'One Piece' Creator Reveals Original Nami, Sanji Designs

When you are as famous as the heroes of One Piece, people know a lot about you. The Straw Hat [...]

When you are as famous as the heroes of One Piece, people know a lot about you. The Straw Hat pirates have an army of devoted fans who love all things seafaring, and a good many of them have a thing for Sanji or Nami. So, it is about time fans got a look at what those characters were originally meant to look like.

Recently, social media began recirculating original art that creator Eiichiro Oda did for One Piece decades ago. The artwork comes from some of Oda's data books, and it breaks down how two of Monkey D. Luffy's famous nakama got their aesthetic in place.

And, yes — that is Sanji holding the guns. Do with that what you will.

Early design of Sanji and Nami! from r/OnePiece

As you can see above, the artwork highlights the early days of Sanji and Nami. The chef may be very well-known these days for his blonde hair and suit-loving style, but that was not Sanji's style at first. The man used to rock a blue scarf, dingy vest, and loose black pants with a hat similar to the one Luffy wears. With his hair colored black, Sanji appears to smoke even in this early design, but he's traded in his fearsome kicks for dual pistols.)

Much of Sanji's coloring and style changed from his first to final days, but Nami does look remarkably similar. She is still lithe, and her short orange hair frames her sly smile when she chooses to share. Sure, her outfit may be more mix-matched here, but that is easy enough to look over. Oh, but her massive battle axe and prosthetic limbs are harder to ignore. The navigator can be seen littered with scars in this original design, and she has two prosthetic limbs which would make Franky equally happy and jealous.

Eiichiro Oda's One Piece first began serialization in Shueisha's Weekly Shonen Jump in 1997. It has been collected into 87 volumes, with a few chapters yet to be included. It has been a critical and commercial success worldwide with many of the volumes breaking printing records in Japan. The manga has even set a Guinness World Record for the most copies published for the same comic book by a single author, and is the best selling manga series worldwide with 430 million copies sold worldwide.

Do you prefer these designs of Nami and Sanji? Let me know in the comments or hit me up on Twitter @MeganPetersCB to talk all things comics, k-pop, and anime!

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