What happens to Otama in the ‘One Piece’ manga?

Warning: The following contains spoilers for One Piece chapter 1050.

One Piece is an extremely popular manga and anime. It is the best-selling manga series in history. The story follows Monkey D. Luffy, a boy who sets off to sea to find the ‘One Piece’ treasure. With a current total of 1050 chapters in the manga, 1019 episodes in the anime, and over 1,000 characters, everyone must have their favorite. Ours is tiny 8-year-old Otama.

Who is Otama?

We first met Otama in chapter 911. Luffy and the pirate ship had been caught in a whirlpool, climbed a waterfall, and landed on Wano. It seems that Luffy has lost Kinemon’s vivre card, and his entire crew. Otama saves Luffy by pulling a kibi-dango off of her cheek and using it to tranquilize the crazed baboon, Maru.

She is a citizen of Wano, and she tells Luffy about the hardships of her people and her aspirations to become a kunoichi.

Luffy rescues Otama after she had been kidnapped and was being threatened by an unknown group of people that she would be sold to the red light district. Things had turned aggressive when she insulted them. She surrendered to Luffy, and endearingly started referring to him as her “big brother”. They had effectively saved each other. Otama claims that only she and her master still live on the island. They go back to Otama’s house, which Luffy says is dirty and small, but he’s only kidding. Otama makes him steamed rice and he eats it all.

She has proven on multiple occasions to be a worthy and valuable companion for Luffy and his crew. What makes her so useful is her apparent ability to get almost any villain or oppressor onto her side. But she is still a little girl.

“Honor”

Chapter 1050 is absolutely epic. There are many victories for Luffy and for the citizens of Wano. There is a huge festival and much celebration, as Luffy recovers. Momonosuke makes the decision not to open the borders, to keep his people safe. However, the pirates shoot cannons at the festival-goers and demand that the samarai surrender. It was all too good to be true, as Momonosuke felt rumbling in the earth, and there was an underwater volcanic eruption.

Indestructible Otama

It looked like Otama died in chapter 923, but fans of the series weren’t buying it. There were simply too many loose ends where she’s involved, too much character development, and there was the promise between her and Ace to consider.

Will Otama join Luffy’s crew?

This is something we have hoped for. It makes sense — even though readers are skeptical — it would be a smart move for the Straw Hats as she would be a useful asset. And the way the recent issue ended, the crew and the citizens of Wano will need all hands on deck. It remains to be seen whether Momonosuke can really shore up the border when you consider the size of the waterfall and the fact that there could be other breaches. Afterall, the defeat and burial of Kaido and Big Mom has caused fissures in the island that are most likely related to that volcanic eruption.

What is the fate of Otama?

Brave little Otama won over our hearts from her first appearance. Universally loved, she still has much to learn, and there’s more to her story as long as the Straw Hats remain on Wano. There’s something scrappy about her story and her little patchwork kimono, and we know Luffy is fiercely protective of her.