[One Piece] Akainu = Yonko? Mihawk = Yonko? Japanese Fans Argue the True Power Hierarchy
#13 PUNKHAZARD
Akainu, Yonko, Mihawk — 2018/06 — Are Admirals Really a Tier Below?
If Akainu can fight on the same level as a Yonko, and Mihawk is treated as an equal to Shanks, have we misunderstood One Piece’s power balance this whole time?
The Uneasy Feeling About Crews and Commanders
246: Anonymous Pirate. 2018/06/19 Why do Whitebeard’s and Red-Hair’s crews look way weaker compared to Kaido’s and Big Mom’s subordinates?
259: Anonymous Pirate. 2018/06/19
>>246 If Shanks with both arms was really equal to Mihawk, honestly the Red-Hair Pirates are kinda finished.
280: Anonymous Pirate. 2018/06/19
259 >>Mihawk’s been around since early One Piece and still hasn’t taken a single visible wound.
303: Anonymous Pirate. 2018/06/19 >>280 And that Mihawk was evenly matched with Whitebeard’s 5th division commander. Whitebeard’s crew was just insane.
318: Anonymous Pirate. 2018/06/19 >>303 And the Navy Vice Admiral managed to restrain Whitebeard’s number two.
Ace, Akainu, and the Limits of Logia
6: Anonymous Pirate. 2018/06/17 Ace got punched through by Akainu, but if he’d used Armament Haki properly, could he have survived?
8: Anonymous Pirate. 2018/06/17 Akainu’s Armament was stronger than Ace’s anyway, so he dies no matter what.
917: Anonymous Pirate. 2018/06/17 >>8 Flames should be hotter than magma though.
Akainu: “Great Eruption!!!!”
924: Anonymous Pirate. 2018/06/17 >>917 Temperature aside, magma probably feels deadlier. Like 90°C dry sauna vs 90°C boiling water. Magma would still kill you faster.
9: Anonymous Pirate. 2018/06/17 Ace barely trained his Haki. Being Logia, he probably never took real hits before Blackbeard or Akainu.
10: Anonymous Pirate. 2018/06/17 Akainu’s line suggests that even with Armament, Logia users are hard to kill. Aokiji shattered and still regenerated.
18: Anonymous Pirate. 2018/06/17 That logic is like saying hitting Aokiji’s ice spear or Kizaru’s laser damages their real body. It’s Smoker-tier thinking.
40: Anonymous Pirate. 2018/06/17 Ace was treated terribly. Haki wasn’t fully defined during Banaro Island, and at Marineford he was already exhausted from Impel Down.
42: Anonymous Pirate. 2018/06/17 When Mera Mera debuted it vaporized ships, but against Burgess or Blackbeard it’s just “ouch hot”? Makes no sense.
Sakazuki “Are you really in a position to worry about others…?!!!!! You got in my way, so I missed a bit… If I’d pierced his heart, it would’ve been easier. Right, Jinbe?”
“Are you still going to protect that one with his chest torn open…? He’ll be dead soon.”
Jinbe: “!!!!?” “Crocodile!!”
Crocodile “Someone take him and get him on a ship already!!!” “If there’s something you wanna protect, then protect it properly!!!” “Don’t let these bastards have things their way anymore!!!!”
767: Anonymous Pirate. 2018/06/19 >>756 Crocodile suddenly got stronger. Was it just a bad matchup with Luffy?
774: Anonymous Pirate. 2018/06/19 >>767 Probably a victim of early Haki settings. Plus Oda clearly likes him.
789: Anonymous Pirate. 2018/06/19 >>756 I love Crocodile. Old villain Croc and current boss Croc are both great.
801: Anonymous Pirate. 2018/06/19 >>789 He was a perfect “evil.”
Crocodile: “Stopping a rebellion. Saving a kingdom. I got dragged along by your pathetic ideals.” “All you did was pile up pointless victims……!!! Want me to tell you something……?”
“You can’t save this country.”
Dragon, Revolutionaries, and Unknown Variables
65: Anonymous Pirate. 2018/06/20 Revolutionary commanders are still total unknowns. If Karasu could fight Ryokugyu 1v1 that’d be wild. CP0-level maybe?
75: Anonymous Pirate. 2018/06/20 >>67 More like prime Garp-tier.
70: Anonymous Pirate. 2018/06/20 Dragon having a Mythical Zoan Dragon fruit wouldn’t be weird. Wind, rain, special abilities like Marco.
71: Anonymous Pirate. 2018/06/20 Sabo feels like he’s entering his “about to get executed like Ace” phase.
Power Balance and Oda’s Intent
102: Anonymous Pirate. 2018/06/20 Oda rarely talks about “strength.” If Akainu were the protagonist, he’d beat Yonko in a year and find One Piece.
Oda: “Yeah. Characters move on their own. Readers understand that too, and if I force a character to act just to serve the story, they’ll immediately say, ‘There’s no way this character would do that.’ That’s why Luffy is the hardest to deal with.” “If I don’t slow him down by inserting various episodes, he’ll just beat the boss right away (laughs).”
Interviewer: “The characters really feel alive.”
Oda: “Exactly. That’s why, when creating a character, you have to be careful not to make them too strong. For example, if Akainu were the main character, the series wouldn’t even last a year (laughs).”
109: Anonymous Pirate. 2018/06/20 Admirals and Warlords are treated as equals. Kizaru or Fujitora aren’t clearly stronger than Doflamingo.
110: Anonymous Pirate. 2018/06/20 Marco = Kizaru. Blackbeard > Marco. Blackbeard < Akainu. Shanks (with left arm) = Mihawk. So Akainu = Yonko = Mihawk > Admirals > other Warlords.
174: Anonymous Pirate. 2018/06/20 Kaido’s strongest in a duel. Akainu = old Whitebeard. Other admirals lose to Yonko after a week-long fight.
216: Anonymous Pirate. 2018/06/20 >>174 Oda probably considers Admirals, Yonko, and Warlords equal individually. Plot armor decides outcomes.
229: Anonymous Pirate. 2018/06/20 >>216 Yonko are clearly on another level though.
“Who is the true ruler of the seas!? One of the Sea Emperors — the Yonko!?” “The Seven Warlords, who survive the seas through cunning!?” “Or the brats of the Worst Generation……!?”
“No…… the true masters of the sea are the Navy — the army of justice!!” “And the Revolutionary Army, the will of the people, has some dangerous monsters we can’t afford to ignore either……!!!”
372: Anonymous Pirate. 2018/06/20 Whitebeard’s crew was insane. Even the division commanders could go toe-to-toe with Admirals. He was the strongest Yonko overall.
377: Anonymous Pirate. 2018/06/20 >>372 Ace only stopped Aokiji’s attack once. Breaking through an Admiral’s attack is something even post-timeskip Zoro or Law can do.
393: Anonymous Pirate. 2018/06/20 >>377 At Marineford, Ace was already completely worn out. He was wrecked after Impel Down.
497: Anonymous Pirate. 2018/06/20 >>377 If anything, that just shows how insane Aokiji was, matching flames with ice.
500: Anonymous Pirate. 2018/06/20 >>497 Yeah, that’s the key point. If it was fire vs cold canceling out, fine—but he blocked it with solid ice. Unless you can break through being frozen like Whitebeard or Doflamingo did, I don’t think you can call it “even.”
511: Anonymous Pirate. 2018/06/21 >>500 Ace used “Mirror Flame” as a defensive technique, though…
Aokiji: “Ice Block.” Ace: “Admiral Aokiji.” Luffy: “W–Whoa!! That guy!” Ace: “Then for now, I’ll protect you.” “Fall back, Luffy.”
Aokiji: “Ice Pheasant Beak!!!”
Ace: “Mirror Flame!!!”
404: Anonymous Pirate. 2018/06/20 To begin with, the Whitebeard Pirates had about 1,600 core members excluding their affiliates. And most of them wouldn’t even be able to withstand Shanks’ Conqueror’s Haki. As for the allied crews, all you can say now is that they’re weak — they struggled hard against just 20 Pacifistas.
408: Anonymous Pirate. 2018/06/20 For the Whitebeard Pirates, if we exclude Whitebeard himself as a special case, I’d rank their strength as Marco, Ace, Jozu, then Vista. I really want “Diamond with the arm blown off” to show up in the Kaido arc and actually show how strong he is. Right now all I remember is him getting restrained by Doflamingo’s strings, frozen by Aokiji, and losing his arm — nothing but bad impressions.
905: Anonymous Pirate. 2018/06/21 This green area is Big Mom’s force, red is Shanks, and blue is Kaido, right? Kaido’s side clearly has the smallest overall force.
Trafalgar Law: “The great pirates of the New World all have their own territories somewhere on the seas, ruling over countless subordinates like massive criminal syndicates.” “The scale is completely different from anything before!! Even if a single pirate crew challenges them, you won’t even get to see the captain’s face…!!”
“But it’s all strictly underworld business. To avoid drawing the Navy’s attention, necessary dealings are conducted in the shadows…!!” “And among them, the man with the greatest trust and power is Doflamingo.”
“His underworld name is ‘Joker.’”
“And right now, Joker’s biggest trading partner is one of the Yonko — ‘Kaido of the Beasts.’”
914: Anonymous Pirate. 2018/06/20 There’s definitely this image of Yonko > Admirals, but I personally think they’re about even.
917: Anonymous Pirate. 2018/06/20 >>914 No way they’re even. If they were, two Admirals could reliably wipe out a Yonko crew.
921: Anonymous Pirate. 2018/06/20 >>917 To take down a Yonko, you’d need an army on that scale. When you factor in the damage afterward, even if they could win, they wouldn’t move so easily. Just look at how the weakened Marco and the others got beaten down — it’s obvious. And the same applies from the Yonko’s perspective too.
919: Anonymous Pirate. 2018/06/20 Kizaru was stopped by Rayleigh. Also by Beckman. Shanks’ crew is definitely strong.
Clack…!!
Kizaru: “!”
Ben Beckman: “Don’t make a move, Kizaru!!”
Kizaru: “……Ooooh~ now hold on there. Ben Beckmaaaan~~~~…!”
👉 Why Japanese Fans Lean Toward “Akainu = Yonko”
Japanese readers aren’t saying Akainu beats every Yonko easily. They’re saying he exists on the same narrative tier — a character who, if freed from story constraints, could end arcs quickly.
Akainu represents “institutional power.” Yonko represent “chaotic power.” In raw combat terms, fans see overlap.
👉 Power Scaling in One Piece Was Never Meant to Be Clean
The thread shows one thing clearly: Oda never intended a strict tier list.
Context, exhaustion, plot roles, and timing matter more than numbers. That’s why debates like this never die — and probably never should.
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