Gashapon: One Piece Nyan Piece Mascots

Gashapon are one of my favorite things about Japan! I would love to be able to walk down the street and check out the new toys in the capsule machines. Furthermore there is no stigma involved that these tiny toys are only for children, which explains why you can get toys from all sorts of franchises.

Today I am going to write about a gashapon series from one of my favorite anime. For years I was not interested in One Piece at all, but now I am up to date with the manga and I am always catching up with the anime. Due to its huge popularity in Japan, there are regular One Piece gashapon releases, but in January Bandai totally hit it out of the park with this adorable and creative Nyan Piece Mascots series. If anybody important at Bandai is reading this: I would absolutely not mind having a second series with more characters!

Monkey D. Luffy

Luffy, captain of the Strawhat Pirates, is being his pure-hearted self by checking out a cat’s favorite meal first. In his yellow kitten suit he is munching on a lilac colored fish. He is adorable beyond words! You cannot move his head or any other limbs, but they are pure figures-no holes for keyrings, which I really like!

Portgas D. Ace

Luffy’s brother Ace is wearing the same type of cat suit in a bright strawberry red. His pose is also practically the same as Luffy’s with the only difference that he is not already nibbling on his turquoise fishy. In comparison to Luffy, Ace’s paintjob is a little sloppy. Of course this could just be the case with my figure. If you know the anime, you will know that it is kind of a big deal to have new Ace merchandise. I love the fact that the franchise is acknowledging his importance and this attachment to its characters is typical for One Piece!

Nami

In One Piece Nami is Luffy’s third nakama and I love her character a lot! In recent years the way she is drawn is in a typical shounen voluptousness and I am going to be honest: Not knowing about tropes in anime, I had my prejudices. Nami is the navigator of the group, has mad fighting skills and knows how to flaunt her femininity for her own benefit. That’s why her outfit is more tongue-in-cheek with this literal black catsuit and lots of cleavage. Nami, being aware of her character, is sticking out her tongue and having her typical cheeky expression. She is also wearing black kitty ears, her paws are white and there is a cute red bow on her tail. The mould of Nami’s red hair is not flawless, but I can excuse anything Nami-related.

Sanji

Sanji, the ship’s cook, is known to love the ladies and to fall in love very easily. As you can see from his figure, he is not the best at hiding his feelings, when love strikes again for Mister Sanji! He is the only one wearing a bell around his neck and sitting in a typical cat-like manner. The mould of the top of his cat suit is basically the same as Luffy and Ace’s, although it is recolored in black and white with the nice touch of having heart shaped eyes like the actual Sanji inside of his costume. That’s the thing about so many gashapon: They lure you in with their details!

Trafalgar Law

Law is the biggest kitten of the bunch and wearing a tiger suit! He is a moody and serious character, which is pretty obvious from his downcast eyes and grumpy expression. Law seems to be a quite popular character, since you will see him in a lot of One Piece merchandise. They definitely also overdid themselves on this one because his yellow and black tiger suit with the fluffy white whiskers is super adorbale! Who would not discover a love for grumpy little tigers?! See! 😀

This sums up all figures of these kitties, but I would love to get the rest of the crew in a similar release. Zoro, Robin, Usopp, Brooke, Franky and maybe Carrot or Sabo?! Please, Bandai, make it happen! 😉

Are you a fellow One Piece fan or did you watch it, when you were a kid? Thank you so much for reading!

Theri