Usopp

Usopp is a male manga and anime character who features in One Piece.

Biography

Usopp in One Piece v1 #5.

Usopp (Japanese: ウソップ, Hepburn: Usoppu) was a male human born as the son of Yasopp (ヤソップ) and Banchina (バンキーナ) who came to reside at Syrup Village (シロップ村, Shiroppu-mura). His father came to be a pirate where he left the island and joined the crew of Red-Haired Shanks. This led to Usopp being left behind to be raised by his mother though he always admired his father. Over time, his mother came to be ill and a young Usopp would lie to her by stating that pirates were coming in the hope of lifting her spirit enough to keep her alive. Despite his efforts, she would die and Usopp came to keep the habit of lying out of the pain of losing both his parents. As a result, Usopp was known to often yell that pirates were coming thus bringing panic to the villagers until they realised it to be a lie. A consequence of his lying led to the villagers seeing Usopp as a nuisance where they often chased him and threw things at him as they ran him out of town. Despite that, they were used to his antics and allowed him to stay in the village where some came to use his daily lies as a kind of alarm clock. Many of the villagers made a show of chasing him and throwing things at him for running through the town, but they were used to his antics. Some villagers even used his daily run through town as a sort of alarm clock. Aside from his cries of pirates attacking, he also made up stories about adventures to entertain Kaya, a young girl he met who was sick and had to stay in bed all day. Usopp called himself a pirate and took in three younger kids, Ninjin, Tamanegi, and Piiman, as his 'crew', which he dubbed the 'Usopp Pirates'.

The Straw Hat Pirates made a stop at Syrup Village in search of a ship. Usopp was overjoyed to have real pirates arrive and greeted them with a cleverly-conceived act designed to fool the pirates into believing he was the commander of his own huge pirate fleet. The ruse failed, and Luffy and friends proceeded into Syrup Village unhindered. Soon, the Straw Hats made friends with Usopp when Luffy discovered that he is the son of Yasopp, one of the pirates in Shank's crew. Later, Usopp eavesdropped on a conversation between a pirate named Jango and his captain, Kuro, who had been spending three years posing as a caretaker for Kaya so he could set himself up to inherit her fortune. He plotted to kill her without anyone suspecting he was behind it. Kuro allowed Usopp to flee because no one would believe him, which proved to be true when the villagers did not believe in Usopp's warnings. When trying to warn Kaya, she thought that Usopp was trying to kidnap her. Merry, armed with a gun, chased him off. Usopp then lied to his crew in order to protect them from harm. However, the Straw Hat Pirates were aware of the situation, and they decided to lend aid to Usopp and Kaya, and they prepared with setting up traps. There were miscalculations in the Black Cat Pirates' landing area because Usopp assumed that the area where Kuro met Jango was the arrival point, unaware that the real landing point was on the other beach. This caused Usopp and Nami to initially fight the pirates alone, as Luffy got lost and Zoro was tricked by Nami into the oil slick trap they set up earlier when Nami realized the pirates' landing point was where their rafts and her treasure were. Just before the two are killed, Zoro and Luffy arrived and fought Kuro's crew. Jango hypnotized the crew to increase their strength but accidentally hypnotized Luffy along with them. Jango was forced to hypnotize Luffy to sleep again, but he accidentally caused the crew to be knocked out by the ship's stempost that Luffy was holding at the time he fell asleep. Jango summoned the ship's guards, the Nyaban brothers Buchi and Sham, and the duo fought against Zoro. The swordsman prevented Usopp from helping him by taking a hit from his Lead Star to keep him from getting dragged into the fight. Kuro then arrived, disgusted by how the Black Cat Pirates were getting beaten by children, and he gave his crew five minutes before he kills everyone. Kaya later intervened, having heard from Merry about the truth after Kuro nearly killed him earlier. She held Kuro at gunpoint and tried to get him to remember the fun times they had. However, Kuro revealed that he never cared about her. He only wanted her money and was simply waiting for the day when he could kill her, causing Kaya to drop the gun in shock. Usopp tried to attack Kuro to defend Kaya, but Kuro injured Usopp badly in retaliation. Kuro was then attacked by Usopp's crew when had arrived, but Kuro simply brushed off their attack. Usopp later ordered his crew to take Kaya and flee, and the three took Kaya into the forest. Kuro sent Jango after them. After defeating the Nyaban brothers, Zoro took Usopp to follow them and stop Jango. Eventually, Usopp and Zoro caught up to them, but only after Jango defeated the boys. Usopp then aided Zoro in defeating Jango and rescuing Kaya and the boys with his sniper skills. Afterwards, Usopp decided that the news of a real pirate attack might be too upsetting for the villagers and would affect their peace of mind since pirates do not normally come to an out-of-the-way village. Thus, he ordered everyone to keep it a secret, which Kaya and his crew agreed. Usopp was grateful to the Straw Hats and gained the confidence to disband his fake pirate crew and sail out on his own to be a real pirate. However, Luffy invited him to join the Straw Hats. With a new crew member and the new ship provided by Kaya, the Going Merry, the Straw Hat Pirates left Syrup Village to continue their voyage to the Grand Line.

The crew met Johnny and Yosaku, Zoro's former bounty hunter companions, and they set sail for the Baratie restaurant in search of a cook. After damaging the Baratie, Luffy began his job as a waiter to pay for the damage he did for Zeff, the owner. Luffy tried to convince Sanji, one of the cooks, to join his crew. Gin, a member of the famous Don Krieg's crew, returned to the Baratie with his also-starving captain, to whom Sanji once more gave food. However, Krieg betrayed the cook once he regained his energy and attacked the Baratie, despite the cooks' best effort to stop him. Here, it was revealed that Chef Zeff was a great pirate known as "Red Leg" Zeff, who traveled the Grand Line for a whole year. Gin explained the catastrophe Krieg's fleet met in the Grand Line when they encountered "Hawk-Eyes" Mihawk, and Krieg attempted to take control of the Baratie. Mihawk arrived to finish the job with the Krieg Pirates, but Zoro challenged him to a duel in order to achieve his dream. Unfortunately, he met a most devastating defeat at the hands of the swordsman. Mihawk left after defeating Zoro, so Krieg continued his invasion on the Baratie. Meanwhile, Johnny and Yosaku left with Usopp and the wounded Zoro to go after Nami, who had stolen the Going Merry. Sometime after Yosaku left to inform Luffy of Nami's destination, Usopp, Zoro, and Johnny arrived at the island Nami went to. As they approached the island, they tied up Zoro to keep him from attacking the fish-men, who were fabled to be 10 times stronger than humans. However, they spotted three fish-men as they pulled close to shore. Usopp and Johnny quickly abandoned the ship, leaving Zoro defenseless. While Zoro was brought to Arlong, Usopp stumbled upon another fish-man and was quickly knocked out by a woman. When Usopp woke up in her home, she informed him that Nami was a member of Arlong's crew and had deceived him the entire time. Soon, a group of fish-men led by Arlong arrived at Cocoyasi Village. Arlong informed the villagers that he had come due to the illegal possession of weapons. He told them that Genzo had been found guilty and shall die as an example to the villagers to never challenge his empire. Usopp came to the rescue and fired an exploding shot in Arlong's face to distract him from harming the old man. Usopp soon found himself in a chase as the fish-men began pursuing Usopp across town for his effrontery against their leader. However, he was soon captured. When he was presented to Arlong, Usopp asked Nami for help. This caused more questions to be raised about Nami's loyalty as she had a similar experience with saving Zoro. Nami attempted to prove her loyalty to the Arlong Pirates by appearing to kill Usopp. From their point of view, she had stabbed Usopp and thrown him into the sea to die. Having escaped Arlong's clutches, Usopp met up with Luffy and his group. Afterwards, Nojiko approached them and explained about Nami's story. Upon seeing Nami's sorrow and fear for her village, the Straw Hats headed for Arlong Park. The Straw Hats faced the fish-men themselves as the villagers watched from the sidelines. While trying to pull Luffy out of the cement, he accidentally knocked over Chew. Frustrated with this, Chew charged after Usopp as he ran away. Chew noticed the townsfolk and considered killing them, only to be set on fire by Usopp. The sniper announced to Chew that he was his opponent, only to run away again.

Usopp spent a long time running, hoping to exhaust Chew, but to no avail. He instead used ketchup and faked being struck down, so Chew turned back towards Arlong Park. Usopp chose living over fighting, and he began to rub himself with dirt to make a convincing argument that he did fight. Remembering how much Luffy, Zoro, Nami, and Sanji risked their lives everyday and how much Nami needed him, Usopp got up and screamed at Chew that the battle was not over. After receiving powerful punches and kicks, Usopp tricked Chew and hid in a nearby cluster of trees. Chew began to shoot down the trees, and Usopp screamed in fear, accepting that this was the new life he chose. When Chew found him, Usopp set him on fire. He then proceeded to smack Chew in the face with a hammer repeatedly until he fell unconscious. Having emerged victorious, Usopp believed that he was now a true pirate. He returned just as Arlong was overpowering Zoro and Sanji and helped provide a distraction by attacking Arlong from afar. It was long enough for Sanji to free Luffy from the rock trapping his body underwater. After Arlong was defeated, the Straw Hat Pirates joined the festivities that Cocoyasi Village threw in celebration for their newfound freedom. As the crew celebrated, Nami reflected on her hometown and decided to officially join the Straw Hat Pirates. They left Cocoyasi Village and set sail again for their next trip. As a result of defeating Arlong, Luffy gained the highest bounty in East Blue. Usopp laughed upon seeing the back of his head in Luffy's wanted poster.

Overview

Personality and attributes

In appearance, Usopp was a tanned and thin young man with black curly hair and a long nose. He usually wore a dark handkerchief yellow boxes, special shooter glasses, coveralls, brown with a white sash and no shirt underneath. Usopp inherited his famous nose of his mother, while the rest of his face resembles that of his father. It was his remarkable aim and sniping skill that led to him gaining the epithet of King of Snipers (狙撃の王様 Sogeki no Ō-sama?, "Sniper King" (Viz)).

Initially, he was shown to be a coward who was easily frightened with him being anxious, insecure, and compulsive. Usopp's cowardice was the result of his fear and insecurity, especially when faced with uncertainty. While Usopp was a coward by nature, he was able to put aside their fears for desperate times despite the danger. Usopp was known to face his fears for the sake of their friends and sometimes even people he barely knew.

In that time, he was also known to be a liar who constantly lied and enjoys telling tall tales to both friends and strangers alike. Most of his lying was intended to make him feel better as he was easily overwhelmed by his opponents.

He was one of the most sentimental of the Straw Hat Pirates where he cried or got angry at times of emotional stress.

His dream was to become a great pirate like his father Yasopp, member of the Red-Haired Pirates of "Red-Haired" Shanks.

On his home island, he came to develop a close friendship with Kaya (カヤ, Kaya) who was a rich young girl from their village. She suffered from an illness that confined her to her room and meant she could not be out in the world. The one friendship she had was with Usopp who often regaled her with his adventures and stories. Most of these were lies but brought a smile on her face which was enough for him.

Powers and abilities

Usopp is also a great artist, as he proved in the beginning of the series when he designed the Straw Hat's Jolly Roger after seeing Luffy's poor art skills. A running gag involves Luffy and Chopper building simple snowmen or sandcastles only for Usopp to show off his vastly superior skills with a professional work of his own, which ended up being destroyed in a comical way.

Usopp also has extremely sharp eyesight and has on more than one occasion seen or noticed things before his crewmates.

Despite not excelling in physical fitness, Usopp, like his father, has a unique aim with his slingshot, it is able to hit many people without missing once, even at distances at which he can barely see the target. To attack, Usopp uses a slingshot and shoots spherical projectiles which he built and called Boshis. Each Boshi has different effects: some include explosive, smoke, fire, barbed and even hot sauce.

Usopp came to join Monkey D. Luffy's crew and thus became one of the earliest members of the Straw Hat Pirates (麦わら海賊団 Mugiwara Kaizoku-dan).

Notes

• Usopp was created by Eiichiro Oda where he featured in the setting of the One Piece universe.
• Oda had asserted that Usopp was represented by the armadillo.
• During the 10th Anniversary One Piece: Treasures, Oda had said that no matter who joined the crew that he always intended for Usopp to be the weakest member of the Straw Hat Pirates.

Appearances

• One Piece:

External Links

• One Piece Wiki Entry
• Comicvine Entry

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