One Piece is a Shounen series that loves everything about being a Shounen series. That means a grand adventure, tons of action, and the word "nakama" being thrown around like firecrackers. However, if there was one thing that the series has struggled with, it has been romance.
The series, by design, hasn't been one to directly entertain romance, and creator, Eiichiro Oda, has suggested that a romantic relationship forming between members of the Straw Hats will probably never be a part of One Piece. Fortunately, fans and the internet are there to fill in the blanks. Using the subtext hidden within character dynamics and tropes, anime fans can ship anything with everything.
However, while many ships can be sweet and held within reason, plenty can be way off base and just straight-up impossible within the context of the original series. In an examination of what could happen in One Piece, here are a few couples that are perfect together and a few that just don't make sense.
10 Makes No Sense: Zoro x Nami
Within the core cast of any anime, it's easy to imagine any sort of romantic combination between characters. Proximity and friendship can allow quite a bit to happen between the most diametrically opposed personalities, and it is really never too late to surprise fans with a hidden romance.
However, as One Piece is now, any shipping of the Pirate Hunter and the Cat Burglar just makes no sense. They don't even really have much of a rapport and, despite the early parts of the series, Zoro and Nami are rarely part of the same group together, let alone consistently shown in the same room. While age-old friends, these two are essentially strangers on the Thousand Sunny.
9 Perfect: Smoker x Hina
While workplace romance may be forbidden within certain office settings, it just seems right here. Not only are the two long-time comrades battling pirates, but their personalities are near perfect for each other.
Both Smoker and Hina are brash, independent people who are infamous for obsessively and aggressively charging their prey. Smoker can chase pirates to the end of the world, and Hina can entrap them within her cold, black cages. Smoker and Hina had quite the exchange on Alabasta, while the fact that Oda drew them shopping together in one of his cover pages only fans the flames of this ship.
8 Makes No Sense: Luffy x Vivi
To be fair, when Vivi traveled with the Straw Hats, she had a wonderful relationship with everyone. Luffy, in particular, helped Vivi find her way when she began to become discouraged on her quest to save Alabasta. Clearly, Vivi has a deep love and admiration for the Straw Hat crew. However, that's where the relationship ends.
There was never anything that deeply personal between Luffy and Vivi. Plus, Vivi literally has her childhood friend, Koza, acting as a more direct and consistent relationship. She's known Koza since childhood. She knew Luffy for like a month.
7 Perfect: Usopp x Kaya
In a classic display of a long-established relationship, Usopp and Kaya are one of the most explicit and storied ones within the series. Usopp would sneak to the outside of Kaya's window when she was sick and tell her a variety of his wild stories. These stories were Usopp's grand ambitions for becoming an adventurer to the sea and a support system to help Kaya stay strong.
Even now, a huge part of Usopp's character and motivation is becoming that same adventurer who can one day return to Syrup Village and tell Kaya and the villagers real tales of a grand adventure.
6 Makes No Sense: Usopp x Nami
A huge part of why this ship doesn't make sense is described above, as Usopp already has an explicit relationship in place. However, it is easy to see why fans would dream of this one. Usopp and Nami are two members of the Weak Trio who have a consistent rapport with one another and often scheme to find ways to circumvent the dangerous decisions made by their cavalier captain.
Post-time skip, these two reunited prior meeting any of the other Straw Hats, while Usopp does fix and customize Nami's Clima-Tact. However, beyond that, these two don't have much in terms of shared interests or romantic history. If anything, they are perfect as best friends.
5 Perfect: Sanji x Pudding
Sanji is an infamous hound dog within the series. With wandering eyes, he's always ogling and doting over the nearest, cute girl. He does this so much that it makes it difficult to seriously ship him with anyone. However, once the Whole Cake Island Arc rolled up, Oda dropped his most likely match of all. Charlotte Pudding is everything that a fan could want for Sanji.
Not only is she cute, but she's also a master cook whose baking skills compliment Sanji's general culinary talents. Sanji himself is the first person to see past Pudding's third eye and see her beauty underneath. While it has yet to be revealed how the two sent each other off at the end of the Whole Cake Island arc, the ambiguity of Pudding's goodbye has allowed pages upon pages of fanfics to be unleashed.
4 Makes No Sense: Sanji x Viola
While there is a lot to speculate over Sanji and Pudding's relationship, Sanji and Viola have actually done a kiss on screen. Viola was even able to convince Sanji to abandon the Straw Hats and run away with her in an impulsive and passionate display of romance. However, that's where the relationship begins to wear thin.
This was just a ruse meant to trap Sanji, and while Viola would eventually turn over to his side, not much continued between the two's relationship. Oda has even insinuated that there's a bit of a romantic past between Viola and Doflamingo, adding more tension to the ship. While Sanji would love to take anyone, he could definitely do better than someone he just met through a lethal trap. Probably.
3 Perfect: Zoro x Robin
Going back to a well-established relationship, there's a lot to go by in terms of shipping Zoro and Robin. Things were uneasy when Robin first joined, and Zoro was suspicious of her.
However, as the series went on, Robin would see Zoro constantly coming to her aid whenever she's needed help, especially during a really heated exchange when he went up against Kaku. Plus, their personalities mesh well with each other, with lethal mystery meeting lethal mystery in a match between the crew's top two killers.
2 Makes No Sense: Perona x Zoro
Zoro and Perona were both trapped on Mihawk's island together. That's about it. That is about as far as their relationship goes. Zoro was sent there by Kuma for training, whereas Perona simply stated that she wanted to go somewhere dark, dank, and mysterious.
While the two spent quite a bit of time together during Zoro's training, spending a lot of time under the same roof make them more sibling-like than anything else. They don't have similar tastes and have had perhaps one or two good conversations throughout the entire series. Zoro and Perona may not exactly be strangers, but they hardly like each other.
1 Perfect: Luffy x Nami
Reaching the end of this list is a relationship that's built on history, values, and classic Shounen tropes. These two have constantly been paired with each other during their journeys, with either Luffy rushing off to save Nami or Nami going off to help Luffy. While their exchanges during Arlong Park may have seeded a deeper understanding between the two, Luffy and Nami have had a possible destiny going as far back to when they passed by each other during Alvida's raid.
To go even further, Nami-like characters have been prominent seconds in the earlier versions of the series. While there's certainly a lot to speculate between Luffy and Boa Hancock, it wouldn't be surprising if Oda had something planned between Luffy and Nami since the very beginning.