The epic story of One Piece includes a 2 year time skip where Luffy’s Straw Hat crew head off to train. Here’s where they went and what they learned.

What did the Straw Hat pirates get up to during the One Piece‘s time skip episode? One Piece‘s time skip still changed the status quo of the series and worked to establish how all the Straw Hat Pirates would act for the rest of the series. Even long after the time skip took place, the lessons and experience many of the Straw Hat crew members gained are still incredibly important.

13. When Did One Piece’s Time Skip Take Place?

One Piece’s time skip takes place in episode 517 of the anime and chapter 597 of the manga. After the Straw Hat Pirates were separated at Sabaody Archipelago, Luffy moved to save his brother Ace from execution rather than try to reunite with them. Luffy threw himself into both Impel Down and the Paramount War of Marineford to try and save Ace, but in the end, Ace ended up killed by Admiral Akainu. The entire experience made Luffy realize that he and his crew were still far too weak to take on the challenges of the New World, so Luffy sent a coded message to the Straw Hats via the newspaper that they were to reunite on Sabaody in two years.

Luffy’s message of reuniting on the Sabaody Archipelago in two years is what kickstarted the One Piece time skip, and this is what all Straw Hat Pirates did during that time. Once again, the specifics of what the Straw Hats did during the time skip haven’t been fully explored, but new details about their activities have been revealed periodically over the years.

12. One Piece Time Skip Explained

One Piece‘s time skip covered an in-universe period of two years in which the Straw Hat Pirates were all training to become stronger. This period lasted from the end of the Marineford arc to the Straw Hat’s reunion on Sabaody Archipelago; everything that the Straw Hats did during that time was largely unexplored outside the non-canon special 3D2Y that centered around a conflict Luffy was involved in during his training. Everything after the One Piece time skip is typically referred to as “Part 2” or the “post-time skip era,” although neither one is an official name for that portion of the story as opposed to, for example, the Naruto anime becoming Naruto: Shippuden and Dragon Ball becoming Dragon Ball Z after their respective time skips.

11. Monkey D. Luffy

Training With Rayleigh

During One Piece‘s time skip, Luffy received training from Silvers Rayleigh, the former first mate of Gold Roger whom the Straw Hats had befriended on Sabaody Archipelago. Rayleigh brought Luffy to Rusukaina, an island with extreme weather patterns inhabited by ferocious beasts, and combined the harsh conditions of the island with his own training to both increase Luffy’s overall strength and teach him how to use Haki. By the time Luffy finished his training, not only had he gotten far stronger, but he had mastered the basics of all three types of Haki and was able to integrate both Armament Haki and Observation Haki into the creation of Gear Four: Boundman and Gear Four: Snakeman, respectively.

Like with the rest of the Straw Hat Pirates, details about Luffy’s activities during the time skip are scarce, but they have been explored on occasion. During the Dressrosa and Whole Cake Island arcs of One Piece, for example, there were brief flashbacks to Luffy’s training where the audience was shown Luffy getting help from Rayleigh with Gear Four, as well as him being told about Observation Haki making it possible to see into the future. Not only that, but the anime special 3D2Y was centered around Luffy fighting against the World Pirates during the time skip, and while 3D2Y is non-canon, it did add a lot to the overall story such as firmly establishing Luffy as being able to fight in the New World and revealing how he developed his iconic Red Hawk technique.

10. Roronoa Zoro

Training With Mihawk

Roronoa Zoro was sent to Kuraigana Island, an island inhabited by warlike mandrills called Humandrills that also happened to be the home of Dracule Mihawk. While Zoro’s ultimate goal in life is to defeat Mihawk and become the world’s greatest swordsman, he knew that he was nowhere close to beating his rival, so to both work towards that goal and become strong enough to support Luffy, Zoro had Mihawk train him during the time skip. During those two years, not only did his swordsmanship greatly increase, but he learned how to use both Armament and Observation Haki, the former of which he would use to coat his swords in Haki to dye them black and increase their power.

9. Nami

Studying On Weatheria

Nami spent the two-year time skip on Weatheria, an artificial sky island specializing in weather-based technology. In addition to increasing her navigational abilities, Nami was able to use both Weatheria’s technology and their vast knowledge of the weather to upgrade her Clima-Tact into the Sorcery Clima-Tact. Unlike previous versions of the Clima-Tact, the Sorcery Clima-Tact didn’t require elaborate setups for its weather-based techniques, and it could even produce Sea Clouds, which normally can’t exist on the Blue Sea, so it was a clear testament to how much her abilities had developed over time.

8. Usopp

Mastering Pop Greens With Heracles

Out of all the Straw Hat Pirates, Usopp was the one with the most radical change in abilities following the time skip. Stranded on the Boin Archipelago, a chain of giant, carnivorous plants disguised as islands, Usopp met Heracles, a researcher well-versed in the Boin Archipelago, and he taught Usopp how to fight with special seeds called Pop Greens. Each Pop Green turns into a different type of plant whenever fired from Usopp’s new slingshot, the Kuro Kabuto, which gives Usopp a moveset that involves things like vines, gas, and carnivorous plants that completely sets him apart from how he fought pre-time skip.

7. Sanji

Training With Ivankov

One Piece‘s Sanji was sent to the Kamabakka Kingdom, an island inhabited entirely by okama that happened to be the home of one of Luffy’s newest allies, Emporio Ivankov. Ivankov, admiring Sanji’s resolve, offered Sanji the Kamabakka Kingdom’s special Attack Cuisine so long as he could defeat the 99 masters of Newkama Kenpo while evading the inhabitants trying to convert him into an okama. During the two years Sanji spent fighting the masters and running away from the okama, not only did his overall power increase, but he became able to use Haki and developed two new techniques: Sky Walk, an adaption of CP9’s Moonwalk technique, and Hell Memories, which lets him ignite his entire body in flames by channeling the memories of everything he went through during the time skip.

6. Chopper

Studying Medicine In Torino Kingdom

Tony Tony Chopper spent the time skip on Torino Kingdom, an island where the humans are subservient to giant birds. While the humans initially appeared primitive, Chopper discovered that they were actually highly advanced in the fields of technology and medicine, and he spent the two-year time skip studying both to improve his abilities. Thanks to his research, not only did Chopper develop the Kung Fu Point, but he was able to improve on the power of his Human-Human Fruit so that he could access the majority of his transformations without needing a Rumble Ball. Chopper still needs the Rumble Ball to enter his Monster Point, but now he can enter it with just one Rumble Ball and can retain his sense of self during the transformation, making it a far more reliable technique.

5. Nico Robin

Joining The Revolutionaries

Unlike the majority of the Straw Hat Pirates, Nico Robin didn’t spend the time skip in the same place she was sent to. Kuma initially sent Robin to Tequila Wolf where she was forced into slave labor by the government, but after Tequila Wolf was liberated by the Revolutionaries, she joined up with them for the duration of the time skip. Following the time skip, Robin’s proficiency with her Flower-Flower Fruit has increased to the point where she can easily summon giant limbs and even create clones of herself. During her time with the Revolutionaries, Robin also befriended Koala, Hack, and Luffy’s brother, Sabo, and in her fight with Black Maria in the Wano arc, it’s revealed that Koala taught Robin how to use Fish-Man Karate.

4. Franky

Upgrading Himself With Vegapunk’s Technology

Franky spent the time skip on Karakuri Island, a technologically advanced island that was the birthplace of Dr. Vegapunk, the world’s greatest scientist. Vegapunk had apparently left behind a lot of unfinished inventions and blueprints, and Franky was able to use them to upgrade himself into Battle Franky-37 a.k.a. “Armored Me”, which made him far more powerful and gave him a laser beam called the Franky Radical Beam. He also created a motorcycle and a tank that combine into a mech suit called Battle Franky-38 a.k.a. General Franky, with said mech suit being Franky’s primary means of fighting post-time skip.

3. Brook

Becoming The Soul King

Not unlike Robin, Brook ended up spending the time skip away from where Kuma initially sent him. Brook was mistaken for Satan by the occultists of Namakura Island, and while he initially helped them fight off the warring Longarm Tribe, Brook quickly found himself kidnapped by them and forced to perform for them. Eventually, the Longarm Tribe turned Brook into a globetrotting rockstar called the Soul King, and it was through this that Brook was able to master the power of his Revive-Revive Fruit. While the Revive-Revive Fruit initially didn’t give Brook any powers after it brought him back to life, as Brook became more engrossed with his music, he gained a deeper understanding of souls that gave him the power to manipulate soul energy. This gave him a wide variety of abilities such as the ability to separate his soul from his body, reattach his limbs, and even create ice by summoning the “Chill of the Underworld“.

2. Which One Piece Character Changed The Most In The Time Skip?

All the Straw Hat Pirates went through a lot of changes in the time skip, but the one who probably changed the most was One Piece‘s Usopp. While most of the Straw Hats’ training just involved improving on the abilities they already had, Usopp, by comparison, completely changed his fighting style, abandoning Dials and his bag of tricks in favor of the versatility of Pop Greens and, later on, sporadic uses of Observation Haki. Usopp hasn’t been as involved in the fighting post-time skip as other characters, but the action he’s had does a lot to show off how much he’s grown over the course of the story.

1. How The Time Skip Affects One Piece Film: Red

As a non-canon movie, there’s nothing about One Piece Film: Red that explicitly connects it to One Piece‘s time skip, but seeing that the movie takes place post-time skip, Red is the film that pushes the Straw Hat Pirates’ current abilities further than any movie before it. The actual movie further emphasizes this by establishing that it takes place after the Wano arc with things like Zoro’s King of Hell Three Sword Style, Sanji’s Ifrit Jambe, and Luffy’s use of Gear 5. Those abilities and others are the culmination of everything the Straw Hat Pirates did during One Piece‘s time skip and beyond, and the movie does a great job of giving them their spotlight.

Src: screenrant.com