This article contains major character or plot details.
In ONE PIECE, Usopp views the world with childlike wonder, which makes him creative, optimistic, and excitable, but his outlook sometimes holds him back. Though he dreams of becoming a great warrior of the sea, he can be overly cautious when it comes to actual encounters with danger. Still, Usopp is funny and personable, and he musters bravery when it really counts, always following his good heart and coming through for those he loves.
“Usopp, like a lot of the Straw Hats, has some pretty significant trauma in his early life and always dreams of escaping and protecting the people he cares about,” says Jacob Romero, who plays Usopp, in the fourth episode of ONE PIECE: Into the Grand Line: Official Podcast. “So creating this story about his adventures and who he is and who he’s meant to become has always been medicine for him and also the medicine he offers to the people around him, too.”
Read on to learn more about ONE PIECE’s Usopp.
Key info
Name: Usopp
Played by: Jacob Romero, Kevin Saula (young Usopp)
Crew: Straw Hat Pirates
Role: Sniper, former chief technician at Syrup Village shipyard
Place of origin: Syrup Village
Weapons: Slingshot
First appearance: Season 1, Episode 3, “TELL NO TALES” (10:18)
Relationships
Mother: Banchina (deceased)
Father: Yasopp
Best friend/romantic interest: Kaya
Crewmates: Luffy, Nami, Zoro, Sanji
Special abilities
Taking after his sharpshooter father, Usopp is skilled with a slingshot. And, as the former chief technician in charge of encrustation removal and aviary waste eradication for the Syrup Village shipyard, he’s also quite handy. Usopp uses his active imagination to craft new kinds of weapons, such as pepper bombs, and spin stories that entertain and impress others, although the details aren’t always true.
Motivation
Usopp’s father, Yasopp, is a sniper for Captain Shanks’s Red Hair Pirates. With him away on adventures and his mother sick at home, Usopp spent his childhood willing his father to return. This led the boy to raise repeated false alarms that pirates had landed at Syrup Village, which caused the villagers to distrust Usopp. After his mother died, Usopp continued telling tales.
When he met Kaya, a fellow orphan and owner of the shipyard, he began sharing fictional stories about his grand adventures as the “great captain Usopp,” and the two became close friends. Determined to follow in his father’s footsteps and live out some of the experiences he made up, Usopp joined the Straw Hats to become a brave warrior of the sea. After having a real grand adventure on Little Garden, Usopp added visiting Elbaph, an island inhabited by brave giants, to his bucket list.
Season 1
- Usopp meets Luffy, Zoro, and Nami when they visit the Syrup Village shipyard, where he works as a technician. He introduces Luffy to his well-off friend Kaya, who may be able to help get the Straw Hats a new ship. While at Kaya’s mansion, Usopp discovers that her butler is actually the evil pirate Captain Kuro, who has been poisoning Kaya to steal her fortune. When Usopp tries to warn the villagers of Kuro’s presence and plan, they don’t believe him because he has a history of lying about pirates.
- After Usopp, Luffy, and the others defeat Kuro, he decides to join the Straw Hat Pirates as they set sail in their new ship, the Going Merry. Before leaving Syrup Village, Usopp and Kaya kiss. Soon after, the crew battles it out with the Marines.
- The Straw Hats stop at a floating restaurant called Baratie, where they meet Sanji. A fish-man pirate named Arlong and his crew also arrive. Usopp, Luffy, Zoro, and Sanji set out to find Nami after she leaves to work with Arlong. Their search takes them to Coco Village. When Arlong betrays Nami, the crew fights the fish-man, freeing Nami and the citizens of Coco Village from his rule.
Season 2
- On a stop in Loguetown for supplies, Usopp and the crew face off against Alvida and Buggy, who have joined forces to take down Luffy.
- At the edge of the Grand Line, a whale swallows the Going Merry, with Usopp, Nami, Zoro, and Sanji aboard. While searching inside the whale for items they can use to repair the ship, Usopp and Sanji encounter Mr. 9, an agent of a criminal organization called Baroque Works. With help from Luffy and a lighthouse keeper named Crocus, the ship eventually emerges, and the crew continues through the Grand Line, now with two captives, Mr. 9 and Miss Wednesday.
- After Miss Wednesday and Mr. 9 escape, the crew lands on Whisky Peak, which is run by Baroque Works. Thanks to some ill-advised flirting, Usopp and Sanji are taken hostage, but Zoro rescues them. When it’s revealed that Miss Wednesday, whose true identity is Nefertari Vivi, Princess of Alabasta, has been working undercover against Baroque Works, the Straw Hats promise they will deliver her home safely.
- The crew lands on Little Garden, and a fearful Usopp reluctantly begins exploring the prehistoric island. As the Straw Hats trek through the jungle, members of Baroque Works track them down. Usopp and Nami encounter a pirate giant named Brogy, who feeds them and tells them about his home of Elbaph, which is populated with brave warriors.
- Usopp channels some of the giant’s courage and saves Nami, Zoro, and Vivi after Mr. 3, Mr. 5, and Miss Valentine capture them. Back on the Going Merry, they set course to Alabasta, and as they leave, Usopp, who has been given the nickname “Hero of Little Garden,” declares that he now dreams of one day visiting Elbaph.
- After Nami gets sick, the Straw Hat Pirates stop at the nearest island, Drum Island, where Usopp and Zoro fight off the tyrant king Wapol’s army. Once Nami is healed and Wapol is defeated, the crew sets sail for Alabasta with a plan to help Vivi take down the Baroque Works.
