What Everyone Gets WRONG About Captain Kuro

the man of the 100 plans, but nobody said that they must be good plans

Kuro: plots endlessly
Claws people, friends alike
Has no real friends
Destroys his furniture
Throws a hissy fit
He’s a cat.

To this day I think the most obvious joke throughout the arc should've been to gradually demote Kuro from 100 plans, to Kuro of 50 plans, then Kuro of 10 plans and lastly, Kuro of the hastily drawn plan.

You know Kuro is good at hiding when even your final spot on the tear-list has him hidden behind the thumbnail of other videos!

I like how in Usopp's arc the antagonist is a man who lies not just to everyone else but most of all himself about his own stupidity. Nicely contrasting it with Usopp who is honest with himself and knows his shortcomings.

The only thing that actually sticks in my mind about kuro is his goofy glasses adjustment

Well Oda did a drawing requested by fans on chapter 1090 of Kuro reading a book with some black cats. So at least people didn't forget him

Kuro poisoning Kaya in the live action is genuinely an improvement

I heard a theory by The Crap Cafe on YT some time ago that I liked
It was stating that Kuro is not only early version of CP9 like you said, he was a CP9 agent like who's who, he is the right age to be on a mission of guarding Gomu Gomu no Mi, he has shown one technique that is very similiar to rokushiki, and his motive would actually make sense
Government wants you dead because you failed a very important mission, you become a pirate, being a pirate is too much of a chaotic life so then you make use of your secret agent skills to get yourself a comfortable life, because he never wanted to be a pirate in the first place, it was out of necessity and Kuro did just ran away, he is still somewhere out there on the loose
I'm not saying that it's 100% truth, but a fun idea I do see as a possibility to expand this character one day

I always saw Clawhador as a gifted man who thought of himself as a genius.
He is genuinly clever, but not as clever as he believes.
This led to overcomplicated plans that overlooked obvious flaws, either because he was lost in planing the details, or because he believed in his ability to improvise if necessary.

The saddest part about Kuro is that he's supposed to have so many plans, yet NONE of them was to "just wait until the straw-hats leave" before attacking the village... I swear, He waited all those years as a fake butler but couldn't think about waiting a bit more?
Imagine if he saw Luffy and the rest the first time, stopped, and thought "you know what? These kids might end up ruining my plan... better wait until they leave" and then he wouldn't have Luffy to beat him. Usopp would probably leave with the strawhats anyways, taking the boat just the same.
Literally he could've won if he waited a week or something, it's just sad. that village had NO ONE to defend it otherwise, other than the 3 kids. lol

I think Captain Kuro subconsciously hates himself, he hates pirates, he ended up becoming a pirate, and when he does anything pirate-like he subconsciously sabotage his own plans.
Kuro is conflict of what he wants, survival, and to what he needs, peace. His want for survival is caused by his reputation as a pirate fearing for worst even if he was assumed captured that fear still persist as if something is after him. His need for peace is the goal of what he wants to achieve not to worry about that fear anymore but as soon as he implemented his 3 year plan he found peace unexpectedly as he fully committed to his role to actually liking the idea of being the unassuming Butler to the point that even the readers thought it was genuine.

The live action really improved Kuro I feel. Not only did he actually succeed in killing Merry, but making it so that he was poisoning Kaya over time made it feel like he truly was enacting a bigger plan.

Kuro actually appeared again pretty recently (like sometime in the past year) on a cover page petting a page.
Maybe indicating that he managed to retire cause he was kinda chilling there.

In DnD terms - he's basically specced in INT, DEX and STR, but dumped WIS and CON. Glass canon with no impulse control who thinks he's right all the time and doesn't second-guess himself, even when he should. After all, his main attack suits him incredibly well - lashing out at everything but himself.

This is why I like Kuro in the live action more. He works so much better as a serial killer chasing teenagers around a creepy mansion then as the dumbest master planner in East Blue.

I think a faster, haki-using Kuro would be an excellent Black Beard Pirate grunt.

Wasn't it implied or at least something we were supposed to take for granted that he caused her illness and would have killed her parents had it not happened by luck? Or at least I don't remember anything that speaks against it since her illness, for example, is purposefully cryptic. Though he is also a cat guy, so some luck probably makes sense

If I had a nickel for every cat themed shonen antagonist who was a surprise reveal halfway through the arc who only wanted a quiet life, I'd have two nickels which isnt a lot but its weird that it happened twice.

3 week break hits different 😭

I wish Captain Kuro would have come back to the story the same way Crocodile did..

Two things stand out about Kuro to me.
1.) For a character who is supposedly the second smartest character from the East Blue Saga (behind Benn Beckman) and who's whole schtick is that he's a master planner, his grand plan in the Syrup Village arc is rather nonsensical if you actually think about it... or rather, whenever we get more information about his plan, it contradicts previously established points about the plan and makes us wonder how Kuro thought things would play out in the first place. Like, it sounded like he wanted to build up a reputation of being a good man so that no one would suspect him of wrong-doing against Kaya, but his plan involves slaughtering everyone in town, plus having Kaya sign a deed that gives everything she and her family owned to Klahadore is incredibly suspicious to the point where you wonder why that's part of this plan and wasn't already taken care of before the pirate raid. Not to mention he keeps making dumb/idiotic decisions that actively hamper his plans, i.e. cutting down Merry because he suddenly got bloodthirsty yet didn't make sure he was actually dead to make sure he wouldn't tip off Kaya. I get the feeling that this was Oda's first time trying to write a smart character and hadn't fully worked out the kinks yet, preferring to write Kuro in such a way that he was cold, cruel and evil first, and *supposedly* intelligent second. I'd say he did a much better job writing smart, master planner villains like Crocodile and Doflamingo later on. That being said...
2.) What Kuro lacks in terms of not being as intelligent as he thinks he is, he more than makes up for in sheer intimidation. This was the first "serious" villain in One Piece; the villains we go before now, Buggy, Alvida, and even Morgan to an extent, had some comedic elements to them, Kuro has none. He's a pure, bloodthirsty monster, and Oda REALLY makes sure to emphasis that whenever possible. Even when his plans don't always make sense, Oda makes sure to have Kuro look as badass and scary as possible while either talking about them or making sure they play out, in particular when it comes to making sure his crew follow his orders. Really, while his plans are questionable, his fighting skills are still top notch, at least for that point in the series, to the point where Jango notes that Kuro hasn't lost his edge at all, despite being out of commission for three years, due to the fact that he still adjusts his glasses with the palms of his hands, as if he's still wearing his claw gloves. He's still not match for Luffy at the end of it all, but he's still quite imposing for an East Blue villain.

Oda has a habit of doing test runs of motifs earlier on in the series, I think as a way of figuring out what something more important down the road is gonna be / how it has be to represented. For example, the nameless background members of the Donquixote pirates that had animal features, a few arcs before getting to The Gifters in Wano.

I am so confused. It seems that he is like one of the few characters that the name was changed for in the german release...
Here he is know as "Captain Black" as well as "Beauregard" instead of "Klahadore"

This vid feels like an off handed sister piece to Crap Cafes video on the possibility of Kuro being a wash out of CP-9.
Probably just because he's one of the og villains in the series and speculation and interpretation of his actions and motives have just become a weird primordial consensus among long time readers but it's still interesting how much these two vids overlap
(Much love to Crap Cafe, he's a fresh voice in the OP YT space)

i like the idea that kuro is a mia cp9 agent, thats why he gets mad seeing his bounty posters, cause thats like a becon to the marines if they see it and reconize him

Your editing and illustration team is top tier.

"How long have you been on the seas? A week? A month? ...Is THAT what you want? A lifetime of always looking over your shoulder?" *chuckles darkly* "You'll NEVER get a peaceful night's rest, because someone's always waiting to slit. Your. THROAT."

That opening line was insane because I'm currently starting a list/plan of meals for the next week here.

Honestly, I do think he's smart, but that he has TERRIBLE impulse control and is far too arrogant. He's seen _some_ of his plan come to fruition and gone all "Well, nothing can stop it now!"
That's why he tries to kill Merry - it's impulsive bloodlust. He can't wait, he's been waiting too long, so he lets it take over.
That's why he tries to kill his crew - he literally throws a temper tantrum because, oh no, it can't be HIS fault his plan is failing! It MUST be them (also, he could easily have covered up Kaya's death by saying he got to her too late after the pirates had already had a falling out over something and killed each other or fled. Or pin it on Usopp and his father or something. There's 1000 excuses he can use that don't require him attacking the town. He just has to sell the story, and with everyone else dead, well, who's going to say it isn't as he says?)
He's smart, he's just much more arrogant and impulsive in contrast to his intelligence. Also, there's a reason why Wisdom and Intelligence stats are separate things~ Man went all in on the INT and dumped WIS.

Captain Kuro the comedy of a hundred shitty plans. Lol one piece early villians were weird and I loved it.😂

Let’s go another vid from the goat

This series has been amazing Liam!

Bro that was such a goated arc

Keep up the great work and videos Liam love the video

When Cavendish falls asleep, he transforms into a violent demon named hakuba that's extremely fast and attacks indiscriminately.
Captain kuro does this stupid stance where he rocks back and forth before he zips off and starts slashing.
Kuro is rocking himself to sleep mid battle to bring out a demon attack he doesn't fully understand.

Giving the people who messed up his bounty posters the benefit of the doubt, maybe he was issued many back to back bounty posters. This would kind of make sense with the narrative he seems to give of being worried about being captured and needing to lay low. Maybe he did a lot of back to back bad things.

Good video

Loving these videos! Waiting fot the Baggy one!

that kuro drawing by your artist’s might actually haunt my nightmares

Captain cold said it best 'make the plan,execute the plan, expect the plan to go off the rails, throw away the plan'

The Bountys can probably be explained by the lower ones being older ones perhaps? It's not like these bounty posters are magical and their value changes live on the paper.

I really hope he comes back in the manga, anime, and live action.
My dad, who I have gotten into One Piece successfully because we're watching the live action together, really loved how evil Kuro was in it.
Bring him back with haki, better moves, and a better evil plan.
Another thing too, as much as Kuro wants to live a normal life, he never will let himself do it. He's too evil and petty to blend in.

Captain Kuro, the ultimate example of "the Butler did it".

I really want to see a video on Magellan. Even if he is not really a _villain_ per se, he is certainly an antagonist who deserves a rating.

Another great analysis

captain kuro should have been a more important villian for a arc which is more important

I think of Kuro as a precursor to Crocodile. A super intelligent man tricking the people around him to take control. He just did it way worse

You know its a break week when you see a video about Captain Kuro pop up in your feed, havent watched yet but im sure ill enjoy

A true genius wouldn't need 100 plans. It's really that simple.

Why have i heard nobody talk about this until now?! It never occurred to me that Kuro was a baby disguised as a Genius. 11/10 vid Liam

What great timing! I literally finished my reread of syrup village last night.

Plz do Arlong next!

4:35 this made my day😂😂😂😂

Very Observant. Incredible video

My theory is that zoro was ment to be on Naruto but he got lost so now hes in one piece

Hmm character with an unknown number of past identities has a Hypnotist for a first mate? One who could literally change his personality and identity for him? Very interesting…

The theory that Kuro was a failed CP9 agent who is constantly on the run is one of my favorites

Great videos, also 25 minutes is so early

I love this series, Liam, and there's no shortage of material any time soon 😁

You have to watch Hidden Island’s theory about Kuro being a former CP9 agent, plays a lot into his deceit and split personalities. I’d love you to make a video about this theory

another fun video!~ i wanna see one done on Don Kreig!~ he was a fun villain for me because frankly he was the most piratey of the villains, he just purely believed in dirty tactics and frankly was monsterously strong

Kuro: Lies to himself and his lies don't come true.
Usopp: Lies to others and his lies come true.
Kuros ego fuels his arrogance, while Usopps Ego fuels his fear. The cool thing about Usopp though is his character development is him realizing that he has been above his fear the whole time, because although he is afraid he does rise above and follow his dreams.
It's also a bit funny that Usopp knows he is lying but they do come true, it's like his undeveloped haki is actually just seeing far into the future.

My headcanon is that he was a CP9 apprentice whose first and only mission was with Who's Who trying to capture the Nika fruit. He'd be the reason they escaped, and while WW went to Kaidou for protection, Kuro went to the weakest sea to hopefully blend in and disappear.
Think about it: his moves could be bastardized versions of the rokushiki, specifically Shave/Soru mostly.

“Kuro beat Kuro…his unearned belief in himself was his undoing” could be used to describe how Saturn handled everything on Egghead up until now lol

One interesting twist they could give the Syrup Village arc is if Kuro had Jango hypnotize him into actually believing he is someone else until 3 years later when Jango returned and let him revert back to his original personality.

Love how this video just recontextualized kuro for me lol, nice going

I always said that kuro kind of like fought himself because he had a conflicting emotions since he was emotionally invested in the plan so it's like a man of 50 plans each but they contradict each other. And I thought that he execute his evil part of plan when the straw hats were there because he was hoping to be defeated before he did anything, too bad to kaya. The reason I sought this was because of the projecting on usa. he really does hate his pirate self but yet his pirate self is uncontrollable since that was his persona which he adopted first which makes his butler persona a persona within a persona making it weaker yet he still wanted to do good.

This video Genuinely made me love Kuro, if only the manga explained it like you did

I’m loving this little mini series of videos that you’re doing. It’s a great refresher from what’s going on in One Piece at the moment. I look forward to the Lucci vid very much. Ty you making all these videos for us and letting us having a great platform and community to share our own One Piece ideas and theories.

Kuro said “I want to live a quiet life “ (Kira’s theme starts playing)

Now to head canon some justification!
Kuro had 'Klahadore' implanted by Jango's hypnotism as a separate personality, not separate identity there's a difference, when Jango showed up and he had to use 'Kuro' again, the lines started to blur, exacerbated by his cresent moon trigger, until 'Kuro' and 'Klahadore' both come out at once at the cliff side, 'Kuro' with bloodlust and rage 'Klahadore' wanting to protect his quiet life they end up slaughtering the pirates as a compromise between the personalities.

Liam you’re my favorite KRplusr, I come for the fictional pirate content but stay for your personality and humor every time. Each morning while I eat breakfast it’s a damn ritual to learn some more one piece lore through your videos. love ya !

do buggy & alvida next. :3

What if jango hypnotized kuro to think he was extremely smart and the captain of the black cats?

I'm loving the series, man. Do Moria next, please.

2:00 Maybe he is some failed version of CP9 trainee, sentenced to death by likes of lucci for his incompetence, having to take role of pirate just to survive on a seas. Maybe he despises pirates becouse he was from the birth teached to hate, and his pirate career reminds him of a reject that he is.
He used his pirate crew to escape to east blue, to conquer some unsuspecting island and having a peaceful life. He wasn't a genious or physicly skilled indyvidual. He was taught it, basic espionage in same camp lucci did it. He only managed to master soru and planning, but he was lacking in every other area

Always loved that kuro's alias was basically "claw a door" lol

A video that would never happen without a large break. Nicely done

The impression I got was that he thought himself a genius but really wasn't. He kept rejecting advice from the people who worked under him because "trust the plan", and all his plans were shit.

Kuro didn’t take into plan that he is so irrelevant that Jango became a way more popular/interesting character than himself. Truly worthy of three years to think about.

Thanks a lot. This probably the first time I've seen someone else acknowledge Kuro as the great villain that he is...! ❤👏👍

Kuro is shown as having effective plans in the past with the whole faking his own execution plan, and others making him a fairly well known pirate in the East Blue. His retirement plan was pretty good and would have worked if the magical rubber moron, the boy who cried wolf, a kleptomaniac, and a drunk samurai had not teamed up last minuet to throw maximum chaos into the mix. He even isolated Kaya to the point only 3 adults and 3 kids had any meaningful contact with her for several years. No one trusts Usopp, no one will believe the 3 kids, and the pirates killed Merry and Kaya. There was never going to be anyone around to question his story.

A three week black hole starts and we're already to Captain Kuro. Before the end we're going to see the truth of how Gaimon is actually Imu and bearer of the Hako Hako no Mi who had the One Piece inside him all along.

Dont think ive ever been this early for a liam video😀

Could we get a Johnathan video from the G-A arc? #2

Did not stop me from pushing up my glasses the same way he did throughout middle school

With the three-week break currently going on, I am hoping to see more of these in the meantime. They are so much fun!

One of the things that makes Kuro interesting to me is that, for all his talk about retirement and his self proclaimed genius plans, he shows throughout the arc that he's a pirate to the core.
His plan sounds ridiculous at every step until you realize that its how he operates. He hates pretending to be a butler, he hates having to deal with the villagers. He says he wants a peaceful life but hes warped the entire plan around a deep desire to pillage and plunder. Along every step of the way he 180s back to being a pirate no matter how much it sabotages him, it's who he is. He's lying to himself just as much as Usopp is when he calls his troop of 6 year olds a pirate crew.

3:15 no no, it would work even better if story made us as readers convinced that Ussop is a liar too. Or at least leave it as possibility

Hey I caught your scottish play/Lady M reference. Keep theSshakespeare up

@10:00 counter point: Jango's hypnosis can easily be broken given enough time, and people remember what they did while under jangos Hypnosis. So that plan would only be suitable for a short-term takeover.

Great video! The only question is... Kanjuro or Arlong next?

What if Kuro was onto something. Just like stormtroopers supposedly shoot randomly so the jedi can't predict it with the force, attacking with your mind off makes it so advanced observation haki becomes useless as the user attacking you isn't putting out a threatening glare similar to kid when he attempted to blast shanks or when katakuri killed the assassin when first introduced.

I remember playing one piece grand battle 2 on the ps2 and (i don't recall the details) when you played story mode with crocodile, you could fight kuro and crocodile tells him straight to his face that his plan sucks. That game was my introduction to one piece, so i was a bit oblivious to the workings of the story, but in retrospect, that was hilarious

Wait, wasn't Kulahadores plan to
1. Get Kaya to write the will.
2. Kill kaya
3. His pirates attack.
4. He kills his pirates and blames Kayas death on them and he's the hero who stopped them.
5. He becomes the new leader of the island (or at least the new rich person on the island). He truly wanted to have a peaceful life.
Maybe I'm completely misremembering.

GLR try not to use the phrase "mind-brain" challenge: impossible

11:40
That's actually a metaphor
He's too obsessed with his vision of hiimself and the world.
The same vision that slips away from it's place, not fitting the world just as much as his glasses slip from his head.
His obsession is what makes him violently reject new glasses, new vision. Despite it made specifically to fit his head.

I’d love to hear your opinion on a possible goat zoan that may be lurking in the shadows of imu with us now knowing about the demonic yokai powers and how zoan hybrid forms look oda may have been telling us without telling us for a very long time

About the bounty:
Imho the drop in the anime can be explained by having an older santed poster. I mean he was believed to be dead by execution, therefore all the wanted poster must have been quite old - and someone got rid of the most current one during the execution, but then missed the old one.
As for stampede; I haven't watched the movie ^^*, but can it be that his bounty got reset after the marine found out he's still alive? The official register might have dismissed his bounty (and it might have been paid out to Captain Morgan) and they had to create a new file, rather than admitting having made an error.
Note that Robins 20 year old poster or Dorry's and Brogy's 100 year poster, the marine never "confirmed" their deaths, so it makes sense they continue where the bounty used to be.