Roger's List: Top 10 Fights of One Piece.

Hello everyone and welcome to a brand new segment I like to call Roger’s List, where I, Roger, will tell you what moments of the modern Odyssey that is One Piece shine above all others. 


We all have our reasons for loving this show, be its swashbuckling adventure across what could be the most imaginative world ever created, its massive cast of colorful characters sporting larger than life personalities, or just how well the tale balances high drama with a much appreciated sense of fun. Over the next couple months, I hope to cover many of these topics, but today, we are talking specifically about fights. After all, One Piece is, first and foremost, a Shonen Jump Anime series, so would of course be custom of the show to have a good dose of badass fight sequences, further confirming to 6-year-olds across the world that violence does indeed solve everything. Right 4 Kids? After all, you were the guys who turned Helmeppo’s Gun into a Hammer, because threatening to brutally bludger someone’s face in is WAY more appropriate than threatening to end their life instantly and painlessly with a single gunshot. 

Any-who, let us start. Here is Roger’s Top 10 Fights of One Piece

#10: Luffy vs. Hannyabal (Impel Down Arc)
 

Here’s one I believe gets overlooked quite a bit. Hannyabal is nowhere near the most intimidating opponent Luffy has ever faced. In fact the whole first half of the arc, he’s portrayed as being nothing more than a whiny buffoon who keeps trying to downgrade Magellan so he can usurp him as the new warden. However that just made it all the more surprising when he pulled out the Gandalf ‘You-shall-not-pass!’ shtick and revealed himself to be quite a competent fighter with his double-edged halberd.
 

Of course, he was still nowhere near our protagonists level, but honestly, I cannot remember someone being so outmatched by Luffy, and yet getting up over and over and over and over again so desperate to stop him. I actually didn’t know who to really root for in this fight, which is an extreme rarity. 90% of Luffy’s opponent’s are assholes who have it coming. Hannyabal’s convictions and desire to protect the innocent are so admirable, and so much of what he says in his speech rings true, that it almost felt like the typical hero/villain roles were reversed in this situation.

It is worth noting that after these events, Hannyabal, for his efforts, was promoted as the new Warden of Impel Down during the time skip. Congratulations Hannyabal. Hopefully nothing bad enough happens that we ever have to knock on your door again. (Though I wouldn’t doubt it if it did.)

#9: Luffy vs. Arlong (Arlong Arc)
 

As I just got done saying, the vast majority of Luffy’s opponents are jackasses who are long overdo for a beat down, and no one from the first season of One Piece defines this statement better than the Sawtooth Arlong. (In fact he was eight years overdo.) After an impressive spat with Kuro showed off the depths of Strawhat’s fighting skill, and Don Krieg tested the waters of his dexterity, the Captain of this faction of the Fishman Pirates stands as a testament to Strawhat’s sheer physical strength. While the overall fight between these two powerhouses is a bit all over the place, nothing highlighted just how ridiculously strong Luffy was during our time in the East Blue than the final moments of Arlong Park.   

One kid... did THIS.

 

In a future arc (500 EPISODES LATER), we are finally given some history on the Fishman Pirates, and along with it, some context behind Arlong’s actions and the traumatizing events that compelled him to do what he did to Cocoyashi Village. Does it make him sympathetic enough to lead us NOT to enjoy this beat down of epic proportions? …Not really, No.

#8: Luffy vs. Crocodile (Alabasta Arc)
 

But Arlong was fish sticks compared to the main antagonist of Season 2. Crocodile: leader of the underground organization Baroque Works, and one of the Seven Warlords of the Sea. As our hero’s very first mortal enemy with a Logia Type Devil Fruit power, Crocodile serves as a wake-up call to just how strong the pirates of the Grand Line truly are. Unlike the fight with Arlong, there is no screwing around when these two go at it (Water Luffy in Round 2 not withstanding). Luffy is brought to near death two rounds in a row, and when he goes in for Round 3, he can only fight by covering himself in his own blood.

What’s great is that this confrontation truly feels like a call back to classic Arabian adventures. Crocodile is basically the One Piece version of Jafar from Disney’s Aladdin, and even says one of Jafar’s most iconic lines verbatim.

“How many times must I kill you, boy!”

The final round, underneath the crumbling temple, is so well choreographed, the hits just keep coming, as Dvorak Symphony No.9 begins playing in the background all the way up to it's ultimate cinematic conclusion.

DADADA-DA-DA DADADA-DA-DA! Yeah! Luffy just kicked a Warlord's ass! Is this badass enough for you? 

Okay, so 3 fights in, and I notice that Luffy is in all of them. As much as I want to be fair to everyone else in this show, Luffy is kind of a fight hog. Anyway, our next fight just so happens to be Luffy less.

#7: Whitebeard vs. Akainu (Marineford Arc)

 

“The day wares on! We loose many, but each fallen is a child of dearest blood. And upon seeing the impaled body of his own young son, the captain breaks rank. Goes wild. Blood drunk. The captain’s silent pain at the loss of his son is more frightening to the enemy than the largest armada.”

Let’s not sugar code anything here. The War at Marineford was a huge gamble to make, premise wise. Let’s toss 450 episodes worth of secondary and minor characters into a blender, along with some brand new ones, and basically tell them all to go nuts and pray to Eneru everyone gets a fair amount of screen time. Some of it worked, some of it [I.E. anytime Buggy was on screen!] definitely did not. It’s hard to pin point any clear fights in this arc, because it’s basically everyone fighting everyone. Most one-on-one confrontations lasted maybe a move or two before they moved on to someone else (you know, like an ACTUAL WAR!)

But if there was one clear highlight of this War, it would certainly have to be when Edward Newgate corners the Red Hound bastard and gives him One Piece of his mind. You know the phrase actions speak louder than words? Well…

 

That expression on Akainu’s face. Priceless. I will treasure that forever.

#6: Luffy vs. Usopp (Water 7 Arc)
 

You know the only thing more brutal than watching two mortal enemies beat the life out of each other? Watching two friends beat the life out of each other. I believe this one deserves a fair amount of clarification. With their ship in shambles and their money stolen, Strawhat Luffy makes quite possibly his most difficult decision as the ship’s captain yet: They have to say farewell to their ship. Incidentally, this decision proves far too much for Usopp to handle. Why?

• Given that the Merry was a gift from his childhood friend Kaya,
• The hours upon days he spent fixing up every single accident the Merry had to the best of his ability (Seriously, without Usopp, the Merry would have been lucky to make it as far as Alabasta),
• In Skypeia, he alone witnessed  Klabautermann fixing the ship, so in his eye, he believed Merry to in fact be alive and was fighting to stay afloat,
• He was not present to witness Luffy’s thought process and how much he initially resented the thought of scrapping the Merry in the first place, therefore he had no reference or proof to convince him that this wasn’t another one of Luffy’s passing whims or that the shipwrights weren’t trying to take advantage of him,
• He just got mugged, and feels responsible for putting the crew 200,000,000 Berries under, so he’s already emotionally and physically distraught when this decision was forced upon him,

All equals to things quickly getting out of hand, leading to Usopp not only leaving the crew, but challenging his former captain to a duel for the right to take the Merry.  

Ironically, this is probably one of Usopp’s most badass moments. During a commentary, the team at Funimation likened this battle to Batman vs. Superman. Like Batman, Usopp’s skill set is best applied when he is given enough time to plan and prepare. By setting the time and place that he and Luffy would fight, he was able to do just that. And… it worked. Usopp was in control of the entire fight, using his expertise as a tactician and manipulator to keep his opponent at [rubber] arms length while he sends one surprise attack after another his way. He did everything he could (short of miraculously getting his hand on some sea prism handcuffs, which would have won him the fight), but in the end it wasn’t enough, and all Luffy needed to finish it was one clear shot to the gut.

I can’t stress enough how emotional this fight was, and a lot of it is due to the fact that these two characters are very good friends. Heck, I would argue that Luffy and Usopp are the quintessential Best Friends within not only the Strawhat crew, but the entire series. It frustrates me so much how Masashi Kishimoto keeps trying to pull the friendship card to make his Naruto/Sasuke rivalry mean more than it really does. No, sorry! Please take note:

THIS…

IS WHAT A TRUE FRIENDSHIP LOOKS LIKE!!!

Well after that last one, I’m pretty exhausted. Anyway, you can check out this particular fight yourself by supporting the official release. One Piece Season 4 Voyage 3 is now available online or at your local video store. Don’t miss it. Seriously, Colleen and Sunny act their freaking hearts out in it. We want nothing more than for them to continue presenting this show at the quality and pace that they are of recent date. So get the word out there to help us make it happen.

And when we return, we’ll be listing the remaining battles on our list. The best is yet to come in The Top 5.