View source for Fake Straw Hat Crew

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{{Crew Box
|colorscheme    = ImpostorStrawHatPiratesColors
|jroger         = Fake Straw Hat Crew's Jolly Roger.png
|jname          = ニセ麦わらの一味
|rname          = ''Nise Mugiwara no Ichimi''
|ename          = Fake Straw Hats
|first          = [[Chapter 598]]; [[Episode 517‎]]{{Qref|name=Debut|chap=598|page=6|ep=517|The Fake Straw Hat Crew make their debut.}}
|captain        = [[Demalo Black]]
|bounty         = '''Main Crew:'''<br />{{B}}26,000,000{{Refn|group=bounty|[[Demalo Black]] - {{B}}26,000,000}}<br />'''Organization:'''<br /><s>At least {{B}}606,000,000</s>{{Refn|group=bounty|Fake Straw Hat Crew - {{B}}26,000,000<br />[[Caribou Pirates]] - {{B}}400,000,000<br />[[Albion]] - {{B}}92,000,000<br />[[Lip Doughty]] - {{B}}88,000,000}}
}}

The '''Fake Straw Hat Crew'''{{Qref|data=vivre card|The Fake Straw Hat Crew's name is officially translated.}} was a group of pirates that attempted to impersonate the real [[Straw Hat Pirates]] in order to benefit from their reputation. They first appeared after the two-year time-skip{{Qref|name=Debut}} and disbanded when the truth about the impostors was revealed. The recruits were arrested by the Marines except for [[Albion]] and the [[Caribou Pirates]], who escaped, while the members of the Fake Straw Hat Crew were either captured or buried alive by the Caribou Pirates.

==Jolly Roger==
As they sought to impersonate the Straw Hat Pirates, the band of impostors used the crew's jolly roger: a skull with Luffy's signature straw hat. However, as with the members' poor disguise, the symbol also differs from the original: the symbol is jet black with heavier eyelids and a smaller grin.{{Qref|name=Debut}}

==Crew Members==
{{SeeCat}}

{{Fake Straw Hat Crew Gallery}}
The Fake Straw Hats dress in the style of the original Straw Hats, but the similarities end there. They look nothing like the originals, let alone act the part right. They are also lacking any of the skills of the originals and actually appear to be extremely weak in terms of combat ability.

As most people were under the common belief that the true [[Straw Hat Pirates]] died two years ago, these frauds took advantage of the situation and pretended to be them and staged their return to power so as to benefit from the real crew's reputation. They met their end and fell apart when the truth came out.{{Qref|chap=601|ep=521|Sentomaru defeats Black and reveals the crew's fraudulence.}}

===Details===
*[[Demalo Black|"Three-Tongued" Demalo Black]]: Impersonating [[Monkey D. Luffy]], he is a tall, obese man who shoots anyone who even remotely displeases him. He also flaunts his fake reputation and [[Monkey D. Dragon|supposed heritage]] to justify his acts of cruelty. He has his own bounty of {{B}}26,000,000.
*[[Manjaro]]: Impersonating [[Roronoa Zoro]], he is a man with a beer gut and swords resembling those used by low-ranking Marines.
*[[Chocolat]]: Impersonating [[Nami]], she is an older woman, taller and wider than Nami, with a big belly and an unusually large, oval shaped head.
*[[Mounblutain]]: Impersonating [[Usopp|Sogeking]], he is a big man wearing a bogus Sogeking mask with a beard.
*[[Drip]]: Impersonating [[Sanji]], he is a thin man with an unruly haircut.
*[[Nora Gitsune]]: Impersonating [[Tony Tony Chopper]], he is a fox wearing a hat and a painted mustache (a pet, as opposed to a doctor, most likely due to the misinformation on Chopper's bounty).
*[[Cocoa]]: Impersonating [[Nico Robin]], she is an older short woman.
*[[Turco]]: Impersonating [[Franky]], he is a tall, lankly thin man with a long neck, thick lips and no chin.

[[Brook]] does not have a doppelganger in the Fake Straw Hats, no doubt due to his relatively late addition to the crew and the Fake Straw Hats working off of public information. Having not been part of their more famous escapades or publicly announced as a member until nearly the end of the impostors' reign, only those personally familiar with the Straw Hats would likely know Brook's connection to the crew. In addition, Brook's current musical activities, his world stardom, and the fact that he is a walking skeleton would make impersonating him extremely difficult.

===Recruits===
Using Luffy's reputation, Black attempted to gather a strong crew in order to take on the [[New World]]. Only accepting captains with a bounty of at least {{B}}70,000,000, he managed to collect at least three crews whose forces totaled to a hundred pirates, ten of which have bounties. After Black's fraud was revealed, the recruits were furious at the deception. Caribou, Coribou and [[Caribou Pirates|their crew]], along with Albion,{{Qref|name=Eternal Log|[http://puu.sh/2hqJn Eternal Log] — Lip Doughty and Demalo Black's posters labelled "captured", while Albion and the Caribou brothers are not.}} are the only ones who successfully escaped [[Sentomaru]]'s brigade.

*[[Caribou|"Wet-Haired" Caribou]]: A pirate captain and brother of Coribou. Famous for killing Marines, and a bounty of {{B}}210,000,000. Joined just to kill the Straw Hat Pirates from the inside.
*[[Coribou|"Blood-Splatterer" Coribou]]: A pirate captain and brother of Caribou. Famous for killing Marines, and a bounty of {{B}}190,000,000. Joined just to kill the Straw Hat Pirates from the inside.
*[[Albion|"Gashed" Albion]]: A pirate captain with a head and torso wrapped in bandages, a bounty of {{B}}92,000,000.
*[[Lip Doughty|Lip "Service" Doughty]]: A former pirate captain with large lips, a bounty of {{B}}88,000,000.

==Crew Strength==
Typical for a band of frauds and impostors, the Straw Hat Crew's fake counterparts seem to be a relatively weak group. In fact, their recruiting of other powerful pirates and dismissing those they deem weak (any pirate captain who has a bounty of lower than {{B}}70,000,000) by relying on the infamy of the actual Straw Hat Crew (along with the high bounties that the real crew obtained), mirrors what [[Bellamy]] and [[Bellamy Pirates|his crew]] had done in [[Mock Town]] during the [[Jaya Arc]]. Black makes it clear that he intends to use their power rather than his own, further supporting that his own group is weak by comparison.

The fact that they were able to make it to [[Sabaody Archipelago]] suggests some degree of competence, provided of course that they aren't from the Archipelago or somewhere close by to begin with. Alternatively, Black's skill at manipulation may have been enough to get him through the Grand Line on the efforts of others. By impersonating the original Straw Hats, they benefit from the bounties the Straw Hats accumulated. Black's true bounty is only {{B}}26,000,000, a small amount by Grand Line standards.

The impostors' appear to possess little if any skill in combat. Several members, including Black, have been shown using flintlock pistols, but do not appear to be that proficient in their use, instead preferring to shoot indiscriminately. The fake Zoro is shown carrying three swords like his real counterpart, but they are cheap swords and he has not been shown using them. The fake Zoro is also shown to have low endurance, as the chase after Chopper left him winded. Black was knocked out by a single strike from the broad side of Sentomaru's axe, which did not appear to have been enhanced by [[Haki]]. The others fled as soon as their captain was brought down. The real Luffy was able to knock the four that confronted him (impostors of Luffy, Sogeking, Franky, and Nami) unconscious with a single burst of Haki, showing that they do not have strong wills.{{Qref|chap=599|ep=518|Luffy's Haoshoku Haki knocks out the impostors easily.}}

All of the fakes at the bar failed to recognize the real Nami by her tattoo, suggesting a lack of observational skill, and did not even register two of the real Straw Hats as a legitimate threat even after making direct threats. Luffy likewise dismissed their intimidation as unwanted attention, and simply dealt with them in the most efficient and effortless manner possible. Still, the Fake Crew was intelligent enough to first set up a base on the Sabaody Archipelago and recruit additional members before embarking into the New World, and even set their recruiting standards fairly high, taking in pirates who were worth no less than {{B}}70,000,000 in bounty; also, they were aware of [[Caribou]]'s [[Devil Fruit]] being a [[Logia]] after they witnessed a cannonball simply phase through him, suggesting some level of experience and knowledge. However, this intelligence is somewhat downplayed by the fact that the crew sent out fliers of their recruitment all over the place, which would undoubtedly attract the unwanted attention of [[Marines]] who were situated to the next closest island.

Despite the impostors' lack of fighting skills, their stolen reputation had enabled them to gather a crew of one hundred pirates consisting of three different crews. Ten of these pirates have bounties, the highest two averaging to {{B}}200,000,000. The Marines determined that an alliance between the Straw Hats and these pirates would be catastrophic, which suggests that at least some of the recruits are competent fighters. However, even the recruits are nothing compared to the real Straw Hats, due to them being easily felled by a couple of [[Pacifista]]s while the real Luffy, Zoro, and Sanji were all capable of defeating the cyborgs with ease.

==Other information==
The crew (save for the fake counterparts of Zoro, Sanji, and possibly Robin) have an attitude similar to that of the [[Bellamy Pirates]], bullying those whom they believe are inferior to them. They also seem to share the belief that a pirate's bounty is a representation of their overall strength, having set a recruitment prerequisite of at least 70,000,000 in bounty, despite the fact that half of the original crew (Nami, Sogeking, Chopper and Franky) have bounties lower than that. Their lack of any true skills, merely throwing the weight of their reputation around to get what they want, also mirrors the behavior of the [[World Noble]]s.

In addition, the impostors hold comradeship in very low regard, treating each other and their recruits as assets, not friends or family. After the fake Robin was kidnapped, Black ignored the loss and simply pressed on, more concerned about his revenge. Black was also willing to sacrifice Chocolat to Usopp's Pop Green in order to protect himself. Regardless, his crew seems to be loyal, despite knowing of his cruelty and cowardice, mainly due to the protection he offered them with his stolen reputation. However, once they were unmasked, they left his unconscious form behind to save themselves from the angry recruits, claiming that Black was the one who forced them to impersonate against their wills, and begged Caribou to spare them, revealing ruthless cowardice and disloyalty. They also started to foam at the mouths in shock when the real Luffy revealed himself.

As for the recruits, they appear to view the fake crew (who they believed to be the real deal) as their way to greater infamy, not unlike the way the [[Impel Down]] escapees flocked to [[Buggy]] once his reputation as a former member of the [[Roger Pirates]] and friend to one of the [[Four Emperors]] was revealed. Like the escapees, they even interpret Black's cowardly actions as heroic, although this falls through as soon as Black is defeated and his identity was exposed. However some forms of kindness can be found within the crew such as the friendship between [[Manjaro]] and [[Drip]] and [[Mounblutain]] attacking [[Caribou]] even knowing he is a [[Devil Fruit]] user with a bounty of {{B}}210,000,000 on his head in order to save [[Drip]].

==History==
===Fish-Man Island Saga===
====Return to Sabaody Arc====
The impostors began their charade on [[Sabaody Archipelago]], coincidentally around the time the real Straw Hat crew had decided to finally rendezvous. Using Luffy's reputation, Demaro Black sought to recruit a strong crew that he could use to conquer the New World and make himself Pirate King. His ruse went unchallenged due to the long absence of the original Straw Hats, allowing his crew to pass themselves off as the real ones despite looking virtually nothing like them. Black managed to recruit three pirate crews totaling 100 men, including ten men with high bounties. The two most infamous pirates to join were the rookie brothers "Wet Hair" Caribou and "Blood-Splatterer" Coribou, who have bounties of {{B}}210,000,000 and {{B}}190,000,000 respectively.

They were first seen on Sabaody Archipelago in the bar where [[Nami]] was drinking, trying to recruit people into their pirate crew. Black attempted to invite Nami over for a drink, ignorant of her identity. Nami brushed off his advances and the threats by his crew uninterested. At that point, the real [[Usopp]] used his new [[Pop Green]]s to disable the fakes. He and Nami left the bar whilst everyone was in the confusion. Nami released a batch of thunder clouds to shock the impostors after they were clear of the bar. Injured but able to stand, Black immediately sought revenge against those who had made a fool of him.

Elsewhere, the fake Zoro, Sanji, and Robin were being followed by the real Chopper, who mistakenly believed them to be the real ones. Recognizing him as the Straw Hats' 'pet' from his bounty poster, they decided to take him on in order to make their ruse more convincing. At that moment, an unknown group of people pursuing the real Robin suddenly kidnapped the fake Robin and the Fake Chopper, scooping them up into a large bag, under the impression that they caught the correct person.

In his search for Usopp and Nami, Black shot two people who looked vaguely similar to them. The real Luffy accidentally knocked him over and apologized, but Black took it as an insult and tried to force Luffy into begging for forgiveness, flaunting his stolen reputation to the actual Luffy without any idea of who he was talking to. Unwilling to make a scene, Luffy simply knocked them out using [[Haki]]. Upon recovering, Black learned that the fake Robin (whose real name was revealed to be Cocoa) was kidnapped. More concerned with getting revenge, he decided to abandon Cocoa, which drove Chopper away in tears, and gather his recruits to teach the people who insulted him a lesson. Nearby, a couple of Marines eavesdropping on their conversation saw Chopper run by, taking this as proof that they were the real Straw Hats. They reported this back to their superiors, and full action was mobilized to stop the fakes under the assumption that they were the real Straw Hat pirates.

[[File:Demaro Black Easily Defeated by Sentomaru.png|thumb|200px|Demalo Black being struck by Sentomaru.]]

At Grove 46, Black gave a rousing speech to his recruits, emphasizing that their purpose was to fight and die to make him Pirate King. Meanwhile, the fake Zoro and Sanji were sent by Black to find Chopper, only to run into the real Luffy. They brought him back to their boss. Black tried to make an example of Luffy, but was interrupted by [[Sentomaru]], accompanied by several [[Marines]] and [[Pacifista]] units. The Pacifista easily decimated the gathered pirates, and Sentomaru beat Black in one hit, having the Pacifista expose the fraud for who he really was, much to the fury of the recruits. Black's crew fled away in fear, as there was nothing to protect them from retribution.

===Legacy===
[[File:Fake Straw Hats Begging.png|thumb|left|210px|The Fake Straw Hats begging for their lives.]]

The remaining recruits then bear witness to the return of the real Straw Hats, who easily destroyed the Pacifistas and left. This left the remaining impostors foaming at the mouths from fear that their true counterparts have returned. Black and most of the allies he deceived were captured by Sentomaru, and were being brought into custody. However, the [[Caribou Pirates]] escaped, and took the rest of the fake Straw Hat members (aside from Cocoa and fake Chopper) to the lawless area and buried them alive. The Caribou Pirates then officially defect and became their own crew once again.{{Qref|chap=603|ep=523|The Fake Straw Hat Crew's fate revealed.}} Albion is the only other recruit to have escaped.{{Qref|name=Eternal Log}}

===Final Saga===
====Egghead Arc====
[[File:Fake Straw Hats Imprisoned.png|thumb|210px|The Fake Straw Hats imprisoned, with new identities.]]

Despite Caribou's claims of burying the crew alive, they would somehow survive, and later rejoin their captain in the [[G-4]] prison. Like how they initially impersonated the Straw Hats, the fakes assumed that the [[Kid Pirates]] were all dead, and took on their identities as a result.{{Qref|chap=1115|page=2|ep=}}

==Trivia==
*In the real world, people would often imitate famous pirates in order to gain riches, power, or notoriety.
**Buggy would similarly use his past affiliation with the [[Roger Pirates]] and "friendship" with [[Shanks]] to rise to fame.
*Due to his naïve personality, Chopper believed the fakes to be the real Straw Hats. Usopp was not initially fooled, though he was shocked when confronted by Sogeking, his own alter-ego. Luffy was not fooled by his counterpart or the others accompanying him, but was fooled by the fake Zoro and Sanji, though he did question if they were in disguise as well.
**Luffy's case makes sense; he was told to disguise himself by [[Hancock]].
*In the manga, the recruitment fliers initially misspell Luffy's family name as "Monky" (though this is corrected later on).
*Two of the eight impostors (Fake Nami and Fake Luffy) have made the mistake of boasting about their supposed bounty to the originals themselves.
*The members' names all seem to be based on various coffees and coffee-related drinks (the exception being Nora Gitsune, whose name simply translates to "stray fox").
**Demalo Black alludes to {{W|black coffee}} (coffee without additives).
**Manjaro is a reference to {{W|Coffee production in Tanzania#Production|Tanzania's "Kilimanjaro" blend}}, of which Japan is a majority purchaser.
**Chocolat and Cocoa both refer to {{W|hot chocolate}}, or hot cocoa, a coffee-esque drink popular with children and others who dislike coffee's natural bitterness.
**Mounblutain is a portmanteau of {{W|Jamaican Blue Mountain Coffee}}.
**Drip alludes to "{{W|Brewed coffee|drip coffee}}", which most often entails boiled water filtered through ground-up coffee beans.
**Turco alludes to {{W|Turkish coffee}}, a filter-free style of preparing coffee.
*In both the original Japanese cast and the English dub, all of the impostor Straw Hats are voiced by the real Straw Hats' actors, albeit reassigned:
**[[Demalo Black|Fake Luffy]] is voiced by [[Sanji]]'s voice actors.
**[[Manjaro|Fake Zoro]] is voiced by [[Usopp]]'s voice actors.
**[[Chocolat|Fake Nami]] is voiced by [[Tony Tony Chopper|Chopper]]'s voice actresses.
**[[Mounblutain|Fake Sogeking]] is voiced by [[Franky]]'s voice actors.
**[[Drip|Fake Sanji]] is voiced by [[Roronoa Zoro|Zoro]]'s voice actors.
**[[Nora Gitsune|Fake Chopper]] is voiced by [[Monkey D. Luffy|Luffy]]'s voice actresses.
**[[Cocoa|Fake Robin]] is voiced by [[Nami]]'s voice actresses.
**[[Turco|Fake Franky]] is voiced by [[Brook]]'s voice actors.
**As Brook has no correspondent in the fake crew, [[Nico Robin|Robin]]'s voice actresses are left out.
*The crew's ultimate goal to conquer the [[Grand Line]] with a [[fleet]] inadvertently foreshadows the end of the [[Dressrosa Arc]], where the real Straw Hats (unwittingly) build [[Straw Hat Grand Fleet|a Grand Fleet]].
*The concept of a sham Straw Hat crew was earlier used in the 2001 video game ''[[Set Sail Pirate Crew!]]'', where [[Niseluffy|Luffy]], [[Nisezoro|Zoro]] and [[Niseusopp|Usopp]] impostors led the antagonistic {{nihongo|'''Nisenise Pirates'''|にせにせ海賊団}}. Unlike Demalo Black's gang, these impostors were largely physical lookalikes of the real Straw Hats (apart from Usopp's being a [[Fish-Men|fish-man]]), and voiced by their respective actors without any reordering.
**To a lesser extent, [[Bentham|Mr. 2]] and his [[Mane Mane no Mi|shapeshifting abilities]] explored the same concept in the [[canon]]ical storyline; towards the end of the [[Arabasta Arc]], he and several underlings "performed" a full impersonation of the entire crew, though for the altruistic purpose of decoying [[Hina]]'s squadron away from the real Straw Hats.
*Despite being the captain, Demalo has the lowest known bounty on the crew at only {{B}}26,000,000. Albion, Lip Doughty, Caribou, and Coribou all have far higher bounties than him.

==Notes==
<references group="bounty"/>

==References==
<References/>

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