The smallest known pirate crews in the series

Key points

  • The Straw Hat Pirates have 10 members, each with designated roles.
  • The Fake Straw Hat Crew consisted of 8 members and was founded to take advantage of the reputation of the original crew.
  • Ideo Pirates consists of 4 members who joined the Straw Hat Grand Fleet.



The pirate crews enter One piece they tend to be quite consistent. Most pirates seek power, and to some extent, there is strength in numbers. That said, not all crews have the luxury of having that many pirates.

While many of the main antagonists tend to have teams of grunts in addition to the higher-ranking members, the other crews tend to be quite small in terms of ensembles. This list will look at some of the smaller crews in the whole One piece series and how they became that way.


6 Straw Hat Pirates

Number of Pirates: ~10

Straw Hat Pirates in one piece

  • Crew: Monkey D. Luffy (Captain), Roronoa Zoro, Usopp, Sanji, Nami, Chopper, Nico Robin, Franky, Brook and Jimbei
  • Main ship: Thousand Sunny, Going Merry (formerly)


The main crew of the series is quite small compared to most pirate crews we've seen. When he began his career in piracy, Luffy only wanted about 10 crew members. She currently has around 9, with Nami's friend Zeus seen as an extension of herself rather than a full member. It remains to be seen who his final teammate will be, or whether the self-imposed amount will be the actual final number of the Straw Hat Pirates.

While Luffy will extend invitations to anyone he deems interesting enough to join his crew, in practice, each official crew member has a designated job they do when they join the crew. Jimbei, their newest official member, serves as the helmsman and uses his strength and skill to maneuver the ship. Beyond their practical applications, it is recognized that each Straw Hat is a noteworthy pirate in their own right, as was said by Navy Admiral Kizaru, who called all of the crew members monsters.


The crew bolstered their numbers with the Straw Hat Grand Fleet, who pledged allegiance to Luffy in gratitude for the crew. That said, they are not official members of the crew and are not even recognized by Luffy as subordinates, instead treating the group more like an alliance.

5 Fake Straw Hat Crew/Fake Kid Pirates

Number of Pirates: 8-4

anime one piece fake straw hats

  • Debut: Chapter 598 (Manga), Episode 517 (Anime)
  • Crew: Demalo Black (Captain; Fake Luffy), Manjaro (Fake Zoro), Monblutain (Fake Sogeking/Usopp), Drip (Fake Sanji), Chocolat (Fake Nami), Nora Gitsune (Fake Chopper), Cocoa (Fake Robin) and Turco (Fake Franky)
  • Main ship: Unknown


This team of impostors was formed to take advantage of the original's reputation. They tend not to resemble their counterparts, but they share enough superficial similarities that this scheme has had some success for a time. Notably missing from their ensemble was Brook, despite being a member of the crew at the time of their debut. This is likely due to the fact that its member status was recent and not widely known to the public at the time of their formation. The fake Straw Hats are all voiced by the real Straw Hats' performers, but reassigned to different crew members. For example, their captain, Demalo Black, is voiced by Sanji's performers. Bringing even more to the game, some fake Straw Hats will brag about their gifts and connections, something not commonly done by real members.


Black, unlike Luffy, cares little for his subordinates other than using them to achieve his own goals. He attempted to cultivate a larger crew, assembling powerful pirates with high bounties to act as his subordinates in a manner not too dissimilar to Buggy. These crews included the Caribou Pirates, who wanted to kill them from the inside. However, this scam was quickly exposed around the time the real Straw Hats made their return to piracy. Most of the crew were thought to have been buried alive by Caribou, but this was apparently not fatal, as some of them were seen alive and imprisoned later.

At least four crew members continued this type of scam while held at Marine Base G-4. Black, along with Manjaro, Drip, and Turco pretended to be the Kid Pirates, who were recently thought to be lost at sea.

4 New giant warrior pirates

Number of pirates: 5

One Piece: all five new giant warrior pirates from the digitally colored manga cover


  • Debut: Chapter 706 (Manga), Episode 639 (Anime)
  • Crew: Hajrudin (Captain), Stansen, Road, Goldberg and Gerd
  • Main ship: Naglfar

This crew consisted of five former mercenaries from Elbaf. They worked for Buggy's Delivery and were generally recognized as the top earners. However, after their leader, Hajrudin was rescued by the Straw Hats in Dressrosa, he left the organization and created a pirate crew in the vein of the Giant Warrior Pirates. Hajrudin became one of the seven captains of the Straw Hat Grand Fleet, an organization of subordinate crews dedicated to Luffy.

Like the Straw Hats, each of these pirates has a respective role in the crew. Stansen is the shipwright, Goldberg is the cook, Road is the navigator, and Gerd is the doctor.

3 Ideological pirates

Number of pirates: 4

Abdullah, Jeet (largely obscured apart from his turban and face), Ideo and Blue Gilly (head severed), the four Ideo pirates


  • Debut: Chapter 799 (Manga), Episode 744 (Anime)
  • Crew: Ideo (Captain), Blue Gilly, Abdullah and Jeet
  • Main ship: Unnamed (formerly owned by Orlumbus)

The Ideo Pirates were one of two crews formed as part of the Great Straw Hat Fleet, a coalition of pirates sworn to serve the Straw Hats, in thanks for their actions in Dressrosa. Although some members were active as pirates before the crew was formed, others decided to become pirates instead, for the sake of this goal. Unlike other crews formed to serve the fleet, such as the Happo Navy and the Yonta Maria Grand Fleet, the Ideo Pirates had no previous incarnation.

The four members of this crew were participants in the Corrida Colosseum, who later became involved in the fight against the Donquixote Pirates. Most notably, all four were cursed by Sugar, who turned them into toys that would serve as slaves for Doflamingo and effectively erased them from everyone's memories, including those of others. After being freed, they remained loyal to the Straw Hats and fought those who wished to reclaim their gifts.


Ideo, the captain of the crew, is an expert martial artist with long weapons, having won the Central New World Combat Tournament twice. Blue Gilly is a practitioner of the Jao Kun Do style, belonging to the Long Legs Tribe. The remaining two crew members, Abdullah and Jeet, are a pair of former bounty hunters who tend to fight in tandem. They earned infamy for bombing a government building at some point in the past. In keeping with the troupe's martial arts theme, both are based on and named after famous Canadian professional wrestlers.

Their ship was given to them by Orlumbus, who, having previously been in control of a fleet himself, had the most ships and crewmates of any Straw Hat Grand Fleet captain. It's unclear whether the Ideo Pirates are looking to expand, as their goals haven't been identified beyond wanting to serve Luffy.


2 Pirates macro

Number of pirates: 3

Gyaro, Macro and Tansui, a three-man pirate crew in One Piece

  • Chapter 197 (Cover Story), episode 386 (Anime)
  • Crew: Macro (Captain), Gyaro and Tansui
  • Main ship: Unnamed (destroyed by Hatchan)

The Macro Pirates are one of two crews that broke away from the Sun Pirates after their new captain, Jimbei, became a Warlord. Due to this origin, they are a pirate crew composed exclusively of fishmen. They are further distinguished by the fact that each member resembles a freshwater fish, with Macro being a pelican-eel fish-man, Gyaro being a bulging-eyed goldfish-fish-man, and Tansui being an arowana fish-man .


As a member of the Sun Pirates, Macro was one of the most ruthless members, being skilled at killing humans. Despite this, he, along with Gyaro and Tansui, worshiped Koala, a former human slave who the crew handed over to his family. Unfortunately, this act would divide the crew, as their captain, Fisher Tiger, was killed and Arlong was captured, after Koala's family contacted the marines to capture them, in exchange for allowing them to ignore Koala's slave status. Koala.

It is unclear how much this perceived betrayal shaped the Macro Pirates' philosophies, but despite their history as members of the Sun Pirates, a crew led by and including former slaves, they seemed to have little problem enslaving others. Most notably, they attempted to capture Camie, a kissing gourami mermaid, 31 times, due to her high value as a slave. The Macro Pirates also attempted to capture their former friend, Hatchan, on at least one occasion for similar reasons.


The crew didn't prove particularly competent, failing to capture anyone on screen. They were previously connected to the Flying Fish Riders, but due to their leader, Duval, changing his mind, this is probably no longer the case. The small size of the crew is probably due, at least in part, to the general unpopularity of slavery among fishmen.

1 Vulgar pirates

Number of pirates: 3

One Piece - Foxy Pirates

  • Debut: Chapter 304 (Manga), Episode 207 (Anime)
  • Crew: Foxy (Captain), Porche and Hamburg
  • Main ship: Sexy Foxy (formerly)

The Foxy Pirates were once a giant pirate crew, boasting hundreds of members. They tended to expand their size through Davy Back Fights, a pirate tradition in which crews fight, with the losers often forced to surrender teammates to the winners. They once ran into the Straw Hats, attempting, but failing, to humiliate them and steal their desired teammates. Although they often cheat at Davy Back Fights, their members seem to be really skilled at the events they choose to participate in. Their captain is Foxy, whose Devil Fruit allows him to temporarily slow down anything caught in the beams he can emit.


However, even at their most competent, they are embarrassed by the much stronger pirate crews of the New World, particularly the Straw Hats. Since their initial failure, the crew tends to be largely a joke, mostly serving as fixtures in the anime's non-canon events. The Final Saga confirms that the Foxy Pirates have hit rock bottom, as only Foxy, Porche, and Hamburg are seen on a small boat that is not their previously established main ship, the Sexy Foxy. While not outright stated, it is possible that most of the crew, along with their ship, were lost in one or more Davy Back Fights against another crew in the New World.

Leave a Comment

URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL URL