One Piece / Chekhovs Gun

Eiichiro Oda is not one to waste detail. Everything comes into play; even seemingly insignificant details of character design play roles later on. As the saying goes in the fanbase, "Oda never forgets".

Nami is seen in the first episode of the series, before even Luffy himself is introduced, but isn't introduced until the Buggy the Clown arc. She's also in the very first color spread in the manga, before either she or Zoro appear in the story.
Chapter 5 introduces Zoro's backstory and his oldest friend Kuina, who died tragically. He inherits her family's sword. That sword is revealed to be one of the greatest swords ever forged. Kuina's father once gave the boy on a lecture on the art of cutting steel with one's sword. Come chapter 1033, 1028 chapters later and 17 years in real life, it’s revealed Kuina and her father are descendants of Wano, a land of great swordsmen and women. Her grandfather is the great blacksmith who forged that very sword.
- In an SBS in Volume 92, anthropomorphic representations of Zoro's three swords at the time are drawn. Wado Ichimonji (the Tragic Keepsake of Kuina) is drawn with a pointy unibrow, topknot hair swept to the side, and a tall nose. In Chapter 1033, We see that the swordsmith himself, Kuina's grandpa Shimotsuki Kozaburo, looks like an older version of this anthropomorphic representation (also implying he really put his heart and soul into it).
The undeniable king of Chekhov's Gunmen is Silvers Rayleigh, who showed up, unnamed, for two panels on one page of Chapter 19, in a flashback. He’s not seen again for ten years of real-world time, in Chapter 500, where despite being older is entirely recognizable, and turns out to be an extremely important person, both to the plot and to the world of piracy in general.
Buggy the Clown tends to drop in once in a while just as the audience has forgotten about him. He's one of the early Big Bads, giving Luffy an actual challenge due to his countless knives and Devil Fruit powers. At the end of the first saga, he comes back for an attempt to take revenge on Luffy, only prevented from decapitating him when he is struck by lightning. He follows Luffy to the Grand Line, appearing now and then. In the Impel Down arc, he's forced into an Enemy Mine with Luffy. By the end of the Marineford arc, he's invited to join the Seven Warlords of the Sea and thrives during the two-year timeskip as the chairman of the Buggy's Delivery mercenary company until the Warlords' later dissolution during the Reverie, and the Marines prepare to arrest him.
- Early on, Buggy mentions he once travelled through the Grand Line and even met Whitebeard before. What he didn't mention was that he travelled on the Grand Line alongside the Pirate King Gol D. Roger himself as a cabin boy of the Roger Pirates. In a flashback in the Wano Arc we also see exactly when he encountered Whitebeard.
When Captain Morgan explains Devil Fruit powers in Episode 3, he mentions two powers in particular: creating fire and causing tsunamis. These powers belong to Ace and Whitebeard.
The concept of Haki is a good example of this. In the very first chapter, Shanks is seen scaring a Sea King away simply by gazing at it. More than four hundred chapters later, the power is named but is not elaborated upon. Luffy is later seen unknowingly using a similar gaze on Duval's Bull, and it isn't until five hundred chapters in that the concept of Haki is fully explored.
In a Volume 7 SBS, Oda jokingly sketched out the carpenter, named Minatomo, who fixed the bar door of Foosha Village to explain a Series Continuity Error of how it got fixed so fast after it was broken by Higuma (and whom the anime would use occasionally as a Joke Character). In the Wano Arc, nearly nine-hundred chapters later, Franky temporarily works as a carpenter underneath a construction business owned by a carpenter named Minatomo who built Kaido's fortress and looks exactly like the original sketch (according to Word of God in a later SBS, they're not the same guy; they just have a really strong Uncanny Family Resemblance, including wearing the same clothes, having the same scar, and both putting nails up their nostrils).
- The later SBS also teased a plot point which would become important more than a hundred chapters later in the story itself. The Minatomo in East Blue and the Minatomo in Wano are related, but Wano is a closed nation that has outlawed emigration, so how can this be? Oda explained that a ship from Wano managed to escape many years ago, carrying people immigrating to the East Blue, including Kuina's grandfather, the legendary swordsmith Shimotsuki Kozaburo who crafted Enma and Wado Ichimonji).
There is a rather odd pinwheel worn in the hat of Genzo, the sheriff of Nami's home village. This pinwheel has three Chekhovs to its name. First, it inspires the attack Luffy uses to remove the villain-of-the-arc's giant sea cow from the fight. Second, along with Bellemere's tangerines, it forms the basis for Nami's new tattoo. But the true Chekhov comes at the end, when a flashback reveals that Genzo put the pinwheel in his hat to make the then-baby Nami laugh. To everyone's surprise, it worked, and so Genzo continued to wear it as a way of supporting Nami as she struggled, removing it only when Nami left with the Straw Hats.
When fighting Zoro, Hatchan mentions that he's the second-best swordsman on Fishman Island. Five hundred chapters or so later, we meet the best Fishman swordsman at Fishman Island, a blue-ringed octopus who's been hired by the arc's Big Bad.
In the Little Garden Arc, where we meet the giants, Dorry and Brogy, Mr. 3 mentions that, more than a hundred years ago, the two were the co-captains of a feared group of giant pirates. This ends up being important during the Enis Lobby Arc, when two giants appear guarding the government base who were also members of that crew and were tricked into working for the World Government. More members of the crew also appear briefly during an extended flashback in the Whole Cake Island Arc.
When Buggy encounters Ace in Chapter 231, he tells his crew that one should never harm a member of Whitebeard's crew, because Whitebeard considers all of his crew members his sons and harming any of them is a major Berserk Button that will bring the wrath of the World's Strongest Man down on whomever dares. This ends up being the catalyst of the Marineford War, when Ace is captured and set to executed by the government, inevitably bringing them into direct conflict with Whitebeard.
A presumably bad Marine official that was introduced in Koby and Helmeppo's Chronicle of Toil, was many chapters later shown to not only be the person that cornered Gol D. Roger several times, but also Luffy's grandfather. Then there was the mysterious Dragon that helped the Straw Hats in Chapter 100; he was later revealed to be a famous revolutionary and (much later) Luffy's father.
- Coby and Helmeppo themselves qualify. They were introduced in the very first arc, and came back almost 450 chapters later after they Took a Level in Badass.
When the Straw Hats first attempt to cross the Calm Belt in Chapter 101, they encounter a drove of gargantuan Sea Kings for the first time. During the Fish-Man Island Arc, Princess Shirahoshi ends up calling these exact same Sea Kings to rescue Fish-Man Island from the sinking Noah.
In the beginning of the Arlong Arc, Jimbei, one of the Seven Warlords of the Sea was mentioned. This was in 1999. He made his first appearance in the Impel Down arc. In 2009. Finally, in 2011, he's fighting alongside the Straw Hats in the Fish-Man Island arc, and as of the end of that arc, it's pretty much guaranteed that at some point in the future, he's going to be joining the Straw Hat Pirates.
- He eventually joins the Straw Hats as their helmsman in the tail end of the Whole Cake Island Arc, which happens in 2018.
One word: Laboon. The crew meets him just after they've entered the Grand Line, and it is mentioned that Laboon is waiting there for a pirate crew he befriended to come back. We find out that Laboon's depression comes from the fact that his old crewmates left him and never came back. It's assumed that they all died or fled the Grand Line. As we learn in the Thriller Bark Arc, the entire crew did die. Several hundred chapters/episodes later, they gain a new crew member (Brook) who just happens to be the only remaining member of that pirate crew and his goal is to keep his promise that he'll come back to see Laboon again.
- Even earlier than that, starting back in the Arlong arc, Luffy starts saying that their next crew member needs to be a musician. Guess which role in the Straw Hats Brook fills.
- It's mentioned that Laboon's kind normally live on the other side of the Red Line. Hundreds of chapters later, when the Straw Hats enter the New World by crossing under the Red Line, one of the first things they encounter is a family of island whales.
- Crocus also has some hidden depths that are revealed a bit later; he stated that he was a ship's doctor in the past, and his last line as he watches the Straw Hats sail away heavily implies that he knew Gol D. Roger. Putting two and two together is quite simple here, but to go into more detail, Rayleigh reveals that Crocus journeyed with them for three years, with the goal of locating Brook's crew, to keep Roger's illness at bay. These major points are just a few of the big problems with 4Kids' choice to cut the Laboon arc out of their dub of the anime.
Crocodile attempting to take over Alabasta turns out to be because he's heard there's a Poneglyph somewhere in the nation that states where one of the Ancient Weapons, Pluton, is located. This comes back in the Water 7 Saga, roughly one-hundred and fifty chapters later, where Cipher Pol reveals their five-year long infiltration operation of the city was solely to steal the blueprints of the Pluton, located somewhere in Water 7. Shortly after, it's revealed Franky possessed the blueprints and destroyed it to keep it falling into Spandam's hands.
- More than 700 chapters and eighteen real-world years later, Kozuki Sukiyaki revealed that Pluton is indeed located in Wano beneath Mt. Fuji, and Pluton was a part of an ancient empire of Wano (and possibly the true reason behind Wano being sealed off from the outside world for centuries), and to remove it means opening the boundaries of the country.
During the Skypiea flashback, Montblanc Noland told a story of how he had encountered a land of Dwarves. Considering the outlandish nature of his stories, nobody knew if it was true. Cut ahead many years later to Dressrosa, where Usopp and Robin find an underground kingdom of Dwarves, and they hail Noland as a hero.
In Skypeia Arc, the fighting technique Mantra which Enel and his cronies use is revealed much later to be another name for Observation Haki.
- Similarly in Post-Enies Lobby Arc and Amazon Lily Arc, Garp and the Kuja warriors are able to hurt Luffy bypassing his resistance to blunt force objects. It's revealed to be a practical application of Armament Haki.
In the Skypiea arc, Luffy finds various golden items while inside of Nora's stomach. The Straw Hats come back to claim them at the end of the arc, and the money they get from selling them becomes very important in the next saga, and it ends up financing the Thousand Sunny.
In the Davy Back Fight arc, Luffy is outfitted with an afro, thinking that it will make him stronger in his upcoming fight. Then, at the end of the fight, a shard of mirror caught in the afro proves crucial to his victory.
- Also during this arc, it's mentioned that the Davy Back Fight was invented on Pirate Island. This seems to be a throwaway line in a mostly filler arc, but this island is mentioned again as being the place where the legendary Rocks Pirates were originally founded, and it is seen in person during the Wano Arc as the location that Blackbeard has made his headquarters after the Time Skip.
Ace has a tattoo on his left arm that spells ASCE, but with the 'S' crossed-out. It seems like a comical accidental misspelling, but many chapters later it turns out the crossed-out 'S' has personal significance to Ace. It represents his and Luffy's blood brother Sabo, whom the two believe was killed years ago and doesn't appear in person until an extended flashback beginning in Chapter 581, where we see Sabo's pirate flag looks exactly like the 'S'. Just to drive this home, the What If? cover for Chapter 591 shows a hypothetical timeline where Sabo didn't die that, or at least, a timeline where Ace and Luffy found out Sabo didn't actually die, and Ace's tattoo is spelled correctly.
Franky, after his family steals 200 million from Usopp, mentions that something that he's waited for 3 years is now his to buy. At the end of the arc, the thing he happens to buy is a piece of special wood that is used to build the Straw Hats' new ship, the Thousand Sunny.
During the epilogue of the Water 7 Saga, Garp explains that four "Emperors" rule over the second half the Grand Line, known as the New World, of which Shanks and Whitebeard are two of them. This is the first time Big Mom and Kaido are technically seen (in shadow and with designs drastically different from what they'd end up like). It wouldn't be until after the Time Skip (Big Mom in Chapter 651 and Kaido in Chapter 795) that they'd both appear in person and more directly opposing the Straw Hats. Luffy and Buggy both become Emperors after the former defeated Kaido, and Buggy became an Emperor after founding Cross Guild, which puts bounties on Marines.
In Robin's flashback detailing her Dark and Troubled Past (and it really gets dark), during the Buster Call on Ohara, a Vice Admiral orders to fire upon the Oharan civilian ship as a precaution against the off-chance there is a single archeologist escaping on the ship. The Vice Admiral, Sakazuki later becomes one of the Admirals of the Marines who becomes infamous for killing Ace and breaking the Plot Armor of the show, and later becomes one of the series' Big Bads on the lieu of being the Fleet Admiral of the Marines.
While still in the 'Paradise' half of the Grand Line, Luffy and crew meet a woman named Lola, whose joke is that she keeps proposing marriage to random people, only to be rejected constantly because she's a Gonk and comes on too strong. She says that she wants to Marry for Love and that her mother is a powerful pirate, and gives Nami her mom's Vivre Card. Charlotte Lola is not lying. Her mother is Charlotte Linlin, a.k.a Big Mom, one of the Four Emperors. Lola once ran away from an arranged marriage because of her desire to Marry for Love, resulting in a potential alliance with the giants of Elbaf falling through, which her mother still hates her for. Nami holding Big Mom's Vivre Card also allows her to exercise some control over Big Mom's Homies.
Near the start of the Alabasta Arc, Ace gives Luffy a piece of blank paper. Its apparent uselessness is discussed, Luffy decides that because Ace said it would help them meet again, it should be sown into his hat, and is promptly forgotten about for several hundred chapters. It turns out to be a Vivre Card; a piece of paper that will always wiggle in the direction of the person it’s made for, and begin to burn/evaporate away as they near death. Ace's burns up to ash upon his death at Admiral Akainu's hands during the Marineford arc.
On Jaya Island, three men appear causing trouble around a town. Not only are they part of the Blackbeard Pirates, an incredibly powerful pirate crew, the random bar patron that Luffy almost got in a brawl with is ~~one of~~ the series' Big Bad.
Wapol's cover story has the incredibly minor detail of him inventing a new type of metal. That metal is instrumental in the creation of Franky's Combining Mecha.
After Thriller Bark, the Risky Brothers tells the crew how mermaids' beauty on Fishmen Island even made the Pirate Empress Hancock jealous. Mermaids and Hancock are both introduced in the following few arcs, and Hancock becomes one of Luffy's major allies and has a huge crush on him.
- Even better, it's later revealed that the Mermaid Princess has a special power that can potentially destroy the world. It turns out that one of the ancient Weapons of Mass Destruction, Poseidon, was actually the previous Mermaid Princess, making the current one the reborn Poseidon.
Camie is first introduced in Hatchan's cover story in Chapter 195. Almost exactly 300 chapters later, in Chapter 490, she finally meets the Straw Hat crew, and it’s her abduction that eventually leads to the crew being separated.
During the Paramount War, Oars Jr., who got beaten down by the Seven Warlords before managing to really do anything, has turned out to have collapsed over where the Marines' siege walls were to come up, keeping them from being pulled up to their full height and giving the Whitebeard forces a fighting chance as a result.
At one point during the Alabasta Arc, Mr. 3 is seen floating unconscious in a pool of water. When asked how Mr. 3, as a Devil Fruit user, could be floating in water in an SBS, Oda responded that he was lying on top of a very small plank of extremely buoyant wood. While it seemed like a joke to cover up a minor plot hole at the time, and indeed the anime retconned the scene to have Mr. 3 lying on a floating table, nearly five-hundred chapters later this wood is explained to be how coated ships ascend to the surface from Fish-Man Island.
In the Sabaody Arc, when the slave trade manager calls Doflamingo, he tells the trader that slave trading is old news and now it's the age of "SMILEs". It isn't until the middle of the Punk Hazard Arc, nearly two-hundred chapters later, that we find out what SMILEs are, and not until the Wano Arc, another couple hundred chapters later, that the meaning of the name is fully explained.
Also during this arc, where some of the Supernovas and their crews are first shown, one of Law's crewmates is a talking bear named Bepo. It's not explained at the time how Bepo can talk, which is considered strange by bystanders in-universe, and it wouldn't be until the Zou Arc that we find out that he's part of a race of anthropomorphic mammals known as Minks, when the Straw Hats go to his homeland.
During the Dressrosa Arc, Sabo makes a reappearance. The significance here is very dominant: this person appears after the databooks had confirmed he was dead!
Remember Sanji's goofy face while he danced with those mermaids several years back? Well, his new Wanted Poster features that exact moment (down to the fish that were in the background), and it ends up becoming a driving factor in the reemergence of his family.
- Sanji's horribly drawn wanted poster does double duty as a Chekhov's Gun and a Brick Joke. In the Sabaody Archipelago Arc, we are introduced to Duval, who looks exactly like the face on the wanted poster, and is pissed about having to fight off all those bounty hunters. Sanji ameliorates this by rearranging his facial structure with repeat kicks and the Straw Hats have a new ally!
- His horrible wanted posters were also the only thing preventing his evil family, the Germa 66, from finding where he is or even realizing he's still alive. As soon as he finally gets a proper photo, they come knocking and even manipulate his bounty to add an 'Only Alive' caveat.
If you're paying attention during the Arlong Park Arc, you may notice that Arlong has the same stylized sun symbol on his chest as Hatchan has on his forehead. In the Fish-Man Island Arc, we find out that is the mark of the Sun Pirates, the crew that Arlong and his officers (other than Nami) had sailed with — along with Jimbei, Aladine, and Koala, among others — under the legendary Fisher Tiger. And it turns out not to be a tattoo, but a brand; one designed to obscure the brand the World Nobles use to mark their slaves.
This even applies for entire groups of characters. In Sabaody, we're introduced to the concept of "Supernovas", recently established pirates who have managed to get bounties of over 100 million, with nine others debuting alongside the pre-established Luffy and Zoro. None of them have very important roles in their introduction arc, only for Trafgalar Law to appear suddenly at the end of Marineford and rescue Luffy. After the Time Skip, they begin getting much more sizable roles, with Law practically becoming a main character for several arcs and an Honorary True Companion to the Straw Hats, due to forming an alliance with Luffy to take Kaido down as well as being a fellow D. Especially notable is that Oda admitted he created all nine of them on the fly on the suggestion of his editor, meaning they qualify as a meta example as well.
- Eustass Kidd also is introduced as a violent pirate who wishes to cause chaos. Come in the Wano Arc, he pulls an Enemy Mine with Luffy and Law to take down Kaido and Big Mom, whom they all hate, resulting in Law and Kidd defeating Big Mom.
- Capone Bege becomes very important in the Whole Cake Island Arc, where we learn that he not only joined the Big Mom Pirates, he also married Charlotte Chiffon, the aforementioned Lola's sister, and it's only partly due to Bege's plan and the temporary alliance that the Straw Hats were able to escape the island unharmed.
- Jewelry Bonney is introduce scarfing down food and later stops Zoro from trying to cut down a Celestial Dragon that shot at him. Later, she is shown to be distraught watching the events of Marineford. She returns two years in the Reverie arc and is seen enraged that the Warlord Bartholomew Kuma is a slave for the Celestial Dragons. She finally becomes an ally for the Straw Hat Pirates in the Egghead arc because she wants revenge on Vegapunk for turning her father Bartholomew Kuma into a Pacifista.
The Warlord Doflamingo is briefly introduced near the beginning of the Skypeia Arc, in Chapter 233, and becomes a minor opponent during the Marineford War, but he wouldn't end up becoming a major antagonist to the Straw Hats until the Dressrosa Arc, more than four-hundred chapters later.
On their way to Arlong Park, Luffy mentions how Zeff told him the Grand Line was like a "pirate paradise". Many years later, we learn pirates call the first half of the Grand Line "Paradise" as it feels like such compared to the hellish New World.
During the Impel Down Arc, Ivankov tells Bon Kurei that the secret Newkama Land tunnel system between Level 5 and 6 of the prison was constructed a hundred years ago by a former prisoner who had a Devil Fruit power that allowed them to tunnel through the rock. Nearly four-hundred chapters later, we finally meet the prisoner in question, a Giant named Morley who is one of the top commanders of the Revolutionary Army and has a Devil Fruit power that allows them to manipulate earth and stone like soft clay.
The concept of Awakening is first introduced during Impel Down, with the Impel Down Guards constantly using it to stay vigilant. Hundreds of chapters later in Dressrosa Arc, Doflamingo uses it to combat Luffy in Gear Fourth, turning his surroundings into strings, and in Wano Country Arc, Luffy, Law and Kidd awakening their Devil Fruits becomes the only way they can fight the Emperors on equal footing.
During a flashback in the Fishman Island arc it is mentioned that the Royal Family possesses a treasure capable of rapidly aging an individual. At the end of the arc it is revealed that the mysterious treasure was actually the Energy Steroids the New Fishman Pirates had been using to boost their strength. Once the effects wear off they are left decrepit and old.
- Another example from the above source. After the Energy Steroids were stolen by Hody and his goons, the Minister of the Right fitted it with explosives for a future theft attempt. Much later, when the Ryugu Kingdom attempts to reward the Straw Hats with their treasure, Luffy (not knowing about the explosives) has it sent to Big Mom via Pekoms and Baron Tamago in order to spare Fishman Island. Big Mom is impressed by the box and planned to open it after the wedding, but after the chaos caused by the Straw Hats, and Big Mom foiling their escape attempt, the box is inadvertently opened by Du Feld and causes the explosion which saved the Straw Hats in the nick of time.
Koala is introduced in the Fish-Man Island Arc as a broken cutie rescued from slavery by Fisher Tiger, and becomes something of a Morality Pet for the Sun Pirates, until they arrive at her homeland where they're ambushed by Marines. This is One Piece! You think she's going to take that lying down? Hell no! When she shows up again in the Dressrosa Arc as a member of the Revolutionary Army (and partner of the organization's No.2 at that), we first see her sitting atop a pile of her defeated enemies.
There's a lot of reference to blood transfusions in the Fish-Man Island arc, and how it's against the law there for Fish-men to give blood to Humans, and vice versa. Long before, this law is said to have doomed their savior, Fisher Tiger. So how does the arc end? With Jimbei giving blood to Luffy.
During Sanji's introduction, it's mentioned that he's not an East Blue native, and actually hailed from the North Blue. It isn't until the Whole Cake Island Arc that Brook points out that this isn't just some casual trip; one has to cross the Red Line in order to enter the East Blue from the North Blue. This is the arc where Sanji's Dark and Troubled Past is delved into more thoroughly, including how he ended up in East Blue.
There's a three-eyed young woman sitting with (then-shadowed) Big Mom at the tail end of the Fishman Island Arc as Luffy challenged her into the fight. More than 200 chapters later, the woman turns out to be Charlotte Pudding, Sanji's bride-to-be, who initially was his enemy and planned to kill him, but changed sides and actually fell in love with Sanji after he genuinely complimented her Third Eye after years of people calling it her shame.
Remember Ryuma? The samurai zombie who had Brook's shadow? In the Thriller Bark arc, it was mentioned he lived in Wano Country and became famous for slaying a dragon (which Zoro did not believe in). This sets up all sorts of guns and gunmen: During the Marineford Arc, Little Oars Jr's had a flashback where Ace makes him a hat, saying he learned to make it in the Wano Country. During the Punk Hazard Arc (Chapter 655), Brook reveals that Wano is a country whose swordsmen (called samurai) are so powerful that Marines are afraid to go there. Guess what shows up at the end of the chapter? Yup, a dragon (and Zoro is still trying to deny its existence). A few chapters later the Straw Hat/Heart Pirate allies meet Kin'emon, a samurai from Wano Country. He recognizes Shusui and is determined to challenge Zoro for it so he can return the sword to Wano Country. Finally, once we actually get to Wano itself, Zoro ends up being sentenced to death for thievery, under the assumption that he dug up Ryuma's grave and stole Shusui from it. Luffy also meets two characters who befriended Ace when he visited Wano years ago.
In the Sabaody Arc, in the slave trading centre when Rayleigh arrives, he's accompanied by a giant named Stansen, who thanks the Straw Hats as he leaves, saying he'll never forget their kindness and find a way to repay them. Post-Time Skip it turns out he's a close friend of Hajrudin (shown together as children in a flashback in the Tottoland Arc), and ends up joining his crew as one of the members of the Straw Hat Grand Fleet.
A very well hidden one is found on the cover of Chapter 691, which is dedicated to One Piece Film: Z. Among the dozens of young Marines on the cover is one in particular, hidden behind Nami's Clima-Tact. Waaay later, in the Dressrosa arc, said Marine makes an actual appearance; it's Corazon, Law's care-taker and dear friend.
In Chapter 650 Jimbei tells Luffy about a 'certain island' Akainu and Aokiji fought on, for the position of Fleet Admiral. The very first island in the New World the Straw Hats land on is, of course, that 'certain island', namely Punk Hazard.
One of the shortest spans of the trope in One Piece (which is saying something). In Chapter 906, we see a massive hat in Mariejois, surveyed by an unknown individual just barely in the panel. 2 chapters later, they are revealed to be the true ruler of the World Government, from whom even the Five Elder Stars take their orders from, and thereby the Greater-Scope Villain of the manga.
Rayleigh using Haki to remove his and other would-be slaves' chains without using his arms at the Sabaody Arc is a highly advanced use of Armament Haki, which Hyogoro decides to teach Luffy in order to better fight Kaido.
Early on in the story, our beloved pirate/clown Captain Buggy is looking for the treasure of one Captain John. A long long long way down the line during the Thriller Bark arc, Captain John's zombie turns up. After the conclusion of this arc, Buggy's self-proclaimed rival Luffy finds a cool armlet in the Thriller Bark treasure hoard, which stays with him for about forty chapters before he and Buggy end up in Impel Down together. Only THEN, do we realize that the armlet Luffy took is in fact the key to finding the long lost treasure that Buggy has been looking for all along!
- Captain John has been referenced a number of times. He was first mentioned in Chapter 233, when Buggy and his crew are searching for treasure. In Chapter 451, Captain John appears as one of Moria's zombies. Later on, Luffy grabs an armband from Moria's treasure; in Chapter 527, in Impel Down, Buggy reveals that the armband is the key for John's treasure. John was mentioned again in Chapter 957, where it's revealed that he used to be a crewmember of the Rocks Pirates, working under the titular Rocks. Other members of that crew: Big Mom, Kaido, and Whitebeard — who then became three of the original Four Emperors.
A minor version, the Naval cameraman (named Attach) who originally tried to take a photo of Sanji but failed because he forgot to take the lens cap off (resulting in an embarrassing bad composite sketch instead) is later seen working as a reporter for Morgans nearly five-hundred chapters later (according to Word of God, he got fired from the Marines for constantly leaving the lens cap on). A Cipher Pol agent disguises himself as Attach in an attempt to give Morgans a government-issued gag order.
During the Dressrosa Arc, three masked members of CP0 briefly appear to announce that Doflamingo renouncing his Warlord status was a mistake. They don't directly interact with the Straw Hats until deep into the Wano Arc, more than two-hundred chapters later, when Lucci orders them to capture Nico Robin.
- Hell, Lucci ordering the capture of Nico Robin harkens to a line he said to Luffy back when they fought in the Enies Lobby Arc that he'd pursue Robin to the end of the world. This was roughly six-hundred chapters ago and more than two years hence in-universe. He really wasn't exaggerating!
In the Skypiea Arc, Robin encounters a Poneglyph which has etchings in it signed by Gol D. Roger. This is significant because Poneglyphs are supposed to be indestructible and the language carved on them unused for nearly nine-hundred years. It isn't until the Zou Arc, some five-hundred chapters later, that it's revealed that the Kozuki Clan retained the knowledge of how to read this language and how to write on the Poneglyphs, and that a member of this clan, Kozuki Oden, travelled with Roger on his final voyage, and that's how he managed to do it.
Right at the end of Marineford arc, Whitebeard's claim that One Piece is real surprised many characters (even though it was still considered a myth by Marine sceptics). While Roger did mention to him in earlier flashback that the former was looking for it, it wasn't until Oden's later flashbacks when Roger disbanded his crew that he said he wanted to meet Whitebeard for the last time, where he confirmed that yes, One Piece does exist.
Way back in Chapter 1, Lucky Roux mentioned something about the Gum-Gum Fruit: it was stolen off an enemy ship by Shanks's crew. 24 years and 1016 chapters later, we get more details: the ship the Devil Fruit was stolen off of was a government ship, and current Tobi Roppo member Who's-Who failed to guard it! How's that for "Oda never forgets"? Even further, 26-27 chapters later, it's revealed that the World Government lied to the world (as well as both Who's-Who and Shanks by proxy) about the fruit's True nature, which is actually a Zoan Fruit, Human-Human Fruit, Model: Nika, the fruit the World Government was looking for 800 years!
In Enel's cover story during the Water 7 Saga to Thriller Bark Arc, it shows him reaching the Moon and discovering a lost civilization once constructed by a race of Winged Humanoids who later descended to world below some unknown time ago. During the Wano Arc, where we meet the Emperor Kaido's crew, it's told that one of his three top enforcers, King, is a member of a nigh-extinct winged race known as Lunarians.

Chekhovs Gun / One Piece

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