In 1997, Monkey D. Luffy set out to become the Pirate King. This event kickstarted a 20+ year-long journey that became the central framing device of One Piece. One Piece has since gone on to become the most popular manga of all time, but while Luffy is the main character, he has not set out on this journey alone.
One of the more important characters in the Straw Hat crew is their navigator, Nami. Nami has been a part of the story since the beginning and has charmed fans with her clever intelligence and a strong sense of self-sacrifice for her friends.
10 Nami Is A Straight-Man For The Straw Hats
The world of One Piece is filled to the brim with unique devil fruit abilities and character designs that look straight out of a child's drawing. When the Straw Hat crew consists of a cyborg who runs on cola and a captain that can stretch his arm like bubblegum, sometimes you need a normal girl to keep things grounded.
Nami is a reminder of what the average person in One Piece is like. She is spectacular in plenty of ways, but among the Straw Hat crew, she is the narrative straight-man.
9 She's The World's Greatest Navigator
Luffy has shown multiple times throughout the series to have the favor of destiny on his side. In other words, the Straw Hat Pirate is undoubtedly lucky. This was most evident during his run-in with Buggy, in which a lightning bolt saved him from being executed like Gold Roger.
But one of the more subtle ways Luffy has lucked out is in the crew members he's attracted. His first two recruits happened to be the world's greatest swordsman and an unquestionably genius navigator. Without Nami, the Straw Hat crew would've been dead at sea on more than one occasion.
8 Nami Always Has A Clever Strategy
Throughout the early arcs of One Piece, Nami was no stranger to getting into a good old-fashioned one-versus-one battle. Despite lacking combat prowess in basically all metrics, the Straw Hat navigator consistently had to take on a more powerful enemy during the climax of various arcs.
Somehow, Nami has managed to win just about every time. Occasionally it's with the help of an ally or two, but most often it's a byproduct of her sheer cleverness and ability to strategize. It may not seem obvious, but Nami can certainly be the brains of the Straw Hat operation from time to time.
7 She Isn't Afraid To Get Her Hands Dirty
Nami may present herself as a dainty lady if it helps her get what she wants, but the truth is that Nami is more than willing to get down in the dirt and muddy her hands to make sure things go her way.
Whether that means taking on an opponent that she has no business matching up against or helming the ship when encountering a deadly storm in the Grand Line, Nami has consistently saved the Straw Hats throughout the decades of this story. When the going gets rough, Nami is ready to step up to the challenge.
6 Nami Protected Her Entire City As A Toddler
Many fans look towards the Arlong Park arc as the moment where One Piece becomes truly a work of art. Arlong Park is the sequence of episodes in which we learn Nami's backstory and the tremendous amount of weight this young woman has shouldered all her life.
While barely older than a toddler, Nami dedicated herself to an evil pirate crew to help raise money and save her entire village from being destroyed. Her act of heroism shows just how respectable and admirable Nami truly is.
5 She Forgave Jinbe & Hachi
During the Arlong Park arc, it's revealed that the source of Nami's tragic backstory is a crew called the Arlong pirates, led by a Fishman named Arlong. Later in the story, fans learn that the Arlong pirates were a subsection of a larger group known as the Sun Pirates.
In this tangled web of piracy, Nami came face to face with two men who could be held responsible for the tragedies of her past. But instead of punishing these two, she made the difficult choice to forgive. These two men would become invaluable allies to the Straw Hat crew thanks to that choice.
4 Nami Is A Woman With Agency
Fans of One Piece often criticize the story for its treatment of female characters. While many women in One Piece are powerful figures of authority, many are also damsels and princesses for Luffy to save. Furthermore, One Piece has a tendency to give many major women the exact same face and body type.
Despite that, fans recognize that Nami is a profound and multifaceted character beyond these general complaints. While Nami has required saving before, the story makes it incredibly clear that Nami is a powerful force to be reckoned with and is consistently written with as much agency as possible.
3 Nami Has A Deep, Emotional Arc
When fans look back at over two decades of One Piece's publication, there are a lot of story arcs they could consider the greatest. Each and every Straw Hat member was given some sort of backstory that brought fans to tears.
But in this list of potential story arcs that could be considered the best, Arlong Park time and time again has made its way to the very top. The arc centered around Nami's backstory is, by many fans, the greatest piece of storytelling ever brought to anime.
2 She Keeps Her Friends Grounded
In the world of One Piece, sky islands exist, giants are real, and there are fruits that can give you superpowers. It'd be easy to live in the One Piece world and believe that any miracle could come true. But sometimes, it's important to be grounded.
Characters can't live with their heads solely in the clouds and need to confront the reality of the situation in front of them. Someone like Nami is crucial for any given friend group. She's the resident skeptic. Though she has often been proven wrong, her role to the crew is crucial. She keeps them chained to the real world and not just in their daydreams.
1 Nami Learned To Believe In Luffy
While Nami is the resident skeptic of the Straw Hat crew, she has been wrong on more than one occasion. She doubted the existence of a Sky Island and yet went on to see it with her own eyes. She didn't believe in devil fruits and now her best friends all have one.
Throughout the course of the story, Nami learned to love being a pirate. Not only that, but she learned to believe in her friends in a way the old Nami never could. After years of traveling with Luffy, Nami has learned to trust her captain at a profoundly deep level. That's true friendship.