Uta of One Piece

Uta was the foster daughter of Shanks and a world-famous singer with the nickname Diva (jap. 歌姫, Utahime). She was the antagonist of the 14th One Piece movie.

Appearance

Uta was a young woman with fair hair that was white on the left side and red on the right. She had tied her hair into two long horse braids, each ending in two loops. Two more long strands of hair extended from the back of her head to her ears, where she wore some sort of headphones. Furthermore, she had purple eyes and a pale skin tone. She wore a white, very short dress that only reached just above her waist and a bow around her neck. There were also two black buttons on the front. Over this she wore a very loose bomber jacket with a hood. This was pink and white on the left side and on the hood and red and white on the right side. The sleeves and the bottom of the jacket were decorated by turquoise, yellow and pink lines, each separated by a white one. She also wore high, unusual shoes.

To match her hair color, she was occasionally seen with a pair of wings in pink (right) and white (left) on her back. However, she could only create these in her singing world.

Personality

Uta was a peace-loving, cheerful person and always optimistic. She was very empathetic and was very moved by messages from her fans. Their experiences with pirates, as well as her own years of believing that the redshirt pirates would have left her behind back then, shaped her so much that she basically hated pirates and wanted to end the great pirate age. She basically wanted everyone to have a level playing field, even World Nobles to be equal to other people in her imaginary world. For this, she was willing to sacrifice her own life, even if it meant that people’s consciousness would have been trapped forever in her imaginary world.

This shows her strong black and white thinking, because when her fans learned the truth and disagreed with her because they wanted to go back to reality, Uta couldn’t comprehend this and went a step further by turning people into toys and other things so that they themselves would become part of her show. At this point, however, she wasn’t really in control of her emotions and facial expressions either, as eating the wax mushrooms affected that as well.

When Tot Musica was defeated, though, she realized that there were other pirates out there, and that people were strong enough to survive in a dark world. She last believed that Luffy would become Pirate King and make a difference.

Uta was very fashion-conscious and this already as a child. But she also displayed the typical behavior of a diva and refused to get dirty and loved jewelry. With Luffy she always had to duel and since she usually won, she could also be very condescending towards him.

Skills & Strength

Uta was dubbed the best singer in the world and she had eaten from a devil fruit of the type Paramecia, the singing fruit. However, it is not known whether her extraordinary singing voice also came from the singing fruit. With this she was able to transport the consciousness of all humans, as well as all animals that listened to her, into an imaginary space in which Uta herself was almost omnipotent. Meanwhile, in reality, the bodies of her victims fell into a deep sleep. In the imaginary world, it was easy for Uta to capture the entire Straw Hat Pirates, Charlotte Oven and Brûlée, and the Jellyfish Pirates all at once. Just by clapping, she could summon vast numbers of musical note warriors to fight for her and obey her commands. But even in reality, the sleeping bodies obeyed her and so she could give them orders, which they carried out while sleepwalking.

The weakness of the Devil Fruit is that maintaining this imaginary world takes a lot of strength, which is why Uta quickly fell asleep in reality. As soon as this happens, everyone’s consciousness returns to reality and the bodies awaken. Through so-called waking mushrooms, Uta was able to eradicate this weakness, as it is no longer possible for one to fall asleep after eating these mushrooms. However, the after-effects of eating them are devastating and lead to death. Should the user die this way, everyone will be trapped in the imaginary space forever.

Another aspect of the song fruit was the possibility of summoning the demon king of the same name through the score “Tot Musica”, which, however, took possession of you and could wipe out an entire kingdom in just one night. The demon connected the imaginary space as well as the real world, thus existing in both worlds simultaneously. If the user of the Song Fruit failed to fall asleep or died in Uta’s planned manner, it could lead to the downfall of the entire world. However, since the demon connected the two worlds, it also created a new way to get back to reality from the imaginary world. If one defeated him in both worlds at the same time, one could come back. However, he was so strong that it took two emperor gangs and other strong fighters to defeat him.

Past

Once the redhead pirates attacked another pirate ship, sank it and stole their treasures. However, in one crate they discovered Uta, who was still a toddler. Shanks took Uta in and she became a member of the Redshirt Pirates as a musician. Thus, she was also aboard the Red Force when the Redshirt Pirates docked on Dawn Island in Foosha Village over twelve years ago. By that time, she had already eaten from a Devil Fruit. It was also in the Foosha Village that she met young Monkey D. Luffy, and although they were very skeptical of each other at first, they became good friends and spent a lot of time together. They were constantly in competition.

During one of these competitions they even got dangerously close to the Stinkfish, but managed to escape unnoticed once again. One day Uta also told Luffy her dream, but from an expedition of the red pirates, even before Luffy ate from the Devil Fruit, Uta did not return with them to the Foosha Village. They went to Elegia, the Kingdom of Music, where Uta would continue to learn to sing. Shanks noticed that she liked it there and offered that she could stay there instead of being a pirate, but Uta herself wanted to continue to be the musician of the redhead pirate gang.

Whereupon Shanks said that they would then go on together again the next day. That evening, however, she sang one last time for the guests and her voice reached the sheet music to “Tot Musica” locked under the castle and they found their way to Uta. Uta then sang the song and unleashed the Demon King, who took possession of Uta and killed all but the redhead pirates, King Gordon, and Uta herself. The kingdom was destroyed in just one night. Shanks asked Gordon to tell Uta and the navy that the red-shirt pirates were the culprits, which he did, whereupon it was so spread in the newspapers. The pirates finally left Elegia, leaving Uta there. She was raised there by Gordon in the following years and trained as a singer.

Two years ago, a video transmissionThe Den Den Mushi stranded on Elegia and Uta started spreading her songs to the world. Within no time, she managed to gain fans all over the world. They turned to her for help, and this is how Uta learned of the cruel world outside of Elegia. However, the world government and navy also became aware of her and noticed her powers. Then a year later, Uta discovered a transmission snail and found out for herself what really happened that tragic night and it wasn’t the redhead pirates.

Present

Even though she was known as the world’s best singer, she had never performed live in front of an audience. For her first live performance, fans traveled from all over the world to see and hear her. In the process, she was able to draw civilians, pirates, and the Navy alike. Shortly after her concert began, Luffy then jumped on stage.

However, the joyous reunion was interrupted by the appearance of the Jellyfish Pirates, as well as members of the Big Mom Pirates, who planned to kidnap the singer. The Straw Hats rushed to her aid, but Uta soon showed that she didn’t need any help and defeated the Jellyfish Pirates, Oven, and Brûlée using her devil powers. Afterwards, she showed everyone her abilities and said that her concert would never end, the meaning of which the Straw Hats did not understand until later. Uta had already captured everyone present, and even people on distant islands, in her virtual world through the transmission snails. Thus she succeeded in immobilizing the Straw Hats.

With Bartolomeo and Law’s help, Luffy managed to escape her, but they had to figure out the secret of Uta’s powers in order to defeat her. Together with the civilians or her fans, she pursued the fugitives, starting a pompous procession. In parallel, her musical note warriors flew around the entire island, patrolling. After a brief encounter, the pirates managed to escape once again, speaking to Gordon earlier. Even Gordon did not support Uta and so she immobilized him as well.

She showed him the sheet music to “Tot Musica” and when the navy appeared, led by Issho and Momonga, her plan was revealed. She had eaten of waking mushrooms and wanted to die without falling asleep, which would leave all her victims in her world forever. Thus, while the bodies would perish, the souls would live on forever in peace. Furthermore, she revealed that she could make her sleeping victims sleepwalk, which allowed her to capture most of the marines present in her world as well.

While the trapped Straw Hat Pirates managed to escape from their predicament with the help of Blueno, Koby and Helmeppo, their fans realized the truth and complained loudly that they wanted to go back to reality. Uta couldn’t comprehend this, having heard and granted all their wishes, so she took it a step further and turned the fans into colorful objects, making them part of her show themselves. Meanwhile, Koby’s group sought out Luffy, Law, and Bartolomeo, and they explained Uta’s abilities to them.

They didn’t have much time before Uta would die, however, and through the transmission slugs, in just another hour she would manage to trap 70% of the entire world’s population in her world and with her death, imprison them there forever. Through information in the basement of the castle, Nico Robin was able to learn of a way to escape the world. Tot Musica had to be summoned by Uta and defeated in both worlds at the same time, and in distress, Uta summoned the demon by singing with the notes to Tot Musica.

While in the virtual world Luffy’s group then took up the fight against Tot Musica, in reality Shanks fought the demon. Meanwhile, although Gordon had told Uta that she was the trigger in the destruction of the kingdom twelve years ago, she already knew this and never let go of her plan. Luffy then went over to Gear 4 while everyone else held off the Music Note Warriors. Shanks, meanwhile, got help from Katakuri, who could see what his sister Brûlée saw in the other world because of his Observation Shaki. In contrast, Usopp could see what his father saw in reality and shared the information with everyone else. Thus, on both sides, everyone worked together, fighting individual parts of the demon’s body at the same time, one after the other.

Finally it was up to the captains Shanks and Luffy to defeat the head. Shanks with a sword and Luffy his Gear form then went on the attack and finished off the demon. However, even though the enemy was defeated, the souls were still trapped while their bodies in reality stopped listening to Uta and continued to attack the Marine and Redshirt Pirates.

Shanks handed Uta, who was weakened in his arms, medicine to neutralize the effects of the guard mushroom and save her, however Uta slapped it away. In order to save everyone, she had to sing so that their souls would migrate back into their bodies. As the musician of the redhead pirate gang, she then sang a song again, which was broadcast to the entire world. The souls thus returned to the bodies and all were saved, but still asleep. However, the navy then demanded that the redshirt pirates extradite Uta, which the pirates refused to do. After Shanks’ use of king shaki, the navy let go of Uta and sailed away again. With one last song, she woke everyone up again.

However, by eating the waking mushrooms and refusing the medicine, Uta apparently died. The redheaded pirates sailed away with a coffin on which was the flag of the redheaded pirates and looked down sadly. Luffy, awakening and watching this from afar, turned his gaze downward sadly as well and turned away. However, her songs outlasted this and were played all over the world, and so Uta’s dream came true after all. With her music, she made everyone in the world happy.

Miscellaneous

• Oda created Uta as the main character for the film because, in his own words, he was tired of drawing old legendary men and preferred to draw a girl. He referred to characters he created for movies and TV specials such as Byrnndi World, Shiki or Zephyr.
• Jump GIGA Summer 2022 featured an illustration of Uta, drawn by Demizu Posuka, the mangaka of The Promised Neverland.