Baby 5 smiling, blushing, and pointing the barrel of a gun to her temple is my least favorite panel throughout One Piece. Here, the joke of Baby 5 doing whatever necessary to be of use to someone goes distastefully awry, and the glimpse of a flashback that is intended to explain her rash behavior inadequately justifies her intention to commit suicide.

Perhaps the biggest reason this scene stands out to me is how often One Piece treats suicide with what I consider to be the appropriate humor or grace for the situation. Despite being a delicate topic to tackle, Eiichiro Oda has involved talk of, attempted, and full-fledged suicide surprisingly often in his plot considering how infrequent characters actually die.

The rhetoric of chivalrous self-sacrifice is a common theme of the series. For example, Sanji was willing to die at the hands of Pearl for the captive Zeff at Baratie, and Toto was prepared to exchange his life for King Nefeltari’s forgiveness of his mischievous son, Kohza. Elsewhere, Oda has portrayed the serious side of suicide, including the dire desperation of the slave, Lacuba, as he attempted to take his own life before his imminent auction. He has even gone so far as to make suicide a character’s signature quirk, as was the case with CP9 agent Kumadori’s futile attempts to commit seppuku due to his reflexive skin hardening technique.



Oda gave a prime example of how a humorous light can be shed on this sensitive subject in chapter 795, aptly titled “Suicide.” The narrator sets up the joke by giving a concise overview of the perils Kaido has endured throughout his career of piracy: imprisonment, torture, hanging, impalement, and even the guillotine. Amused by his own ability to survive seemingly any threat, the emperor has made a hobby of testing his own mortality, going so far as to leap 30,000 feet from a defunct sky island.

“What a splitting headache!” Kaido mutters as he rouses himself from an impact that would certainly end the life of any other man. “I just don’t die…”



Kaido’s nonchalant treatment of his own death works because of the setup and the follow-through on the joke. Because we are made privy to the failures of executioners past, it is reasonable that we might begin to wonder ourselves what might kill a man whose neck can shatter a guillotine’s blade. That he cannot seem to take his own life creates a sense of awe, bewilderment, and mystery rather than morbidity. The reaction of the Kid alliance and Kaido’s own musing about Whitebeard’s demise helps put the emperor’s strength into perspective. This unprecedented introduction has fun telling the joke while effectively conveying Kaido’s gravitas, making it memorable for all the right reasons.

Speaking of memorable, Oda’s most refined serious portrayal of suicide is Dr. Hiluluk, who was forced to come to grips with his own mortality after being diagnosed with a terminal illness. After being miraculously cured by the presence of cherry blossoms, Hiluluk devoted the rest of his life to bringing that very cure to his forlorn homeland, the Drum Kingdom. Nearing the completion of his dream, Hiluluk fell ill once more, and was given a medicinal mushroom by his apprentice and companion, Tony Tony Chopper.

Despite the young reindeer’s best intentions and determination, the poisonous mushroom only worsened Hiluluk’s condition. However, in his final moments, Hiluluk took it upon himself to commit suicide by consuming a poison of his own creation, thereby lifting the would-be burden of guilt from Chopper’s shoulders.



Faced with his imminent death, be it by terminal illness, Wapol’s firing squad, or a poisonous mushroom, Dr. Hiluluk fully embodied all that his life came to stand for: faulty medicine, pure intentions, selflessness, and the pursuit of a dream. Rather than fall victim to cruel circumstance or a crazed dictator, Hiluluk gave his death meaning through sacrifice. His suicide remains a high point for the series as a profoundly poetic turning point in the character development of Dr. Kureha, Dalton, and most of all, Chopper.

Where these meaningful and nuanced portrayals of suicide and suicidal behavior succeeded, Baby 5’s disappoints.

I enjoyed the running gag of Baby 5 being a people-pleaser in order to feel needed. This quirk was especially funny when it involved her making unwise loans to an adolescent Law or Buffalo, buying superfluous weapons from scumbag vendors, or accepting the marriage proposals of unfit suitors. However, the idea that committing suicide for the enemy of her supposed family would fulfill her desire to be needed unhinges some previously important assumptions: namely, the loyalty of the Don Quixote Family.

Before this point in the story, we witnessed these pirates come together for the sake of making Don Quixote Doflamingo the Pirate King. Monet and Vergo were willing to commit suicide to ensure Doflamingo’s plan would not be further obstructed by Luffy and Law’s alliance. Law’s flashback features numerous scenes of goodwill amongst the family, including the caretaking of baby Dellinger, the kids’ rescue from the pirate Wellington, and Doflamingo’s furious retaliation against anyone who would criticize his “family” members. For Baby 5 to kill herself because it would please the enemy of her family, the only family she has ever felt companionship from, does not jive with me.



A brief flashback following the infamous panel reveals that Baby 5 was an unwanted burden upon her mother and their band of misfits. Another mouth they could not afford to feed. The resulting abandonment issues have instilled in her this desire to feel needed. Not coincidentally, Lao G lays on the one-two punch of self-deprecation by asking Sai if he has ever laid eyes on “another woman this useful.” These sudden revelations lacks the appropriate seeding to feel anything other than improvised for the sake of convenience.



Further evidence that this suicidal behavior is out of character for Baby 5 can be found in chapter 682 (episode 608). After killing one of the suitors who knowingly took advantage of Baby 5’s penchant for accepting proposals, the Arms-Arms Fruit user came for Doflamingo’s head. Doflamingo easily brushed off the assassin’s attacks and went so far as to aim Baby 5’s own pistol at her face. If she felt that Doflamingo “needed” her to kill herself, why not go through with it here and now?

What it all boils down to is a joke. Because we are talking about a joke, some plausibility has to be thrown out the window. Perhaps it is not so great a stretch that we are asked to believe that the other Don Quixote Family members did not value Baby 5 as a person, much less a crew member, at the twilight of Dressrosa. Perhaps a grim glimpse into Baby 5’s past is enough to validate her insecurities, if it is for the sake of a one-off joke like this. Perhaps even the parallel between Baby 5 holding a gun to her head for a stranger rather than Doflamingo can be disregarded, given that he asked so nicely and did not kill her cherished fiancé in cold blood.



Even combined, these assumptions cannot make up for the lack of nuance that went into this “joke” of a panel. In trying to squeeze these justifications for a suicide joke into one chapter with no prior groundwork, Oda cannot decide whether to treat this seriously, as in the case of Hiluluk, or humorously, as he did with Kaido. Hiluluk’s flashback provided the necessary emotional payoff for Oda to pull off his suicide with grace. Kaido’s suicide attempt was devoted a grand scale with which to create a sense of wonder, taking any morbidity out of the joke. Compared to these tactful examples, Baby 5’s grin and barrel sorely stand out: a tasteless albatross within a story that has otherwise nailed its depictions of suicide.

How do you feel One Piece has tackled suicide over the years? Give me your take in the comments below or on Twitter @renfield89, and thanks for reading “Piece Out!”

“Piece Out!” is an editorial feature that is posted the first Wednesday of each month, only at The One Piece Podcast website.