Highlights
- One Piece excels in delivering incredibly deep and emotional flashbacks, which often captivate fans more than the current events in the story.
- Flashbacks such as Brook’s, Chopper’s, and Senor Pink’s stand out as some of the best in the series, showcasing themes of promises, sacrifice, and tragic love.
- Characters like Law, Sanji, Robin, and Oden have also been given powerful and memorable flashbacks, highlighting their struggles, resilience, and ultimate triumphs.
If there is one thing that One Piece does better than any other series to have ever existed, it is tackling flashbacks. One Piece characters have incredibly deep stories attached to them and Oda usually delivers them through amazing flashbacks.
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In fact, these flashbacks are so amazing that fans often adore flashbacks over the actual events going on in the current timeline of the story, which just goes to show that their magic is impeccable. Over the years, One Piece has introduced quite a lot of incredible flashbacks, however, only a handful stand at the top as the very best ones.
10 Brook’s Flashback
Arc: Thriller Bark
Brook is an extremely important character and One Piece and fans immediately got attached to the skeleton despite his bizarre appearance, largely due to his incredible flashback. Brook’s flashback dates back to a time when he wasn’t a skeleton but a normal human. During this time, he got close to a whale known as Laboon and made a promise to see it again one day.
Even though Brook and his entire crew were massacred, he still intends to keep the promise to the whale, who is waiting for his return even 50 years after the promise was made.
9 Chopper’s Flashback
Arc: Drum Island
Chopper had one of the most emotional backstories in the entire city of One Piece. Being ostracized by his herd for having a blue nose, Chopper then ate a Devil Fruit and was ostracized by humans as well. Having no place to belong to, Chopper was taken in by Dr. Hiriluk, who took care of him until his severe illness was almost ready to take his life.
Hiriluk wanted to cure people and Chopper wanted to help him achieve that goal. However, to cure his illness, Chopper gave him a poisonous mushroom, which he heartily consumed. Before the poison took him, he blew himself up in an attempt to liberate Sakura Kingdom. His sacrifice led to Chopper becoming the brilliant doctor that he is today.
8 Senor Pink’s Flashback
Arc: Dressrosa
Senor Pink is a minor character in the Dressrosa arc of One Piece, however, his flashback hits incredibly hard to the fans for many reasons. His story is that of falseness, deception, and unfulfilled promises as well as tragic love. Senor Pink fell in love with a woman, however, never disclosed his pirate life to her. The two got married, however, when their son died, she found out about his past and was horrified at the life that they were living.
Eventually, she met with an accident after trying to get some time to herself and became comatose ever since. Senor Pink decided to dress up as their son because that was the only thing that ever got her to smile in her comatose state.
7 Law’s Flashback
Arc: Dressrosa
Law has one of the most emotional flashbacks in the entirety of One Piece. His story shows how he started an entirely new life. After being born in Flevance, Law contracted the White Lead Disease. When an extermination was carried out in the town, Law somehow managed to survive by hiding underneath the pile of dead bodies.
He developed a nihilistic view of the world until he was saved by Corazon at the price of his own life. From there onwards, Law decided to live his life for him and avenge his death by killing Doflamingo.
6 Sanji’s Flashback
Arc: Whole Cake Island
Sanji had a very difficult upbringing. Being born as the only normal human at the cost of his mother’s own life, Sanji was tortured by his father and his siblings. He was eventually declared dead and the punishment for him was imprisonment along with incredible abuse. Sanji was later saved by his own sister and sent to the ocean, all alone. He then came across Zeff, who saved his life in a shipwreck.
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Zeff sacrificed his own leg for him in order to make sure that he had enough in him to chase down his dream of finding the All Blue.
5 Noland and Kalgara’s Flashback
Arc: Skypiea
Noland and Kalgara were incredible friends and this flashback saw these two incredible characters start as enemies 400 years ago. Noland was a renowned botanist and explorer while Kalgara was set in his ways worshiping false gods and sacrificing people. Noland opened Kalgara’s eyes to the point where he started to actively scrutinize his own god; the two formed an incredible friendship, however, they were separated by fate.
Kalgara and his race were shot up by the knock-up stream directly into the sky while Noland was executed for lying about the City of Gold. However, 400 years later, Luffy finally fulfilled the promise, showcasing to Noland’s descendant that indeed, the City of Gold did exist in the sky and that Noland was not a liar.
4 Kuma’s Flashback
Arc: Egghead Island
Kuma was born a child of the Buccaneer race and immediately after being born, his entire family was taken as a slave to the Holy Land of Marijoa. Kuma was abused on a daily basis to the point where it became a regular occurrence for him. Both of his parents died in front of his eyes because of the cruel Celestial Dragons and he lived the vast majority of his life in captivity, despite wanting to be like Nika and freeing people and bringing smiles to their faces.
Kuma was eventually saved, however, later down in his life, more tragedies befell this incredible character and he suffered even more, even returning to slavery once again later on the line.
3 Fisher Tiger And Otohime Flashback
Arc: Fishman Island
Fisher Tiger and Otohime are two of the most incredible characters that have been written by Oda in the entirety of One Piece. These two characters shaped Fishman Island in different ways. Fisher Tiger himself was a slave and even though he was discriminated against by the humans, he still wanted to save them.
Fisher Tiger did not want the next generation to grow up with resentment in their hearts. To that end, he decided to start his own pirate crew and acquire all the slaves that he could find and make it so that they became unrecognizable from other members of his group. Meanwhile, Otohime held a similar dream, however, her approach was to make peace with those living on the surface and live under the same sun as them. Both of these characters ended up dying very tragic deaths, with Fisher Tiger being betrayed by the humans while Otohime being killed by the amalgamation of hatred born on Fishman Island after centuries of persecution. Both of their dreams ended up being passed on to the next generation and, eventually, it was Luffy who connected these two races together.
2 Robin’s Flashback
Arc: Enies Lobby
Robin has one of the most incredible flashbacks in the entirety of One Piece. Robin was abandoned by her archaeologist parents at a very young age which meant that she was alone from the very beginning. What made things worse for her were her Devil Fruit powers. Robin eventually found a family in the archaeologists and, unbeknownst to them, she learned how to read Poneglyphs as well.
When Ohara was attacked by the World Government for this terrible crime, Robin lost everything in front of her eyes. She spent the rest of her life going from place to place trying to survive and getting closer to her dream, however, every single time her dreams were crushed. Robin had given up on her life entirely, that is until the Straw Hat Pirates rescued her for one last time and took her out to the sea, fulfilling her deepest desires.
1 Oden Flashback
Arc: Wano Country
Undoubtedly, the greatest flashback in the entirety of One Piece is the one concerning the character of Oden. This flashback sees the birth of a legendary character who had great dreams in his heart. He set out to sea with the grandest of pirates and fought and drank with them every single day.
He found out the secrets of the world with the likes of Roger and went to the ends of the world, only to return to a home that had been ravaged by the pirate Kaido and the backstabber Orochi. Oden carried the burden of the entire country all by himself, without even telling a soul. He kept his people safe for 5 years, however, Wano could not be freed. For 20 years, Wano suffered, however, Oden eventually succeeded when Luffy returned as Joyboy and crushed Kaido.
One Piece
One Piece is a Japanese manga written and illustrated by Eiichiro Oda. The series follows protagonist Monkey D. Luffy and his Straw Hat Pirate crew as they explore the Grand Line to find the King of the Pirates’ ultimate treasure, the One Piece, in order to become the next king. The manga’s popularity helped it spin off into a larger media franchise, including an anime with more than 1,000 episodes.
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