Nami

Nami is the navigator of the Straw Hat Pirates.

Personality
Along with Nico Robin, Nami is one of the smartest of the Straw Hats and the third smartest character during the East Blue saga according to Oda, the first being Ben Beckman of the Red-Haired pirates and the 2nd being Captain Kuro. She is an excellent navigator and has the ability to recognize and analyze even the slightest changes in the weather, thus saving the ship and the crew from the very unstable Grand Line weather on multiple occasions. She is also in charge of the money the crew has.

She respects Luffy's qualities as a leader, but often gets angry of his irrational thinking and short attention span. In such situations, she sometimes tends to get into violent outbreaks. This may also be caused by traits of other crew members such as Roronoa Zoro's sleeping.

Nami is greedy and will do anything, aside from endangering her friends, for money. She also often takes advantage of Sanji for his devotion to her and Usopp to maintain her weapons. Roronoa Zoro tries not to fall for her schemes, but ends up a victim like the rest, usually due to debt. Nami also tries to avoid fights this way and will try to hide in groups or send others before her. However, since the invention of her Clima Tact (A weapon that forms weather patterns, also called the Weather Enforcer in the English dub) by Usopp, she is now seen fighting her own battles instead of becoming the 'easy target'.

Nami also has an obsession with fashion, as she is never seen wearing the same clothes. This was not present in the early chapters and started after the Captain Kuro arc. This is similar to Bulma, the female main character of Dragon Ball (Eiichiro Oda's favorite manga), who is never seen with the same hairstyle. When Nami goes shopping, she sometimes goes to exquisite boutiques and tries on stuff, just to leave stating that she is searching for something more casual.

Her two favorite things are money and mikan (mandarin oranges), often translated to tangerines, as is the case in the English manga. Her dream is to draw a perfect map of the world, a task not yet accomplished by anyone due to the harsh nature of the oceans in Grand Line. The first map Nami plotted was the island Cocoyashi Village is on.

Nami also appears to have a high tolerance for alcohol, similar to Roronoa Zoro.

In a recent Japanese Fan Poll, Nami was ranked 7th most popular character, making her the least popular member of the Straw Hats in Japan.

Abilities and Powers
Nami is a highly skilled navigator and cartographer. She has the innate ability to sense changes in the weather and can even predict the appearance of the supposedly unpredictable cyclones of the Grand Line. She is also an excellent thief and pickpocket who can steal small items such as keys on light encounters without the victim noticing.

Nami is not as skilled a combatant as some of the Straw Hats, although she is able in wielding a staff to protect herself. She is able to unleash quick and moderately powerful strikes, and during the Alabasta arc and beyond, uses a weather manipulating staff Usopp created for her, the Clima Tact, to fight. The weapon is actually partly used for party tricks, but using certain combinations, Nami turns the tomfoolery of Usopp into a deadly force to be reckoned with, and is able to defeat one of the strongest members of the Baroque Works, Miss Doublefinger (Mr. 1's partner agent, and Baroque Works' second strongest female agent, after Miss All-Sunday); and two of Skypiea's Priests, Hotori and Kotori, with the help of Gan Fall.

Currently, Nami has been given a Dial enhanced Clima-Tact, the "Perfect Clima-Tact", by Usopp. The new weapon was powerful enough to wipe out an entire group of soldiers; with the Perfect Clima-tact, she also managed to defeat CP9's Kalifa, securing her place as one of the crew's most valuable members.

Before receiving her Climatact in the Alabasta Arc, Nami's fighting style was much more deceitful. She usually shamelessly manipulates one of her crewmates to fight in her place, usually by blackmailing Zoro, charming Sanji, or ordering Luffy around. She also has extreme luck, situation arise and put out of the line of battle during fights. In a few rare cases, she'd used her looks to distract an opponent from attacking her. This manipulative attitude disappeared from the Alabasta Arc and beyond as she began to fight her own battles.

Some common techniques include Thunderbolt Tempo/Tempest (using Heat and Cool Balls, a cloud is formed, and by sending a Thunder Ball in, a huge bolt of lightning is summoned) and Mirage Tempo/Tempest (by manipulating the heat of the surrounding, Nami can create illusory copies of herself, which is further augmented by the Perfect Clima Tact's Mirage Tempo Fata Morgana).

for full details on attacks used by the Clima-Tact.

Past Story
Nami is an orphan found by Belle-Mère, a female Marine, on a battlefield as an infant. The marine adopted her along with Nojiko, another child, and the three became as close as a real family. However, this ended when the infamous Fish-Man Pirate Arlong took over Cocoyashi Village (or Coco Village in the English language manga and dub), their adopted hometown and imposed a fee on every single adult and child in the village in order to 'live'.

Since Belle-Mère could not pay for her entire family's monthly fee for living, she was used as an 'example' by Arlong to demonstrate to the townspeople what will happen to them if they ever go against him or fail to pay the fee. Belle-Mère is then brutally murdered by a shot from Arlong in front of Nami and Nojiko. Nami was then kidnapped and forced to become a cartographer for Arlong after he noticed the quality of her maps at such a young age. However, Arlong struck a deal with Nami: if she brought him one hundred million berries (the form of currency in One Piece), he would free her village. She spent eight years making maps and stealing treasure from pirates in order to buy back her village.

Present Story
It was during this time that she met Luffy during the situation with Buggy the Clown in Orange Town (as seen in the Buggy the Clown Arc) and temporarily joined up him with the reasoning that she will get most of the treasure that is found.

After reaching the Baratie restaurant with Luffy and the others, Nami took off with the crew's loot and ship and headed for Arlong Park. Nami was only 7 million berries short of fulfilling her end of the deal, but Arlong shamelessly used Nezumi, a corrupt Marine captain, to steal all of the money, thus ensuring that Nami would forever be in his crew, without breaking his promise.

Later, Luffy arrives and after seeing a distraught Nami in the process of carving the Arlong tatoo off her arm and screaming Arlong's name in anger, he accepts her plea for help. Then, along with Sanji, Zoro and Usopp, he battles Arlong and his elites and defeats them all. Nami's village is freed, and she rejoins the crew as a permanent member. In her way out of the village, Nami wished to say goodbye to no one. She left the money back in Nojiko's house, and runs onto the Going Merry after stealing all of the villagers' wallets at the same time. This causes certain opinions for Nami to spring up, like Sanji cheering on Nami, Zoro saying that Nami might betray them again, Usopp saying that she hasn't changed, and Luffy laughing.

Recent Chapters
Chapter 430: With the Going Merry, everyone has managed to escape Enies Lobby safely. However, after escaping, Iceburg arrives in a Galley-La just in time to pick up the Strawhat Pirates as the Merry suddenly breaks apart. Luffy then gives the Going Merry a viking funeral by burning it as the crew tearfully says goodbye.

Nami is later seen lounging by a pool while eavesdropping on Luffy and Koby's conversation with a Den Den Mushi about military technology (such as putting Kairouseki on the bottom of military ships). When she heard them laughing and catching up on old times, she stopped listening to the conversation to give them some privacy.

Recently, in Chapter 435, Nami received her first bounty: 16 Million Belly. Amusingly this puts her above Buggy the Clown, the villain introduced in the same arc as Nami, and on the same level as Captain Kuro, another cat themed character. Out of all the Straw Hats, she is the only one complaining the fact she got a bounty. It is found that the photographer told her he was a W7 reporter so she willingly posed.

When Usopp rejoins the crew, while both he and Luffy are crying over each other, she says, with tears in her eyes, that they aren't that cool.

Major Battles

 * Nami and Luffy vs. Buggy
 * Nami and Usopp vs. Black Cat Pirates
 * Nami vs. Mr. 3, Miss Goldenweek, Mr. 5, and Miss Valentine
 * Nami vs. Miss Doublefinger
 * Nami and Gan Fall vs. Hotori and Kotori
 * Nami vs. Kalifa

Filler Battles

 * Nami vs. Erik the Whirlwind
 * Nami vs. Honey Queen
 * Nami and Usopp vs. Horn Eaters
 * Nami and Chopper vs. Touma
 * Nami, Luffy, Zoro, Usopp, Sanji, Chopper, and Robin vs. Governor

Early One Piece
Nami's design and personality (and arguably her background story as well) is the result of a long process with several other simulair characters. The first apparent character in the process of developing towards Nami was Silk in Romance Dawn V.1, who was then followed by another girl called Ann in Romance Dawn V.2. Each one of the girls had her own personnality which seemed to have been placed into Nami's overall design.

Trivia

 * "Nami" is Japanese for "wave".

Related Articles

 * Straw Hat Pirates