The Special Edited Version of the Fish-Man Island Saga in One Piece has finally reached the much-awaited battle between the Straw Hat Pirates and the new Fish-Man Pirates. In fact, the series has also adapted the iconic Luffy knocking out 50,000 Fish-Men with his Conqueror’s Haki scene, and it has truly created a nostalgic moment for all the One Piece fans.
However, along with the nostalgia, the iconic scene has also brought back the same queries fans had about Luffy’s Haki and its current comparison to the strongest Conqueror’s Haki user in One Piece: Red-Haired Shanks. As fans know, Shanks has been deemed the strongest Haki user in One Piece for the longest time, and there have been multiple instances to prove it.
One Piece fans have often wondered where Luffy stands in terms of Haki abilities against Shanks. And while fans try to find the answers in the story, the creator of the series, Eiichiro Oda, has already answered and given a quite detailed description of the Haki comparison of Shanks, Luffy, and, for the fun of it, Silvers Rayleigh, another powerful One Piece character.
Eiichiro Oda compares Shanks and Luffy’s Conqueror’s Haki
When Luffy first knocked out 50,000 Fish-Men in the One Piece storyline, Eiichiro Oda was asked about how many would have Shanks knocked out if he were in Luffy’s place. The One Piece mangaka answered this question in SBS Volume 65 and gave a detailed description of how Conqueror’s Haki works against the kind of opponents they are facing.
Oda stated:
In exactly the same place and exact same situation as Luffy, Shanks or Rayleigh may have been capable of knocking out all 100,000. In a different setting, you can’t really compare just by asking “how many people”. Being able to knock an enemy out with haki depends entirely on having an overwhelming power gap between the two.
In Luffy’s case the point is the number of people that were so weak that they were not even worth him fighting. If there were 100,000 to-some-extent-strong-willed pirates before him, it’s possible that he wouldn’t even be able to knock out a single one.
According to the mangaka, while Shanks or Rayleigh would have been able to take down all 100,000 of them, it doesn’t really depend on the number of opponents in One Piece, but rather on their will and their ability to withstand Haki.
If there had been 100,000 strong-willed Pirates, Luffy wouldn’t have been able to take down a single one of them. This proves that the power of Haki cannot be calculated by numbers in One Piece, thus adding more complexities to it.
Luffy’s Haki growth since the Fish-Man Island Saga
Although it is safe to assume that Shanks is miles ahead of Luffy in terms of Haki, the fact that this comparison was done during the Fish-Man Island Saga makes it a little outdated. Since then, Luffy has grown significantly, and he has unlocked new potentials of the mysterious Haki ability that takes his overall strength to a whole new level in One Piece.
He has come a long way since the Fish-Man Island Saga and has reached the level of Emperors in One Piece, which reflects his growth. Thus, while the difference between Shanks and Luffy’s Haki is still there, it won’t take him long to reach the level of his idol, and hopefully, the ongoing Elbaph arc will help him with additional growth.
This in some way reflects that even after so many years, Luffy still has a long journey ahead of him, and his goal to become the Pirate King in One Piece still requires a lot of effort. He has to move past Shanks soon, especially in terms of Haki, if he is serious about becoming the King of Pirates and also liberating the One Piece world.
One Piece is available to watch on Crunchyroll.
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