Did you know? Fun facts about One Piece bounties

In the manga

In chapter 1, in Makino's bar, a poster is pinned behind Benn Beckman: Mikio Itoo, a gunman wanted for 1,000,000… yen, not berries. He is a caricature of Mikio Itō, a manga artist Oda worked alongside when both were assistants to Nobuhiro Watsuki. Oda later slipped him onto other posters and onto bottle labels.

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In the same chapter, Higuma pulls out his own wanted poster to intimidate Shanks: 8 million berries, for 56 murders by his own count. He could not have picked a worse target: according to One Piece Film Red, Shanks was already worth 1.04 billion at the time, 130 times more. The mountain bandit still holds the highest bounty with a figure in the manga until chapter 73, when Arlong's 20 million arrives.

When Luffy meets him, Zoro is a well-known pirate hunter, living off other people's bounties. By sailing with him, he crosses to the other side of the hunt: from now on, it is his own head that is worth money.

Oda confirmed it: a pirate cannot cash in a bounty, even by turning in another pirate. Only petty crooks get away with it, like the Franky Family, who made ends meet hunting bounties in Water Seven — before their boss, Franky, became a wanted pirate himself.

Tired of being hunted, Captain Kuro slaughters Marine Morgan's unit, then hands him a double, hypnotized by Jango into believing he was Kuro. The double is executed, the Marines declare Kuro dead, and his 16 million bounty with him. It has since been reactivated, according to the Eternal Log exhibition catalogue. The amount itself depends on the source: 16 million in the official books, 14 in the anime, 15 in the film Stampede.

A pirate from the Grand Line, Arlong was only wanted for 20 million berries. The reason: Marine Captain Nezumi took monthly bribes to look the other way on his tyranny over the Conomi Islands, the archipelago of Nami's village. A bounty only reflects what the Government knows, or is willing to say.

Humiliated by the crew after Arlong's fall, Nezumi reports the incident to his superiors and asks for a bounty on Luffy. It is the only known case of someone personally requesting a bounty. His men only have one photo to give, a Luffy with a perfectly harmless smile, and Headquarters sets 30 million: unheard of in the East Blue, where the average bounty is around 3 million.

In the manga

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When he sees his captain's first poster, Usopp is delighted: the back of his head is in the photo. Oda brought the gag back much later on one of Trafalgar Law's posters, where Bepo appears from behind in exactly the same pose.

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Dorry and Brogy's 100 million dates back about a hundred years, and it is still valid: bounties do not expire. It was eventually revised, and not by a little: 1.8 billion each, the Government bringing a century-old amount up to date. It is one of the rare proofs that bounties also follow the value of money, not only the threat.

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Zoro's first bounty, 60 million, is the highest known starting bounty for someone born in the East Blue: twice the 30 million his captain started with. Sanji would start higher, at 77 million, but he was born in the North Blue.

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His 340 million, revealed in chapter 234, stayed the highest bounty with a figure in the manga until chapter 600: more than 360 chapters without anyone topping it, until Luffy's 400 million. No other record has lasted that long.

Asked by a reader, Oda estimated that if Enel were a wanted criminal on the Blue Sea, his bounty could reach 500 million berries. It is the only hypothetical bounty the author has ever given a character.

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The day after the Buster Call on Ohara, Robin is 8 years old and the Government puts 79 million on her head. The public pretext, six sunken warships, is a lie. The real reason: she can read the Poneglyphs. Her mother, Nico Olvia, was wanted for exactly the same amount.

Monkey D Dragon is introduced as the most wanted criminal in the world, and yet no figure has ever been shown. Even his Vivre Card, the official character encyclopedia, gives his bounty as unknown.

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The Marines do not know Chopper defeated Kumadori of CP9 and take him for the crew's pet: his bounty is 50 berries, the lowest ever offered for a capture. Chopper is furious. His next bounties, 100 then 1,000 berries, did not exactly help.

The photo on Nami's first poster was taken willingly, by a pool, by a photographer who claimed to be a Water Seven reporter. Yet she is the only crew member who ever complained about having a bounty. In Cocoyasi, Genzo keeps an enlarged copy of the poster, and it is mostly the pose that worries him.

Lacking a photo, the Marines print a crude sketch of Sanji. The drawing is a perfect match for Duval, a man who had nothing to do with it: hunted by Marines and bounty hunters alike, he had to wear an iron mask. Sanji eventually rearranged his face with a few kicks, and Duval was delighted.

In the manga, Gecko Moria's 320 million appears in the caption that introduces him. Episode 349 of the anime skips that caption, and the figure is given nowhere else: anyone who only watched the anime has never seen it.

When Blackbeard takes the Warlord seat left by Crocodile, Kuma reveals his bounty: zero. He was indeed wanted by the Government, but no sum was promised to whoever brought him in. A bounty of nothing, for the man who would become one of the Four Emperors.

Defeating a Warlord should have raised Luffy's bounty. But the Government orders Moria's defeat kept quiet, so as not to tarnish the Warlords' prestige. No increase is decided, and Luffy keeps his 300 million.

Brook's 33 million, earned as captain of the Rumbar Pirates, is decades old: it is the oldest bounty in the crew, issued long before Luffy was born. In chapter 488, the first digit was even drawn as a 2, a mistake by Oda corrected later.

Facing Admiral Kizaru, more than 20 years after the Roger Pirates ended, Rayleigh jokes that if the Marines would just cancel his wanted poster, he could enjoy his retirement in peace. Kizaru replies that the crimes of a Roger Pirate are not erased. The amount of that bounty has never been revealed.

No figure was ever printed for Emporio Ivankov. But Level 5 of Impel Down is reserved for criminals with bounties over 100 million, and Ivankov was held there: his bounty is therefore at least 100 million. The same goes for Inazuma, his right-hand man.

Ace's bounty is the highest known from before the timeskip, and yet the manga never gave the figure. It comes from a poster shown at the One Piece Ten exhibition in Tokyo, in 2012, 2 years after his death in the manga.

"Gold Roger" is the name the Government gave the Pirate King. Roger did not like it, because it was not his: he confides as much to Whitebeard at their final meeting. His real name, Gol D Roger, is only revealed to readers in chapter 154.

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During the timeskip, Demalo Black poses as Luffy and flashes his 400 million to recruit: he demands that captains who join him carry a bounty of at least 70 million. His own real bounty is only 26 million.

Kuzan, the former Admiral Aokiji, has left the Marines and joined Blackbeard. His Vivre Card states that a bounty on him is under consideration at Marine Headquarters: it does not exist yet, but it is in the works.

Pekoms carries a list of bounties on him. He is looking up Caribou's in it at the very moment Caribou aims a Gatling gun at him.

In Dressrosa, Doflamingo launches his own manhunt and rates each head in stars, at 100 million per star. Usopp, who defeated Sugar, gets 5: 500 million. After Wano, that is exactly the amount the Marines end up giving him.

All 5 of Law's posters print "Trafalgar Law". His full name, Trafalgar D Water Law, contains a "D" meant to stay secret, and a "Water" that is his true name. Few people know it: among them, Baby 5 and Buffalo, whom he tells as a child while with Doflamingo, Corazon, who overhears, and Robin, whom Law tells in Wano. Doflamingo, for his part, hears from Law himself that he is a D, mid-fight in Dressrosa; so does Sengoku, shortly after.

In the anime

Posters read "DEAD OR ALIVE". Sanji's 177 million poster reads "ONLY ALIVE": his father, Vinsmoke Judge, used his influence to get his son back alive and seal the alliance with Big Mom. It is the only known case, and his later bounties went back to the rule.

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Nami goes from 16 to 66 million, Robin from 80 to 130, Franky from 44 to 94, Brook from 33 to 83: exactly 50 million more each. The allies got it too: according to Bartolomeo, every gladiator who fought Doflamingo took 50 million, like Cavendish, up from 280 to 330. Oda confirmed it: this flat increase applies whatever each person's role in the incident, even without being there from start to finish.

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Usopp had already appeared as the back of his head on Luffy's poster, then with a bounty under Sogeking's mask. His new poster, 200 million under the name "God Usopp", shows his real face for the first time, in an unflattering photo taken while he was unconscious. He is not pleased at all.

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After Dressrosa, Law and Luffy are worth 500 million each. From chapter 801 to chapter 808, they share the highest bounty with a figure in the manga. Law, for his part, does not care.

With Jack, the manga shows a billion-berry bounty in full for the first time. One of his men brags about it in front of the Minks, and Jack is annoyed. The previous record was 500 million.

Bobbin, of the Big Mom Pirates, has a bounty of 105,500,000 berries. Volume 85 of the French edition prints 155,000,000: a mistake specific to that edition, as every other version gives 105.5 million.

Reading his new poster, Luffy sees 150 million and gets depressed: he used to be worth 500. Brook corrects him, he miscounted the zeros: it is 1.5 billion. Luffy is baffled, and the whole crew stares in shock: a billion more in one go is the biggest jump ever seen at the time. The papers are already calling him the "Fifth Emperor".

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Sanji's third poster annoys him: it prints "Vinsmoke", the name of a family he disowned. But he loves the amount, because at 330 million he beats Zoro's 320 million. It does not last: it is the only time. With the post-Wano bounties, Zoro takes back the lead he had always held.

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It took until chapter 957, published in 2019, to learn the two biggest bounties in history: 5.5648 billion for Roger, 5.046 billion for Whitebeard. They appear in a Marine briefing, as yardsticks, more than 380 chapters after Whitebeard's death. To this day, no known bounty has topped them.

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Since chapter 957, readers have been spotting number puns in the big bounties, Japanese style: a digit can be read as a syllable. Sanji's 1,032 million gives san-ji, his own name. The 96 in Blackbeard's 3,996 million reads kuro (black), the 46 in Whitebeard's 5,046 million shiro (white), and the 88 in Big Mom's 4,388 million haha (mother).

Capone Bege's 350 million is first shown on a cover page: the one where the Marines arrest Lola, mistaking her for her twin Chiffon, Bege's wife.

As a child, Kaido is sold to the Marines by the king of his country, in exchange for a seat at the Levely. He escapes from the ship and immediately receives a 70 million bounty, for that escape alone. He would then let himself be recaptured several times, just to eat aboard the warships.

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After Wano, Luffy, Law and Kid all reach 3 billion, announced in the same chapter. Luffy becomes an Emperor with the lowest bounty of the four: Buggy is worth 3.189 billion, Blackbeard 3.996, Shanks 4.0489. Blackbeard, for his part, had already been an Emperor for less: 2.2476 billion, before Wano.

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Buggy goes from 15 million to 3.189 billion: a rise of more than 3 billion in one go, a record. He owes it not to his feats but to a string of misunderstandings after the Warlords were abolished, which pushed him to the head of Cross Guild and to the rank of Emperor.

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At Cross Guild, Buggy is the nominal leader, at 3.189 billion. Mihawk, at 3.59 billion, is worth 401 million more. Buggy is the only known Emperor with a subordinate rated higher than himself.

In Weekly Shōnen Jump, Zoro's new bounty read 1,100,001,100 berries. Oda's team corrected it to 1,111,000,000, the figure used ever since, before the volume release.

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7 posters in all, from 30 million to 3 billion: no character has as many revealed bounties as Luffy. Law follows with 5; Zoro, Sanji, Robin and Jinbe have 4. A record to take with a grain of salt: Luffy is the hero, the one whose every step the series follows. Others, like Roger or Whitebeard, probably had as many bounties over their careers, without readers ever seeing them.