 You know that suave Sanji Shor does know how to impress a lady. And take a look at this. His signature move is to present her with a tantalizing subscribe button to the Grand Line Review, which will give her regular One Piece content uploaded straight into her YouTube feed. And trust me, I can guarantee you that there is no smoother move in this world than that. Hello and welcome to the Grand Line Review, your source for everything One Piece. And today it's time for a nice arbitrary ranking of our favorite Merry Band of Pirates, The Straw Hats. Now right here and now I want to emphasize that this is not a ranking in accordance of strength or any other measurable factor, like I attempted to do in my Ranking the Animals video, where I applied the illusion of facts and logic. Instead this is going to be much more, and yes, even entirely subjective, and they are going to be placed in order in accordance primarily with who I enjoy the most and my perceived impact that they have had on the story. And I want to remind you all again that this is subjective, so don't start ripping your genitals off if my opinion differs from yours. I just thought it might be a nice fun idea to discuss how a group of protagonists, and if you do disagree with me, then that is completely expected. And please do leave your thoughts in the comments below. But one last thing before we begin, I want to note for this ranking that I will not be including Vivi and Kiryu. If you're desperate enough, graving a sense of ranking in regards to them, then consider them in last place. However, we will be ranking Jinbei, who is actually going to commence this discussion in 10th place. So the main reason why Jinbei is in this position, is because he just keeps blowing off the crew, making all sorts of excuses not to join. Like, oh Luffy-kun, I have things to do. Or oh Luffy-kun, I need to um, help the pirates that I just left in order to join you. Thus making the whole joining your crew thing, you know, kind of pointless. But seriously, I love Jinbei. As well as every other character on this list. And just because they appear in a low position, does not mean that they aren't simply amazing. Especially Jinbei, because he has such a uniquely cool design, and his fighting style is always a pleasure to watch. Plus he adds a great sense of maturity to the crew at large, something which we very much like from most individuals. And in addition to that, Jinbei also brings a great sense of, you know, prestige. Being an honourable fishman, a formal wallet of the sea, and all around good guy. All he needs to do is actually join the crew. And once that's happened, then this may well be a very different discussion. And whether since he is an official straw hat, we are obligated to speak about him, which results in whale lord Jinbei coming in at 10th place. Moving down the line in a super 9th place, we are going to Blanc Frankie. Now Frankie probably tends to be one of the more love or hate members of the straw hats, because his aesthetic and general personality is, it's an acquired taste, which is very well reflected in his general oddities that he presents us with. I personally love Frankie. I think he provides something very unique on a crew of unique beings, but why I'd place him so low is simply because of his involvement with the story. Compared to the other crew members, even Jinbei actually, Frankie has gotten a bit screwed over in the grand scheme of things. I mean, apart from his initial debut in the water seven and any sloppy arcs, which was glorious, he very much gets relegated to the background of most arcs. In fact, the last time I remember Frankie having a truly relevant moment was his fight against Senor Pink on Dressrosa. And depending on your opinion on that fight and those characters, relevant may not be a word that you would choose to use. But I would say that this moment is probably peak Frankie in the New World thus far. Before that, like I said, he was in the background of Fishman Island and Pancasid. And after Dressrosa, he took a hiatus. And as of right now, he has spent most of his time on Wano, building ships offscreen. So I just want me some more, Frankie. But until I get more, he's going to have to settle for ninth place on my arbitrary ranking. Moving along, we have Brooke. And now I will say that until the events of Hokei Kailant, I probably would have said the exact same thing about Brooke as I did of Frankie. Brooke was a comparatively late addition to the crew, and he got almost no time at all before they were all separated by Bartholomew Kuma. And then when they did reunite, he was very background presence in the beginning of the New World, going on his own hiatus during Dressrosa. However, for the Hokei Kailant arc, this star got his proper chance to shine. Brooke has the incredible prestige of being the first straw hat to face off against one of the four emperors, one on one. When he boldly took on Big Mom, in one of the ballsyest maneuvers I have ever seen from her being lacking said balls. And it really didn't stop there because Brooke also went on to smash the photo of Mother Carmel, as well as strike down Zeus and become the undisputed MVP of Hokei Kailant, thus propelling him into the stratosphere of eighth place. I guess what holds him back in my eyes is simply his lack of history with the series that everyone else above him has. But in general, I very much enjoy this Afroclad skeleton, and he is without fail a treat to see whenever he appears. For seventh place we now have Nami, and that's kind of shocking because there is a good argument to be made that Nami is the absolute core of the crew and the most important figure aboard apart from the captain himself. But a lot of this for me comes down to how she has been used in the modern portion of One Piece. In the pre-times Kippura, Nami was a gem of a character with her emotional climax acting as the crux of an entire saga. And she then went on to have some fantastic ongoing character growth, and she slowly discovered her ability to fight and trust, which I would say culminated in her sheer drive to save Robin during any lobby, and leading her to defeat a superhuman assassin with their sheer power of weather. And that's relevant actually because Nami has probably the most unique power amongst the crew and some of the most devastating potential as well, but she just, she never uses it. Not lately anyway, and by lately I mean like the past 12 years or so. In the New World era, Nami has seemed very sidelined to me. And yes, she does have her moments like striking Big Mom with a fantastic thunder attack, but by and large Nami is just, she's just there, providing fans service by taking numerous baths or showers, as well as comic relief. I just want so so much more of Nami, and that is why she is rather unfortunately in seventh place. I still love her though. And similarly we have Robin, one ranking ahead of her in sixth. Everything I've said about Nami in the New World applies to Robin, in fact perhaps even more so actually, because at the very least Nami is something of an extrovert and makes her presence known. But Robin is the straw hat who fades into the background the most, and a lot of her humor relies on Oda showing her thoughts, which are either incredibly morbid or just ridiculously adorable. And I will say that during the Wanoak, Oda has very much finally given himself full license to use Robin in a properly comical manner, but it's just not quite enough. So for example, when I try to think of a single profound moment in the New World era for Robin, I'm coming up pretty empty. The one chance she really had was during Dressrosa, but in that case, she just ended up being a Rebecca Shield. So why is Robin above Nami? Well, because if we cast our minds back, Robin in the pre-time skip era was nothing short of incredible, from her introduction on Whiskey Peak, to her surprise joining of the crew, and being the center of the entire water seven saga, providing one of the most memorable moments in the series when she declared to Luffy that she wanted to live. So to some degree, Robin is one piece to me, but at the same time like Nami, she just needs more focus in order to break back into the top five. Speaking of, we're in the top five now, and next up is the most adorable doctor in the world, Tony Tony Chopper. Now Chopper is responsible for, quite possibly, the most tragic flashback within the entire series, and he has gone on to become an iconic mascot, both within the one piece world, as well as in greater reality. But I love Chopper because what he represents is constant evolution and development. Chopper doesn't get an awful lot of time to shine center stage, however, he is a very important supporting actor. For example, in Skypeer, we take the appropriate amount of time to focus on him, proving that he can be useful by beating Gadatsu. Then in any slobby, Chopper foregoes himself to become a monster in order to save Robin, and during the time skip, he vows to become a controlled monster for the sake of Luffy. And he is always constantly developing new forms and thinking outside the box in a way that makes him one of the best double fruit users in the series by far. So there is so, so much to Chopper, even if he appears as a simple, cutesy mascot most of the time. And even if there wasn't, he's still cute. So bam. Number five, done. Post it. As for number four, I think it's time for a long nose, and Usopp is one of the greatest surprises of one piece for me. If you've been watching my stuff for a while, you know that I kind of despised Usopp when he was first introduced, and it legitimately took me until like water seven to truly warm to this character. However, from that point on, I had nothing but love for Usopp. The brilliant thing about him is that he is the only truly human perspective amongst the straw hats. He's the voice and the reaction of the audience, and while he doesn't have any super special skills, like massive amounts of strength, or knowledge to read the ancient language, or to predict and manipulate weather, Usopp is more of a utility character, capable of doing all of the little things to an exceptional degree, which culminates in some truly crazy stuff like inventing Nami's climate act. Although the one natural talent he has is in those brilliant sniping eyes, as well as a solid grasp of comic relief and unparalleled character development, gradually becoming braver and braver as the series continued. And yeah, there's not much else to say about Usopp. He is simply one of Oda's finest characters without a doubt. Now for third place, it is Sanji and he is here almost purely because I love his fighting style. Amongst the entire crew, Sanji probably has the most visually distinct and impactful effect in combat scenes with his Blackleg martial arts. And I really don't think I've ever seen a Sanji fight that has disappointed me in any way. Whereas all of the other characters on this list can, from time to time, be shortchanged artistically in combat in some way. But another thing I really appreciate about Sanji is his pride as a chef, which trumps all else. He is a cook first, and will sacrifice any other aspect of himself to ensure that he is able to continue his culinary journey. Plus he's just full of plain bad-ass moments, with the first thing that always comes to my mind when thinking about Sanji being the thanks I needed a light moment during Skype here. Easily the greatest chef in storytelling history. For second place though, I think this is pretty predictable with me being a Zoro fanboy and all. Although maybe it's not because you might have expected to see him at number one, but here we have Zoro, yay! So I have to credit Zoro as the entire reason why I got into One Piece to begin with. Because the goofy rubber boy didn't immediately do it for me to be honest. But the serious looking swordsmen with three blades well that most certainly did. So much so that I even began watching the four kid stuff, but I did it just to know more about this green head figure. And Zoro has gone on to hold some of my favorite moments in the series at large, with the most profound one being the whole nothing happened on Thriller Bark that, if it wasn't already, solidified this guy as my favorite character in the entire series. And rather simply, that's all I've got to say here. Zoro is life. However when it comes to ranking the straw hats, you know it's just too hard to look past our undeniable number one contender, the captain, Monkey D. Luffy. There is a very, very good reason why in the past two decades of One Piece's publication that this character has never come in anything less than first place of any officially conducted character poll. Luffy is the pinnacle of charisma in manga, and despite adopting the dumb food crazy shonen stereotype, Luffy has very consistently pushed the boundaries of the format with his incredible left field thinking and ability to surprise us at almost every turn. Luffy's unpredictability is certainly my favorite aspect of the character. There is not a single other individual amongst the straw hats who isn't subject to any form of logic. But Luffy here, well, he operates on his own wavelength. He does things his way, and for the most part, it works out rather nicely. And while he isn't my favorite character in the series as a whole, he is most certainly up there. And most importantly, he has well and truly earned my respect, as well as the respect of the fan base at large. I really can't think of a single manga protagonist that even comes close to being able to successfully handle beasts like One Piece. And as such, Luffy could never be anything less than first place in any straw hat ranking. But what do you guys think? Please leave your own personal favorite straw hat rankings in the comments below, or even join my Discord server. And if you're keen on more One Piece content, then please do check out some of my other videos and even subscribe to the channel for regular One Piece amazingness delivered straight to your YouTube feed. But for now, this has been the Ground Line Review, and I'll see you next time.