One Piece‘s World Government commands the planet’s most powerful fighting force of all: the Navy. This is the military arm of Imu’s tyrannical rule, a vast organization populated with everything from grunt Marines with rifles to officers with Devil Fruits and the might of every ship’s array of cannons. Over time, One Piece has fleshed out the organizational scheme of the Navy and introduced viewers to many powerful and notable members of the chain of command.
An exhaustive list of all Devil Fruits and officers would be a lengthy one, so instead, One Piece newcomers are better served with a concise rundown of how the Navy operates and how the chain of command works. This includes the ranks, Devil Fruits, hardware, and strategies that the Navy employs when fighting its enemies, such as the Revolutionary Army — or when it’s wiping out innocent islands like God Valley or Ohara.
The Navy Boasts Vast Fleets and Two Different Headquarters
These Ships Can Execute a Buster Call at Any Time, Anywhere
All fighting forces in the One Piece world have vehicles or weapons to bring to bear, and the Navy has everyone beat in that regard. The Revolutionary Army has plenty of ships and a stockpile of weapons, and the Straw Hat Grand Fleet includes many ships from various pirate crews, but nothing can compare to the Navy. The World Government’s military has more ships than any other organization, and only a few legendary pirate ships, such as the Great Erik, are bigger or more powerful in battle. Navy ships are quite large and carry a heavy arsenal of cannons for traditional ship-to-ship combat with any pirate fleet.
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If conventional naval warfare isn’t enough to win the day or convince a rogue island to stand down, the World Government’s military arm will resort to an even more drastic measure: the dreaded Buster Call. This is when an officer demands the utter destruction of an island or similar location, with ten ships and five Vice-Admirals present to execute such an attack. This is an apocalypse of concentrated cannon fire, featuring as much firepower as the entire military of a typical island. Such an assault is usually done to teach the rest of the world a lesson about dissent or to wipe out anyone or anything posing a unique threat to Imu’s rule. Nico Robin would know, with her only narrowly surviving the Buster Call at Ohara that punished the locals for researching the Void Century.
Aside from its vast fleets, the Navy also has impressive hardware in the form of its former and present headquarters. The previous HQ was Marineford, which was little more than a crescent-shaped fortress island bristling with defensive cannons, ships, and of course, the Devil Fruit power of any officers found there. Marineford was a nearly invincible bastion of the Navy’s authority, with invaders only able to access it through the Gates of Justice before facing overwhelming defensive firepower. After the Battle of Marineford, that base is now designated G-1, with New Marineford now serving as the Navy’s HQ.
The Navy is Populated With Powerful Officers and Countless Marines
Some of the World’s Strongest Devil Fruits Are Found in the Chain of Command
The ships and defensive walls help the Navy survive, but it’s the officers and Marines who actually make the World Government’s military function. The Navy features many ranks for someone like Koby to climb, from Seaman Recruit and Petty Officer among the Infantry and Sailor Division all the way to Captains and Vice Admirals among the Commissioned Marine Officers. The Navy also includes support staff, such as janitors and chefs, though such roles get very little screen time. It’s often the common Marines who make up the bulk of the Navy’s ship crews, and many scenes in One Piece depicted platoons of rifle-wielding Marines acting as the Navy’s first line of defense against many of the world’s strongest pirates.
Find all 10 pairs
Find all 10 pairs
A number of Vice-Admirals have shown up to help give the Navy some structure and contribute to its firepower, such as Tsuru and even Monkey D. Garp, and the three Admirals serve as the face of the Navy’s lofty authority. The Navy has three Admirals at any one time, and they typically carry some of the most formidable Devil Fruits of all. This means the Admirals can both command fleets and get their own hands dirty when a battle starts up, with the Battle of Marineford being a major example of this. Admirals Aokiji, Kizaru, and Akainu all took to the field of battle, with Akainu being the one who killed Portgas D. Ace with his lava fist. Above the three Admirals is the Fleet Admiral, with this role formerly being held by Sengoku until Akainu/Sakazuki recently claimed it.
For the most part, it’s the Admirals who command the fleets and make the Navy function, but there is still another rank above them: the Five Elders themselves. These five men enjoy uncontested authority within the Navy, or at least, that’s how it looks on the outside. Imu does command the Elders, but aside from that, the Elders are the supreme authority of the Navy. They are an expanded version of the Admirals, being a small, elite group who wield vast authority and combat strength alike. While Admirals tend to have Logia or Paramecia Devil Fruits, the Five Elders have all eaten and awakened mythical Zoan Devil Fruits, as seen in the clash on Egghead Island.
The Navy Once Commanded Reformed Pirates as the Warlords of the Sea
The Warlords Are No Longer Trusted and Were Replaced
For years, the World Government’s military arm featured an unusual group that operated largely independently of the chain of command. These were the seven Warlords of the Sea, pirates who were partially reformed as attack dogs of the Navy. It’s an example of the Navy being resourceful and relatively forgiving, using a pirate’s vast skills rather than just executing that high-seas rogue. The Warlords helped add some variety to the Navy’s pool of Devil Fruits and fighting styles, from Gecko Moria’s zombie army to Blackbeard’s unique ability to nullify Devil Fruits or Trafalgar Law’s healing abilities with his Op-Op Fruit. Fans may recall how the Warlords were summoned to Marineford to aid in its defense against Whitebeard’s assault, though more than one of the Warlords went rogue during that time.
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Since then, the Warlords have been disbanded, with the Navy’s most elite officers no longer trusting them as the ongoing struggle for world domination reaches new heights. What is more, Dr. Vegapunk created the Seraphim as obedient, lab-grown replacements for the original Warlords. Though only the size of children, the successors to the likes of Boa Hancock and Dracule Mihawk are quite formidable, and are far less liable to go rogue the way their predecessors sometimes did. Now, former Warlords are on their own, with Mihawk and Crocodile forming Cross Guild to turn the Navy’s bounty system against it with their own version.
One Piece
- Release Date
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October 20, 1999
- Network
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Fuji TV
- Directors
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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
- Writers
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Jin Tanaka, Akiko Inoue, Junki Takegami, Shinzo Fujita, Shouji Yonemura, Yoshiyuki Suga, Atsuhiro Tomioka, Hirohiko Uesaka, Michiru Shimada, Isao Murayama, Takuya Masumoto, Yoichi Takahashi, Momoka Toyoda
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Mayumi Tanaka
Monkey D. Luffy (voice)
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Kazuya Nakai
Roronoa Zoro (voice)