Key Takeaways
- Small One Piece characters receive significant development, such as Hanafuda, a former warlord defeated by Ace.
- Hanafuda’s design, collecting Ancient Zoan Devil Fruits, and potential ties to Kaido make him intriguing despite minimal appearances.
- Hanafuda’s role in the narrative showcases Oda’s attention to detail, impacting characters like Ace and Kuma, adding depth to the world.
Smaller One Piece characters, despite only being briefly shown in the series, are often given unprecedented amounts of development. With entire lists of facts about the characters, including their birthdays and personalities, Oda has truly fleshed out the smallest parts of the One Piece world. Even something as small as a rat that Sanji was prone to feeding, or the fly in Ironbody’s soup on the Baratie are named characters.
Having only a small amount of importance to the story as a whole has never stopped Oda from creating some of the coolest-designed characters in the series. One in particular was only briefly mentioned as being a warlord who was defeated by Luffy’s older brother, Ace; Hanafuda. Despite having almost no relevance to the series as a whole, Hanafuda proved to be a lot cooler than expected when revealed by Oda.
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Oda Has Revealed One Piece’s Unnamed Former Warlord
Hanafuda, the King of the Lizards
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Hanafuda First Mentioned |
Chapter 1100 |
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Hanafuda Revealed |
SBS Volume 109 |
Four years ago, in the history of One Piece, apparently Ace defeated an unnamed Warlord of the Sea. Apparently, after defeating this Warlord, Ace was offered the position, though he quickly turned them down. Instead, the World Government found an alternate suitable replacement for the Warlord, placing Bartholemew Kuma in the position.
Although many fans speculated as to who this character could be, like One Piece’s Man Marked By Flame, Oda revealed in an SBS that the character was one that was never shown in the series so far, Hanafuda. Sporting a kusarigama with a spiked ball instead of an iron weight, Hanafuda has an amazing design. Paired with his epitaph, “the King of Lizards” and a penchant for collecting Ancient Zoan Devil Fruits, made fans wish they could have seen Hanafuda in the current story of One Piece.
The Ancient Zoan Fruit Connection
However, this never stopped fans from speculating about the character’s place in the grand scheme of One Piece. Being named Hanafuda, a type of Japanese playing card, the naming convention of the defeated Warlord fits suspiciously well with the playing card motif of Kaido’s crew. Additionally, being named the “King of Lizards” and collecting Ancient Zoan Devil Fruits, Hanafuda may have been an important part of Kaido’s crew, a Tobi Roppo, and potentially even providing them all with their fruits.
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Fans predict that before his defeat at the hands of One Piece’s Ace, Hanafuda left to become a Warlord. Whether this was at Kaido’s discretion or not is open to speculation. From here, if Hanafuda were to leave his position of Tobi Roppo, this would leave an open spot in Kaido’s crew that would eventually be filled by X Drake. Although none of this has been confirmed by Oda, all the evidence seems to line up suspiciously well within the world of One Piece.
Hanafuda Shows How Detail-Oriented The One Piece World Is
Even Small Characters Have Their Place
Although he hasn’t appeared once in the series overall, only being mentioned in one line in total, Hanafuda feels like an important part of One Piece’s living world. Smaller characters like Hanafuda are just as important as the heavy hitters of the series. These characters, although their appearances are brief, show that there are moving pieces of the world that Luffy is never given the chance to see, making the universe feel less stagnant overall.
He has a hobby of collecting Zoan-type Devil Fruits, especially Ancient ones, and it is said that he may have been plotting something, but now we won’t know. – Oda
Additionally, Hanafuda himself, without any of the speculation of being a former member of the Beast Pirates, plays an important role in both the development of Ace and Kuma. Firstly, he proves Ace’s strength as a pirate, placing him far above the level of Warlord. At the same time, it also acts as an explanation for why Kuma was forced to join the Warlords. Even without a design and personality, Hanafuda was still an integral part of the story of One Piece.
Overall, it’s characters like Hanafuda that make the story of One Piece so special. With the sheer amount of speculation for Hanafuda and the desire to see the character return in the future of the story, even briefly mentioning a character is enough to ignite the One Piece community. No matter how big the stories get, it’s comforting that the community never forgets the little things and the smallest characters.
