For a silly goofy story about a rubber boy and his pirate adventures, One Piece is dark as hell. Seriously, the entire thing is ridiculously dreary from the worldwide lens of the series. Full of treachery and villainous fascists, the world of One Piece is a dark place, with some seriously dark moments in its history and story. We are going to rank the Darkest Moments in order!
Fair warning that this contains spoilers for One Piece through Chapter 1092. The manga is available to read on Viz or MangaPlus, so catch up before reading on!
12. The Buster Call on Ohara
This is like the number one example when it comes to the World Government being an absolute monster. The Scholars of Ohara are minding their own damn business, researching history, when Cipher Pol 9 comes in to ruin the learning party. So what’s the World Government’s answer for some scholars studying a one-hundred-year gap in history? To bomb them out of f*cking existence. They all but nuke the island, barraging it with artillery fire from all sides by Navy battleships. Then there are Vice-Admirals there like Akainu, whose bloodlust leaves him pummeling the island until there’s nothing left.
It gets darker when the truth is realized that this isn’t the first or last time a Buster Call happened. The truth is the World Government is killing people all the time to study the Void Century, and it makes quite the impression when there’s a survivor. Now, Robin continues on to discover the truth of what the Gorosei did their best to hide that day. It’s definitely something that’s going to make them look bad, too.
11. Coco Village
Arlong’s conquest of Coco Village is a major dark moment, showing the unrelenting brutality of pirates in the purest form. There’s no warning, the Arlong Pirates simply storm in and begin to raise hell. They flip an entire village full of houses, murdering anyone who can’t pay the initial tribute. From there, they keep the village under their thumb until Luffy finally becomes their savior. Unfortunately, it gets even darker during the initial invasion too.
When Arlong steps into Nami’s life he immediately kills her adoptive mother Bellemere right in front of the poor girl. She’s obviously traumatized, and even still goes to work for Arlong. It’s a dark reality of the world in some places where things like this happen, and the prison-like conditions Arlong keeps her in reinforce his evil. Thankfully they’re free of his tyranny now, but it’s certainly a dark few years in the memory of Coco Village.
10. Ace’s Death
Probably one of the most devastating moments in One Piece to the emotional core. Ace’s death shocked everyone, with the audience believing he would make it out of Marineford with no problem. That wasn’t the case though, and he instead took a hole punch that could thread a damn rope through it. Even with the wound cauterized on impact, the organs missing were a major deterrent to Ace living through the ordeal. There’s not much else that could have made this death worse, and then he says his final words to Luffy.
He wishes that he could see Luffy become Pirate King. After all this time of Ace saying he was going to make sure Whitebeard got the title, he reveals he was rooting for Luffy the entire time. It’s a beautiful realization that makes the death even more devastating and completely wrecks Luffy to the point of passing out on the battlefield. Thankfully Ace’s friends are there, and able to keep his brother from meeting the same fate.
9. Wapol Withholds Healthcare
The Drum Island arc might seem silly and goofy when the twenty doctors are filing in like the Army Men from Toy Story. That’s belying the sad, dark truth about access to healthcare and how some places only afford wealth to those who can pay for it. Wapol makes a declaration about Drum Island, once known for its incredible medical science, as soon as he takes over as the king. Only he is allowed access to the twenty most skilled doctors in the country, and all others must die.
He mercilessly hunts down dozens of doctors for this reason. Most are simply trying to help people, but Wapol’s crew is merciless. The only one that expresses any issue with the treatment is Dalton, and he’s immediately kicked out of his position. The entire character of Wapol is that of a selfish spoiled brat on the level of Helmeppo, except Wapol didn’t have a Garp to beat some damn sense into him.
8. Death To Donquixote
Now this was a dark moment, because it’s not often you see anyone in manga crucifying a child, much less two kids and their parents. In some ways, it’s metal as f*ck, but in others, it’s absolutely horrifying. All this happens because the Donquixote family are Celestial Dragons, at least until their father gives up the title and moves them below the Red Line for a “normal life”. Except those below the Red Line are pretty pissed about their monthly tributes to the Celestial Dragons. Slavery and kidnapping don’t make them very popular either.
The villagers raid the Donquixote home one night with pitchforks and torches, screaming for revenge. They bring the entire family up, crucified hanging from the windows of their burning home. Again, it would be pretty damn metal if it wasn’t being done to a couple of kids, but holy sh*t is that dark, even for One Piece.
7. The Plight of Wano
Kaido and Orochi do a number on Wano that’s going to take years if not decades to repair. There are so many devastating crimes they inflict upon the people of the country that they’re impossible to count. It’s the darkest plotline of all of One Piece, with scenes of starvation and disease ravaging the country being haunting. Before Luffy takes a food supply by force and gives it to a small village, there’s a panel in the manga of a mother getting ready to stab her baby to death. Whether it be from mercy or out of her own hunger, we’ll never know as Luffy swoops in at the last second to save everyone.
There’s still so much work to do despite Kaido now being overthrown. The rivers are poison and the land can’t bear any vegetation, so hopefully there’s some way to fix that sooner. No doubt stopping the weapons factories throughout the country will help a lot, but it will take time for recovery. It’s dark, but there is hope in the future for Wano after all the suffering.
6. Celestial Dragons Can Do Anything
The Celestial Dragons are the highest authority in the world under the Gorosei and Imu, and they make sure to use that power. They will indiscriminately kill people at the slightest inconvenience, and Sir Charlos does that in his very first appearance. A man in Sabaody Archipelago objects to Charlos deciding the man’s girlfriend suddenly belongs to the Celestial Dragon and shoots him nearly dead in the street. The woman gives up, but the man is left in a near-death state. Even Zoro wants to give Charlos a beating, but Bonney stops him and warns him of what could happen.
Then the Reverie comes and surprise, Charlos is a piece of sh*t again no matter the height above sea level. He demands that Shirahoshi, princess of Fishman Island, be one of his slaves and directs CP9 to take her for him. They have to oblige of course, meanwhile, some of the Straw Hat Fleet are ready to cause a scene to stop the situation. It’s just such a dark scene because it’s only stopped by Donquixote Myosgard, who befriended the Fishmen after crashing on their island years ago. No good deed goes unpunished though, and Myosgard is straight up executed by crucifixion and beating because of it.
5. Straw Hats Face Defeat
The Sabaody Archipelago arc is one of the darkest defeats in Shonen manga, mostly because it happens so goddamn quickly. One second the Straw Hats are facing down the Navy at Sabaody Auction House, making their presence and power known. Then in the next moment, everyone is being slapped around to different islands across the world as Bartholomew Kuma arrives in the Archipelago along with Admiral Kizaru. The end of the manga chapter says “The Straw Hats are Defeated” and it’s one of the most disheartening moments in the manga.
Not only that, but it kicks off the Marineford Saga which is arguably one of the most depressing sagas in One Piece. There’s so much death and destruction that happens it’s hard to keep track, and it’s the first true defeat Luffy faces. It breaks the Straw Hat Captain, and the crew almost breaks along with him, but instead chooses to face their issues head-on and grow stronger because of them.
4. The Fishmen’s History
Holy crap this poor race has been through a lot. The Fishmen have apparently been persecuted since before the Void Century, as Joyboy makes it a point to promise freedom. Unfortunately, he’s unable to deliver that freedom and leaves it to the future. Celestial Dragons still take Fishmen to the surface as slaves any time they can. The prejudice from humans is insurmountable in some places fearing them as dangerous animals. They give violence despite the humans with gills that they really are.
Then just when things seem to get better, Fisher Tiger dies and things quickly splinter back home. Arlong’s seething hatred has seeped into the surrounding youth, who take it to a completely new level. Hody Jones, bent on Fishman Supremacy, pulls off a false flag operation to kill Queen Otohime, one of the most beloved rulers the Fishman Kingdom has ever seen. It sends things even further into turmoil, as he frames a human for the murder and increases tensions among humans and Fishmen.
3. Big Mom Gets Her Devil Fruit
This list saved the best for (mostly) last, and by best we mean cannibalism, auto or otherwise. Big Mom already has the most tragic life of any Emperor, unwanted since birth due to things beyond her control. She’s finally happy with Mother Carmel though (the child trafficking thing Carmel does is a whole other issue). She always gets to eat and loves her adoptive family. That’s until her birthday party one fateful day when Mother Carmel makes her a delicious dish called Oshiruko.
She loves it! Young Charlotte Linlin eats her fill in a sugar-induced bliss, devouring the Oshiruko with both hands. When she finishes the dish and not even a crumb is left though, she finds that she’s suddenly alone. Nobody is around, not her adoptive family, not Mother Carmel, and suddenly Linlin has a strange new power. She can manipulate souls and makes Prometheus one of her first Homies to keep her company. The things one can accomplish when they’re able to eat another human whole are just amazing, aren’t they?
2. Zeff’s Sacrifice
Speaking of eating people, Zeff really goes all the way on the self-sacrifice front. When his pirate crew attacks Sanji’s little liner, Zeff finds respect for a dish that Sanji cooks. Of course, the ships both wreck right after that, and Zeff makes the split-second decision to save Sanji and swim to an isolated rock. They wash up, but there’s no way they’re getting food or rescue other than what they manage to bring with them, which is roughly two bags. Sanji gets the smaller one, and they sit on opposite sides of the rock for months awaiting rescue.
When Sanji finally finishes the last of his rations months into the ordeal, he eventually grows hungry enough to try and murder Zeff for his. It’s a long shot, and he sneaks up on the old man with all intent to kill him when Zeff tells him to open the bag. It’s full of treasure, and Zeff hasn’t had any food this whole time, giving it to the child so he can survive. Instead, Zeff eats his own leg, leaving behind his reputation as Red Shoes Zeff all to save his newly found son.
1. The Void Century
It really doesn’t get much darker than wiping an entire century from the history books. Even worse if they do it because it makes the people in charge look bad. That’s definitely not a sign of a tyrannical government abusing its power, not at all. Totally doesn’t make it worse when they hunt down and brutally murder anyone researching the Void Century. Doesn’t make it any worse when they’re willing to wipe out entire civilizations in order to keep it a secret. Nope, not at all concerning in the least. Seriously, there’s nothing worth researching the Void Century for, it’s just some old forgotten history!
That’s what they want people to think anyway because the original twenty founders of the World Government must have done some really, really bad things. There’s no way you get to genociding entire nations unless you’ve really gone wrong and possibly ended the entire world at some point. This is the most likely theory, especially considering everything involved with Joy Boy and the Ancient Weapons. It’s a dark spot in history for the entire world, but the Gorosei want to keep it that way.
Of course, there are other dark moments throughout One Piece, and author Eiichiro Oda doesn’t shy away from them. One Piece is a story known for evolving in maturity as it goes on, which is to be expected as the author matures with it. If there’s anything to take away from that, it’s that One Piece likely still has quite a few dark moments in store for fans, whether they be in the past or present.
