Who Are the Figarland Family in 'One Piece' & Who Are Its Members?

The characters we've seen in Oda's One Piece are truly amazing. They are diverse, intriguing, and - in most cases - loved by fans. On top of that, they are - generally - very well-written characters whose stories are always fun to explore. But, at other times, they are a mystery, and we don't know anything about them despite the fact that they have been introduced to the larger lore. One such example is the enigmatic Figarland Family, which was mentioned in the One Piece Film: Red, and in this article, we are going to tell who they are and… well… everything we know about them.

The Figarland Family is a mysterious family from the larger One Piece lore that was first mentioned in the One Piece Film: Red. The Five Elders mentioned the family in the movie, speculating that Uta, due to her connection to Shanks (as they did not know the whole story), could be a member of the Figarland Family, but that was never confirmed nor denied. No members of the Figarland Family have been identified, and no additional information about them has been revealed aside from the movie mention.

The rest of this article will focus on the Figarland Family and their role in the One Piece series. The Figarland Family is a mysterious bunch mentioned only in the movie, and because of that, we will tell you everything you need to know about them in our informative text. This article will contain some spoilers from the One Piece manga, so be careful how you approach it.

The Figarland Family is a mystery

Over the years, Oda has introduced many characters to his lore. Some of them are more important; some are less important. We usually know a lot about the former, but even the latter group has been covered quite well over the years. But, as Oda fans will know, the author is quite prone to actually producing mysteries, as the One Piece lore is still full of numerous names, titles, locations, and objects whose names we know and whose existence we are aware of, but about which we know absolutely nothing about.

We have already discussed some of these mysteries here and speculated about them, and this article is, as you might have deduced, going to be dealing with one such mystery. (Otherwise, this introduction would have been really, really dumb.)

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So, the mystery we will discuss here is the one of the Figarland Family. And while One Piece focuses on individual characters more than groups and/or families, some families make up the lore and are an important part of Oda's world. Just remember the World Nobles and their families, the Charlotte family, or the Donquixote family, all of which are important for the lore and essential to the story.

Even Sanji's and Luffy's families are relevant to the story, so you can see that families, in that aspect, aren't really something that should be ignored when One Piece is concerned.

Now, as far as the Figarland Family is concerned, there are several things we have to tell you. First of all, the family has not officially appeared in the series. In one sentence, they have only been mentioned in a movie, One Piece Film: Red. The ones that mentioned them are the Five Elders, which isn't really surprising, as these five geezers know everything about anything, so it shouldn't come as a surprise that they also know about the Figarland Family. But, as they usually are, they revealed nothing to us save for the fact that the family exists. But why did they even mention it, then?

Well, as fans know, One Piece Film: Red is about Uta, and while the movie itself is not a canon story, the characters depicted in it are (or have been made canon). This is why Uta is now a canon character, even though we probably won't be seeing much of her later in the story. So, in the movie, the Five Elders discussed a new threat that was Uta, and while talking about her, they mentioned that she could be a member of the Figarland Family. Why? Well, because of her connection to Shanks, but more on that later.

You'd think the movie would explore more of this later, but it did not. The Five Elders mentioned the Figarland Family in connection to Uta and Shanks, we've gotten confirmation of how the name is written in Japanese (フィガーランド家, in case you wanted to know), and… that's about it. No one mentioned them ever again, neither in the movie nor anywhere else, so we're actually left with two possibilities.

The first possibility states that the Figarland Family is unimportant and that it was just a non-canon addition to the script that will never be revisited. Knowing that One Piece is a large work, it wouldn't be strange that one such detail exists.

The Figarland Family would remain part of the larger lore, but we will never learn anything additional about them because they are not important to the story, and they've just been mentioned in passing. This would also imply that Uta is either not from the Figarland Family or that her true family history is unimportant for whatever reason you might think of.

The second possibility is that the Figarland Family is actually relevant but that the true nature of the family is an important moment for the plot, which is why Oda only hinted at their existence but wanted to leave the big reveal for later. Knowing Oda, this wouldn't be strange, as the guy is well-known for being a writer who likes to leave hints and clues before a big reveal in the series.

As things stand now, we don't know which of these possibilities is true, so we'll just have to wait out and see what the future has in store for us. Let us now see how the family could potentially be tied to Shanks.

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Shanks could potentially be a member of the Figarland Family

The story of Uta and Shanks is a strange one. Uta's story was tied to Shanks's, and we know she was first introduced as Shanks' daughter. When this was announced, fans became confused, as it had been taught that Shanks did not have a daughter or a family. Namely, we know that he was born 39 years before the present timeline, but he was found as a one-year-old baby in a treasure chest by the Roger Pirates, who took him with them and raised him as one of their own. It was never implied that Shanks had any known family, yet he suddenly had a daughter.

As far as we know, Uta was born 19 years before the present timeline in an unknown town. At some point, when she was two years old, Uta's birthplace was attacked by pirates, who not only pillaged the place but also killed Uta's parents and kidnapped the young girl, and took her with them.

While sailing, they stumbled upon Shank's Red Hair Pirates, who attacked them and took their loot. In one of the chests, Shanks found the two-year-old Uta smiling cheerfully. Remembering his own past, Shanks decided to take Uta in and adopt her as his daughter, taking her on his journeys and adventures. Since Shanks had absolutely no way of locating her family (not even knowing that they had been killed), he saw this encounter as fate and happily took her in.

So, this is the story of how the two of them met and how Uta became Shank's daughter. Now, the Five Elders mentioned that she could be a member of the Figarland Family due to her connection to Shanks. This tells us two things. First of all, the Five Elders probably did not know that Uta is Shanks' adopted daughter and not his biological daughter (they might have known which families were looted in the raid in which Uta was kidnapped, but that wouldn't really imply a familial relationship with Shanks per se). Secondly, this implies that Shanks is somehow connected to the Figarland Family.

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This would be a major reveal as it would provide us with some information about Shanks' past, and it would also mean that the Figarland Family will play an important part in the final saga. The Five Elders usually know more than they say, so why would this be an exception?

If the Figarland Family is part of the canon, we're probably in for a major treat related to Shanks and his past, but as we really have no clue whether the hint from the movie is just a coincidence or a foreshadowing of something bigger, we cannot say anything here. What we know is that the family exists within the larger lore and is somehow tied to Shanks, but whether that will be relevant or not is a mystery at this moment.