Oda Officially Confirms A Pirate That Has Surpassed Monkey D. Luffy

Luffy and the Straw Hat Pirates have come far on their journeys in One Piece, especially after the time skip. While the crew faced their fair share of problems, they got stronger to overcome them all, and right now, they can be described as one of the strongest pirate crews in One Piece.

After the Wano Country arc, which was a significant turning point in the story, Luffy became one of the Yonko, also known as the Four Emperors of the Sea. However, he is still not at his very peak. Luffy can get stronger still, and he needs one big power if he is to fight against the Emperor, Red-haired Shanks.

Luffy Became A Yonko After Beating Kaido

• Kaido Was The World’s Strongest Creature
• Luffy Beat Kaido With Gear 5

It goes without saying that Kaido is the biggest test that Luffy has faced in his life as a pirate. As one of the Four Emperors of the Sea, Kaido was an absolute monster in combat and he was even considered by many to be the strongest pirate alive, on top of being the strongest creature in the world. Luffy’s opponent in the Wano Country arc wasn’t easy to take down, but he pushed himself beyond all limits and eventually managed to reach Kaido’s level. By unlocking Advanced Conqueror’s Haki, Luffy was able to stand toe to toe against Kaido.

When that wasn’t enough, Luffy tapped into the power of Gear 5, his Devil Fruit awakening, and this allowed him to fight against Kaido evenly and even overwhelm him in certain instances. Luffy eventually beat Kaido and freed Wano from its chains. This earned Luffy the title of a Yonko, and he is now one of the four strongest pirates right now. That said, he still lacks the tools to beat someone like Shanks

Luffy Doesn’t Have Refined Advanced Haki Control

Shanks Is On A Different Level Entirely

One Piece fans know very well that Shanks is a monstrously powerful pirate. While it is true that Kaido was the World’s Strongest Creature, he still wasn’t stronger than Shanks, who is basically the Roger of this era. Shanks carries the same powers as Roger and even inherited his fighting style. Whereas Big Mom and Kaido couldn’t take down a single Worst Generation fighter, Shanks took down two in a single swing of his sword.

Shanks never cared for titles, and the fact that he was biding his time until Nika’s arrival is proof of the fact that he wasn’t all that serious until now. All that is to say that while Luffy did beat Kaido, he cannot beat Shanks right now and will need more power to get on his level.

Shanks’s Haki Is Far Stronger

The only way Luffy can match and potentially beat Shanks is by improving his Haki, and Oda has already set the basis for this in Elbaf. According the Gaban, Luffy needs to etch into his brain how to use Haki properly. This means his usage of this skill isn’t great. Luffy is far inferior to Shanks when it comes to Haki, and as Kaido said, Haki conquers all. At the moment, Shanks is stronger than Luffy, but he will eventually go on to be surpassed by him.

One Piece Chapter 1162 will be out next week. As usual, One Piece is going to drop on Sunday. In Japan, One Piece drops at 12AM JST on Monday. However, the vast majority of international readers will see the chapter available on October 12. The official release date of One Piece Chapter 1162 is October 12, 2025. Fans can read the chapter for free on Manga Plus.

Release Date

October 20, 1999

Network

Fuji TV

Directors

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

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)