the girl who makes weather

When I was a kid, I never liked most of the token female characters in the cartoons we had at the time. (aside from the old My Little Pony cartoon, which had a mostly-female cast) Female cartoon characters have always been relegated to the position of “straight man” or “plot device”, and most of them had very little personality.

One of the things that kept me reading One Piece was that Nami turned out to be a funny and interesting character whose abilities and quirks have affected the Straw Hats’ fortunes throughout their journey. Even if she isn’t the character who is going all “Dragonball” during the last final epic duel of each arc, (even with powerhouses like Franky and Zoro along, that still seems to be a Luffy-exclusive thing) she’s managed to be written as more than just a plot device or an awkward attempt at a romantic sub-plot; like Usopp, she has to rely more on her wits than a devil’s fruit or unrestrained testosterone to win fights.