Marines / May, 2018 — Do High Bounties Actually Mean Anything Anymore?
In One Piece, bounties are treated like power levels, fear meters, and hype tools all at once.
But if no one actually hunts the biggest names… what are they really for?
Japanese fans argue that the bounty system itself might be fundamentally broken.
- “What’s the point of setting it that high if nobody hunts them?”
- “The bounty math makes no sense”
- “Admirals sitting around is the real problem”
- “Why even be a bounty hunter?”
- “But we DO see people getting caught”
- “The numbers themselves feel wrong”
- “Random side observations”
- “Logistics questions nobody answers”
- “The real optimal strategy”
- 👉 Why Japanese Fans Think This Way
- 👉 When Numbers Stop Driving Action, They Stop Meaning Anything
“What’s the point of setting it that high if nobody hunts them?”
1: Anonymous Pirate
What’s the point of setting it that high anyway?
Nobody goes to catch them.
3: Anonymous Pirate
It tells civilians how dangerous they are.
4: Anonymous Pirate
It’s basically just combat power.
7: Anonymous Pirate
Blackbeard got Ace’s 500 million though.
9: Anonymous Pirate
They should just make a bounty hunter ranking or something.
10: Anonymous Pirate
If there’s no one capable of catching them no matter how high it goes, it’s meaningless.
Are there even bounty hunters who could catch someone worth tens of millions?
46: Anonymous Pirate
>>10
Wasn’t Zoro basically like that before meeting Luffy?
“The bounty math makes no sense”
11: Anonymous Pirate
You get the same reward for beating Katakuri as beating 100 East Blue scrubs.
That’s such a sloppy setting.
No one’s gonna aim for high-value targets.
19: Anonymous Pirate
>>11
Is that how it works?
25: Anonymous Pirate
>>19
Didn’t even Buggy have like 15 million?
“Admirals sitting around is the real problem”
12: Anonymous Pirate
They just leave everything unattended because the Admirals sit around doing nothing.
24: Anonymous Pirate
>>12
This.
If regular soldiers go, they all just get killed.
It’s more efficient for an Admiral to go personally.
28: Anonymous Pirate
>>24
If a top guy moves every time against weaker pirates, it hurts their image.
28: Anonymous Pirate
www grass
That actually sounds exactly like something they’d say.
“Why even be a bounty hunter?”
14: Anonymous Pirate
If you’re strong enough to earn money in that world, isn’t becoming a pirate more profitable?
27: Anonymous Pirate
>>14
Pirates would try to recruit you instead.
31: Anonymous Pirate
>>27
And if you refuse, they’d probably kill you.
There’s probably bounty-hunter hunting too.
30: Anonymous Pirate
>>14
Zoro said he rejected Baroque Works’ offer, so non-pirate organizations recruit too.
“But we DO see people getting caught”
20: Anonymous Pirate
Didn’t someone catch a 50 million bounty in the latest chapter?
23: Anonymous Pirate
>>20
That was done by someone plotting a coup though.
“The numbers themselves feel wrong”
34: Anonymous Pirate
Only 1 billion for Katakuri feels cheap.
You could throw entire armies at him and it wouldn’t be enough.
He deserves 10 billion.
35: Anonymous Pirate
Bounties are basically Dragon Ball scouter numbers.
43: Anonymous Pirate
>>35
Then Sanji going up because of his dad’s money and family name is just sad.
Stop it.
“Random side observations”
37: Anonymous Pirate
It’s wild that Mihawk is the second most loyal Warlord to the Marines.
47: Anonymous Pirate
>>37
His attendance rate is high and he’s probably lonely.
He stalked Krieg just to kill time.
59: Anonymous Pirate
Zoro the pirate hunter (bounty 0 at the time) getting saved and still acting tough.
No wonder Nami punched him.
60: Anonymous Pirate
They really should introduce a strong bounty hunter already.
62: Anonymous Pirate
By the way, what are Yosaku and Johnny doing now?
64: Anonymous Pirate
>>62
They’re fishermen.
“Logistics questions nobody answers”
81: Anonymous Pirate
Can a wanted criminal catch another wanted criminal and get paid?
Wouldn’t they get arrested too when handing them over?
83: Anonymous Pirate
>>81
Pirates don’t get bounty money.
92: Anonymous Pirate
Is it dead or alive?
97: Anonymous Pirate
>>92
It literally says DEAD OR ALIVE.
93: Anonymous Pirate
How much is 1 Berry worth in yen?
99: Anonymous Pirate
>>93
1 yen.
101: Anonymous Pirate
Come to think of it, Smoker only catches weak pirates.
He hasn’t caught a single big name.
“The real optimal strategy”
21: Anonymous Pirate
The system basically rewards farming weak pirates nonstop.
That’s the optimal play in this sloppy setting.
No wonder Mihawk came to East Blue.
👉 Why Japanese Fans Think This Way
Japanese readers don’t treat bounties as pure hype.
They read them as part of an in-world system — and once you do that, the cracks become obvious.
If high numbers don’t change behavior, resource allocation, or strategy, then the system feels fake.
👉 When Numbers Stop Driving Action, They Stop Meaning Anything
To many Japanese fans, bounties stopped being “rewards” a long time ago.
They’re danger labels, power meters, and narrative shorthand — but not functional incentives.
That gap between numbers and action is exactly what keeps coming up again and again.
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