Oh yeah. Lucci VS Luffy is still, to me, the best fight in the series so far. Not just for the fight itself (which is a lot of fun, and probably the most DBZ-like fight in the series as well), but for the stakes on hand. It comes at the end of what’s also my favorite two arcs in the series, and it’s the payoff to everything that’s happened so far. It’s simple stuff - this is a Shonen comic, after all - but it’s there.
The fight was definitely advantage Lucci, ability-wise. Luffy just out-gimmicked him. Plus, Lucci was surprised by Luffy’s wakeup Ultra, and got chipped out since he blocked rather than react teleporting.
I’ve been watching the series over and I believe that last attack was haki imbued… that’s why it completely broke through his tekkai. Oda been secretly throwing in haki throughout the whole series.
Oda wrote that if Enel was a pirate on land that he’d have a bounty of 500 million which was on par with Ace and Chinjao.
Enel moves at the speed of lightning which is far faster than soru.
Enel was OHKOing everyone with the exception of Luffy.
He also has Haki color of observation aka mantra so he will be able to dodge all of Lucci’s comparatively slow attacks.
Ever since Luffy vs Crocodile, I’ve found One Piece to be inspirational. The idea of possessing your dreams and strength of will hearkens back to my days when a young Luffy-like kid who felt he could conquer anything.
I remember his psychopathic bloodlust and how he wanted Luffy to find him just so that he could get a chance to murder him.
It was also my favorite fight in the series because it was a pure physical confrontation, skill vs will. Luffy’s improvisational and unconventional attacks versus martial arts mastery.
I also thought Enies Lobby had the greatest sense of urgency. Especially when Ussop clearly stated that if Luffy lost, the entire crew would be slaughtered by Lucci. A tough bottomline.
No, but the fact that he tried and the after effects of their clash basically broke the climate in half on an island showed he had heart and probably was closer then a straight match up should have been due to determination. But we all know from Marineford Akainu is full of determination as well as long as he isn’t going against Shanks after getting body rocked by Whitebeard.
Ironically I was looking at the show in English up to Episode 275. But I got too impatient so im right now where they just did the 2 year skip now. Long weekends to be honest lol
I can’t stomach watching any of the Big 3 animated. Feels like a waste of time to myself. I’d rather read it. I get caught up in the bad translation of art, the disagreeable VAs, etc. Only pro for me is seeing the intended colors…
As for OP in me…there hasn’t been anything game changing about it or ‘inspirational’ or anything - but from a storytelling point its simply been masterful. For something that has had so many friggin chapters, there have only been a handful (Luffy recovering from poison when Ivanka talked his/her head off) that I’ve slept-walked through - and that’s not because of the typical weekly ‘cliff hanger’ like some 50s radio show.
What it has done for me though, has made me re-evaluate things in my own series. Oda found a way to ‘balance’ brokeness by essentially adding a scalable X-Factor. I think to all the other series I’ve read/seen where someone seems broke, and its usually due to their being a single universal mechanic that has no ‘match’. Naruto is about chakra. Sure you can say thinks like genjutsu and taijutsu - but that one is practically end-game content right now, and the real fighting is taking place amongst those with the largest pools of chakra or the best manipulation of it. Bleach is dominated by the ‘Bankai Bat’ if you will - once someone has their bankai (and that’s being showcased RIGHT NOW) - it’s their ceiling. Sure they can train and learn other tricks, but ultimately any real success is predicated on the strength of their bankai. But In OP, Oda used TWO system mechanics - allowing for varying degrees of strengths or abilities.
Balance by giving people ‘options’.
Sure end-game for OP ‘IMO’ is still maxed out by DF users…no matter how strong Luffy gets his haki - I don’t think it will be enough for him to put a hurting on Akainu, but the system allowing a ‘rubber man’ to contend against so many other DF users who should own up his rudimentary DF ability speaks volume for his X-factor.
I admire that and have been actively working on integrating something similar (and have pretty much) into what I’ve been working on (still ironing out kinks though).
But ultimately I just think its super well written and conceptualized. How often do you feel as though Oda’s written himself into a corner? That shit is like every other issue in Naruto, and due to the pacing of Bleach, every ten issues there.
The top crews aren’t so much about a ‘singular’ person being mega-powerful and unstoppable. Shanks ranking isn’t just because of Shanks. So yeah we can ‘conceivably’ say Shanks is a end game or near end game character, but do I think he’d beat any of the three pre-time skip Admirals?
No.
I don’t think any non-DF user will beat any of the Admirals, no matter the proficiency in haki.
I don’t think any non-DF user will beat Teach, no matter the proficiency in haki.
I mean end-game is ultimately World Gov’t, Teach, with some mixture of Dragon and Co.
I don’t see a haki only person walking out the victor. I just don’t.
Now will haki ‘mastery’ be necessary for it - hellz yeah. But 9 years from now, when we walk away from the series - I don’t expect the top three people in the series to be haki-only people.
Mihawk from the begining has been boss…but if he was ‘end game’ - he wouldn’t be a ‘Warlord’.
Shanks as a purely haki user? He got fubared by Teach who so far at that point at least - hasn’t been a real ‘haki’ user (even though he needs it to balance out the absorption of his own power).
It’s no slight to haki only, and I’m not saying they can’t/won’t rank up there…but I really see end game people all being close to parallel in terms of haki use/strength. I mean within a couple months we find two people who are Conq haki users - something thats “oh so rare”. So what’s going to differentiate haki users end game is going to be the other stuff - namely broken/extreme DF abilities.
Whether he could beat them or not is unknown. It is known that Akainu wanted no part of Shanks. Who was one of the stronger admirals shown in the war. Shanks and his AFAWK crew are non-DF users stopped Kaido’s DF heavy crew.
But the end game scenario is likely going to be a DF user defeating Akainu and Teach. Possibly Teach defeating Akainu.
I don’t know about that. Their battle lasted for days that left both men exhausted and it was so mind numbingly epic, it changed the very climate of a whole region. That doesn’t seem like a pushover to me.
Beat? Naw. And as I sort of brought up before - it’ not Shanks, its him AND his crew. Don’t get it twisted, I’m not trying to undercut his position, not at ALL. It’s just logic driven.
What we’ve seen with regards to haki…
It’s beatable, it can be overpowered by either someone with a higher haki strength, or by a more matured DF abilities
It makes logia tangible, but it is not an “I Win” button
Looking at Law, there isn’t ANY HAKI even being used with his DF ability, yet he was able to ‘cut’ one of the strongest haki armament users we’ve seen to date - who he previously was unable to ‘cut’. What’s important about that chapter is a) haki > DF ability b) DF ability > haki. In short they canceled themselves out until the DF user simply out grew the haki user.
So what would have happend if Law showed haki use WITH his ability? Meh, it wouldn’t really do much with him more than likely, but it’s pretty easy to see the effects with Luffy, and I’m pretty sure that effectiveness can scale with DF ability.
So all three Admirals have a noticeably high level of haki use. So IMO to best that you’re going to have to have completely unfukwitable haki that’s LEAGUES beyond anything we’ve seen, or you’re going to be stacking your DF tech with your haki tech for a win.