The One Piece series is not just a story about pirates, because it makes you laugh and cheer, only to hit you right in the chest when you least expect it. As someone who has followed the series’ characters for years, the truth is that the story some of these characters carry in silence makes the series more emotional when their backstories unfold.

What makes these characters’ backstories unforgettable is the strength they find in their grief, and how they choose to hope when everything in their past is an indicator for them to give up. Here are some of the characters in the series with the most tragic backstory.

10

Nico Robin

The Child Who Watched Her World Burn

Robin was born in Ohara, an island of scholars and archaeologists that the World Government destroyed because they delved into the Void Century. Hence, the day Ohara was destroyed by a Buster Call, Robin lost her mother, her home, and her only chance at normal childhood.

From that moment, her life became a cycle of hope and betrayal, because the World Government tagged her as a criminal when she was just eight years old. Everyone she met or tried to trust always sold her out for the bounty reward.

It was tragic that she went through such an ordeal for a long time and endured it all alone. Robin was not even allowed to grieve or heal, as she was hunted for her mind and hated for a past that was not even her fault.

9

Trafalgar D. Law

He Lost Everything to a Disease the World Chose to Ignore

Law was just a child when his family and the people of his hometown, Flevance, were unknowingly poisoned by Amber Lead. The city of Flavence succumbed to the Amber Lead sickness, and the neighboring cities slaughtered the remaining people out of fear of spreading the sickness.

After Law fled the city, he met Corazon, and he was the person who taught Law how to live again. Corazon found the Ope Ope no Mi devil fruit to heal Law of his disease.

However, Corazon also died saving Law, and as a result, Law’s childhood revolves around tragedy and pain. Thus, when people talk about tragic backstories in One Piece, Law always comes to mind for me.

8

Vinsmoke Sanji

The Pain Of Not Being Enough

As a member of the Straw Hats, Sanji is flirty and has the aura of someone who has everything under control, but the more the series peeled back the layers, the more I realized Sanji’s backstory is devastating. He was born to be a cyborg soldier, and when he did not meet expectations, he was considered defective and treated as such.

His father told him he was better off dead, and his brothers mocked him, beat him, and treated him like garbage. His sister, Reiju, was the only one who showed him any warmth and the one who set him free.

Eiichiro Oda blindsided us fans because, behind every meal Sanji cooked or flirty comments, was a man who spent his whole life believing he was not worthy of love.

7

Kyros

A Father That Was Erased From Memory

Kyros is a legendary gladiator of Dressrosa who King Riku pardoned to become captain of the country’s Royal Army. He married Scarlett, the king’s daughter, and they had a child, Rebecca.

However, tragedy struck when Donquixote Doflamingo took over the country and turned many people, including Kyros, into toys. Due to this, the world forgot Kyros, and his wife was murdered before his eyes, but he could not do anything because of his fragile toy body.

Imagine being forced to watch your child grow, suffer, cry, and fight in a colosseum and not being able to help alleviate her ordeals. However, he tried in his own little way to make sure he was there for her.

6

Charlotte Pudding

A Childhood of Rejection

Pudding was born with a third eye, which gave her the potential ability to read poneglyph. However, her third eye became a reason why she was ridiculed and hated.

Her mother, Big Mom, saw her only as a tool to achieve her goal of becoming the Pirate King. In the Whole Cake arc, she was manipulative, but this was just a mask she learned to wear to survive in a world that made her believe she does not deserve any kindness.

In Whole Cake Island, Sanji’s kindness toward her undid all the layers of pain she had endured alone. She has built her entire personality around being mean and unkind, because she believes she does not deserve to be loved, and this is tragic.

5

Kuma

A Life Marked By Oppression

Currently, Kuma is the most tragic and selfless character in One Piece because much of his suffering goes unnoticed. He became a slave at a young age, and witnessed his father’s death at the hands of a Celestial Dragon.

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Despite this trauma, Kuma joined the Revolutionary Army to make a difference. When his best friend and lover, Ginny, died and left her child, Bonney, in his care, Kuma assumed a fatherly role.

Kuma later sold his freedom to cure Bonney’s sickness. His story is so tragic and emotional because he allowed the world to hurt him over and over, and he let it happen because he believed the pain was worth it if it meant protecting the people he loves.

4

Momonosuke

The Burden No Child Should Ever Bear

For me, Oden’s death was painful to watch, but imagine what it must have felt like for eight-year-old Momo. His mother sends him 20 years into the future, so that he can survive and reclaim his father’s kingdom.

He did not even have time to grieve his parents or the sister he thought was dead. As the next Daimyo of Wano, his followers respect and expect him to lead, but he is just a scared little boy who has never had the chance to fully enjoy his childhood.

However, even after all that, he still fought for Wano in his own little way and stood up to Kaido by giving a speech to claim his place as Shogun during the Onigashima raid.

3

Tony Chopper

The Odd One Out

Chopper was not accepted by other reindeers because of his blue nose, and when he finally ate the Human-Human devil fruit, he was also shot at by humans. Hence, he was too human to be an animal and too much of a beast to be considered a human.

In the long run, Chopper found a safe place with Dr. Hiriluk, and, for the first time, he found someone who did not see him as a monster. His time with Dr. Hiriluk was short-lived because the doctor had an incurable disease.

However, Chopper’s unintentional role in the doctor’s death makes the story more tragic. Even with the tragedy surrounding his life, Chopper lived through rejection, loneliness, and failure to honor the doctor, and still believed in people.

2

Brook

The Man Who Wandered With Nothing But His Music and His Memories

Brook and his crew, the Rumbar Pirates, died on the Grand Line; however, thanks to the Revive-Revive devil fruit, he survived. However, his soul took too long to find his body, and by the time it found Brook’s body, his body had decayed into bones.

Brook woke up alone, surrounded by the corpses of his crewmates, and wandered the Florian Triangle alone for 50 years. Also, the story of Laboon the whale etched in Brook’s past was heartbreaking.

Moreover, when Brook sings Binks’ Sake in the memory of his fallen crew and the ordeal they survived at Thriller Bark, it always feels emotional for me.

1

Senor Pink

A Love That Left Scars

Senor Pink of the Donquixote family had a wife named Lucian and their world was perfect. She remained unaware of his notorious life, as he tried to separate love from crime.

After losing their child and discovering his double life, Lucien left him in anger only to later suffer an accident that left her bedridden and unresponsive. Senor Pink visited her daily, and upon noticing she smiled when he wore a baby bonnet, he began dressing in full baby attire with diapers and a pacifier to make her smile.

For him, it did not matter how foolish he appeared as long as she smiled. Even after her death, he maintains this appearance to remain loyal to her memory.

One Piece

Release Date

October 20, 1999

Network

Fuji TV

Directors

Hiroaki Miyamoto, Konosuke Uda, Junji Shimizu, Satoshi Itō, Munehisa Sakai, Katsumi Tokoro, Yutaka Nakajima, Yoshihiro Ueda, Kenichi Takeshita, Yoko Ikeda, Ryota Nakamura, Hiroyuki Kakudou, Takahiro Imamura, Toshihiro Maeya, Yûji Endô, Nozomu Shishido, Hidehiko Kadota, Sumio Watanabe, Harume Kosaka, Yasuhiro Tanabe, Yukihiko Nakao, Keisuke Onishi, Junichi Fujise, Hiroyuki Satou

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