I'll start from the lowest.
999th. Big Mom: DF's real creative, but the character design and flops puts BM in very lowest of tier. Sorry. BM should be a evil magician with sharp motherly trope, but Oda really butchered her concept into something unimaginably ugly.
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Huge gap:
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8. Kizaru: one of the best Devil Fruit ever. The holder is kinda lame tho sorry.
7. WB: fatherly figure of the year, protecting his sons and all. I find him lacking his own spirit tho, he's just serving as a gate for the new era.
6. Kaidou: WSC title and his physical design earns him the utmost respect for him. His powerlevel also back the title up consistently. The hostage-taker and PTSD part of his character just ruins it for me tho, its like he's all about power but none about character.
5. Akainu: His magma powers and savage nature go hand-in-hand, he does it all for the sake of justice is a sign of a very strong and consistent character, but i got this feeling of one-dimensional quality, since his character just has this one side of him, its like i'm tired of watching his savageness all the time.
4. Aokiji: image of him nonchalantly riding a bike at sea surface is lit. Him freezing the sea is an awesome moment. His complex ideology and Blackbeard affiliation is also good.
3. Fujitora: Zatoichi as the model, a plus. Gravity fruit, even more of a plus. Being conflicted but still hold his values of good? Even more. A melancholic scene involving Luffy? He's a superbly built character.
2. Blackbeard: Luffy's nemesis and polar opposite from the get go. Darkness DF, fate-oriented ideology, future top 1 powerlevel prospect, reckless combined with cunning, its a recipe for a good final boss.
1. Shanks: Luffy's mentor and inspiration. Laid-back attitude. Voiced by Shuichi Ikeda, extremely original quality of voice. Even tho he's dressed like a bum, but affecting someone as strong as Akainu with CoC presence is not something i can ignore. And that CoC slow walk in Moby Dick is just something so amazing, i cant express it into words.