Oda Drops A Hint About Shanks’s Haki Being The Strongest

This article contains spoilers from One Piece’s Elbaf Arc.

Key Takeaways

• Shanks mastered Haki at a young age, showcasing incredible potential.
• Oda hints that Shanks has the strongest Haki, compared to Joy Boy.
• Shanks has unique Haki powers, including future sight and silencing enemy observation Haki.

In the Final Saga of One Piece, only the strongest characters are going to be relevant, and among the strongest characters, those who wield powerful Haki are certainly the ones who can go on to conquer the seas. Haki has been essential in One Piece ever since the post-timeskip, and this status will continue in the final stretch of the story as well.

Of course, when it comes to Haki, fans often wonder who the strongest Haki user is, and the answer has already been hinted at by Oda on many occasions, with Shanks being the clear favorite in more ways than one.

Oda Reveals Shanks’s Insane Haki Potential

Shanks Was A Haki Master At A Young Age

As fans know, Shanks does not wield any Devil Fruit and all he relies on in battle is his Haki. Shanks is quite easily one of the most powerful Haki users in One Piece, and there is absolutely no denying that, especially given that he’s one of the Four Emperors of the Sea. But, while this is something that fans already knew, what they didn’t know was how incredible his Haki potential was ever since he was a kid. It seems that Shanks was deemed to be a genius of Haki from a very young age. Shanks stems from the Figarland family, and whether this family has any special powers or not remains unknown. But, what fans know is Shanks, who is likely Garling Figarland’s very own son, held great potential. In fact, even before the age of 15, Shanks was already a master of Haki. This wouldn’t be much of a surprise if one spoke of Observation and Armament Haki, but, when it comes to Conqueror’s Haki, mastering this ability by the age of 15 or potentially even 14 is absolutely incredible.

In the Latest SBS, Oda essentially confirmed Shanks to be a user of Advanced Conqueror’s Haki before the age of 15. Here’s what Oda had to say about Shanks’s incredible genius:

Shanks was such a genius that Roger pirates were all surprised that Shanks learned Kamusari (Divine Departure) by himself without direct instruction from Roger, and no one else in Roger’s pirates could copy it. – Oda

There are two very important things to note here. The first thing is that Shanks learned Divine Departure before the Roger Pirates disbanded, which means that he was younger than 15 at this point. Given that Divine Departure sees the usage of advanced Conqueror’s Haki, Shanks was a user of this skill at this age. The second most important thing to note here is that Shanks’s talent was such that no other member of the Roger Pirates could emulate this ability of the Pirate King, other than him, which just goes to show how big a genius he is.

This was highlighted by Oda himself in the answer that he provided, and in the manga, through Buggy, who clearly stated the Shanks was believed by everyone to be the next Pirate King after Roger. This in itself implies that Shanks’s Haki, and in general, his power, was such that people could see him fill into Rogers boots and stand as his equal in the future.

Oda Compares Shanks’s Haki To Joy Boy

• Shanks’s Haki Is Comparable To Joy Boy
• Joy Boy Displayed The Best Haki Feat In One Piece

Now that it has already been established that Shanks was a genius of Haki even before hitting 14 years of age, what fans need to keep in mind is Oda’s portrayal of his Haki. Legends such as Whitebeard have praised Shanks as Haki on many occasions in One Piece, but, if that isn’t praise enough proof enough of Shanks’s Haki being the greatest in the series, then fans simply need to look at the Final Saga, where Oda drew a direct comparison between the Haki of Shanks and the Haki of Joy Boy. Undoubtedly, Joy Boy’s Haki, which was displayed in the Egghead Island arc, was the greatest display that fans have seen in the story.

This Haki was so powerful that it split the skies by itself, and it knocked out even Marine Vice Admirals, as well as forced the demonic abilities of the Five Elders into submission, sending four of them back to Marijoa and knocking Saturn out of his Gyuki form as well. Clearly, Joy Boy’s Haki was strong enough to nullify all their powers and injure them in battle. At the same time, this Haki even sent shivers down Imu, which was unheard of until this point in the story.

Was that Haki greater than Red Hair’s? – Dorry and Brogy

Upon this majestic Haki display, Dorry and Brogy directly compared Joy Boy’s Haki to Shanks, wondering how it matched up to the power of the red-haired pirate. The fact that there is a direct comparison between Joy Boy and Shanks, and that Dorry and Brogy, who are mighty individuals with a cumulative bounty of 3.6 billion berries themselves are not sure if Joyboy’s strongest Haki was stronger than that of Shanks, is a clear implication of the fact that they are, at the very least, super close in terms of Haki power.

Clearly, what Oda is telling the fans is that while Joy Boy was the strongest in the previous era, and Roger might have been the strongest in the era before the Golden Age of Pirates, Shanks is the strongest Haki user right now and he can be compared to the likes of Joy Boy. This also essentially implies that Shanks is the strongest in One Piece at this point and that he might have been the strongest all this time and the only reason why he wasn’t publicly known as the strongest is because he never put on his serious face up until the fall of Kaido and Big Mom.

Oda Reveals Shanks’s Unique Haki Power

Shanks Has Haki Powers That Nobody Else Does

If Shanks’s incredible mastery of Haki at a very young age, and the comparisons to Joy Boy are not enough for the fans to conclude that Shanks has the strongest Haki user in In One Piece right now, then, perhaps they should also consider statements from the author himself, where he indicates powers for him that no one else has. As was seen recently in One Piece, Shanks can see into the future longer than anyone else who has shown Future Sight so far. Shanks can see over 10 seconds into the future without any trouble whatsoever, and this makes him the best user of future Sight Observation Haki.

On top of that, Oda himself revealed to the fans that Shanks has an ability that kills the Observation Haki of his enemies and prevents them from seeing the future. This is an advanced application of Conqueror’s Haki that no other character in One Piece has utilized. More than that, Shanks can even send his Haki from miles away and injure an enemy as strong as a Marine Admiral, as was seen towards the end of Wano. Taking everything into consideration, it is clear that he has the strongest Haki in One Piece and is, quite easily, the strongest character alive on the seas right now.

One Piece is available to read via Viz Media. The series can be read by the fans officially and for free on the Shonen Jump and the Manga Plus apps. The release date for the next chapter of One Piece, One Piece 1132, is set to be December 1, 2024.