became more perverted after he got married, but that really doesn't excuse how insulting and even lazy his character designs are. During one of his SBS', he shows the fans how he starts to draw women, and his example is literally two giant circles with an "X" for the waist line. There's a lot to love in Oda's character designs and a lot to smack one's head over.
7 Bust Continuity
Continuing the trend of "Nami's body just doesn't make sense," there's a lot to be confused about in terms of how and when she actually got big boobs. During the Straw Hats' return to the Sabaody Archipelago, Usopp merely commented that Nami just "matured" over the past two years which is a little dubious but fair given the time gap. What throws that comment out the window is the fact that in the One Piece specials that remake earlier arcs, the pre-timeskip Nami is still portrayed with large breasts, as if she was supposed to have them in the first place. This not only retcons but literally perverts Nami's early image.
6 Closet Space
Out of all the wondrous rooms of the Thousand Sunny, the most closet space that the Straw Hats get is a four-door closet in the women's room and six lockers in the men's quarters. This is amazing given the sheer number of costume changes that Straw Hats go through, especially Nami. During every arc, Nami goes through at least two (and up to around three or four) costume changes. During the beginning of the Straw Hats' timeskip return, Nami is even shown buying a huge pile of clothes. Even if we were to suspect that those were for the entire crew, where is she exactly storing all of them?
5 Cocoyasi Village Hating Her...But Not Really
During the Arlong Park Arc, it was revealed that Nami was only stealing to raise funds for her village's freedom. In turn for her seemingly siding with Arlong, her fellow villagers turn against her and alienate her...but not really. They're faking it for...reasons(?). Couldn't they have helped her or protected her if she was doing this? Or, at least, let her know that they knew? She started doing this as a little girl, which is a risky and alarmingly dangerous situation for any child to be in, and they risked it. Actually, in better terms, it was more like they sacrificed Nami's childhood, well-being, and even mental state as they alienated a small child as she would work under abusive parents and venture out to the world to do crime. It's understandable that the villagers themselves were too weak to go against Arlong, but it's not completely clear how pretending to hate Nami actually did anything.
4 Mirages
During the Ennies Lobby arc, it was revealed that Nami's upgraded Climatact is able to produce mirage clones. Even better, during the Fishman Island Arc, it was also shown that the new and improved Nami is also able to make herself invisible with her Climatact, which is an absolutely incredible skill for a "Cat Burglar" to have. The question now being: Why doesn't she use it more often? These are literally the two only instances that Nami ever uses her mirage ability, and there have been plenty of instances where she probably should have used it. Why not disguise the ship when it's going into enemy territory? When the crew was running from Kuma on Sabaody Archipelago, why not cast clones to distract or confuse him? It's almost as if Oda forgot that this is an actually cool power.
3 Clima-Tact
On the note of the Clima-Tact, why isn't it being used more? It can create entire storms to wipe out enemies, direct lightning bolts, and even summon gusts of wind and tornadoes. And Nami just sits on the sidelines. She doesn't even use stamina like a Devil Fruit user to do this ability, functionally making it much more sustainable and even threatening, yet she uses it like once if there's a huge group battle. She doesn't even use it as the navigator of the ship, ensuring that skies will always be clear or conjuring storms to block other ships. She'll just read a watch on her wrist.
2 Ability to Hurt Luffy
This is really used more for comedic effect and never really holds any consequences when going into actual conflicts. But, still, shouldn't it be concerning or at least alarming to the rest of the crew, who fully understand that due to his Devil Fruit, Luffy shouldn't be able to feel pain, let alone be bruised and bloodied? Shouldn't they be going, "Wait! You can hurt him? You must have Haki or powers or something!" If anything, wouldn't it be funnier to just keep Luffy's powers consistent and just have Nami struggle to hit him? If that isn't the case, then the entire series has been sleeping on its most powerful character.
1 Drawing a Map of the World
Nami's dream in One Piece is to draw a complete map of the world and joins the Straw Hats to do so. In this case, Nami must really have an interesting post-One Piece arc coming, because she's never actually going to do that as part of the Straw Hats. If no one's really noticed, they're just going in a straight line, which isn't exactly a detailed look at the world. They don't even deviate from the path, so Nami can get a closer look at new or weird islands or something. There are literally three other portions of the world that the Straw Hats have no plans of seeing that Nami is not going to immediately see. Nami's a great navigator, but she's not exactly living out her dreams in an efficient manner.