[One Piece] Kaido Is Written Too Invincible — So How Are You Even Supposed to Beat Him?
#18 LAND OF WANO
Kaido (2018/06/22) — Is There Actually Any Way to Defeat the “Strongest Creature”?
Kaido has been called the strongest creature alive on land, sea, and air. He’s been captured countless times, executed repeatedly, and still never died. So the real question Japanese fans started asking in 2018 was simple: how do you even beat a character like this?
Can Kaido Be Defeated at All?
1: Anonymous Pirate. 2018/06/21 There’s no way to beat him. He’s been captured many times in the past, and it’s been outright stated he’s the strongest in a one-on-one. Honestly, I think he’s just dumb. That’s the only angle.
2: Anonymous Pirate. 2018/06/21 I think Big Mom probably captured him in the past too. But she still couldn’t defeat him. Big Mom even said, “You guys can’t beat him anyway.” That line alone makes it obvious.
Big Mom: “Kaido……!? Ma~~~~~ma ma ma… you lot can’t defeat that guy…” “So listen here, you guys…”
5: Anonymous Pirate. 2018/06/21 Luffy will awaken time-stop and defeat him in the Gum-Gum world.
8: Anonymous Pirate. 2018/06/21 They won’t beat him. They’ll just make him fade out cleverly.
Is Kaido Stronger Than Sea Kings?
398: Anonymous Pirate. 2018/06/17 Are the Sea Kings stronger than Kaido?
399: Anonymous Pirate. 2018/06/17 Sea Kings are weak. Kaido is stronger than Sea Kings. Even if he got eaten, he’d tear his way out from inside and still win.
401: Anonymous Pirate. 2018/06/17 Rayleigh could beat Sea Kings easily.
403: Anonymous Pirate. 2018/06/17 Kaido is the strongest living creature on land, sea, and air. Of course he’s stronger than Sea Kings.
419: Anonymous Pirate. 2018/06/17 Kaido is actually a Zoan-type Bug-Bug Fruit, model Tardigrade. He can survive extreme heat, cold, pressure, and even outer space.
421: Anonymous Pirate. 2018/06/17 >>419 If the world’s strongest creature turned out to be a bug, that’d be hilarious.
How Strong Is Kaido Really?
450: Anonymous Pirate. 2018/06/17 Kaido has lost seven times and been captured by the government eighteen times. So how strong is he actually? Is he just immortal with insane durability but average combat ability? We never even saw him truly beat Kid — maybe he just abused endurance in a long fight.
454: Anonymous Pirate. 2018/06/17 >>450 If it’s one-on-one, Kaido wins. He’s probably top-tier in a duel. But whenever he charges an organization like the Yonko or Marines, he loses and gets captured.
456: Anonymous Pirate. 2018/06/17 >>450 Kaido’s strong in a duel, but his organizational power is trash.
460: Anonymous Pirate. 2018/06/17 >>450 If the Marines send two or three Admirals to gang up on him, they can probably knock him out. Big Mom’s evaluation also puts him below Whitebeard, and she doesn’t seem that scared of him. So he doesn’t feel overwhelmingly strongest. “One-on-one Kaido wins” sounds more like rumor-level hype, like the King Punch.
461: Anonymous Pirate. 2018/06/17 >>450 Looking at this, he doesn’t seem that strong — just insanely hard to kill. Feels like another case of overhype that’ll end in disappointment.
One Piece Fan: Q. In the SBS of Volume 82, you taught us how to escape from Akainu, Kuma, and ghosts. But when I tried it on my mom, she punched me. Is my mom stronger than Akainu?
Eiichiro Oda (Author): A. Hey, hey—of course she is! What were you thinking doing something like that!? She’s the strongest creature in the world! Stronger than Kaido! But your mom loves you more than anyone.
【Interview with Eiichiro Oda (2016 – Great One Piece Newspaper)】
Interviewer: When the Straw Hat crew reunites, it feels like they’ll get even stronger… How strong will the characters get from here on?
Oda (Author): …Yeah. I’m… in the middle of executing my plans. Whenever I introduce an enemy, I always think, “There’s no way this guy can be beaten.” When I introduced Kaido, one of the Yonko, I honestly said, “There’s no way someone like this can be defeated.” Even now, I still don’t know exactly how he should be beaten… but I have to struggle over it together with Luffy and carve out a solution. If it’s just “this punch is strong, so he wins,” readers won’t be satisfied. I think readers only truly accept it when an idea comes up that makes them say, “Yeah, that’s how he could win.”
Interviewer: So what’s going to happen to ONE PIECE from here on?
Oda: …It’s just going to keep getting more and more interesting! I’ve been cutting things down in my plans, and only ideas that are genuinely interesting are left, so please don’t worry. Sometimes I joke about my lifespan… but then people seriously worry about my health. I’m actually pretty tough physically, so I’ll be fine.
Interviewer: This interview is about the Whole Cake Island arc, but looking at the overall story of One Piece, this is where Luffy and the others truly enter the “Yonko Saga.” I think it was last year, in Weekly Shonen Jump issue #18, when the cover boldly said “Yonko Saga Begins.” At that time, we at Shueisha shared with you our understanding of the “Yonko Saga Begins” and the future direction of the story. We were told: “From here on, Luffy and his crew will face Big Mom in the Whole Cake Island arc, and then in the upcoming Wano Country arc, they will directly confront Kaido, the strongest man alive among the Yonko. From here on, it’s the ‘Yonko Saga’! Let’s give it our all!”
Concerns About How the Story Will Handle Kaido
468: Anonymous Pirate. 2018/06/17 >>461 Please don’t make this another “somehow won, don’t ask how” fight like Katakuri. Are we teaming up with Moria to become Nightmare Luffy again? Wait… is Moria even alive?
👉 Why Japanese Fans Were Already Worried in 2018
By mid-2018, Japanese readers were already sensing danger — not from Kaido, but from the story itself. When a villain is labeled undefeatable, discussion stops being about tactics and starts being about authorial escape routes. That’s why so many comments defaulted to capture, fading out, or meta jokes instead of real battle strategies.
Kaido wasn’t just strong. He felt like a character written past the limit of conventional shonen logic.
👉 Why Kaido Felt Like a Narrative Problem, Not Just a Powerhouse
What stands out most is how often fans brought up organizations instead of individuals. Kaido could dominate duels, but once armies, Admirals, or Yonko crews entered the equation, he kept losing.
That contradiction — “strongest creature” yet repeatedly captured — made readers doubt the label itself. The fear wasn’t how will Luffy win? It was will this end in another unsatisfying, hand-waved victory?
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