Oda Has Already Confirmed Shanks As The Strongest Pirate In The Current Era

With One Piece in the final saga already, it is no surprise to know that the mightiest characters are taking the spotlight already. At the moment, the ones at the center of it all are the Four Emperors, known to hold tremendous influence over the New World and being the ones closest to the One Piece itself.

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Even among the Four Emperors, one character stands out quite a lot, and he’s the most experienced of the lot, with 6 years behind him as an Emperor, and he’s none other than Red-haired Shanks. Although his full strength is yet to be revealed in One Piece, fans already know that Shanks is the strongest of the current era, and Oda has proven this on multiple occasions now.

Shanks As One Of The Yonko In One Piece

• Shanks Had A Billion Berry Bounty In The East Blue
• Shanks Became A Yonko 6 Years Ago

Not much is known about Shanks at the moment, but what fans do know is that he is a ferocious fighter, and has been for a long time. Shanks trained with the Roger Pirates as a key member of the crew, and it is said that he had multiple incredible powers up his sleeve already. But, the biggest indicator of his tremendous strength is the fact that Shanks possessed the ability to utilize Conqueror’s Haki before he even reached the age of 15. Shanks was an absolute monster who could accomplish things that even the likes of Rayleigh or Scopper Gaban couldn’t. This in itself is a massive indicator of his early One Piece strength.

10 years before Luffy’s journey began, around the time when Shanks set his base in Cocoyashi Village, fans knew that he was already a big pirate in the world. Although not the strongest, Shanks still had a bounty of 1.04 billion berries, which isn’t small by any means. But, the growth that he showed following this event was also staggering. For the following six years, Shanks accomplished a lot and likely got stronger than ever before.

It was around this time that Shanks was made an Emperor of the Sea, and it can be said that the level of power he’d achieved put him on the same stature as the likes of Kaido, among others. Still, Shanks was likely growing in power and consolidating his position as an Emperor of the Sea all the while. At some point, Shanks got a massive bounty increase, and the total reward rose to 4.0489 billion berries. Among the Yonko, Shanks is currently the one with the highest reward of them all, which is just an indicator of what he’s achieved in such a short period of time.

Every Shanks Feat That Shows He’s The Strongest

Shanks Has Done The Impossible On Many Occasions

While it may be a heavily debated topic, Shanks has the best display of any character in One Piece at the moment, which is a clear indicator of the fact that he’s also the strongest of the lot. Fans got to see Shanks learn and perform Kamusari before he was even 15 years of age. Keeping in mind that this is a technique that requires one to have Advanced Conqueror’s Haki, it is incredible that a kid as young as Shanks was able to do it. What’s even more shocking is that Shanks could also perform the entire technique to perfection when no other Roger Pirate could. Roger didn’t train Shanks, but he simply learned by observing him, proving just how big a genius he truly is.

When it comes to feats in One Piece, Shanks clearly has the best of them all. It is already clear that Shanks doesn’t have a Devil Fruit himself, so all his powers come from Haki. When it comes to Observation Haki, Shanks has the best control over this power. He can sense anyone from miles away, and his ability to see the future is absolutely immense. Shanks can see the longest into the future, even more than Kaido, Luffy, and Katakuri, possibly combined!

When it comes to Conqueror’s Haki, there is no character alive who even comes close to Shanks. He can perform Conqueror’s Haki-infused techniques at the highest level, and given that he learned the ability at a very young age, it is no surprise to know that he’s a master of it. Shanks’s Conqueror’s Haki is so strong than a 3 billion pirate and his right-hand man in Kid and Killer can’t withstand even a single blow from him. These are the same pirates who could take blows from Big Mom and Kaido without too much trouble. He can send Conqueror’s Haki attacks from miles away and paralyze even Admirals of the Navy, as seen in Wano.

Kaido himself had Shanks in his top 5, and he only considered those 5 to be in the top tier in One Piece.

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Meanwhile, Shanks is the only person in the world who was able to stop and defeat Loki, a feat that likely earned him Yonko status. It is said that Loki can destroy the whole world and that nobody could possibly have stopped him. Yet, Shanks did.

Most of all, Shanks’s Conqueror’s Haki is comparable to Joy Boy himself. Although it is unclear as to who the stronger one is, what can be said is that they’re close enough to be compared, which just hypes up Shanks even more.

Can Anyone Surpass Shanks In One Piece?

Shanks Can Definitely Be Surpassed

Shanks is the strongest right now and there is absolutely no denying that fact. He possesses immense strength and is at the top of the era at the moment. But, there is a level that goes beyond him. For one, whatever magical powers Imu has are likely above those of Shanks. Imu could potentially be a completely different beast, but fans will have to wait and see if that’s true.

Furthermore, Luffy is a character who will definitely go on to surpass Shanks. He’s built up to be the man who will surpass not just Shanks and Roger, but also Joy Boy. At the end of the story, Luffy will be the strongest of all time, and that is an undeniable fact. Still, it doesn’t take anything away from the monster that Shanks is. The best part about it all is that Shanks is yet to go all-out and his true level is far higher than anything that Oda has shown so far.

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 1140, is set to be February 23, 2025.

One Piece

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

• 

  Mayumi Tanaka

  Monkey D. Luffy (voice)

• 

  Kazuya Nakai

  Roronoa Zoro (voice)