Important takeaways
- The Straw Hat Pirates have 10 members, with each having designated 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 Straw Hat Grand Fleet.
Pirate crews enter One Piece tend to be quite large. The majority of pirates are looking for power and to some extent there is such a thing as strength in numbers. That said, not every crew has the luxury of having that many pirates.
While many who are major antagonists tend to have groups of grunts 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 came to be.
6 Straw Hat Pirates
Number of pirates: ~10
- Crew: Monkey D. Luffy (Captain), Roronoa Zoro, Usopp, Sanji, Nami, Chopper, Nico Robin, Franky, Brook and Jimbei
- Main ship: Thousand Sunny, Going Merry (previously)
The series' primary crew is quite small compared to the majority of pirate crews. When he started his career in piracy, Luffy only wanted about ten crewmates. He currently has around 9, with Nami's homie, Zeus, being seen as an extension of himself rather than a full-fledged member. It remains to be seen who his final crewmate will be, or if the self-imposed amount will be the actual final number of Straw Hat Pirates.
Although Luffy will send out invitations to anyone he deems interesting enough to join his crew, in practice each official crew member has a designated job that they do upon joining the crew. Jimbei, their newest official member, serves as the helmsman, using his strength and skill to maneuver the ship. Beyond their practical applications, it is recognized that each Straw Hat is a notable pirate in their own right, as stated by Admiral Kizaru, who called everyone in the crew a monster.
The crew bolstered their numbers with the Straw Hat Grand Fleet, who swore themselves 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, instead 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)
- 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 Frankie)
- Main ship: Unknown
This crew of frauds was formed to capitalize on the reputation of the original. They tend not to resemble their counterparts, but share enough superficial similarities for this system to have been somewhat successful for some time. They notably missed Brook in their ensemble, despite him being a crew member at the time of their debut. This is probably because his status as a member is new and not widely known at the time of their formation. The fake Straw Hats are all voiced by the performers in the real Straw Hats, but are reassigned to different crew members. For example, their captain, Demalo Black, is voiced by Sanji's artists. Giving the game away even more, some fake strawhats will brag about their rewards and connections, which is not usually done by the actual members.
Black, unlike Luffy, cares little for his subordinates except to use them to further his own goals. He sought to cultivate a larger crew, gathering powerful pirates with high bounties to act as his subordinates in a manner not too dissimilar to Buggy. These crews included the Caribou Pirates, who wanted to kill them from within. However, this deception was quickly exposed when the actual Straw Hats returned to piracy. The majority of the crew were believed to have been buried alive by the Caribou, but this was apparently not fatal, as some of them were seen alive and captured later.
At least four crew members continued with this type of distress while detained at G-4 Marine Base. Black, along with Manjaro, Drip and Turco pretended to be the Kid Pirates, who were recently believed to have been lost at sea.
4 New Giant Warrior Pirates
Number of pirates: 5
- Debut: Chapter 706 (Manga), Episode 639 (Anime)
- Crew: Hajrudin (captain), Stansen, Road, Goldberg and Gerd
- Main ship: Nailer
This crew consisted of five former Elbaf mercenaries. They worked for Buggy's Delivery and were widely recognized as its top earners. However, after their leader, Hajrudin was rescued by the Straw Hats in Dressrosa, he left the organization and created a pirate crew similar to 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 respective role that they serve in the crew. Stansen is a shipbuilder, Goldberg is a cook, Road is a navigator and Gerd is a doctor.
3 Ideo Pirates
Number of pirates: 4
- Debut: Chapter 799 (Manga), Episode 744 (Anime)
- Crew: Ideo (Captain), Blue Gilly, Abdullah and Jeet
- Main ship: Nameless (Formerly owned by Orlumbus)
The Ideo Pirates were one of a pair of 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 this goal. Unlike other crews formed to serve the fleet, such as the Happo Navy and the Yonta Maria Grand Fleet, the Ideo Pirates had no previous incarnation.
The four members of this crew were participants in the Corrida Colosseum, who later became involved in the fight against the Donquixote pirates. Notably, all four of them were cursed by Sugar, who turned them into toys to serve as slaves to Doflamingo, effectively erasing them from everyone's memories, including each other's. After being freed, they remained loyal to the Straw Hats and fought those who wanted to take their gifts.
Ideo, the captain of the crew, is a skilled long-armed 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 remaining two crewmates, Abdullah and Jeet, are a pair of former bounty hunters who tend to fight in tandem. They were known to have bombed a government building sometime in the past. In keeping with the crew's martial arts theme, both are based on and named after famous Canadian professional wrestlers.
Their ships were given to them by Orlumbus, who, having control of 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 beyond wanting to serve Luffy.
2 Macro pirates
Number of pirates: 3
- Chapter 197 (cover story), episode 386 (anime)
- Crew: Makro (Captain), Gyaro and Tansui
- Main ship: Nameless (Destroyed by Hatchan)
The Macro Pirates are one of two crews that split from the Sun Pirates after their new captain, Jimbei, became a warlord. Due to this origin, they are a pirate crew consisting only of fish. They are further distinguished by each member taking after a freshwater fish, with Macro being a pelican-eel fish-man, Gyaro being a pop-eyed goldfish fish-man, and Tansui being an arowana fish-man.
As a member of the Sun Pirates, Macro was one of its more ruthless members, who was good at killing people. Despite this, he, along with Gyaro and Tansui, loved Koala, a former human slave that the crew delivered to her family. Unfortunately, this deed would split the crew, as their captain, Fisher Tiger, was killed, and Arlong captured, after Koala's family contacted the Marines to arrest them, in exchange for letting them overlook Koala's slave status.
It is unclear how much this perceived treachery shaped the philosophies of the Macro Pirates, but despite their history as members of the Sun Pirates, a crew led by and including former slaves, they seemed to have little problem enslaving others. They especially tried to capture Camie, a kissing gouramis mermaid, 31 times, because of her high value as a slave. The Macro Pirates also attempted to capture their former friend, Hatchan, on at least one occasion for similar reasons.
The crew has not proven to be very competent, having failed to capture anyone on screen. They were formerly affiliated with the Flying Fish Riders, but due to their leader, Duval, having a change of heart, this is likely 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 Foxy pirates
Number of pirates: 3
- Debut: Chapter 304 (Manga), Episode 207 (Anime)
- Crew: Foxy (captain), Porche and Hamburg
- Main ship: Sexy Foxy (formerly)
The Foxy Pirates were once a giant pirate crew, with hundreds of members. They tended to increase their size through Davy Back Fights, a pirate tradition where crews fight, where the losers are often forced to give up crewmates to the winners. They once encountered the Straw Hats and tried, but failed, to humiliate them and steal their desired crewmates. Despite cheating a lot at the Davy Back Fights, their members seem to be genuinely skilled at the events they decide to participate in. Their captain is Foxy, whose Devil Fruit allows him to temporarily slow anything trapped in beams he can emit.
But even in their most competent form, they are put to shame by much stronger pirate crews in the New World, especially the Straw Hats. Since their initial failure, the crew tends to be largely a joke, serving mostly as part of the non-canonical events of 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 primary vessel, the Sexy Foxy. Although not directly stated, it is possible that the majority of the crew, along with their ships, were lost in either one or more Davy Back Fights to another crew in the New World.
