Romance in One Piece

[Dutchlad]

Ehm, first of all, i have no clue how romance would fit in this anime/manga at all.

The only thing that would come close would be boa hancock, but that will never happen except for in her head, if luffy would have agreed to marry her or god knows what that part wouldv been lame like hell, the whole reason it was good was because he rejected her so much or had no clue what she was going on about

So unless that kind of "romance" is good enough for you (id call it slapstick romance >_>) you wont ever see the romance you want in OP

[ReaperxKingx]

Romance in One Piece, well the only Romance I see thus far is Luffy and Hancock. Luffy too innocence to understand what love is. There is also another one, base off rumors of spoilers. One of Doflamingo's servants Baby 5 is attracted to Franky. Baby 5 has the ability to transform into any weapons and Franky complimented her, then we see her blushing.

[helonjr]

One Piece is really not the place where you'll find any romance. The only way I can see a hint Luffy being involved with someone is a possible time skip where his son/daughter is being born after he's dead (what I think will happen in the end). Kinda like the Roger story was. If that happens the mother would probably be Hancock, even though he's totally clueless now...

I love Nami, perhaps the best female character of all time but there's no way she'll ever be romantically involved with anyone within the Strawhats

[Rainbowman]

Originally Posted by helonjr

One Piece is really not the place where you'll find any romance. The only way I can see a hint Luffy being involved with someone is a possible time skip where his son/daughter is being born after he's dead (what I think will happen in the end). Kinda like the Roger story was. If that happens the mother would probably be Hancock, even though he's totally clueless now...

If Luffy is to have the same fate as Roger, then the mother to have the same fate as Portgaz D. Rogue should be Nami, NOT Hancock. Besides, Hancock doesn't even come close to resembling Portgaz D. Rogue the way Nami does.

Originally Posted by helonjr

I love Nami, perhaps the best female character of all time but there's no way she'll ever be romantically involved with anyone within the Strawhats

You'd be surprised what hints you could find with how much Nami cares for Luffy.

[Mistacloudstrife]

The relationship with everyone on the Sunny is already pretty damn strong. If Oda wanted to start up a romantic relationship between any of the crew, it wouldn't be unfounded. But the fact that most of the them, especially Luffy, are so immature, I doubt anything romantic would sprout. Right now they're on an adventure. And most especially at this moment, when the crew has more focus than ever before, romance would just get in the way and disrupt the flow of the manga/anime.

[Chiaki_chan]

honestly there are characters who are under the spell of one or one of the crew of Luffy ok but it is possible, for example, I can not be imagined Robin shy to a person by that she would love same with Nami

[GreyZone]

IF there will be any romance... it will probably be veeeeery close to the end of the manga/anime and will probably just have maybe half a chapter/half an episode of content.

But it is indeed possible.

[Chiaki_chan]

yes this is true at the end of the manga you're right ... it will be transformed into Shojo

[Hoodspirit]

Due to the lack of a chapter this week, why not taking a look at older threads.
It's been 4 years since the last post in this thread, time to check whether there was something new to talk about.
January 2013 was the time towards the end of the Punk Hazard, so we have Dressrosa, Zou and Whole Cake Island to talk about.

But before I go into the that I want to say something general first.
I'm not taking it seriously what Oda says when it comes to answering questions that deal with the future. This includes questions that deal with the past, but could strongly hint at something in the future. A creator doesn't spoil his own work, either by confirming or denying.
There have been 3 answers in the SBS that deal with possible romance talk:
SBS 32:
Question (shortened to the relevant part, for full question just check the wikia): Why in the hell did Luffy, Usopp and Chopper peek too?! (Bath scene Vivi and Nami)
Answer: Why, you ask? Well, that's because they are all healthy boys. I don't think there needs to be any other reason than that. But for Chopper, he might have done it just because everyone else was.

After that there was the famous question in SBS34 about whether a Straw hat will fall in love with a crewmember, with the answer being they are in love... with adventures. (with a comical notion that he liked his answer in brackets)
It is pretty much the only possible answer for him, to keep things vague and neither deny nor confirm what the question was about.

The last question came much, much later in SBS 54. The question why Luffy reacted strongly to Nami's body but not Hancock's.
The answer was a dragged out one that ended in comedy response as well, by scapegoating Usopp. Again this was pretty much an answer designed to say nothing that could trigger anyone.

Nothing of this shuts the door for romance.

Now my personal impression:
I don't think we will have a classic romance in the manga.
A classic romance progression, like we see it in the fanfictions, is out of place and would be way too long for the manga's pacing. A character confirming its feelings, not knowing whether to confess, some back and forth action to test the waters if it's mutual, .... this kind of romance seems pretty much out of question.
However, there are other ways which I wouldn't consider classical romance anymore, but would fit the style of the manga. It's the comedy route that goes along with the plot. We had that recently with sidecharacters. Baby 5 and Sai.

The base bonds between the crewmembers are strong, so it wouldn't need much to take a step further without anyone questioning it. 2 panels of comfort instead of just 1 for example.
Luffy would be ideal for a comedy approach that doesn't scare anyone off. For example: Bege (a family man) asking him a few question and he keeps responding in a misleading way (like 'of course we're going to stay together forever') with the other person hearing it.
In this manga we don't need much more than a spark anymore, while the rest gets cleared up later together with the plot or simply after it ended.

In a short I'ld say: Romance (classic), no. Picturing love is possible.

Now on to the new stuff.
Since the last post there has been a few things inside the manga that had love as a theme.
Like mentioned we had Sai and Baby 5 since then.
We even have a crewmember falling in love with Chopper and Milky.
Luffy said that it's generally okay for his crewmates to marry someone.

Spoiler for I'm unsure if anime viewers know this or not:

Bege is a doting father and his wife values him higher than her own mother.
Praline's love fore Aladine is greater than her affection for her mother as well.

We also have the appearance of Sabo and Koala with a well-developed bond, but there is no confirmation if there is love involved.

Spoiler for I'm unsure if anime viewers know this or not:

Sanji started to impress women. Namely Viola and Pudding. However, we lack an interaction with Viola post-Dressrosa arc and Pudding is still a complete wild card. So no love confirmation for Viola and Pudding is still far from it. But she should be mentioned after her breakdown, as a strong impression was made.

It's quite a lot actually for just 1 full arc, one mini-arc and the current arc being not resolved yet. Compared to the rest of the manga, the love topic experienced an acceleration.

One last thing I want to mention, I have the impression that the backlash against shippers is very strong in this fandom. It seems that normal character development for certain characters aren't properly mentioned anymore to avoid dealing with said backlash.

Spoiler for I'm unsure if anime viewers know this or not:

For example Nami's shown development in the Whole Cake Island arc. During the fight with Sanji vs Luffy she stood up against the captain's treatment (ridiculing the Pirate King dream and an over the top beating) in a toned-down version of Zoro, that reminded of the time Usopp vs Luffy in Water 7, saying that a line was crossed.
Or her not leaving the spot vs the incoming big army of BM, despite being offered to do so by Luffy. Despite her being one of the scaredy trio and unlike never before there was no reason to stay and fight, rather than going into hiding. As far as I remember, Nami only accepted life-threatening situations when she had a strong reason to do so. Fighting Doublefinger for Vivi, bringing Luffy to Enel with the waver or there would be no place to run to, or fighting Kalifa to get Robin back, bringing the drugged children to safety on PH.
That fight vs Big Moms army completely lacked a reason and she knew it was a lost battle beforehand.

I can only imagine that because Nami is usually part of shipping talk, that these big developments for her were left unmentioned, especially as the shipping partners were involved in these scenes.

If this keeps up, it hurts the none-shipping fan the most, as interesting discussion topics go by without being touched.