Character Discussion Is Nami still the 3rd main protagonist of One Piece or is it Sanji now?

[Sir Yasheen]

"Luffy, Zoro, and Nami. For now, all the triggers are gathered. That's what I think — that's what this drawing is for me."

^ Oda's author comment from Color Walk 1, which Usopp and Sanji were also featured in, but Oda didn't say anything about them like this.

Has there ever been a counter to this?

“For now” color walk books are an amalgamation of the color spreads from this era and odas comments when the spreads came out.

Yes this color spread came out prior to syrup village.

 

[nik87]

Nami is part of the original trio, the 3 that triggered the Strawhat crew, the triggers Wealth, Fame and Power.
Sanji is only part of combatant trio and often gets pushed out by new member joining and has to fight to take back his 3rd place.

 

[shastar-sei]

“For now” color walk books are an amalgamation of the color spreads from this era and odas comments when the spreads came out.

Yes this color spread came out prior to syrup village.

There's never been an author comment about Sanji or any Straw Hat outside of the Romance Trio being referred to as a detonator/fuse/trigger. That's the issue.

揃った implies it's a completed or full set.

 

[Sir Yasheen]

There's never been an author comment about Sanji or any Straw Hat outside of the Romance Trio being referred to as a detonator/fuse/trigger. That's the issue.

揃った implies it's a completed or full set.

The term “for now” means all the current triggers have been assembled with more to come. This term can be used for collectibles and box sets, however collecting one set doesn’t mean there will be no more volumes. Basically “the first three have been assembled.”

And there doesn’t need to be any ancillary information when the manga made it clear with the East Blue 5 being together in what oda called the town of beginnings before the adventure to get the one piece even began.

The east blue five all are the foundations of the story, thats why the story started with them and why they’re the only 5 who never changed design wise from odas draft.

 

[Kurozumi Wiwi]

I already said it before but I don't think Oda initially thought about who the deuteragonist or 3rd protagonist , in his mind there's Luffy and his crew. With East Blue hats having more presence due to being the "core crew".
That said due to One Piece's nature as a battle shonen Oda has a much easier time involving Zoro and Sanji at any point of an arc while Nami (and Usopp) barely does shit once the action kicks in due to lagging behind power wise, which is an issue in a series where the battle will last over half an arc.
And this where the difference lies. Zoro barely gets any character focus but is still considered to be the "deuteragonist" by the fans because of the action.

 

[Sir Yasheen]

Genuinely, saying Nami is still the tritagonist because of a color spread over 20 years ago is like arguing that Bulmas a more important character than Vegeta in DBZ because of Dragonball.

 

[ZenZu]

I already said it before but I don't think Oda initially thought about who the deuteragonist or 3rd protagonist , in his mind there's Luffy and his crew. With East Blue hats having more presence due to being the "core crew".
That said due to One Piece's nature as a battle shonen Oda has a much easier time involving Zoro and Sanji at any point of an arc while Nami (and Usopp) barely does shit once the action kicks in due to lagging behind power wise, which is an issue in a series where the battle will last over half an arc.
And this where the difference lies. Zoro barely gets any character focus but is still considered to be the "deuteragonist" by the fans because of the action.

The issue with One Piece is, Zoro just like any other SH just feels like an extension of Luffy, there's no impact behind these Luffy glazers when looking at the world around them. Calling any of them a deuteragonist sounds like a joke at this point. Law was the closest thing to an actual deuteragonist and he's MIA now. Sabo has weight but no panel time.

 

[Sir Yasheen]

The issue with One Piece is, Zoro just like any other SH just feels like an extension of Luffy, there's no impact behind these Luffy glazers when looking at the world around them. Calling any of them a deuteragonist sounds like a joke at this point. Law was the closest thing to an actual deuteragonist and he's MIA now. Sabo has weight but no panel time.

Give Buggy his flowers. He’s massively plot relevant and has been a major factor in the major changes in the world. Plus he’s been around since east blue and is growing in fame parallel to Luffy.

Buggy is 100 percent in the conversation of deuteragonist

 

[kekaro]

"now"
I know everyone knows it was manly insecure Zoro bros but the pushed "main trio moment" "that forwards the arc" this arc was Luffy Zoro Nami interacting for 3 weeks to gas Sanjis parallel to fuck off again after 20 years since jaya which was the funniest shit
Zoro also fails in panel count and plot relevance test as others discussed already


I don't think oda written the past 20 years with any specific mc dynamics in mind.


One piece is the only Manga in existence that people refuse to just say look at the manga and instead cram out 30 year old data book statements imagine some said this about Dragonball or even modern shounen


Go figure why. @Sir Yasheen bulma example couldn't be more fitting

 

[Monster Zoro's Tesla Supplier]

Genuinely, saying Nami is still the tritagonist because of a color spread over 20 years ago is like arguing that Bulmas a more important character than Vegeta in DBZ because of Dragonball.

To be fair she's not exactly the tritagonist but she's obviously still a main character and nearly as important as the rest of the crew. The crew are all relative in importance except for Luffy who's clearly more important than the others.

 

[Sir Yasheen]

To be fair she's not exactly the tritagonist but she's obviously still a main character and nearly as important as the rest of the crew. The crew are all relative in importance except for Luffy who's clearly more important than the others.

East blue 5 are absolutely the most important I’ll never argue against that

 

[kekaro]

East blue 5 are absolutely the most important I’ll never argue against that

Which again Oda never said but everyone knows cause its just obvious from the manga

 

[Monster Zoro's Tesla Supplier]

East blue 5 are absolutely the most important I’ll never argue against that

I mean if we're really arguing importance I'd say Robin is probably more important than some of them (at least more than Nami and Usopp), but I don't know how we're gauging importance here.

 

[Sir Yasheen]

I mean if we're really arguing importance I'd say Robin is probably more important than some of them (at least more than Nami and Usopp), but I don't know how we're gauging importance here.

By importance I’m more going by plot relevance. Albeit robin should have some of the most but oda misuses here

 

[kekaro]

By importance I’m more going by plot relevance. Albeit robin should have some of the most but oda misuses here

Imo people ignore that Nami was very plot important in WCI as the emotional core of the arc beside luffy and sanji
Overall WCI is the only arc (alongside with very small part of wano) that there was any character writing for the SHs (elbaf shapes to be the next one)
Nami and Brook profited imensly from the arc, the only one who was its usual shit self was chopper.
Im suprised im the only one that sees it that way

Oh i see blud @AverageNamiEnjoyer is banned again huh

 

[Doggo]

Depends if nami is gonna get her own arc

luffy (main character)
zoro (second character)
pretimeskip nami/postimeskip sanji ( third main character)

Post automatically merged: May 31, 2025

That a guy is a troll lol he is spreading misinformation
https://x.com/sandman_ap/status/1810307637495623880?s=61

this is the only time oda spoke about second main character

Explains a lot, considering Rukawa was maybe the 4th more interesting character in Shohoku''s team.
Mfer could only beat Mitsui and that's pretty much it.

 

[Kurozumi Wiwi]

I feel Usopp got it worse than Nami post-ts. Early on he genuinely felt as much as a protagonist as Zoro, Sanji and Nami yet I don't even see him in these type of discussion.

 

[ZenZu]

I feel Usopp got it worse than Nami post=ts. Early on he genuinely felt as much as a protagonist as Zoro, Sanji and Nami yet I don't even see him in these type of discussion.

Weak AND can't be used for fanservice? Yea he was doomed from the start.

 

[kekaro]

Depends if nami is gonna get her own arc

luffy (main character)
zoro (second character)
pretimeskip nami/postimeskip sanji ( third main character)

Post automatically merged: May 31, 2025

That a guy is a troll lol he is spreading misinformation
https://x.com/sandman_ap/status/1810307637495623880?s=61

this is the only time oda spoke about second main character

Alt of a blud i dont know who thought we would not notice he included zoro with 0 arcs (nami has atleast 1 arc)
but we did

I feel Usopp got it worse than Nami post=ts. Early on he genuinely felt as much as a protagonist as Zoro, Sanji and Nami yet I don't even see him in these type of discussion.

Elbaf is not even in his midpoint. Just wait oda is not gonna let my boylike this in elbaf

 

[soupongo]

Lol do people realize that Law didn't actually start the Yonko saga? Kaido cared about the smile thing for like 5 minutes. Big mom not at all obviously