Usopp

Usopp (ウソップ, Usoppu), also known as King of Snipers Usopp (狙撃の王ウソップ, Sogeki no Ō Usoppu), is the sniper of the Straw Hat Pirates. When Usopp was first introduced, he was often (comically) labeled as the "Liar" of the Straw Hat Pirates, due to the "Uso" (うそ) in his name meaning "lie" or "falsehood". He is the fourth member of the crew, the third to join, and also the third to rejoin at the end of the Post-Enies Lobby arc. He is known with a bounty on his head by his alternate name and ego "Sogeking" (そげキング, Sogekingu'') His bounty is 30,000,000 berries.

Appearance

 * Voice Actor: Not Known (English), Kappei Yamaguchi (Japanese)

For most of the story, Usopp is a tanned, skinny teenager with black curly hair, orange lips and a long nose, which is apparently an allusion to Pinocchio, a wooden boy from a story of the same name who possessed a nose that would stretch after he lied. He usually wears a dark yellow plaid bandanna, a blue and white striped armband on his left arm, special Sniper Goggles, brown overalls with a white sash and no shirt underneath. He also carries with him a yellow satchel, which he stores all his tools and gadgets in. Usopp inherited his famous nose from his mother, while the rest of his face closely resembles his father's.

Post-Timeskip
After the 2 year time-skip, Usopp, has grown his hair longer. He has also gained more muscle and grown "manlier", being slightly taller and more muscular than before. Usopp now has a new pair of goggles around his neck and has some headphones or ear protectors on. He also now has a little goatee along with a new white suncap he wears on his head. He also has a new pair of rolled-up yellow pants with red suspenders, and a pair of boots. His trademark yellow satchel has been replaced with a red one, but he still has his blue and white striped wrist band on his left arm.

Personality
Usopp is one of the more sentimental Straw Hat Pirates, and cries or loses his temper in moments of emotional stress. At the start of the series, Usopp was an easily frightened, anxious, insecure, compulsive liar. Unlike Nami (whose cowardice is linked to just wanting to stay alive), Usopp's cowardice is the result of his fear and insecurity, especially when faced with uncertainty. Though Usopp is a coward by nature, he is able to put aside his fear during more desperate times: despite being afraid, he faces those fears for the sake of his friends and sometimes people he barely knows. Most of his lying was intended to make him feel better as Usopp is easily overwhelmed by his opponents, such as Aokiji, and usually runs from them. He is the first to come up with an excuse not to do something to avoid putting himself in danger. One of the most frequently used excuses is that he gets a disease named, for example, "Can't-get-on-this-island disease".

It is this which leads to his feud with Luffy - specifically his refusal to part with the ship he had come to love. This was the result of all his insecurities about his usefulness as a member of the crew culminating within him and finally exploding under the stress of having just been badly beaten by the Franky Family and then losing his ship. He was worried that since he is not as physically strong as compared to Luffy, Sanji, and Zoro, he was just a burden to the crew. Though he is very intelligent and a talented sniper, he had trouble seeing his better qualities and his strengths until the fight at Enies Lobby opened his eyes.

After meeting the giants Dorry and Broggy in the Little Garden arc, Usopp began to want to travel to Elbaf one day and meet the proud warriors there. Usopp gave his first glimpse of understanding the ways of the warrior and the pride of a duel during the giants' battle. As a result Usopp often sees the Elbaf warriors he has met in his travels as sources of inspiration in his journey to become "a brave warrior of the sea".

Throughout Thriller Bark, many members of the crew fell victim to the effects of Perona's negative powers, causing them to become incredibly depressed to the point where they can't move. However Usopp, though slightly effected by the power, got to his feet claiming he could not become negative, because he already is negative/depressed, even saying it in a brag-like way. Perona claimed he was the only person who was ever immune to her powers, to the point using her powers on him causes her to become severely depressed, so she fled from him in fear. After finding out about Ace's death, he developed the courage to escape and help out Luffy through the hardship or else he will not call himself a crewmate. Usopp shows an unusual lack of fear in his attempts to get off the island to rejoin Luffy, showing no hesitation in facing the giant beetle who was bigger than he was.[7

He also has a dislike for mushrooms, due to eating a poisonous one when he was younger.

After the time-skip Usopp becomes more confident in himself and boasts that he has become a warrior. When he met Nami in a bar, he showed no fear of the impostors with the guns, going as far as having his back to them. He now comically smacks people (mostly Luffy) more frequently when they annoy him or say something stupid.

Alter-Ego
Sogeking is Usopp's alter-ego developed during the Water 7 and Enies Lobby arc, when he left the crew. Later seeing the others trying to save Robin made him feel guilty for leaving, so he stated to Sanji and Franky that he cannot help them fight for this reason. He hastily 'disguised' himself in a mask and cape and began calling himself "Sogeking". During this facade, he sometimes dons a deeper voice which can be seen as the "true" Sogeking. Sogeking also refers to nearly everyone with a "kun" suffix (Luffy-kun, Zoro-kun, Chopper-kun etc.) and when asked of the whereabouts of the 'Island of Snipers' he supposedly comes from, maintains that it exists "in your heart". As Sogeking, he changes the name of his attacks from Japanese to English, such as the "Firebird Star" when shooting at the World Government flag. Everyone except for Luffy and Chopper already knew that Sogeking was Usopp at the sight of Usopp's significantly long nose. Onion, Carrot, Pepper and Kaya were able to recognize him, though they claimed no one else in Syrup Village did.

As his alter-ego Sogeking, Usopp was able to fight alongside the others without having to deal with his departure. During his time spent acting as Sogeking, Usopp began to realize that while he was one of the weaker crew members, his role as the crew's sniper and a supporting crew member made him more valuable than he thought. Ultimately, he was recorded as Sogeking on his bounty. The fact that Usopp himself is not technically wanted allows him to slip through enemy lines seemingly undetected, as shown when Oars originally let Usopp go because (being Luffy's shadow) Oars did not think Usopp was a target.

During his fight with Perona, Usopp showed signs of a split personality and even went so far as to argue inside his head with his alter ego over their situation. Although they are technically the same person, Sogeking in comparison to Usopp is much more confident and took over once Usopp adorned the mask again, only slipping back into Usopp once the mask came off. Whether or not Usopp is developing a multiple personality disorder is debatable and has yet to be confirmed by the author or within the story; though it is also possibly just a coping mechanism to help Usopp deal with the stress of the situation.

During the Straw Hats' return to Sabaody Archipelago, when Usopp and Nami face four of the Impostor Straw Hat Pirates, Usopp sees the mask worn by the Fake Sogeking. While he says "Sogeking", it doesn't indicate whether he is merely surprised that someone is impersonating him or actually believes it is the real Sogeking. Although when he reunites with Chopper, Usopp and Nami tell Chopper that they are impostors.

Friends/Allies

 * Kaya
 * Usopp PIrates
 * Carrot
 * Onion
 * Pepper
 * Straw Hat Pirates
 * Monkey D. Luffy
 * Roronoa Zoro
 * Nami
 * Sanji
 * Tony Tony Chopper
 * Nico Robin
 * Franky
 * Brook
 * Zeff
 * Nefeltari Vivi
 * Kureha
 * Boa Hancock
 * Jimbei

Family

 * Yasopp (father)
 * Banchina (mother; desceased)

Neutral

 * Dracule Mihawk
 * Smoker

Enemies

 * Marines
 * Smoker
 * Sentomaru

Abilities and Powers
According to Oda in a discussion with Tanaka Mayumi, Luffy's voice actress, regardless of who joins the crew, Usopp will always be the weakest of the Straw Hats when it comes to physical strength since otherwise it might upset the balance of the story. Oda also states that this is because Usopp is the closest in strength to a regular human compared to the others and thus this portrayal can be easily related to by the average person's own strength (though it is implied that his physical strength has increased during the two years away from the crew, this has yet to be proven). His attributes mainly lie in his ability to hit nearly everything he sets his eyes on with his slingshot.

Usopp's role in the crew is that of the marksman, and also a jack-of-all-trades. Since early in the series, he was shown to have inherited much of his father's exceptional marksman skills. In a challenge to shoot a weathervane shaped as a whale that was far off in the distance, he managed to shoot the crown of the whale which even the amazes the best marksman in the marines. His abilities mainly rely on his resourcefulness and understanding towards engineering (easily analyzing the tunnel networks made by Miss Merry Christmas), using the cannons of the ship with great ease. His marksmanship is nearly unmatched, hitting the government flag albeit under the persona of Sogeking. Another one of Usopp's attributes is that he is a fast runner. In battle, Usopp uses hit-and-run tactics, and works best as part of a team where there are more physical fighters to watch his back. This is due to the fact that he is so high-strung and jumpy, and he often gives into his basic instincts of survival: fight or flight (usually choosing flight).

Prior to the introduction of Franky, Usopp served as the Straw Hat's sole unofficial gadgets and mechanics specialist. His creative engineering has resulted in the creation of both the Clima-Tact and Kabuto. He also appears to have some knowledge concerning chemistry, being solely responsuible for manufacturing the highly innovative slingshot pellets, or "stars", that he uses for ammunition. For other more complex activities, such as acting as the shipwright for the Going Merry, he is largely inexperienced, as he was barely able to keep the Going Merry going using patchwork repairs. As Franky pointed out, his skills are amateur and he barely knows how to use a hammer correctly for such jobs. After Franky joined the crew, Usopp gladly let him take over the reins of maintaining the ship even agreeing to Franky's request to assist him. In return Franky provided a workshop for Usopp to work on his gadgets and creations, something he's more at home with. Even Franky admitted that his skills in gadgets are considerable.

After a major battle, Usopp tends to have severe injuries often caused by his determination to reach his goal. He will attempt to continue even with his injuries. A prominent example of his incredible durability can be observed when Usopp was hit in the face by Mr. 4's 4-ton bat, and not only survived, but was able to continue fighting.

Usopp is also a great artist, as he proved in the beginning of the series when he made his and the Straw Hat's Jolly Rogers in response to Luffy's poor art skills. A running gag involves Luffy and Chopper building simple snowmen or sand castles only for Usopp to show off his vastly superior skills with a professional work of his own. He also boasted, just like Luffy and Sanji, that he has never been ill during his life (which impressed Vivi). Usopp used to make spiders fight when he was young and knows how to handle them without being bitten by their fangs and being poisoned in the process.

Usopp Tactics
Usopp has outstanding marksmanship abilities with his weapon of choice, the slingshot which is the primary reason why he serves as the Straw Hat's Sniper and is often tasked with anything that needs precision at a distance, most notably the Thousand Sunny's Gaon Cannon. His slingshot is his primary form of combat, and he has many different types of ammunition which he carries in a large shoulder bag. He uses eggs to blind opponents and rocks when he runs out of ammunition.

Usopp has other attacks unrelated to projectiles, though they are mainly jokes. These include the 5 Ton Hammer and others. After the Skypiea arc, he has started using dials for attacks such as using the Breath Dial to house explosive gas, using the Flash Dial to blind his foes, and using the Impact Dial to absorb and reflect blows.

Usopp improves his sight with special goggles. He purchased an upgraded pair in Loguetown, but the actual scene of him purchasing them was cut out in the 4Kids dub. The scene was also absent in the original manga due to a lack of room. Since the timeskip, he has since discarded these goggles, and gained a new pair which he typically wears around his neck.

Kabuto
In the Enies Lobby arc, Usopp introduced a new weapon, the "Kabuto", a slingshot with five bands connected to a long staff. It has much greater power than his normal slingshot because it is powered by Skypiean Dials. Its range is enormous, and Usopp can use it to strike individual targets quite accurately from seemingly impossible distances.

The exact workings of the Kabuto are unknown, except that the five bands increase stability (and thus range), and the Dials in the instrument add spin to the ammunition similar to rifling to increase damage and accuracy, as well as allowing Usopp to choose a variety of different Dial effects to add to each shot.

After the timeskip, he uses a new slingshot called "Black Kabuto", which retains the five band design of the original "Kabuto", with the only difference being the color and a smaller size (wheres the original was a staff, the new one is no bigger than a regular slingshot).

Pop Greens
After the time skip, Usopp is shown to be quite adept with using Pop Greens as shown when he defeated some of the Impostor Straw Hat Pirates by creating a carnivorous plant that resembled a monstrous venus flytrap with tendrils. During the Fishman Island arc, he also manages to save the crew and the Thousand Sunny from being crushed by boulders by using pop greens to grow sea weed like plants to trap the boulders.

Hope Born From a Lie
Usopp was born in Syrup Village. When his father Yasopp joined "Red-Haired" Shanks' crew, Usopp was left behind with his mother Banchina. Because Banchina was very sickly, Usopp often yell that pirates were coming in the hopes that it would strengthen her spirits enough to keep her alive. After she died, he just continued to do so because of the pain of having lost both parents one way or another, leaving himself alone.

Many of the villagers made a show of chasing him and throwing things at him for running through the town, but they were used to his antics. Some villagers even used his daily run through town as a sort of alarm clock. Aside from his cries of pirates attacking, he also made up stories about adventures to entertain Kaya, a young girl he met who had also lost her parents, and was sick and had to stay in bed all day.

Usopp called himself a pirate and took in three younger kids, Carrot, Onion and Pepper, as his "crew" which he dubs the "Usopp Pirates".