Summary
- Luffy faced increasingly powerful enemies in the New World, but his own strength and abilities also grew after the timeskip.
- Luffy defeated Caesar Clown, Don Chinjao, and Donquixote Doflamingo through his determination and the use of powerful techniques like Gear Fourth.
- Luffy faced challenges against Charlotte Cracker and Charlotte Katakuri, but ultimately overcame them through strategy, growth, and the development of new forms of Gear Fourth.
Luffy has fought some incredibly powerful characters in the New World after returning stronger from the timeskip. Having learned Haki, Luffy was better equipped to face the threats of the New World, however, at the same time, the strength of the enemies that Luffy fought also increased.
This is simply down to the fact that the New World is home to some of the most ferocious personalities to have ever lived in the One Piece world and Luffy stepping foot in those territories only meant that he would have to challenge and supplant them. Throughout his journey across the New World, Luffy has already made great strides and defeated some very powerful foes.
7 Caesar Clown
Arc: Punk Hazard
Luffy fought against Caesar on the first island in the New World. Punk Hazard was the very first island that Luffy stepped foot on in the New World and, on this island, the ultimate enemy for Luffy to take down was none other than Caesar Clown. Caesar was incredibly difficult for Luffy to deal with, especially due to his ability to cut out oxygen.
However, when Luffy got serious in his fight against Caesar, he utterly crushed him in battle with a powerful Grizzly Magnum. Despite having a 300 million beri bounty, Caesar wasn't all that impressive, and much of his strength stemmed from the fact that he was a powerful Logia user. Due to his lack of Haki and battle intellect, Caesar was easy for Luffy to deal with for the most part.
6 Don Chinjao
Arc: Dressrosa
In Dressrosa, Luffy ended up fighting several powerful fighters in the Colosseum and the strongest of them all was, undoubtedly, Don Chinjao. Known to be a legendary figure in the One Piece world, Chinjao had a bounty of 542 million berries on his head and this bounty existed because he possessed tremendous strength.
Although, at this point in the story, Chinjao was quite old and far beyond his prime, he was still a significant threat to Luffy. Luffy had to bring out his very best in order to defeat Chinjao, and he successfully managed that after a grueling duel ensued within the Corrida Colosseum. This fight saw Luffy combine the powers of Gear Second and Gear Third after the timeskip and, in the end, be declared the winner in his block.
5 Donquixote Doflamingo
Arc: Dressrosa
The Heavenly Demon, Donquixote Doflamingo was certainly one of the strongest enemies that Luffy fought in the New World. Essentially, Doflamingo was the first proper test for Luffy after stepping foot in the New World. As the King of Dressrosa and one of the Seven Warlords of the Sea, Doflamingo posed quite a difficult challenge for Luffy. In fact, none of his old powers seemed to work against him and even his incredible Haki seemed to pale when compared to that of Doflamingo.
However, this fight flipped on its head when Luffy tapped into the power of Gear 4th. Finally, Luffy showed fans a glimpse of what he had truly learned in the timeskip, and once he tapped into this power, Doflamingo was getting thrown from one place to another. He stood absolutely no chance against the ferocious might of Gear 4th and that just went on to show how far Luffy had come after 2 years of training.
4 Charlotte Cracker
Arc: Whole Cake Island
As Luffy headed deeper into the New World, the level of his enemies only went higher. Luffy clashed against Cracker in the Whole Cake Island arc at the very beginning and this individual proved to be quite a challenge for him to take out. Even though Luffy used Gear 4th multiple times against Cracker in 12 hours, he was unable to defeat him.
This, in comparison to his display against Doflamingo, was starkly different. This showed Luffy that even though he had Gear Fourth, he had to continue to grow stronger if he had to keep up with his enemies. At the time, Luffy could not defeat Cracker at all and, in fact, he even received some heavy injuries. In the end, it was Nami who helped him by weakening Cracker's Biscuit Soldiers and giving Luffy enough stamina by consuming food.
Luffy relied on a situational transformation, called Tank Man, to crush Cracker and send him back to Big Mom defeated.
3 Rob Lucci
Arc: Egghead Island
Luffy had a rematch against Lucci in the Egghead Island arc and it was certainly one that fans absolutely loved. This was the first fight that Luffy fought as an Emperor of the Sea and he tapped into the power of Gear 5 right from the beginning.
Lucci, as expected, was completely out of his depth and simply became a punching bag for Luffy until he eventually knocked him out with a powerful punch.
2 Charlotte Katakuri
Arc: Whole Cake Island
Undoubtedly, Luffy's greatest test in the Whole Cake Island arc was posed by none other than Charlotte Katakuri. He was the strongest of the Sweet Commanders of the Big Mom Pirates and certainly an incredibly powerful enemy for Luffy to take on. Not only had he trained his Haki to the absolute best, but he could also see the future.
On top of that, his devil fruit appeared to be a better version of Luffy's very own, and for this reason and many others, Katakuri was incredibly difficult for Luffy to take on. He took quite a heavy beating at the hands of Katakuri for the vast majority of the fight, however, in the end, he managed to surpass him by learning to see the future himself and, by pulling out a new form of Gear 4th: Snakeman. By combining all these powers, Luffy was victorious in this fight.
1 Kaido
Arc: Wano Country
So far, the strongest enemy that Luffy has defeated in the New World is none other than Kaido, the Emperor of the Sea. Kaido was the main antagonist of the Wano arc and, here, Luffy had to go to great lengths in order to defeat him.
Not only did he have to improve all forms of his Haki and unlock Conqueror's Haki Infusion, but he also had to awaken his Devil Fruit to gain the power of Gear 5 and then overpower the Yonko to liberate the land of one.
- 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
Cast
-
Mayumi TanakaMonkey D. Luffy (voice) -
Kazuya NakaiRoronoa Zoro (voice)
WHERE TO WATCH
- Creator
- Eiichiro Oda
- Studio
- Toei Animation
- Number of Episodes
- 1122
- Streaming Service(s)
- Crunchyroll, Netflix, Hulu, Pluto TV
One Piece: 6 Characters That Need Focus After Egghead
One Piece should focus on these characters after Egghead Island concludes.