The Story Behind Kaku, the Square-Nosed Agent of One Piece

One Piece Character Playing Card Featuring Kaku — Clubs 9

What This Card Actually Is

This is a single card — the nine of clubs — from a full licensed One Piece character playing card deck. These decks follow a standard 52-card format, with anime characters assigned to each suit and number in place of the usual pips and portraits. Face cards (jack, queen, king) typically go to the most prominent characters, while the numbered cards cover a broader cross-section of the cast.

What sets this particular deck apart visually is its aesthetic approach. Rather than the bright, full-color illustration style common in most character card sets, the design uses a sepia-toned, aged look with line-art style drawing — giving it a feel closer to a vintage print than to standard anime merchandise. This kind of retro design direction appeared in Japanese anime goods from the 2010s onward, though the exact release date and product line for this deck cannot be confirmed from available information alone.

Kaku and His Place in One Piece

Kaku is a former agent of CP9, the World Government’s covert intelligence unit, and one of the central antagonists across the Water Seven and Enies Lobby arcs of One Piece. His manga appearances in this storyline fall roughly between 2004 and 2007 (around volumes 38 through 44), with the anime adaptation airing from 2006 to 2009.

He is immediately recognizable by his exceptionally long, perfectly rectangular nose — a feature the series itself plays for comedy, despite Kaku being otherwise portrayed as highly dangerous. He is also a Devil Fruit user: the Ox-Ox Fruit, Model: Giraffe, granting him the ability to transform into a full giraffe or a hybrid form. His fight against Roronoa Zoro during the Enies Lobby arc is frequently cited by fans as one of the standout individual battles in the entire series.

Kaku’s story did not end with that arc. He later resurfaces as a CP0 (Cipher Pol Aigis Zero) agent and plays a role in the Egghead arc well into the 2020s — an unusually long continued presence for a character who began as an arc-specific antagonist. That sustained involvement keeps him in front of new and returning fans alike.

Character Playing Cards in Japanese Anime Merchandise

Character playing card decks have been a fixture of Japanese anime merchandise for decades. They are sold through anime specialty retailers such as Animate, toy departments in major stores, and at event venues. Because a single deck spans an entire cast across four suits, they function as a kind of portable cast gallery — each card a small portrait from the show’s world.

The specific manufacturer and product line for this card cannot be confirmed without the original packaging; publishers that have produced One Piece character decks include Ensky and Hanayama, among others. As Japan-domestic licensed products, these decks are not distributed through international retail channels, which means individual cards from them reach fans outside Japan primarily through specialty importers and secondhand sellers. For anyone drawn to the Enies Lobby arc — which a large portion of the One Piece audience considers a high point of the series — a Kaku card connects directly to one of its most discussed chapters.