General & Others Akainu: The strongest character in Marineford Arc>Mvp of MF

#41
Analysis Thread:

In this thread I would like to talk about Akainu.

In my eyes he was the Mvp in Marineford and Oda made every effort to portray him as the most dangerous and strongest character.
In this thread we will talk about Akainu Portrayal (strongest character in Marineford), his actions and feats.

Portrayal:

Oda set up Marineford based on the dangerousness of its characters, the most dangerous were the admirals, followed by the Shichibukai. Garp and Sengoku were wildcards who only helped in times of need, but apart from that didn't get involved much in the war.

Let's go in order: As in a game, you first have to defeat and clear the stages one after the other so that you can level up until you reach the final boss, which you have to defeat to finish the story and end the game.
Marineford was designed so that you had to work your way forward step by step to get to Ace (final mission to save him).

Level 1:
First, Oda set up fodders:
100,000 elite navy soldiers (including giants, many vice admirals and other ranks), battleships and cannons.
These are the fodder enemies in a game, they are in a dungeon that you explore, they are easy to defeat but quite difficult in number if they all attack at once. The level is literally referred to the number of marines here. These 100,000 navy soldiers are tough to take and the number makes it very difficult to fight them...

This is the first level that Whitebeard, Luffy and their allies had to overcome.

Level 2:
Mind bosses, the 7 Shichibukai: These are really tough, you have to overcome these bosses to get to the final stage. The 7 Shichibukai are above all 100,000 navy soldiers, these 7 are very strong pirates who are way above a normal vice admiral level.


This was also clearly shown in the manga, as soon as the war started, the 7 Shichibukai were there and a strong threat to Whitebeard and co.
This line comes after the fodder navy soldiers fail to stop the Whitebeard pirates. And that's exactly what happened, Navy giant soldiers were easily defeated by Oz, the vice admirals seemed powerless, then the Shichibukai intervened and defeated Oz with ease, strong commanders and veteran pirates or people like Ivankov or Jinbe were needed to fight these Shichibukai, normal pirates had little chance.

In a game, the Shichibukai (with Mihawk as the strongest Shichibukai) would be the midbosses, you have to defeat them to get to the final stage.

Stage 3: Final bosses - The admirals

The final bosses, the strongest unit, the enemies that come at the end of a game, that you have to defeat to bring the story to an end. Oda's portrayal made it clear that the admirals were the strongest unit in the arc, the biggest threat to Luffy and Whitebeard in their quest to free Ace, the strongest threat that had to be overcome. The admirals were used as a counter to Whitebeard, even his strongest commanders (Marco/Jozu) could only evaporate time but hardly do anything against them, only the Yonkou (Whitebeard) was able to class on equal terms with the admirals.

They were at the center of the incident, the strongest unit to stop everything so that Ace could not be saved, right in front of his execution platform.



This is the level structure that Oda saw for MF arc:
Level 1: 100,000 soldiers (giants, vice admirals)
Level 2: Shichibukai
Level 3: Admirals

This was pretty much the portrait that Oda had for Marineford arc, a clear structure for the arc. Like in a game, the protagonists in the arc had to climb these levels step by step.

Main characters: Luffy and Whitebeard (his crew). The arc was structured like a game, Luffy was like a protagonist from a game who had to reach each level. This was also shown by Oda step by step. First he had to fight against level 1 opponents, then came the Shichibukai and then the admirals. Oda deliberately chose the line-up from the weakest to the strongest level.

Level 1: Luffy against fodder navy soldiers:
Here you can also see the structure, from weak soldiers to Smoker (who was one of the stronger navy soldiers). Oda clearly uses a structure system where Luffy has to work his way up from strong opponents to the strong ones.

Simple allies of Whitebeard or normal pirates were enough to support him in the first stage. With Smoker (final phase of level 1) Luffy needed the help of a Shichibukai (Boa) to overcome the level.

Allies level for level 1:
Allies of Whitebeard or normal pirates(mid tiers)

Level 2: Against Shichibukai:




The same thing again: Here you first meet Moria, probably the weakest Shichibukai, before you then meet Kuma and Doflamingo, the stronger Shichibukai, who were overcome with the help of Ivankov. The final stage in level two is the strongest Shichibukai, Mihawk. He gets particularly long scenes against Luffy in order to clearly show the final phase of level two how strong these characters actually are.




At level two Luffy needed the help of Commanders (Vista and Ivankov) or Shichibukai like Jinbe to stand up to the Shichibukai and progress. Without them Luffy would never have progressed because his level was simply too low.

Allies level for level 2:
Yonkou commander level or high tiers.

Level 3: The Admirals

Luffy has to overcome these as the final stage to save Ace, if he doesn't succeed, he loses the game and the story doesn't end well:

For the final stage against the admirals Luffy really only got the help of Whitebeard (Yonkou) or Marco. Anything else would have made no sense because no one in Whitebeard's crew was able to fight the admirals, they would end up just like Luffy.
It always had to be Marco or Whitebeard and Luffy's side so he could overcome these three and save Ace.

Allies level for level 3:
Yonkou level, Firstmate level(only for short time and with help with others).

As you can see, Oda structured the arc, step by step Luffy had to overcome obstacles to get to Ace. This is the Portrayal/Power level ranking for Marineford written by Oda.
The structure of the power level is clear here and it was shown in several scenes that this comparison with Marineford - an RPG game - is quite accurate.

The main characters were also well portrayed by Oda, Luffy and Whitebeard (Yonkou), who were the protagonists in the arc. As for Akainu's portrayal, he was the final boss of Marineford, as Portrayal like in a game he was Luffy and Whitebeard's final opponent to free Ace, if you don't defeat him, the mission fails and it's game over.

He was clearly portrayed at the beginning as the main counterpart to Whitebeard.
Akainu was the main opponent of Luffy and Whitebeard. The final boss in the Marineford arc for Luffy and Whitebeard.
Akainu was even portrayed as an enemy above Kuzan and Kizaru, the last stronghold that had to be overcome to save Ace:



This is all too portrayal.
Now we come to the next point of the analysis.

Actions:
Actions: As mentioned above, he was Sengoku's secret weapon to fight the pirates. He was the leading force in the plan to destroy the pirates with a meteorite attack:

He also showed his inventive cunning tricks, for example he manipulated Squardo into attacking Whitebeard:


He also was the one who gave Whitebeard his fatal wound:
The final part:
The end of Ace, game over, the end of the mission.
Akainu killed Ace and gave Luffy the worst physical and mental injury he had ever received.


The importance of Akainu for this arc, his portrayal of how dangerous but clever he is and the final phase, as the final boss, he killed Ace and ruined Luffy's game of saving Ace. Akainu's actions were extremely important to this arc, so important that they changed the future enormously. He was the main antagonist who did everything to prevent Luffy and Whitebeard from achieving their goal.

So much for his actions, all of these were of great importance and had a massive impact on what happened in the arc.
Now we come to the last part of my analysis.

Feats:

He was the only one in the arc who was able to stand up to Whitebeard's Gura power (which was hyped by all characters (Sengoku/Flamingo)) in direct combat.



Easily overpowered Ace:

It took Jinbe,Marco and Vista to stop him for shorttime:


Was hit twice by rage Whitebeard with his strongest attacks, was back on his feet shortly afterwards, as a comparison Oden was down after an offguard club hit from Kaido... Even melted half face of Whitebeard in a single move...


Easily defeated Ivankov (Dragon's strongest commander after Sabo):

Easily defeated Jinbe:

Fought against Marco and Crocodile and the entire Whitebeard pirates and even had the upper hand:

Akainu's feats clearly show that apart from Yonkou level characters, high tiers were not even able to fight him for long. His AP is at Gura level, which clearly shows how strong Akainu is. He was the only character in the arc who fought against a Yonkou and significantly injured him. stomping a Shichibukai, stomping a top commander and then fighting against a whole Yonkou crew + Crocodile and was still in top shape.
His feats were above all other characters in the arc.

This brings all three points together and shows clearly:

He was the MVP of this arc, he killed Ace, was the only one to defeat many high tiers and was able to clearly push back the strongest protagonist (Whitebeard) in a 1on1 fight. Akainu's actions, portrayal and feats are clear, the MVP of Marineford, the strongest character on the island. It was clear that Oda wanted us to see this too, Akainu was the strongest character on Marineford, the strongest boss that Whitebeard and Luffy had to overcome.. His actions in this arc changed the future.
He is the character who killed Luffy's brother, he is now the Fleet Admiral with a bounty of 5B. His fight in Punk Hazard was a main event in timeskip. Luffy's scar hurts just of mentioning Akainu.

He will also be the Navy's main antagonist for the future, if you think that's all Akainu can do then you are completely wrong, Oda has big plans for this man and he will continue to push forward as a main villain alongside Imu and Teach, he is one of the final bosses for Luffy.


Thanks for reading.

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Papazuki got a 5 billion berry bounty on the basis of strength alone! He is HIM! :steef:
 
#42
I’d argue Whitebeard came to marineford stronger but yeah as the arc went on and his health depleted he definitely wasn’t

Sengoku could also technically be argued tbh if you believe he was at a prime level of strength but I personally kinda doubt it

All things considered tho I’d agree with Akainu being the strongest player during marineford

Including shanks I’d argue that while Shanks might be able to beat akainu that akainu is overall stronger
 
#47
Mihawk > Akainu.

But if you're talking only Featwise , Yes maybe But I would Still like to give oldbeard Equal position.
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EOS Koby > Prime Garp > FA Akainu
Really don't think So coby is built like that tbh.
Unless he gets an overpowered DF.
his AIM of Admiral is still very far away unlike Luffy and Zoro who already Unlocked AdCoC with Awakening and KoH.
 

Reborn

Throughout Heaven & Earth,I alone am d Honored One
#48
Nah man you're wrong, according to @Fujishiro I'm not allowed to say Akainu has the narrative importance Shanks does.
Narrative importance of Akainu and goatbeard is more than shanks (as of now)

I am not denying the importance of Shanks. He's the one who inspired Luffy, was part of Roger's crew, is a yonkou maintaining balance of power and perhaps has ties with Holy knights. There is lot of hype around him and lot of glazing by Oda.


However, shanks isn't an antagonist. He's not actively involved in shaping the plot. bB since his intro and Akainu during MF and as current FA, hold more narrative importance (atleast as of now) as they are not only the antagonists Luffy needs to overcome but also the driving force behind the plot.
 

Yoho

✌𝓣𝓱𝓮 𝓢𝓲𝓶𝓹𝓵𝓲𝓬𝓲𝓽𝔂 𝓸𝓯 𝓛𝓲𝓯𝓮✌
#50
Seems a lot of people mistakenly think MVP means the strongest that's simply not what MVP means

It means most valuable player or most important person


The moves he made in marine ford, is why the higher ups nominated him to replace sengoku in the first place, pretty much every major upset the whitebeard pirates face was casued by Akainu

And if you wanna bring strength into it before Shanks arrived he was the third strongest at that war
 
#51
Understandable analysis, however, there are a few points I would disagree with and give a fair warning imo.

From marines side, Akainu is indeed the MVP, I have no problem even saying that he was the strongest marine present although Kizaru and Kuzan are right there with him. As the marines completed their mission and hence came out as the winners then Akainu can also be called the overall MVP.

As far as power scaling goes then I would have to disagree with your implied Akainu being the strongest, Mihawk and Shanks are above him imo. Using MF feats in any argument is wrong because it is so full of inconsistencies that I don't even know where to start. And I will leave it at just that, when I have time I will reread MF because the anime has skewed the fight in WBs favor very much imo (that clip of WB fighting Akainu with one arm looks like and adult playing with a kid).

As characters go, the Admirals are the most gifted by Oda, each one is unique and interesting, compare then to Yonkos and they far outclass in terms of character writing with the comparatively small panel time.

This is where the warning comes to Admiral fans, don't bet on them being a major villain. They will remain the anti heroes. The internal conflicts are clearly shown. They have that Saito from Ruroni Kenshin trope (not an exact example but you get my point), the government guys who are good and go against the heroes or even help them sometimes. I think the Japanese have a thing where they are not ready to antagonize the military establishment completely and any mature writer would stay from doing this unless they are living in a very oppressive regime.

Look at how they are portrayed in the story, Luffys goal has never been to beat the marines, it has always been to claim the OP and his competition is other pirates, not marines. His adventures cause him to go against the WG but not specifically the marines.

Even the RA is not focused on the marines but overthrowing the CDs. Lets look at each Admiral so far.
Akainu: Very strong ideals and sense of justice, cruel but set on maintaining peace. Is not afraid to speak out against the Gorosei to their face.
Kizaru: He is the Ray/Benn to Akainu imo, the partner friend with no grand ambition but an equal partner. Recently he has been shown to be a Nika fanboy and went against the WG and helped the Yonko.
Aokiji: He was the odd one out of the C3, considerably younger than the other two with his own sense of justice and left after losing to Akainu. He went and joined BB, a pirate.
Fujitora: Another admiral with his own clear sense of justice and very strong ideals. Ready to rebel against orders or established SOPs. Fan of Luffy, hates pirates and most likely going to be the future FA.
GB: The brash, overzealous, over reacting and youngest of the bunch, seems least mature of the bunch too. Follows orders, racist but even goes against orders if he wants, a wildcard.

Akainu will have a heroic death imo, a sacrifice and will be remembered for many things including giving the scar to the future PK. His death will most likely be against the Gorosei and not at the hands of a pirate but he will most likely be die and be replaced with Fujitora as the new FA.

As far as power scaling goes, I think he can go ext diff either way against any other top tier.
 

RayanOO

Lazy is the way
#52
but in that case Akainu stole every show from everyone.
Yes Akainu stole the show and was the MVP from the Marine side
Like WB stole the show for the pirate side

Akainu was the most important Marine side character in that arc

no doubt about that


Akainu was the only one who was able to clash with Whitebeard Gura with was insane based how much everyone was hyping Whitebeard Power.
That doesn’t mean much

You really think Shanks or Mihawk or Aokiji who had a 10 days extreme diff fight with Akainu couldn’t clash with WB Gura ? Or Kizaru ?


He was Oda main character alongside Whitebeard and Luffy.
Yeah because Oda was definitely building Akainu in that arc.

He introduced the future marine main player.

‘That doesn’t mean Akainu was the strongest here.

But yeah Oda highlighting Akainu that much meant he had plans for him and he will become the strongest Marine and main marine.

But only when He became FA and beat down Aokiji he realized this potential.

FA Akainu > MF Akainu

FA Akainu > Mihawk

But during MF Akainu wasn’t at his strongest yet, narratively speaking.

Mihawk and Shanks were already at their peak. Akainu wasn’t.

‘Now he is completely at their level.

Portrayal >>>>> feats I obviously stands by that but you are mixing Akainu introduction, focus and building of his character as proof of his ranking. It’s proof of how Oda will focus on him later and treat him.

‘Like Teach was still growing, Akainu grew too as a main antagonist.
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I saw the light and come to join the sword cult :finally:
 
#53
Yes Akainu stole the show and was the MVP from the Marine side
Like WB stole the show for the pirate side

Akainu was the most important Marine side character in that arc

no doubt about that



That doesn’t mean much

You really think Shanks or Mihawk or Aokiji who had a 10 days extreme diff fight with Akainu couldn’t clash with WB Gura ? Or Kizaru ?



Yeah because Oda was definitely building Akainu in that arc.

He introduced the future marine main player.

‘That doesn’t mean Akainu was the strongest here.

But yeah Oda highlighting Akainu that much meant he had plans for him and he will become the strongest Marine and main marine.

But only when He became FA and beat down Aokiji he realized this potential.

FA Akainu > MF Akainu

FA Akainu > Mihawk

But during MF Akainu wasn’t at his strongest yet, narratively speaking.

Mihawk and Shanks were already at their peak. Akainu wasn’t.

‘Now he is completely at their level.

Portrayal >>>>> feats I obviously stands by that but you are mixing Akainu introduction, focus and building of his character as proof of his ranking. It’s proof of how Oda will focus on him later and treat him.

‘Like Teach was still growing, Akainu grew too as a main antagonist.
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I saw the light and come to join the sword cult :finally:
Akainu didn't grow

Teach isn't Akainu
Why do you people keep thinking Akainu is like Teach or whoever
He's not. The dude was already at peak. He didn't grow whatever
 
#54
Akainu was the main villain of Marineford. The main villain obviously gets a huge chunk of the screen time, the feats and the role in the plot. It doesn’t make him the strongest there.

We can go to Dressrosa and write a similar post about how Doflamingo was the MVP and main villain of the arc. Pica literally restructured the island to give the same video game levels where Doffy was at the top of the castle and there was various levels and stuff to fight up to.

But it doesn’t make him the strongest on the island when Fujitora is there.

That form of Akainu was quite literally the closest of extreme diffs to Kuzan that we have seen in the series apart from Dorry and Broggy. That doesn’t put him above Garp, Sengoku, Blackbeard, Shanks or Mihawk.
 
#57
The strongest character almost was two shot by a deadbeard
Oden was one shot by a nameless club hit from not-prime base Kaido. Akainu was snuck from behind and managed to deal the finishing blow on WB by melting half his head.
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Akainu didn't grow

Teach isn't Akainu
Why do you people keep thinking Akainu is like Teach or whoever
He's not. The dude was already at peak. He didn't grow whatever
You're just mad Akainu's victim will be powercreeped too.
 
#59
Oden was one shot by a nameless club hit from not-prime base Kaido. Akainu was snuck from behind and managed to deal the finishing blow on WB by melting half his head.
Pretty disingenuous to put a lot of qualifiers on Kaido (not-prime, base, nameless club), but not the same on Whitebeard (not-prime, literal heart attack city, not combining his supreme ranked weapon and his DF).

Even the “finishing blow” part, when WB

a) landed the last hit of the fight, and
b) went on to fight the Blackbeard Pirates afterwards
 
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