Naruto’s Tragic Backstory Is Nothing Compared To One Piece’s Saddest Figure

WARNING: LIGHT SPOILERS FOR THE BACKSTORY OF ONE PIECE‘S NICO ROBIN

Both Naruto and One Piece are filled with characters who’ve had a rough life but strive to improve their situations, but one Straw Hat pirate’s childhood makes Uzumaki Naruto’s look like a minor inconvenience in comparison. Shōnen Jump’s most popular series often gravitate towards stories that aim to inspire and encourage its readers, especially with its tales about desperate underdogs who fight their way to the top. However, those triumphant moments can only feel their highest when viewers have seen the lows their characters came from.

An effective tragic story can help endear a specific character who uses their past plights to learn and improve their lives and those of others. On the other hand, a compelling backstory can also help explain the origins of the most diabolical villains. Naruto and One Piece each have dozens of cast members who did or could easily have become villains with their traumatic childhoods. And then there are those who dabble in the darkness, only to eventually find the light in a satisfying character arc.

Naruto’s life as an orphan was made all the more sad after it was revealed early in the story that he’d grown up in a village that all hated his guts for no reason he knew of. At the age of 12, he learned that they blamed him for the murderous actions of the demon sealed within him. It was no means a happy childhood, but it was still a better one than One Piece‘s Nico Robin.

The Length’s One Piece’s Ruler’s Have Gone To Keep Secrets Is Pure Evil

Author Eiichiro Oda has created some of the most iconic and endearing characters in fiction, but the legendary writer also has a cruel knack for crafting some of the most heartbreaking backstories ever put to pen. One of which belongs to the Straw Hats’ beautiful archeologist, aka the Demon of Ohara, Nico Robin. Unlike Naruto, she did get to grow up with the love and acceptance of her mother and the other scholars of Ohara. One Piece‘s corrupt World Government took that all away, and worse, when she was only eight years old.

While the story of One Piece starts with Monkey D Luffy and his goofy, super-powered pirate adventures, the plot builds towards a much more mature and fascinating ongoing narrative, with the series’ unmatched world-building. The World Government has been keeping a strong thumb over its residents at the whims of the ruling class, known as the Celestial Dragons, which includes maintaining slavery and strict control of information to keep the world’s citizens in the dark about their ruler’s darkest secrets. The scholars of Ohara sought forbidden knowledge, and they paid an unfair price.

People that Robin had grown up with and respected were killed in front of her by the World Government’s Marines before their entire island was bombarded by battleships. The only reason she survived the genocide of her people was because of the emotionally compromised giant and Marine Vice Admiral named Jaguar D. Saul, who seemingly sacrificed himself to secure Robin a path to escape the island. It was a brutal and traumatic experience, which isn’t something anyone should have to go through, let alone a child, but the World Government was not done ruining Robin’s life.

Robin Endured Worse Than Naruto And Sasuke For Two Decades

Sasuke is another tragic figure who lost his whole clan at a young age, but he was not blamed or ostracized by the village for their murders. One Piece‘s villains running the World Government did far worse to Robin by putting a $79 billion bounty on the eight-year-old, saying that she was a demon wearing a child’s skin who murders the innocent and spreads the murderous nature of the Ohara people. Because of the weaponization of words and misinformation, there was no safe place for the young Robin to hide.

If losing everyone she’d ever loved wasn’t bad enough, the bounty on Robin’s head ensured that she would never be able to stay any place long enough to call it home. Even if she did find a village with some kind people willing to give her food and work, it was only a matter of time before someone ratted her out for the ridiculously high bounty on her head. It would be a life that few would be able to tolerate, and she almost did not, if it weren’t for Saul’s last words to her, “Someday, you will find friends who will fight for you. No one is born to be in this world alone!“

It took nearly 20 years, but Robin did eventually find those friends in Luffy and the Straw Hat crew. Still, she endured years on the run and being betrayed by nearly everyone she met, all because of the World Government’s lies and desire to hide the truth of Ohara’s fate. Characters like Naruto and Sasuke each went through their own ordeals and came out on top to help deliver Naruto‘s satisfying ending, that’s aged like fine wine. And while it did take Robin (and the One Piece series) a lot more time to get there, she’s also enjoyed an extremely cathartic conclusion to her character arc.

One Piece And Naruto’s Saddest Stories Set Up The Most Satisfying Endings

While all of the Ohara people, besides Robin, are no more, great steps were taken to ensure that their knowledge and discoveries were not lost in the World Government’s cruel attack. Thanks to their research into the missing 100 years of world history, aka The Void Century, the people of Ohara deciphered a lost language written on ancient cubes hidden around the world. Robin is one of the very few people who can translate the information that the World Government has worked so hard to keep from the world, which includes the location of the One Piece.

The authors of Naruto and One Piece became good friends while their series grew in popularity, and both have not been shy to admit how much they each learned from one another. Like any great anime duo, Masashi Kishimoto and Eiichiro Oda’s works pushed each other to improve, with several of their series’ most popular arcs helping influence each other. But in retrospect, Robin’s journey resembles a combination of the tragedies that befell Naruto and Sasuke. Thankfully, the talent of the writers successfully provided happy endings for all three of their beloved characters.