Nami/Personality and Relationships

Personality
Along with Nico Robin, Nami is one of the smartest of the Straw Hats and the third smartest character in the East Blue according to Oda, the first being Benn Beckman of the Red Hair Pirates and the 2nd being Captain Kuro. At the beginning of the series, Nami despised all pirates. She viewed them as nothing but bad people after losing someone close to her, only changing her mind after she met Luffy. Before her view changed on pirates, she was perfectly fine with giving Luffy up captive to Buggy, as she could not bring herself to stoop to their level. She also dismissed the Devil Fruits as myths until she saw Buggy's Bara Bara no Mi in action.

Nami is greedy and will do anything for money, accepting any challenge that comes along. Her love of money stems from her childhood, where she lived a poor life and was often upset at having little wealth despite the love of her adopted mother. While she will send in Luffy and the rest of the crew to meet the demand, the one thing she will not do is sell out a comrade; no matter what the sum. She has several times put her own crewmates in debt over trivial matters (like Luffy for tearing her coat and Zoro for borrowing 100,000 only not to spend it and return it later), her usual charge for repaying the debt being 300% interest, and will often bring up these debts in order to get someone to do something for her. She takes control of the amount of money the crew spends, ever aware of the crews spending habits (such as Luffy's desire to spend all they have on meat) and tries her hardest to avoid it getting spent all at once. To this end, she is in complete horror whenever the rest of the crew wastes money or passes up an opportunity to get it. She is loyal to her money, but no matter how much she denies it, her loyalty to her friends comes first as seen when she decided to give up her agreed 1,000,000,000 deal with Igaram for protecting Vivi for the latter's sake after Baroque Works was beaten (although she was upset about it and complained later), as well as willingly giving treasure to Lola and preparing to spend 200,000,000 worth of treasure (which they stole from Thriller Bark) to rescue Keimi from slavery.

Nami is very bossy and is usually ordering everyone around, including Luffy, despite not being the captain herself. Nami's main concern when she is in trouble is herself first and usually has other members do her fighting, resulting in her fighting in fewer fights. She is a coward, though not on the same level as Usopp; her cowardice has more to do with survival. She is aware of dangers they face every day and has a much better understanding of the world and its more dangerous individuals (e.g. the Shichibukai) than most of her crew, though lacks Robin's knowledge on some of its other powerful figures (e.g. the Marines Admirals) and organizations (e.g. the Yonko). She can be devilish at times and will not think twice about ditching the others to save her own life. She has been known to stand her ground against anyone hurting her comrades, abandoning her otherwise normal routine of trying to stay out of harm's way. In the Alabasta Saga, Nami's fight against Baroque Works was mainly because of her friendship with Vivi. In the Water 7 and Enies Lobby Arcs, Nami's main reason for fighting was based on getting Robin back. In the Thriller Bark Arc, once again Nami refused to run away, and stood her ground when Absalom attacked Lola, then again when Kuma confronted the crew. The best example came from her survival of Enel's Ordeals which left her as the only fighter standing besides him, she agreed to board his ship and go to his promised land out of fear after seeing all the strong fighters lose the game, but later after hearing his plans that would forsake the sky island, she soon turns on him. After the timeskip Nami seems less violent, such as when Luffy and Zoro nearly broke the coating on the ship it was Usopp and Chopper who scolded them for their reckless behavior and not Nami.

However, in return for her lesser sympathetic personality traits, she is also one of the more compassionate crew members who is fast to show sympathy when hearing sad things about other people, and as she showed during the incident with Hatchan, she is willing to forgive even people who have hurt her for many years. She is easily one of the Straw Hat's most emotional members, she cries easily and she shows much understanding of and insight into feelings. This often makes her good to comfort her friends (though she has also done the opposite to comically effect), as shown during the crew's discussion on about whether Usopp should return or not, she insisted that Usopp should return. 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 Syrup Village Arc. When Nami goes shopping, she sometimes goes to exquisite boutiques and tries on many things, just to leave stating that she is searching for something more casual. She does not seem to have much modesty as she sometimes wears rather skimpy clothing and allows people to take photos of her wearing very little, such as swimsuits (as long as they pay). She often uses her looks and sex appeal for her own benefit, and will even allow men to see her completely naked. However, she charges 100,000 to each person who did see her naked, even if it was an accident.

After the two year timeskip, she does not over-react, scold, or hit the crew as often for their rash actions anymore, like when she decides to take part in activities such as demanding money when the crew holds Ryugu Kingdom "hostage". In fact she appears quite calm in the most daunting of situations since the crew reunited, though is still prone to panic in the face of imminent danger (both shown during the descent to Fishman Island). She also has developed a high stamina for drinking during celebrations and can drink as much (or more) than the rest of the crew. In fact, during the two year timeskip she has shown to be able to drink even more than previous.

During the Punk Hazard Arc, Nami is shown to have a soft side for children. When she and the others are fleeing through the Biscuits Room, the giant kids that occupy it ask her to save them. She then stops and adds that she cannot turn her back on crying kids when they are asking to be saved. Her soft spot for children was shown again when she dealt with Momonosuke by defending him, calling him Momo-chan, and letting him sleep in her room.

Crew
No! Nami's going to be our navigator... and I'll accept nobody else!!! At first, Nami was excited to join the crew, but grew more reluctant once she learned that Luffy is a pirate because of her disgust of pirates. She betrayed Luffy and even wished him dead before he formed a crew. Her original membership into the crew was just as an "alliance" with Luffy, which she later ended to return to her home village, but by then, she had become fond of the crew and found it was not so easy to just leave. After Arlong's defeat, she officially joined the crew. By then, she had completely changed her mind about her fellow crewmates.

Even though Nami is only the navigator, the rest of the crew, including the captain, follow her orders without a question while on the ship, since they trust her instincts, knowing that she will steer them away from danger, and towards their next location. The only one who tends to disagree with her is Luffy, when he's being selfish like wanting to go to Skypiea, or tame a Kraken, but this is quite rare.

Luffy
She soon came to respect Luffy's qualities as a leader, but often gets angry at his irrational thinking and short attention span. In such situations, she sometimes tends to get into violent outbreaks, often ordering him and the other members as well, even though he is the captain. Despite this, she cares for and trusts Luffy very much as her captain, and he often serves as an emotional anchor for her during times of crisis. In fact, she cried for Luffy when he lost his older brother in the Whitebeard War. Overall, she appears to be one of the crew members that respects Luffy the most, often saying "Luffy and the crew" when she is in danger. She is also one of the people Luffy trusts the most as she is often given his Straw Hat to hold on to or wear when he fights. This has been seen in the Arlong Park and Skypiea Arcs.

Zoro
Nami trusts Zoro's fighting skills and quite often depends on it, but easily gets annoyed by his lazy antics, such as his redundant naps. Zoro, like the rest of the crew, unquestionably trusts Nami's navigation skills and always follows her commands obediently. Nami's cunning personality, however, allows her to manipulate the laid-back Zoro and continuously keeps him in debt. The two are usually found arguing, with Sanji intervening. Despite this, the pair are known to be the heaviest drinkers of the Straw Hats. Just like how Zoro cares for her safety and usually comes to her rescue, Nami cares for his as well; which can noticeably be seen after the events of Thriller Bark, where she stayed by his bed alongside Chopper while the rest of the crew are celebrating.

Usopp
Nami uses Usopp to maintain her weapons (and wriggling out of paying him for his service). Despite this, she has a good relationship with Usopp, telling him he was the only person she could ask to make her a weapon to defend herself, since he would understand her point of view as both her and Usopp were considered to be the weakest of the crew. She was also very distressed and upset when Usopp left the crew and was one of the most affected Straw Hats, along with Luffy and Chopper. When Usopp rejoined the crew, she was overjoyed to the extent that she even cried. A running gag in the series is that whenever Luffy decides to do something wild or stupid, both Nami and Usopp would normally sulk together and occasionally, with Chopper.

Sanji
Nami often takes advantage of Sanji with his devotion to her, ordering him to do her bidding, though she does often get annoyed by his womanizing behavior during serious moments. For example, when Sanji left a note behind for Nami before he boarded the Puffing Tom at Water 7, she was annoyed that the first half of the note was a pointless love letter before Sanji mentioned the more critical details last. At Enies Lobby, when Kalifa had defeated Sanji, she was amazed at Sanji's ethic at refusing to fight women, and decided to pay back Kalifa for what she did, showing that she does care for Sanji. Nami was disgusted by Sanji's perverted behavior when he was temporarily switched into her body during the Punk Hazard Arc and made sure that he didn't go too far in his perverted delights. Sanji is also the only member of the Straw Hats that Nami refers to with a suffix, i.e "Sanji-kun".

Chopper
Nami is very fond of Chopper, and is the first of the crew to recognize him as a doctor. She respects his knowledge in medicine and cares for his safety as much as her own. Likewise, Chopper respects her ability to navigate; though he tends to be afraid of her obsessive love for money and violent nature towards the "idiots" of the crew. The two share a relationship that is much like an older sister's and a younger brother's. Due to his innocence and lack of interest in human females, Nami lets Chopper (despite him being a male) see her naked in the bath and even invites him to join her.

Nico Robin
Nami gets along best with Robin, who is the only one she does not attempt to boss around or deceive, rather after despairing for the foolishness of the other crewmates she often goes to her seeking encouragement, being "the only one who she can rely on". She views Robin much like an older sister; in fact, when Robin was kidnapped by CP9 during the Enies Lobby Arc, Nami seemed to be one of, if not, the most distressed about her capture out of all of her crewmates. She very much enjoys Robin's company and when she goes shopping, she is often accompanied by a smiling Robin.

Franky
Nami occasionally gets irritated with Franky, especially because he often engages in childish antics with the younger members of the crew (e.g. Luffy, Usopp, and Chopper) and will often end up doing something Nami deems either dangerous or stupid regarding the situation. For example, when Franky saves Robin upon entrance to Fishman Island, he expresses his relief at Nami's safety, to which the latter responds in frustration claiming, that he scared her almost half to death. Aside from his typical juvenile behavior, she gets along with Franky in most situations and often respects and appreciates his skills as a shipwright, as the other crewmembers do.

Brook
Nami has a rather comical relationship with Brook. He can often be seen with Nami, as well as the "weaker" members of the crew (Chopper and Usopp) crying over scary situations, such as when Donquixote Doflamingo closes in on the Thousand Sunny for an attack. A recurring gag between Brook and Nami, is that Nami will often kick Brook in anger, in response to his asking to see her panties; to which her response usually entails something like, "As if!" or "Why the hell would I?!". In spite of this, Nami trusts Brook as much as she trusts the rest of her crew as well as his talents as a swordsman. She also enjoys listening to his music like the rest.

Genzo
Back home, Genzo acted as a father figure to both Nami and Nojiko. He was very concerned about Nami's pose on her bounty attracting more perverts than bounty hunters, although he had enlarged picture of it himself. This is amusing considering the fact that he is more concerned about her picture than Nami being wanted. After their mother's death, he became concerned for the happiness of Nami and Nojiko, as he had grown into a father figure to them. He and the other villagers realized Nami would never join up with Arlong's crew without good reason. His concern for her and Nojiko's well being also led him to promise Luffy that he would hunt him down and kill him if he ever took away Nami's smile.

Cocoyasi Villagers
The rest of the village still adores her, even after she steals their money before leaving. Even when she joined the Arlong Pirates without telling them her reason for the desire to become independent, they refused to believe that she would truly betray them (as shown by Genzo's confession that they coerced the truth from Nojiko), and supported her in secret.

Vivi
Nami also shared a close relationship with Vivi, to the point of an almost sisterly bond. Nami has a hot-tempered disposition, but Vivi is much more calm and collected. They switch personalities when something devastating happens; (i.e. Nami is the one to calm down while Vivi panics, such as when Igaram was seemingly killed). The two form a quick bond and pair together in most situations. Like the rest of the crew, she was deeply upset about her leaving.

Lola
She also made a good friend of Lola the zombie warthog, to the point where she even helped set Lola and Absalom up for marriage. Their friendship transcended over into the real Lola when Thriller Bark was taken down. Lola had a strange feeling she already knew Nami from somewhere else despite never meeting her before, Nami was just happy to see her friend. To date, Lola has been the only person Nami has willingly handed some of her treasure over to. Lola now regards Nami as a sister, to ensure her and her friends were safe she gave Nami half of her Vivre Card for her mother.

Haredas
After Nami was 'sent' to the Sky Island of Weatheria, she quickly discovered by an old wizard like man named Haredas. Haredas tried cheering Nami up and remained friendly with her, even after she hit him. Nami respects Haredas and his knowledge over the weather, though she gets quickly annoyed with him in the same way she does with her crew. After Nami was imprisoned for trying to steal some of Weatheria's technology, Haredas was the one who bailed her out. Even though she earned the distrust of the other weather scientists, Haredas still accepted her. He took Nami under his wing for two years and taught her about weather and their technology. Apparently, during her two-year stay in Weatheria, Nami developed good relationships with all the weather scientists as they not only allowed her to have some of their equipment but also helped Nami and her crew escape Sabaody Archipelago. Haredas himself commented that Weatheria was going to be a much lonelier place with her gone.

Jinbe
Nami holds no ill will towards Jinbe for what happened to her as a child under Arlong's reign of terror, even though Jinbe himself feels solely responsible for Arlong and his actions in East Blue. After Nami told him she holds no qualms towards him or the Fishman race as a whole, Jinbe broke into tears, saying that he is indebted to her. Nami is then surprised at how much his guilt was eating away at him. It seems they have developed a friendship with each other (since Nami now refers to him as Jinbe-chan), and she also seems to care for his well being as she warned him about Wadatsumi's incoming attack during the Battle in Gyoncorde Plaza. When Jinbe said that he would join the crew after he completed some unfinished business, Nami was smiling with the rest of the crew to show her approval of him joining someday.

Marines
Nami is an enemy to the Marines, as she carries a bounty on her head. She especially has hatred towards the Marine Captain Nezumi. Acting on a tip from Arlong, he uncovered the treasure that Nami had been hoarding in order to buy back Cocoyasi Village, and confiscates it from her. Once Arlong is defeated, Nezumi attempts to intervene against the Straw Hat Pirates, but is quickly defeated, along with the Marines he brought with him, by Zoro. Then Nami quickly attacks him with her staff for destroying the orange grove and shooting Nojiko. She then forces him to return the stolen money, rebuild Cocoyasi Village, and clean up all the mess left over from Arlong's reign.

Despite her general dislike toward the Marines, Nami does make some exceptions. Due to her mother being a Marine, Nami says that she is bad at dealing with female Marines, as she feels uncharacteristically safe around them. She realizes that she lets her guard down when female Marines are present and as such tries to avoid them. This is seen when Tashigi asked to take charge of the children from Punk Hazard. Nami willingly let her, saying that she cannot deal with Marine women.

Arlong Pirates
Arlong and his pirates were her enemies for a long time; despite Arlong taking her into his crew, she showed no love for them due to what they did to her village and for killing Bell-mère. Arlong had fought Luffy claiming that she was his crewmate in the fight, even admitting she was "cute" for a human and admitted he had no respect for humans yet she was one of about two humans he was seen to show respect for, the other being Nezumi. After he mentioned fishmen and their superiority over humans, Nami responded how tired she was of hearing it, leading Arlong to acknowledge her skills and in the only witnessed incident in his appearance. He then apologized saying that she simply could not help what species she was. However, this was simply because of her skill to draw maps and mistreated her constantly while she was on his crew, locking her in the tower and never properly feeding her. Despite his treatment, Arlong considered her as one of his brethren and always celebrated her return to Arlong Park. He would even have his crew celebrate when Nami 'came home' as greeting their returning sister.

Nami acted the way he wanted her to. However, this led him to misjudge her character. This was mostly because of his own ideals based on materialistic values. He could not see how she would not be happy unless she had clothes, money and a place to sleep. He also did not see her betrayal happening until it was too late. Even at the final stages of his fight against Luffy, he still stated that he considered her a friend.

Hatchan
The only member of the crew with whom she has reconciled is Hatchan, who alone escaped from the ship that transported the Arlong Pirates to prison. It was shown that she seemed to have less animosity for him when they met again, compared to the rest of the crew, and while she initially stated she was not willing to forgive him for what he did with the Arlong Pirates, she was relatively friendly towards him. After seeing him get shot trying to hold Luffy back in the auction house, and hearing him say that he had hoped to do what he could to make up for what he had done, what animosity she has left seems to vanish; after that, she treats him like a genuine friend.

Bell-mère
She has come to terms with the idea that Bell-mère was her mother. In life she never saw eye to eye with her adoptive mother at times, in death Nami deeply missed her due to the fact she knew Bell-mère deeply loved her despite everything. Nami is seen drawing a picture of her after being forced into Arlong's crew, and sadly calling out her name in a moment of misery. She regularly visited her grave on the cliff top where she was buried and often thought about her. Also in her room she keeps a picture of Bell-mère with a young Nami and Nojiko on her desk.

Nojiko
Nami valued Nojiko while they were younger as she was the only person who loved and supported her through her years of stealing to buy the village. Though not related by blood, she supports Nami like a real sister. Growing up, she often supported Nami's bad habits of stealing, much to Bell-mère’s annoyance. She was deeply angry at Nami's original recruitment into Arlong's crew, but at the same time knew her sister enough to realize that she would not join the crew without reason. Nami's forever hatred of her tattoo led Nojiko to get her own and at the time she told her adoptive sister she got her tattoos because she wanted some body art like Nami's, something Nami never forgot about when it came round to finally remove Arlong's tattoo.

Others
As an orphan, Nami may have other family. However considering the circumstances behind her origins with Bell-mère and Nojiko and the fact that Bell-mère found both girls in a war zone, it seems unlikely her familial origin will ever be touched upon.