When Luffy began assembling his crew, Nami was one of the first people to join it. Although her initial motives were quite selfish, with time, she grew fonder of her colleagues and has developed a true friendship with all of them, especially Luffy. But, what is the true nature of the relationship between Nami and Luffy? Are they just friends or is there something more between them? In this article, we are going to tell you whether Nami likes Luffy in One Piece and whether they will end up together.
At this point, Nami and Luffy are just close friends. They do share an intimate bond, but they’re more like a brother and sister than potential lovers. Still, it cannot be ruled out as a possibility, as the Nami×Luffy ship is one of the most popular among the fans. It is not known, at this moment, in what direction their relationship is going to go.
The rest of this article is going to focus on the relationship between Nami and Luffy. We are going to give you a detailed insight into the workings of their relationship; we are also going to tell you whether it is possible for them to end up together when Luffy becomes the Pirate King. Some spoilers might be present, so watch out!
Does Nami like Luffy?
Nami respects Luffy’s leadership qualities but often gets angry at his irrational thinking and poor concentration, but he never gets angry with her, even when she manipulates him. In such situations, she has a tendency to burst into rage, which often affects other members of the team. Despite being a rubber man, Luffy can still take damage from Nami’s physical attacks when she beats him up, either out of anger or annoyance.
Despite this, she cares for and trusts Luffy as her captain, and he often acts as an emotional anchor for her during times of crisis. She actually cried for Luffy when she learned that he lost his older brother in the Whitebeard War. Also, Luffy doesn’t mind following her directions when it comes to navigating the ship. At first, Nami was the only one Luffy trusted with his hat during battles, showing the great trust between the captain and his navigator.
Despite small conflicts due to his recklessness, she deeply believes in him and sees him as a huge source of strength. Through his selfless actions prior to her official entry into the crew, Luffy was the most influential in changing her mind about the pirates. He and his crew constantly put themselves in harm’s way to help others, including her, showing that not all pirates act solely for their own selfish ends.
When Nami fell ill shortly before the Drum Island arc, Luffy desperately tried to help Nami as best he could due to the lack of a ship’s doctor. He constantly stayed by her side and tried to make her smile, then became sad when he failed and tried to keep the promise Genzo had made to him. During the Drum Kingdom arc, Luffy put aside his pride, and instead of making the villagers answer for shooting Vivi, he knelt before them, begging them to bring a doctor to their ship for the sick Nami.
When it was revealed that the only way to cure her was to actually climb Drama Tower on foot, she implicitly trusted Luffy to be safe there. Luffy climbed 5,000 meters barefoot to take her to the doctor, with increased pain caused by the rubber’s reaction to the cold.
Even though Nami betrayed Luffy when she stole their ship and treasure during the events in Baratie, he did not change his mind about her, insisting that she become a navigator on his team. Ironically, he seems to have more faith in her than in the other members of the team. Nami is one of the people Luffy trusts the most, as he often lets her wear or hold his straw hat during fights, a very valuable item for him. This was seen during the Arlong Park, Drum Island, and Skypiea arcs.
When Johnny told him that he saw Nami kill Usopp, he refused to believe it, to the point of nearly beating him up. However, in a similar situation at Whiskey Peak, where he was told that Zoro had beaten the people who fed them, he immediately attacked him, despite the fact that the information came from an unreliable source (unlike Nami). Although he usually forgets, Luffy is still sometimes wary of Nami’s wrath.
When he heard that Absalom was going to marry her, Luffy simply said: “He wants to marry Nami? He’s brave.” Even not knowing anything about her past and what she went through, and seeing her screaming and crying out of hatred for Arlong, Luffy gave her his hat to comfort her and he got mad at Arlong, attacking him and his crew to avenge her, just as Gol D. Roger had done before. Nami is the only person Luffy has entrusted his straw hat as a symbol of trust.
Will Nami and Luffy end up together?
Now that we have revealed the details of their relationship, what can we deduce about its future? Well, for starters, we have to state that the Nami×Luffy ship is one of the most popular, if not the most popular ship among the One Piece fandom. Due to their love/hate type of relationship and the fact that Nami has been part of the crew from the very beginning, fans are constantly shipping them together, but is realistic?
From this point of view, not really. Namely, Luffy doesn’t seem to care for anyone in that way and, with his view on life, he doesn’t even seem to understand this type of emotion just yet. Now, Nami has shown affection towards Luffy, but that did not look very romantically. It was more like how a sister would care for her younger brother or something between lifelong friends who are just that – friends.
Still, from our point of view, Luffy and Nami ending up together isn’t wholly impossible. The focus of One Piece is on the adventure and while some other anime series have made it clear which characters would end up together, One Piece was never fully clear on that point and we’ll just have to wait and see how Oda decided to conclude this aspect.
