Shanks (シャンクス Shankusu), also known as Red-Haired Shanks, is one of the overarching protagonists of the One Piece franchise.

He is a legendary and powerful pirate in the Grand Line, being the chief of the Red Haired Pirates and one of the Four Emperors in the second half of the grand line. He met Luffy when he was young, saving his life and giving him his straw hat, serving as a large source of inspiration for Luffy to follow his dreams of becoming a pirate.

He's played by Shuichi Ikeda as an adult and Nobunaga Shimazaki as a teenager in the Japanese version, Tom Souhrada in the 4Kids dub, Christian J Lee in the Odex dub, and Brandon Potter as an adult and Micah Solusod as a teenager in the Funimation dub.

What Makes Him Pure Good?[]

• While on Gol D. Roger's crew, when Buggy fell into the water after having accidentally eaten a Devil Fruit and losing his ability to swim, Shanks leapt into the water and saved Buggy's life.
• When Buggy got sick, Shanks chose to stay with him instead of going with the rest of the crew to Laugh's Tale, the final island on the Grand Line that held the legendary One Piece.
• Saved Uta when she was kidnapped and adopted her as his own daughter.
• Despite his initially teasing of Luffy coming off as rude, Shanks only did that to make sure he wouldn't continue to try and become a member of his crew as he did not want to put him in danger, and shows some great respect and care for Luffy.
• When his crew was drinking and a group of mountain bandits arrived demanding sake, which they were fresh out of, Shanks offered the leader, Higuma, his bottle of sake. When Higuma refused, breaking the bottle and spilling booze on him while throwing food on him, Shanks merely laughed it off, choosing not to fight back and letting the bandits leave peacefully.
• He swam to rescue Luffy after Higuma held him hostage and threw him into the water, saving Luffy's life by protecting Luffy from the Lord of the Coast, sacrificing his arm in the process.
• Even after having had his arm taken, Shanks comforted Luffy and calmly told him he wasn't upset about losing his arm, actually thanking Luffy for standing up for Shanks and putting his life on the line to defend their honor.
• Before leaving Foosha Town, he entrusted Luffy with his prized Straw Hat that had been given to him by his former captain and telling him to return it once Luffy had become a great pirate.
• Kept several pirate crews under his protection as Red Hair Pirates due to the said crews being weak enough for Paradise, thus going against several pirate crews who disdain the weak crews (such as the Kid Pirates).
• He was one of the first people to believe in Luffy's dream of becoming King of the Pirates and shaped Luffy's morals, taking a lesson from Shanks by choosing not to fight against Bellamy when he insulted Luffy and severely beat him up.
• Upon meeting Ace, Luffy's brother, for the first time, Shanks openly welcomes him and throws a party in his honor.
• When seeing the rising threat of Blackbeard, he sends a letter to Whitebeard warning him about the threat and Ace's decision to go after Blackbeard.
• After being informed by Rockstar of Whitebeard tearing up the letter and insulting Rockstar's honor, he chooses not to make a big deal out of it and fight Whitebeard, merely telling Rockstar to return safely.
• He meets Whitebeard in-person to warn him about Blackbeard's power, pleading with Whitebeard to call off Ace and to stay away from Blackbeard simply out of the desire to protect them.
• The day before Ace's execution at Marineford, Shanks intercepted Kaido, who'd planned to take advantage of the situation to fight Whitebeard, fighting him to a stalemate and preventing Kaido from interfering in the upcoming battle and making it more deadly than it already would be.
• He saves Koby from being killed by Akainu after he'd bravely stood in front of him and protested the meaningless slaughter.
• He commends Koby for his bravery and the impact the few seconds of bravery had on the world, despite Koby being a Marine and technically his enemy.
• He ensures that Luffy got his prized signature Straw Hat back and gave Law enough time to escape the battle.
• He manages to convince Sengoku and the remaining Whitebeard Pirates to surrender peacefully and put an end to the Marineford War, especially remarkable since Sengoku was the Fleet Admiral and hated pirates.
  • Through this, not only were the lives of the Whitebeard Pirates saved, but the lives of the injured Marines who would've died without the medical attention and were being ignored by the bloodthirsty Marines.
• Shanks takes the bodies of Whitebeard and Ace to ensure they weren't paraded as trophies by the Marines and that they were both given proper burials and funerals.
• He thanks Sengoku for accepting his offer of peace and for allowing them to take Whitebeard and Ace's bodies.
• Shanks arrived at Wano to stop Blackbeard picking off the winners and stealing their Poneglyphs, only failing due to Blackbeard anticipating this and laying a trap at another location.
• At Wano, Shanks uses his Haoshoku Haki to intimidate the dishonorable Marine Admiral, Ryokugyu into submission, saving Wano from another attack after they fended off Big Mom and Kaido wanting to destroy the Flower Capital.
• He takes Marco back to his homeland out of respect and even offers him a place on his crew, which Marco politely declined and retired from piracy.
• Unlike Big Mom, Shanks has a good friendship with the giants of Elbaf as well old friends with Dorry and Brogy.
• At Elbaf, despite Kidd threatening his crew, Shanks gave him an opportunity to back out peacefully due to him being Luffy's former ally.
• Shanks defeats Eustass Kidd, saving all the ships and the crewmembers which would have been destroyed by Kid's Damned Punk attack.
  • Though Kidd and presumably all his crew are killed by Brogy and Dorry's attack, this falls under the rules of war as the Kid Pirates had started the battle against the Red Hair pirates and Shanks had already given Kid and his crew the chance to surrender peacefully.
• Despite ordering his crew to attack Bartolomeo, he only did it because he was an Emperor and the Barto Club had burnt down the Red Hair Pirate Flag, undermining his reputation and threatening the lives of all the people protected in his territory. After realizing Bartolomeo respects Luffy, he lets him go, smiling at the fact that Luffy has such dedicated friends.
  • Given Shanks' joy at knowing Luffy has a loyal comrade, it's clear he didn't intend to backstab Bartolomeo and Yasopp had acted on his own when shooting down Bartolomeo's ship.
• Unlike several other pirates in the series, even Luffy, Shanks holds a pacifistic nature and doesn't actively seek to cause chaos or recklessly pick fights with other pirates or the World Government. The only times in which he fights or chooses violence are when either his friends or his crew are threatened, and while he is openly willing to kill others in defense of his friends, he only does so as a last resort.

Trivia[]

• Shanks is one of the three One Piece characters to be Pure Good, the others being Otohime and Shirahoshi.
• Shanks's Japanese voice actors, Shuichi Ikeda and Nobunaga Shimazaki, have also voiced Masayoshi Shido and Mahito respectively, both of whom are Pure Evil.

External Links[]

• Shanks on the Heroes Wiki
• Shanks on the One Piece Wiki