Who’s Carrot? Listen, I have a hard enough time remembering people’s names at parties. How the hell am I supposed to remember who’s who in One Piece, the biggest of the Big Three, a show with over one thousand episodes and counting? Cut me some slack.
Forreal though, who is Carrot?
Carrot is a mink. Yes, I know she looks like a rabbit and not a cute little ground weasel that you make coats out of, but stay with me. Minks in One Piece are a race of cute and fuzzy humanoids with mammalian features that live in the Mokomo Dukedom on the island of Zou—which is not really an island at all, but a small civilization built on the back of an absolutely gigantic prehistoric elephant named Zunesha. The Minks have lived on Zou for over 1,000 years, completely untouched by outside civilization—until one straw-hatted rubber boy decided to f*** it all up.
Carrot is just one of the many minks that live in the Mokomo Dukedom. She’s one of the few that holds political office however! Carrot is what’s known as a kingsbird, an official messenger between the two rulers of the Dukedom. The Dukedom’s official sovereign is Duke Inuarashi, who rules the place from 6:00AM to 6:00PM, and the land falls under the jurisdiction of Nekomamushi from 6:00PM to 6:00AM—at least, until Carrot took over for both of them. But we’ll get to that later.
Due to her animalistic nature, Carrot has some quirks. The rabbit girl really loves gnawing on things, people included. She’s also fiercely protective of her people, and will throw paws with anyone who attempts to mess around with the inhabitants of Zou. She is also naive about the outside world, and has almost zero knowledge about how things work outside of the island. Despite her lack of knowledge of worldly affairs, Carrot is exceedingly cunning and clever, and her ingenuity was vital in the Straw Hats’ rescue of Sanji from the clutches of Big Mom.
What are Carrot’s abilities?
For starters, she’s got rabbit powers. She’s extremely fast and agile, and was able to easily dodge a sword slash from master swordsman Zoro. As for jumping, she can break the laws of Newtonian physics. She is able to jump in midair. Yes, the girl can double jump, like a Smash Bros. character. Her job as a kingsbird gives her Naruto Uzumaki levels of stamina, and she is able to run and jump around all day and all night. She’s the closest thing to the Energizer Bunny that the world of One Piece has.
As a member of the Mink tribe, she also possesses what’s known as a “sulong form.” When looking at the full moon, she is able to transform into a heightened state of being that brings her speed, strength, and stamina through the roof. It’s essentially the Mink tribe’s version of Luffy’s Gear shifts. The Minks also have an innate ability to produce electrical currents from their bodies, and Carrot is no exception. This ability is known as “Electro,” and it too becomes exponentially more powerful while in sulong form. The only drawback to sulong form is that overuse of the transformation leaves the user exhausted and unable to fight. Even the Energizer Bunny needs to be recharged every once in a while.
In her youth, Carrot was a member of the Inuarashi Weapons Squad, where she was trained to use a sword. She lacked talent with the weapon, however, and her mentor gave her a pair of clawed gauntlets instead. These gauntlets are no joke, able to easily clash with Zoro’s swords. Carrot is also able to channel her Electro through them, effectively transforming them into a pair of pointy taser gloves.
What’s Carrot up to now?
After venturing forth from the island of Zou to help the Straw Hats rescue Sanji, Carrot returned to the Momoko Dukedom as somewhat of a celebrity. Unlike other One Piece rulers who remain in power through nepotism and tyranny *cough* World Government *cough,* the rulers of the Momoko Dukedom are decided by merit. After proving her mettle during the Sanji Retrival Mission, the twin rulers of the Momoko Dukedom decided to relinquish their positions and name Carrot as the new ruler of the tribe. It pays to leave home every once in a while.
(featured image: Toei Animation)
