Nani??!! Lee is about to make a Thread that isn't about Power Levels? TF is this?
Yeah yeah yeah, don't blow a gasket...Lol
So this is actually a post I've wanted to do for a long time now, and being inspired by the new Katakuri threads that were created just recently, I figured I would take a crack at this now. On spoiler day. Genius amirite?
I've seen a lot of people in this community spreading the idea that Katakuri is a poorly written character. I've seen this sentiment take on a few different forms and I've been on and off with these ideas myself (even as Katakuri has occupied a Top 5 spot in my personal favorite OP characters list), but since I've been seeing the regulars here saying he's poorly written, I decided that I would give it my earnest to look at Katakuri as a character and determine for myself whether or not he was actually objectively well written or not. After truly taking a look at Katakuri's life and character, I came to the conclusion that he is one of the best characters that Oda has ever written, and that his fight with Luffy really is one of the best Shonen fights I've ever read. Truly a worthy addition to anyone's top 5 favorite OP character list.
"That's a big statement" you might be saying to yourself, which is good, because if you are thinking this, then you are exactly the type of person I am targeting with this post.
So first off, a question that I feel it is necessary to answer before we even start: Sure Katakuri may have been overlooked by our Fandom as a whole, but...why is a big post like this even necessary? Surely anyone reading this post can just go back and reread the fight if they want to, right? If Katakuri is such an objectively great character, then it shouldn't take a giant essay like post to convince people of that, right? They should just be able to read the Manga and come to that conclusion on their own.
Well, yes and no.
You see, I think this thread is necessary for two reasons:
1. Katakuri is a pretty complex character by Shonen standards, and his underlying motivations and character arc are not easy to understand, even as someone who has read his fight with Luffy and looked over his panel time repeatedly, and as someone who enjoys analyzing fictional characters lol.
2. Oda doesn't actually make it super obvious what Katakuri's character arc even is, or even what his motivations are. So much so that even when I fully thought I understood Katakuri's character the first time reading the Luffy fight through, Chapter 902 came out and pretty much obliterated what I thought I believed about him lol.
So, adding these two points together, and in other words: Katakuri's character and arc are really easy to miss or not notice since Oda doesn't really elaborate on what is actually happening with the Dawg over the course of the fight. Hence, this thread lol. I'm not going to elaborate on the criticisms levied against him, instead I wanted to delve into his psyche and motivations and see exactly what makes him so memorable to myself and many others. With hindsight being 20/20 (pun intended?) I figured now was a great time to take another look at him.
So, let's do this! And thank you all in advance for taking some time to read this gargantuan post lol.
Part I: Core Character and Motivation
So first up, let's look at Katakuri when he was a child, because his motives as a child give us heavy insight into the man he grows into:
From a young age, Katakuri was actually very sensitive to how others thought of his appearance. His looks didn't bother him personally, but he seemed to care so seriously about what others thought of him that he threatened to beat up anyone who laughed at him.
This insecurity gets redirected very quickly:
When instead of coming after him, his "enemies" went after his sister. This has a pretty severe effect on him, as he covers up his actual appearance in order to ultimately protect his family from being harmed because of the way he lives:
This becomes the running theme for Katakuri later in his life. He essentially decides to become something that he is not, IE "the perfect invincible man" in order to protect his family from harm. "Covering up your true self" isn't something exclusive to Kata within the Big Mom Pirates, there are several of his siblings who have designs that show how they cover up who they really are for one reason or another, the most obvious examples I can point to are Pudding:
Who covers up her third eye because she was made fun of for it (even by her own mother) And Cracker:
Who covers up his true appearance because he hates pain. The idea of covering up who you truly are underneath and putting on an external facade is actually one of the core themes of the Whole Cake Island Arc. On the surface, the Big Mom Pirates appear to be a giant family, as they are a giant Pirate crew related by blood and marriages and such, but underneath, their are several moments in the arc where they directly or indirectly harm one another, and otherwise show a lack of caring for the wants and needs of their family. While the Straw Hats on the other hand on the surface appear to be a simple Pirate Crew, a rag-tag group of individuals bound together by nothing, but underneath it is their deep seeded caring for one another and willingness to make huge sacrifices for each other that ties them together, making them a true "family." At least, this is what Oda was going for lol.
The reason that Katakuri covering up his true self is important, is that Katakuri's character design actually changes over the course of the fight, and this change in design is symbolic of Katakuri shedding the identity that he created for himself and revealing who he truly is underneath. This change wouldn't be possible without Luffy, but before we get into that, let's look at another crucially important aspect of Katakuri's Character, the hype surrounding the images of himself that he created.
Part II: Becoming the Hype
There are a few different examples of Katakuri being hyped into oblivion by his own family, whether it be Brulee, Oven, Flampe, the Chefs, the soldiers that accompany him to fight Luffy, etc. But the best moment of Katakuri being hyped into oblivion is this one:
And the reason that this moment is the best is because we see Katakuri's actual reaction to the hype. From his words that are drowned out by Brulee hyping him up, as well as his sigh, we can infer that Katakuri actually doesn't like hearing the own hype that he has decided to embody repeated back at him.
This is interesting because it shows us the conflict within him. On the one hand, he wants to embody the hype in order to protect his family. On the other hand, he doesn't want to embody the hype because it's not who he is as a person.
Having both of these two sentiments present at the same time creates a feeling of pressure-Katakuri wants to be himself, but he can't, as he feels that the best way to keep the people he cares about safe is to have his enemies be terrified of the hyped up version of himself that he has created. He may also consider his true self, the true self we discussed earlier, to be what will ultimately lead to his family suffering harm.
This is probably the ultimate reason that Katakuri has his Merienda every day, as it's a time where he can isolate himself to relieve all the pressure that he himself and his family put on him, and just let lose. It's a time where he can let down all of the weight that he carries on his shoulders:
And just relax for a while.
Now, just to sum up who Katakuri is, Katakuri is a man who essentially created a false identity for himself because he believes that the perceptions around him will allow him to keep his family safe. Katakuri simultaneously wants to hold up this perception of himself (because it protects his family) but simultaneously doesn't like this perception because the pressure that he's putting on himself to embody the perception is enormous, and on top of that, he likes who he actually is underneath rather than who he pretends to be.
Now with that said, it's time to look at how his fight with Luffy causes him to evolve past himself.
Part 3: Character Arc and Development
Katakuri spends the early portion of his fight with Luffy completely trolling his opponent:
Literally just making moves up on the spot and still overwhelming him
The important part of the early fight is that I don't believe that this Katakuri, the Katakuri who trolls Luffy, is actually who Katakuri is as a person. There are two reasons I don't believe this:
1. Katakuri is still both metaphorically and literally covering his true self up. He is still "playing the part" of the invincible man that he's hyping himself up to be, and his true appearance is still covered up by his scarf, which is symbolic of how he is hiding his true self from the world by the false hype he created for himself.
2. Katakuri is literally making up moves and attacks here. These aren't really a part of his actual fighting style, these are just moves he's creating to troll Luffy. Quite literally, Katakuri is not being who he actually is by using this fighting style.
Katakuri continuously mocks Luffy through the early phases of the fight:
There could be a number of reasons for this, but I like to think that the main reason Luffy has not earned Kuri's respect is how erratic and imperfect Luffy's fighting style actually is. Katakuri is repeatedly knocking Luffy on his ass, and Luffy continuously gets up to keep fighting, while Luffy hasn't made Katakuri's back even touch the ground one time. Katakuri probably sees such an ungraceful/barbaric fighting method as the opposite of his own fighting method, and I think Oda did this on purpose. Having Luffy fly and flail around like an ungraceful monkey, while Katakuri stands tall and gallant throughout the entire fight.
However, it doesn't take too long for Katakuri's actual motivation to shine through:
As Luffy starts to attack his siblings. In the same way that Luffy is fighting Katakuri to protect his crew, Katakuri is also fighting to protect his family, both directly and indirectly. Indirectly by fighting the Straw Hat Captain while his siblings face the rest of the crew, and Directly by stopping Luffy from actually physically attacking his siblings. This is one of the many ways that Katakuri and Luffy "Mirror" each other this fight, but honestly the "mirroring" between Luffy and Katakuri and this fight in general deserves a thread of it's own lol. Maybe I'll do that some day, who knows.
However, as the fight progresses, Kuri begins to grow respect for Luffy:
But even more important than Katakuri's growing respect, or really fear initially, for Luffy is the fact that Luffy actually sees who Katakuri actually is when he finds Katakuri during Merienda. Now the fight has really changed, because not only is Katakuri growing respect towards his enemy, but Luffy is both literally and metaphorically (and accidentally lol) shattering the perception that Katakuri has created around himself:
This moment here in particular, of Luffy kicking Katakuri's mouth out of his scarf, is very symbolic of how Luffy is (accidentally) exposing who Katakuri truly is from the facade that he created.
Katakuri's respect continues to grow for Luffy, especially right here:
And especially here, where Luffy starts to pick up on Katakuri's own Future Sight:
Katakuri would state that he was even beginning to acknowledge Luffy's strength (meaning that he didn't consider Luffy a worthy opponent before):
But the important thing to note is that Katakuri is not yet ready to shed the facade that he has adopted for himself, as the only time Luffy almost knocks him onto his back:
Katakuri shows us that he is not ready to drop the act just yet.
But things go on, and we meet this little shit:
Who is probably the walking embodiment of the big hypocrisy behind Katakuri's actions: the fact that most of his family (the younger siblings and probably most of Tottoland in General) don't actually appreciate him for who he truly is, but rather only care for and idolize the facade that he's created for himself.
So when Katakuri pulls this:
We as the reader can see that the facade is what the majority of Tottoland would prefer to who Katakuri actually is underneath, his core character. I will mention here, this is where Katakuri lost a lot of readers. A lot of people thought that this moment was out of the blue. And could Oda have done a better job at preparing or foreshadowing this? Absolutely yes.
However, the reason I don't think this moment ruins Katakuri as a character, is because when we take a look back at the fight from start to finish, as well as Katakuri's brief childhood backstory...This is really who he actually is as a person. This is probably the most important thing I will type in this entire thread: The Katakuri who fans thought we had come to know before this point, is just the facade. This Katakuri is who he actually is underneath the act that he created for himself. And it is as a direct result of Luffy's actions in the fight, as well as the steadily improving perception that Katakuri has had for him, that this side of Katakuri is revealed to Flampe.
This is why Oda chooses now to have Katakuri remove his scarf. He is both literally and metaphorically shedding the facade and embracing his actual identity. And what do we find underneath his Scarf?
On the back of his jacket, the name "Charlotte." The symbolic meaning behind the word "Charlotte" on Katakuri's back should be pretty obvious, but what's a bit more subtle is about how Katakuri carries his family name underneath his scarf, which is meant to hide himself from the world. Yeah, we literally cannot see the word Charlotte on his back until after he takes his scarf off. On a deeper level, this is a visual representation of how the underlying motivation for Katakuri's Facade (the scarf), and thus how seriously he values the well-being of his family, is the conviction that he has for keeping his family safe. Hence, the family name being literally hidden under his scarf. This is what a brilliant character design looks like (though I won't go off on a tangent on why I love Kuri's overall design here.)
It is not a coincidence that we discover this about Katakuri when we do, as this happens just after Flampe reveals how little her blood connection/familial ties to Katakuri are actually worth:
As all it took was one look at his true appearance, his true self, for her to throw away all of her previous idolization of him. Very literally, Katakuri sighing in the panel that we see his family name on his jacket, is the moment where Katakuri realizes the hypocrisy of covering up his true self in order to protect his family, a family that doesn't value him for who he truly is in the first place.
This complete and utter lack of respect was not reciprocated by his enemy, as Luffy blames himself for not being able to dodge Kuri (even though it clearly wasn't his fault), while simultaneously not caring in the slightest about Katakuri's true appearance, only concerned with his strength:
And then, the culmination of Katakuri's slowly improving perception of Luffy:
From a narrative perspective, the absolute best way of Oda showing two characters as equals, not necessarily in strength, but equal in ambition/stature/worthiness/whatever, is an equal clash of Conqueror's Haki, and this is exactly what we get. It is now that Katakuri sheds his jacket and shows us that beautiful Mochi Phi$ique, and the timing of this moment could not be more perfect. On a symbolic level, Katakuri tossing the jacket off of his back shows that he has found something that he considers more important than protecting a family who doesn't value him the way he values them: a fight the likes of which he has never faced in his life, a fight against an opponent who sees him and his true form for what he is actually worth.
This moment right here, to be exact, is the moment where Luffy has fully earned Katakuri's respect:
It's from this point on where things get very interesting. This is not only the point where Katakuri stops trolling Luffy fully, but this is also where Katakuri starts to show the same amount of passion in the fight that Luffy himself does:
And then we get Katakuri Vs Snake Man, which is really the only time in this entire battle where both Luffy and Katakuri are actually fighting an opponent to which they are virtually equal to in strength. From a characterization standpoint, there is not much else to say about Snake Man vs Katakuri than that, but I will say that I absolutely love the climax of this fight. First off, this double spread:
Is just, in my opinion, one of the coolest pages in Manga ever. And I don't say shit like that lightly.
Secondly, I've seen people say that the culmination of Luffy vs Katakuri was disappointing to them, as we didn't get a "big finisher" like Luffy vs Doflamingo or Luffy vs Cracker. However, I'd argue we actually got something better: A truly meaningful character moment that solidifies and culminates Katakuri's entire character arc.
Firstly, note that as things end, Katakuri still maintains his stance:
This is Oda's final display of Katakuri maintaining the hype around himself, his back hasn't touched the ground since birth, and just when we thought he was defeated, he appears before us on his feet again. Luffy and Katakuri exchange some words, and then:
Katakuri finally falls on his back, and Luffy covers his mouth as a show of respect. The important thing to note here is that Katakuri falls on his back on purpose, and also openly tells Brulee that the Facade he adopted for himself was a lie:
To which Brulee responds that she already knew but she idolized him anyway, which is a great little way of Oda letting Katakuri finally find some peace in all this.
But that's all I've got to say for now! Hopefully I did the Dawg some justice, and hopefully I was at the very least able to help some people who maybe didn't think to highly of Katakuri before see him in a different light. All hail.
What do you guys think? Is Katakuri steaming hot donkey trash? Is Katakuri amazing? Or is he just the most average character of all time?
Share your thoughts, and thank you for reading :)
@Owl Ki @Jiihad @Blackbeard @TheAncientCenturion @Light D Lamperouge @HA001 @Den_Den_Mushi @playa4321 @Sentinel @silverfire @Cinera @Shura @MarineHQ62 @Kiwipom @Chrono etc etc etc etc etc etc
Yeah yeah yeah, don't blow a gasket...Lol
So this is actually a post I've wanted to do for a long time now, and being inspired by the new Katakuri threads that were created just recently, I figured I would take a crack at this now. On spoiler day. Genius amirite?
I've seen a lot of people in this community spreading the idea that Katakuri is a poorly written character. I've seen this sentiment take on a few different forms and I've been on and off with these ideas myself (even as Katakuri has occupied a Top 5 spot in my personal favorite OP characters list), but since I've been seeing the regulars here saying he's poorly written, I decided that I would give it my earnest to look at Katakuri as a character and determine for myself whether or not he was actually objectively well written or not. After truly taking a look at Katakuri's life and character, I came to the conclusion that he is one of the best characters that Oda has ever written, and that his fight with Luffy really is one of the best Shonen fights I've ever read. Truly a worthy addition to anyone's top 5 favorite OP character list.
"That's a big statement" you might be saying to yourself, which is good, because if you are thinking this, then you are exactly the type of person I am targeting with this post.
So first off, a question that I feel it is necessary to answer before we even start: Sure Katakuri may have been overlooked by our Fandom as a whole, but...why is a big post like this even necessary? Surely anyone reading this post can just go back and reread the fight if they want to, right? If Katakuri is such an objectively great character, then it shouldn't take a giant essay like post to convince people of that, right? They should just be able to read the Manga and come to that conclusion on their own.
Well, yes and no.
You see, I think this thread is necessary for two reasons:
1. Katakuri is a pretty complex character by Shonen standards, and his underlying motivations and character arc are not easy to understand, even as someone who has read his fight with Luffy and looked over his panel time repeatedly, and as someone who enjoys analyzing fictional characters lol.
2. Oda doesn't actually make it super obvious what Katakuri's character arc even is, or even what his motivations are. So much so that even when I fully thought I understood Katakuri's character the first time reading the Luffy fight through, Chapter 902 came out and pretty much obliterated what I thought I believed about him lol.
So, adding these two points together, and in other words: Katakuri's character and arc are really easy to miss or not notice since Oda doesn't really elaborate on what is actually happening with the Dawg over the course of the fight. Hence, this thread lol. I'm not going to elaborate on the criticisms levied against him, instead I wanted to delve into his psyche and motivations and see exactly what makes him so memorable to myself and many others. With hindsight being 20/20 (pun intended?) I figured now was a great time to take another look at him.
So, let's do this! And thank you all in advance for taking some time to read this gargantuan post lol.
Part I: Core Character and Motivation
So first up, let's look at Katakuri when he was a child, because his motives as a child give us heavy insight into the man he grows into:
From a young age, Katakuri was actually very sensitive to how others thought of his appearance. His looks didn't bother him personally, but he seemed to care so seriously about what others thought of him that he threatened to beat up anyone who laughed at him.
This insecurity gets redirected very quickly:
When instead of coming after him, his "enemies" went after his sister. This has a pretty severe effect on him, as he covers up his actual appearance in order to ultimately protect his family from being harmed because of the way he lives:
This becomes the running theme for Katakuri later in his life. He essentially decides to become something that he is not, IE "the perfect invincible man" in order to protect his family from harm. "Covering up your true self" isn't something exclusive to Kata within the Big Mom Pirates, there are several of his siblings who have designs that show how they cover up who they really are for one reason or another, the most obvious examples I can point to are Pudding:
Who covers up her third eye because she was made fun of for it (even by her own mother) And Cracker:
Who covers up his true appearance because he hates pain. The idea of covering up who you truly are underneath and putting on an external facade is actually one of the core themes of the Whole Cake Island Arc. On the surface, the Big Mom Pirates appear to be a giant family, as they are a giant Pirate crew related by blood and marriages and such, but underneath, their are several moments in the arc where they directly or indirectly harm one another, and otherwise show a lack of caring for the wants and needs of their family. While the Straw Hats on the other hand on the surface appear to be a simple Pirate Crew, a rag-tag group of individuals bound together by nothing, but underneath it is their deep seeded caring for one another and willingness to make huge sacrifices for each other that ties them together, making them a true "family." At least, this is what Oda was going for lol.
The reason that Katakuri covering up his true self is important, is that Katakuri's character design actually changes over the course of the fight, and this change in design is symbolic of Katakuri shedding the identity that he created for himself and revealing who he truly is underneath. This change wouldn't be possible without Luffy, but before we get into that, let's look at another crucially important aspect of Katakuri's Character, the hype surrounding the images of himself that he created.
Part II: Becoming the Hype
There are a few different examples of Katakuri being hyped into oblivion by his own family, whether it be Brulee, Oven, Flampe, the Chefs, the soldiers that accompany him to fight Luffy, etc. But the best moment of Katakuri being hyped into oblivion is this one:
And the reason that this moment is the best is because we see Katakuri's actual reaction to the hype. From his words that are drowned out by Brulee hyping him up, as well as his sigh, we can infer that Katakuri actually doesn't like hearing the own hype that he has decided to embody repeated back at him.
This is interesting because it shows us the conflict within him. On the one hand, he wants to embody the hype in order to protect his family. On the other hand, he doesn't want to embody the hype because it's not who he is as a person.
Having both of these two sentiments present at the same time creates a feeling of pressure-Katakuri wants to be himself, but he can't, as he feels that the best way to keep the people he cares about safe is to have his enemies be terrified of the hyped up version of himself that he has created. He may also consider his true self, the true self we discussed earlier, to be what will ultimately lead to his family suffering harm.
This is probably the ultimate reason that Katakuri has his Merienda every day, as it's a time where he can isolate himself to relieve all the pressure that he himself and his family put on him, and just let lose. It's a time where he can let down all of the weight that he carries on his shoulders:
And just relax for a while.
I love this moment. It's just really funny to me:
Lord Dogtooth is conversing with the "War Spirits" other translations have said the "War God" and no one is to interrupt this "Sacred Ritual." The level of hype here is so ridiculous that it's actually comedic, and it also contributes to the rhetoric of his hype.
Lord Dogtooth is conversing with the "War Spirits" other translations have said the "War God" and no one is to interrupt this "Sacred Ritual." The level of hype here is so ridiculous that it's actually comedic, and it also contributes to the rhetoric of his hype.
Now, just to sum up who Katakuri is, Katakuri is a man who essentially created a false identity for himself because he believes that the perceptions around him will allow him to keep his family safe. Katakuri simultaneously wants to hold up this perception of himself (because it protects his family) but simultaneously doesn't like this perception because the pressure that he's putting on himself to embody the perception is enormous, and on top of that, he likes who he actually is underneath rather than who he pretends to be.
Now with that said, it's time to look at how his fight with Luffy causes him to evolve past himself.
Part 3: Character Arc and Development
Katakuri spends the early portion of his fight with Luffy completely trolling his opponent:
Literally just making moves up on the spot and still overwhelming him
The important part of the early fight is that I don't believe that this Katakuri, the Katakuri who trolls Luffy, is actually who Katakuri is as a person. There are two reasons I don't believe this:
1. Katakuri is still both metaphorically and literally covering his true self up. He is still "playing the part" of the invincible man that he's hyping himself up to be, and his true appearance is still covered up by his scarf, which is symbolic of how he is hiding his true self from the world by the false hype he created for himself.
2. Katakuri is literally making up moves and attacks here. These aren't really a part of his actual fighting style, these are just moves he's creating to troll Luffy. Quite literally, Katakuri is not being who he actually is by using this fighting style.
Katakuri continuously mocks Luffy through the early phases of the fight:
There could be a number of reasons for this, but I like to think that the main reason Luffy has not earned Kuri's respect is how erratic and imperfect Luffy's fighting style actually is. Katakuri is repeatedly knocking Luffy on his ass, and Luffy continuously gets up to keep fighting, while Luffy hasn't made Katakuri's back even touch the ground one time. Katakuri probably sees such an ungraceful/barbaric fighting method as the opposite of his own fighting method, and I think Oda did this on purpose. Having Luffy fly and flail around like an ungraceful monkey, while Katakuri stands tall and gallant throughout the entire fight.
However, it doesn't take too long for Katakuri's actual motivation to shine through:
As Luffy starts to attack his siblings. In the same way that Luffy is fighting Katakuri to protect his crew, Katakuri is also fighting to protect his family, both directly and indirectly. Indirectly by fighting the Straw Hat Captain while his siblings face the rest of the crew, and Directly by stopping Luffy from actually physically attacking his siblings. This is one of the many ways that Katakuri and Luffy "Mirror" each other this fight, but honestly the "mirroring" between Luffy and Katakuri and this fight in general deserves a thread of it's own lol. Maybe I'll do that some day, who knows.
However, as the fight progresses, Kuri begins to grow respect for Luffy:
But even more important than Katakuri's growing respect, or really fear initially, for Luffy is the fact that Luffy actually sees who Katakuri actually is when he finds Katakuri during Merienda. Now the fight has really changed, because not only is Katakuri growing respect towards his enemy, but Luffy is both literally and metaphorically (and accidentally lol) shattering the perception that Katakuri has created around himself:
This moment here in particular, of Luffy kicking Katakuri's mouth out of his scarf, is very symbolic of how Luffy is (accidentally) exposing who Katakuri truly is from the facade that he created.
Katakuri's respect continues to grow for Luffy, especially right here:
And especially here, where Luffy starts to pick up on Katakuri's own Future Sight:
Katakuri would state that he was even beginning to acknowledge Luffy's strength (meaning that he didn't consider Luffy a worthy opponent before):
But the important thing to note is that Katakuri is not yet ready to shed the facade that he has adopted for himself, as the only time Luffy almost knocks him onto his back:
Katakuri shows us that he is not ready to drop the act just yet.
But things go on, and we meet this little shit:
Who is probably the walking embodiment of the big hypocrisy behind Katakuri's actions: the fact that most of his family (the younger siblings and probably most of Tottoland in General) don't actually appreciate him for who he truly is, but rather only care for and idolize the facade that he's created for himself.
So when Katakuri pulls this:
We as the reader can see that the facade is what the majority of Tottoland would prefer to who Katakuri actually is underneath, his core character. I will mention here, this is where Katakuri lost a lot of readers. A lot of people thought that this moment was out of the blue. And could Oda have done a better job at preparing or foreshadowing this? Absolutely yes.
However, the reason I don't think this moment ruins Katakuri as a character, is because when we take a look back at the fight from start to finish, as well as Katakuri's brief childhood backstory...This is really who he actually is as a person. This is probably the most important thing I will type in this entire thread: The Katakuri who fans thought we had come to know before this point, is just the facade. This Katakuri is who he actually is underneath the act that he created for himself. And it is as a direct result of Luffy's actions in the fight, as well as the steadily improving perception that Katakuri has had for him, that this side of Katakuri is revealed to Flampe.
This is why Oda chooses now to have Katakuri remove his scarf. He is both literally and metaphorically shedding the facade and embracing his actual identity. And what do we find underneath his Scarf?
On the back of his jacket, the name "Charlotte." The symbolic meaning behind the word "Charlotte" on Katakuri's back should be pretty obvious, but what's a bit more subtle is about how Katakuri carries his family name underneath his scarf, which is meant to hide himself from the world. Yeah, we literally cannot see the word Charlotte on his back until after he takes his scarf off. On a deeper level, this is a visual representation of how the underlying motivation for Katakuri's Facade (the scarf), and thus how seriously he values the well-being of his family, is the conviction that he has for keeping his family safe. Hence, the family name being literally hidden under his scarf. This is what a brilliant character design looks like (though I won't go off on a tangent on why I love Kuri's overall design here.)
It is not a coincidence that we discover this about Katakuri when we do, as this happens just after Flampe reveals how little her blood connection/familial ties to Katakuri are actually worth:
As all it took was one look at his true appearance, his true self, for her to throw away all of her previous idolization of him. Very literally, Katakuri sighing in the panel that we see his family name on his jacket, is the moment where Katakuri realizes the hypocrisy of covering up his true self in order to protect his family, a family that doesn't value him for who he truly is in the first place.
This complete and utter lack of respect was not reciprocated by his enemy, as Luffy blames himself for not being able to dodge Kuri (even though it clearly wasn't his fault), while simultaneously not caring in the slightest about Katakuri's true appearance, only concerned with his strength:
And then, the culmination of Katakuri's slowly improving perception of Luffy:
From a narrative perspective, the absolute best way of Oda showing two characters as equals, not necessarily in strength, but equal in ambition/stature/worthiness/whatever, is an equal clash of Conqueror's Haki, and this is exactly what we get. It is now that Katakuri sheds his jacket and shows us that beautiful Mochi Phi$ique, and the timing of this moment could not be more perfect. On a symbolic level, Katakuri tossing the jacket off of his back shows that he has found something that he considers more important than protecting a family who doesn't value him the way he values them: a fight the likes of which he has never faced in his life, a fight against an opponent who sees him and his true form for what he is actually worth.
This moment right here, to be exact, is the moment where Luffy has fully earned Katakuri's respect:
It's from this point on where things get very interesting. This is not only the point where Katakuri stops trolling Luffy fully, but this is also where Katakuri starts to show the same amount of passion in the fight that Luffy himself does:
And then we get Katakuri Vs Snake Man, which is really the only time in this entire battle where both Luffy and Katakuri are actually fighting an opponent to which they are virtually equal to in strength. From a characterization standpoint, there is not much else to say about Snake Man vs Katakuri than that, but I will say that I absolutely love the climax of this fight. First off, this double spread:
Is just, in my opinion, one of the coolest pages in Manga ever. And I don't say shit like that lightly.
Secondly, I've seen people say that the culmination of Luffy vs Katakuri was disappointing to them, as we didn't get a "big finisher" like Luffy vs Doflamingo or Luffy vs Cracker. However, I'd argue we actually got something better: A truly meaningful character moment that solidifies and culminates Katakuri's entire character arc.
Firstly, note that as things end, Katakuri still maintains his stance:
This is Oda's final display of Katakuri maintaining the hype around himself, his back hasn't touched the ground since birth, and just when we thought he was defeated, he appears before us on his feet again. Luffy and Katakuri exchange some words, and then:
Katakuri finally falls on his back, and Luffy covers his mouth as a show of respect. The important thing to note here is that Katakuri falls on his back on purpose, and also openly tells Brulee that the Facade he adopted for himself was a lie:
To which Brulee responds that she already knew but she idolized him anyway, which is a great little way of Oda letting Katakuri finally find some peace in all this.
But that's all I've got to say for now! Hopefully I did the Dawg some justice, and hopefully I was at the very least able to help some people who maybe didn't think to highly of Katakuri before see him in a different light. All hail.
What do you guys think? Is Katakuri steaming hot donkey trash? Is Katakuri amazing? Or is he just the most average character of all time?
Share your thoughts, and thank you for reading :)
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Praise the Lord Watakuri aka Chadtakuri aka Dogtooth aka Mr Slam Jam aka The Second Son.
