For most of One Piece, Monkey D. Luffy was one of the only major pirates openly treating the One Piece as an immediate goal. The strongest figures on the seas had their own territories, rivalries and ambitions, and Gol D. Roger’s treasure remained something waiting at the end of the journey. The Final Saga has completely changed that situation.
Luffy has gone from a rookie chasing an impossible dream to an Emperor holding several of the clues required to reach Roger’s treasure. That means the final race is no longer simply about who can find their way to Laugh Tale first. Some of the strongest fighters alive now belong to crews pursuing the same prize, making direct clashes increasingly unavoidable.
Roronoa Zoro Is Becoming the Strongest Swordsman in the World
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Image via Toei Animation -
Image via Toei Animation -
Image via Toei Animation
Roronoa Zoro’s loyalty has remained remarkably simple ever since he joined the Straw Hat Pirates. Luffy’s dream is to reach the top of the pirate world, and Zoro’s is to become the World’s Strongest Swordsman. Those two goals are now approaching their most dangerous stages. Zoro’s victory over King during the Wano Country Arc demonstrated just how dramatically his strength has developed. Enma forced him to release far more Haki than he was accustomed to using.
It eventually pushed Zoro toward consciously coating his attacks with Conqueror’s Haki. That advancement placed him among an extremely limited collection of fighters capable of using one of the strongest applications of Haki in the series. The ongoing Elbaf storyline has continued pushing Zoro into conflicts where his existing abilities are no longer enough. Zoro still has to eventually surpass Dracule Mihawk, and that fact alone establishes how much stronger Zoro could become.
Kuzan Is Much More Than Another Titanic Captain
Marshall D. Teach somehow convinced one of the strongest former Marines alive to join his crew. Kuzan spent years as Admiral Aokiji, standing alongside Sakazuki and Kizaru at the highest level of the Navy’s combat forces. Following the Summit War, he fought Sakazuki for the position of Fleet Admiral in a battle that lasted ten days and permanently changed the climate of Punk Hazard. Losing that confrontation hardly made Kuzan weak.
His Ice-Ice Fruit remains one of the most destructive Logia abilities in One Piece. Kuzan can create weapons from ice and neutralize opponents before they have an opportunity to fight back. His encounter with Monkey D. Garp on Hachinosu demonstrated that Kuzan’s strength extends far beyond his Devil Fruit. Garp trained Kuzan during his younger years, and their confrontation showed that the former Admiral possesses extraordinary physical power and Haki in addition to his ice abilities.
Blackbeard Has Built His Entire Career Around Taking What He Wants
Marshall D. Teach became a Warlord by defeating Portgas D. Ace, used the Government position to enter Impel Down, and recruited some of the prison’s most dangerous criminals. Then, he arrived at Marineford after Whitebeard had already been mortally wounded. The result gave Blackbeard two Devil Fruit abilities. The Dark-Dark Fruit allows Teach to manipulate darkness and pull opponents toward him while suppressing the powers of other Devil Fruit users through physical contact.
The Quake-Quake Fruit gives him the destructive ability once wielded by Whitebeard, producing shock waves powerful enough to threaten islands. That combination makes Blackbeard uniquely dangerous to Luffy. The Dark-Dark Fruit offers Teach a potential method of interfering with the very Devil Fruit ability responsible for Gear 5. The closer everyone comes to the One Piece, the less room Teach will have to avoid direct battles. That may finally reveal just how terrifying Blackbeard actually is.
Gear 5 Allows Luffy to Fight at the Highest Level
The boy who once sailed away from Foosha Village in a tiny boat is now one of the Four Emperors. Luffy’s transformation has required more than simply unlocking progressively stronger versions of his Devil Fruit. His battles throughout the New World forced him to develop every major type of Haki. Observation Haki eventually allowed him to perceive the immediate future against Charlotte Katakuri, and training in Wano dramatically improved his Armament Haki.
Luffy also learned to coat his attacks with Conqueror’s Haki, and Gear 5 has pushed him even further. The Gum-Gum Fruit connects Luffy to the legendary Sun God, giving his awakened body an extraordinary degree of freedom. His surroundings can acquire rubber-like properties, his body can change size dramatically, and conventional physical rules become increasingly unreliable. The ability helped him defeat Kaido, and has subsequently allowed him to confront opponents from the very highest tier of the world.
Dracule Mihawk Remains the World’s Strongest Swordsman
Mihawk possesses the title of World’s Strongest Swordsman. What makes Mihawk especially intimidating is how little effort he has needed to display so far in the story. When Zoro challenged him at Baratie, Mihawk initially fought using a tiny blade intended for cutting food. At Marineford, his casual sword swings crossed enormous distances, and his reputation alone made him one of the former Seven Warlords the World Government could no longer safely ignore.
He stands as the final opponent between Zoro and the dream that has defined his entire life. If Cross Guild encounters the Straw Hats, their long-awaited duel could finally happen. Mihawk’s history with Shanks makes his true ceiling even more interesting. Mihawk has spent much of One Piece existing above the chaos surrounding everyone else. The race to Laugh Tale may finally force the World’s Strongest Swordsman to show exactly why he earned that title.
Shanks Is the Strongest Pirate Actively Hunting the One Piece
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Image via Toei Animation -
Image via Toei Animation -
Image via Toei Animation
For decades, Shanks seemed strangely uninterested in reaching Laugh Tale himself. That made sense considering his history. Shanks grew up aboard Gol D. Roger’s ship and witnessed the final stages of the Pirate King’s journey. Following the events surrounding Wano, Shanks finally announced that the time had come to claim the One Piece. His strength makes that declaration terrifying. Shanks possesses no known Devil Fruit.
Everything viewers have seen suggests that his position among the Emperors comes primarily from overwhelming Haki, swordsmanship and the strength of his crew. His Conqueror’s Haki alone operates on a scale few other characters have demonstrated. His confrontation with Eustass Kid is proof. Shanks ended the confrontation before Kid could properly begin his assault. That feat established an important distinction between Shanks and many other powerful characters.
- Release Date
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October 20, 1999
- Network
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Fuji TV
- Directors
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Hiroaki Miyamoto, Konosuke Uda, Junji Shimizu, Satoshi Itō, Munehisa Sakai, Katsumi Tokoro, Yutaka Nakajima, Yoshihiro Ueda, Kenichi Takeshita, Yoko Ikeda, Ryota Nakamura, Hiroyuki Kakudou, Takahiro Imamura, Toshihiro Maeya, Yûji Endô, Nozomu Shishido, Hidehiko Kadota, Sumio Watanabe, Harume Kosaka, Yasuhiro Tanabe, Yukihiko Nakao, Keisuke Onishi, Junichi Fujise, Hiroyuki Satou
- Writers
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Jin Tanaka, Akiko Inoue, Junki Takegami, Shinzo Fujita, Shouji Yonemura, Yoshiyuki Suga, Atsuhiro Tomioka, Hirohiko Uesaka, Michiru Shimada, Isao Murayama, Takuya Masumoto, Yoichi Takahashi, Momoka Toyoda
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Mayumi Tanaka
Monkey D. Luffy (voice)
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Kazuya Nakai
Roronoa Zoro (voice)
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