[One Piece] “The Most Hopeless Enemy Ever” — Why Japanese Fans Still Pick Crocodile
Arlong
Crocodile / June, 2018 — Who Truly Felt Unbeatable at the Time?
Which One Piece enemy actually made readers feel there was no way out? Not the strongest on paper — but the one who erased hope mid-story. Japanese fans revisit that fear, and one name keeps resurfacing.
Crocodile and the First True Defeat
1: Anonymous Pirate There’s no way it gets more hopeless than this.
Crocodile “That was a loss.” “Straw Hat Luffy.”
“……You’re the same, Straw Hat Luffy.” “If you’d thrown away that pointless sentiment, you would’ve lived a lot longer…!!!”
2: Anonymous Pirate He’s completely dead here, right?
3: Anonymous Pirate That’s Borsalino who crushed the Worst Generation, you know.
4: Anonymous Pirate It’s Borsalino, the guy who completely overwhelmed the Worst Generation.
“Was He Actually Dead?” — Shock Scenes That Broke Trust
6: Anonymous Pirate Enel, obviously.
9: Anonymous Pirate How is he even alive after that?
12: Anonymous Pirate >>9 Because he drank water.
23: Anonymous Pirate >>9 Because he ate meat.
15: Anonymous Pirate Aokiji was pretty bad too.
Aokiji “Ice Time.”
Other Candidates for Absolute Despair
17: Anonymous Pirate Magellan. Luffy didn’t even win.
25: Anonymous Pirate Since Luffy always wins in the end, there’s no real hopelessness. Even if his head got chopped off, I wouldn’t feel it.
26: Anonymous Pirate The Lord of the Coast, dude. The thing that ripped off Shanks’ arm.
34: Anonymous Pirate Early Arlong when he fought Sanji and Zoro. He totally dominated — just spraying water was enough. After that he couldn’t do anything to Luffy though.
36: Anonymous Pirate Magellan. As a kid I seriously thought Luffy was going to die.
Magellan “Poison Cloud.”
Power Scaling vs. Narrative Fear
136: Anonymous Pirate >>36 What made Magellan hype was that Mr. 3 of all people could counter him.
42: Anonymous Pirate Aokiji wiped everyone, but it didn’t feel hopeless.
57: Anonymous Pirate >>42 Because it was obvious they couldn’t win back then. It was like a forced-loss RPG boss.
43: Anonymous Pirate There’s no one Luffy loses to three times anymore.
66: Anonymous Pirate Crocodile was the first enemy who really made Luffy struggle. Before that, once Luffy got momentum, it felt easy.
73: Anonymous Pirate Smoker (up until Alabasta).
Yonko, Admirals, and “Endgame” Fear
75: Anonymous Pirate Big Mom and Kaido are both fully targeting him now — what’s he supposed to do? Feels impossible to win.
77: Anonymous Pirate Honestly Akainu, Kizaru, and Aokiji. I was rooting for Whitebeard’s crew but didn’t think they had a chance.
81: Anonymous Pirate >>77 Against Big Mom’s crew they’d probably be fine.
93: Anonymous Pirate >>81 Sure, if the Yonko wasn’t sick.
106: Anonymous Pirate >>93 Katakuri vs Marco isn’t even close though. Even Yu Yu Hakusho said fights are decided by the vice-captain.
119: Anonymous Pirate >>106 But Whitebeard’s crew beat both Big Mom’s and Kaido’s crews.
130: Anonymous Pirate >>119 That was basically a one-man team.
149: Anonymous Pirate >>130 That’s just because they weren’t the focus. If they were, they’d be shown properly strong.
121: Anonymous Pirate >>106 Marco only looks weak because of his opponents. If Marco fought Luffy, it’d feel just as hopeless as Katakuri.
Luffy’s Actual Win/Loss Record
166: Anonymous Pirate Alvida → win Kuro → win Buggy → win with Nami’s help Krieg → would’ve died without the mask, fell into the sea so basically a loss Arlong → lost after falling into the sea Smoker → loss Crocodile → loss Enel → win Lucci → basically a draw Moria → basically a loss once his shadow was taken
175: Anonymous Pirate
176: Anonymous Pirate >>166 Looking at it like this, he loses a lot.
177: Anonymous Pirate >>166 Wapol is completely missing lol
31: Anonymous Pirate When it comes to despair, Enel instantly wiping Zoro and Robin takes it.
178: Anonymous Pirate (´・ω・`) The despair when Kizaru showed up at Sabaody.
👉 Why Japanese Fans Define “Hopelessness” This Way
Japanese readers don’t measure despair by final outcomes. They measure it by whether the story temporarily removes trust — trust that Luffy will win, adapt, or even survive.
Crocodile stands out because he broke that trust early, before readers understood One Piece’s safety net.
👉 What This Debate Reveals About Early One Piece
This discussion isn’t about power scaling. It’s about when readers still believed defeat could be permanent.
Crocodile wasn’t the strongest — he was the last enemy who made people think: “This might really be the end.”
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