The 3 Types of Villains In ONE PIECE

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(Edited)

ONE PIECE boasts the biggest roster of extremely punchable villains out of any anime/manga franchise. Not only because of its insane length, but it's also because Oda takes the time to make us really hate the enemies of Luffy.

So I'm categorizing in this article the One Piece villains into three types: The Hate-Sink, The Comic Relief, and The Worthy Opponent type. Of course, a villain or antagonist can fit into more than one category...

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The Hate-sink

These are the villains everyone hates. The ones that show no redeeming qualities in any of their scenes. The villains that make you question the humanity of the world. These guys abuse their power in the most unthinkable ways. Killing their underlings for mistakes. Extra points if they're actually weak.

Examples: Akainu, Celestial Dragons, Spandam, Hody Jones, Orochi.

The Comic Relief

These are the villains who are hard to take seriously in spite of their powers. Fights with them usually don't have high stakes or have their stakes minimized because we know the type of villain we're dealing with. A lot of villains in early One Piece arcs fall into this category.

Examples: Buggy, Ceaser Clown, Gecko Moria, Big Mom.

I would also put Enel in this category. While he's a perfect villain, he's used in comedic fashion a lot. Even his most iconic scene is a comedic one.

The Worthy Opponent

Most of the villains of this type can also be categorized in the Hate-Sink above. What makes these different is that they have the strength to back-up everything they say. When the villain of the arc is also the villain of the Saga, it's most likely going to be of this type.

Sometimes you think these kinds of villains aren't so different from Luffy, but their methods are always unquestionably on the darker side of morality. The only antagonist that fits this type but I won't call evil would be Katakuri.

Examples: Crocodile, Katakuri, Blackbeard, Doflamingo, Rob Lucci, Kaido.

The Darkest Comedic Worthy Opponent

A lot of villains in One Piece fit more than one category, but they lean towards one of them. Oda is good at not having the morally-good characters being on the antagonist side of the story...

In my opinion, Big Mom falls into all three categories: She's so cruel and evil you'd hate her, but also respect her powers and want to have a fair fight with her. She's used in the story in many comedic scenes. Because of that, Big Mom's reputation isn't consistent among the fans, with some accusing Oda of not giving her the respect as a Yonko. I don't mind that GrandLineReview's video explains my opinion on this completely.

~ Thanks for Reading ~

Do you agree with my typings of ONE PIECE villains/antagonists? Disagree with anything I said? Please put your opinion in the comments.


  • Image is taken from Google. This article is also on Read.cash.


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6 comments
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I kind of skipped through it but doesn't Big Mom have a back story that makes you feel bad for her? I am currently making my way through the anime again, starting with the beginning of Wano and once i catch up I'll start from episode 1 again. I'm watching slowly though so I learn a bunch of Japanese words, 2-4 episodes a week.

I'm really starting to love One Piece for it's subtle political and social commentary. Where with Naruto I could see the deeper meaning easily, One Piece is a bit more random and drawn out and therefore it's hard to catch the deeper meaning but it's there.

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Yes, Big Mom has that kind of backstory, but similar to Doflamingo... It makes you understand why she became like that, but not forgive her for what she done in the series. I wonder if Kaido will have a similar backstory too.

I agree about the deeper meaning, but I love that One Piece doesn't focus on the political/social commentry as much as the fans think it does. It's a shonen first story!

!PIZZA !LUV

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I haven't gotten to Kaido yet. I sneaked ahead just to see what he looks like. I've gone back and forth between manga and anime with 2-3 year breaks sometimes, now I'm on episode 910. Just learned about the time traveling samurai (lol sounds so ridiculous). I think Kaido shows up soon, they keep talking about him.

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