Does Haki overshadow Devil Fruits?

Important takeaways

• Haki in One Piece overshadows the original Devil Fruit system, giving a universal advantage to almost every character.
• Haki acts as an overall weakness for Devil Fruits, making fights less about strategy and more about brute force.
• The introduction of Haki means that battles against strong enemies in One Piece result in slugfests, reducing the need for creative solutions.

One Piece has always had an interesting power system. Using the strange and mysterious powers of Devil Fruits fundamentally alters the consumer's body, granting a range of interesting and powerful abilities. While not all characters use the powers alone, Devil Fruits serve as the main power system during the early stages of One Piece.

However, as the show grew, a new power system was eventually introduced One Piece. The Haki system introduced a universal ability that increased the strength of almost any character in the series. This new base power, despite being a more traditional “power-up”, has some interesting aspects, making it a quick fan favorite. Unfortunately, there are some aspects of One Piece's Haki system that overshadows some of the more interesting parts of the original Devil Fruit system.

Haki and Devil Fruits: Two Power Systems in Unison

A tale of two powers

Devil Fruits in One Piece has a very simple premise. If a person eats a Devil Fruit, their body changes in some way, giving them a certain ability. But at the same time, they are hated by the sea, which causes them to lose the ability to swim. Devil Fruits come in several different varieties and grant a wide range of abilities, ranging from Buggy's Chop-Chop Fruit to Chopper's Human-Human Fruit.

Maybe nothing happens in this world by chance – Rayleigh

Haki, on the other hand, is an ability that most of the strongest characters have One Piece hold. Haki allows characters to tap into their spiritual energy to perform superhuman feats. This power comes in three forms; Armament, allows the user to use stronger attacks, Observation, gives the user some degree of extra vision and spatial awareness, and Conquerors, which allows the user to force their will on others, which can knock them out. One Piece's Arming Haki also has the additional effect of allowing the user to hit Devil Fruit powers, even if the power would prevent them from being hit originally.

Haki makes Devil Fruit users too easy to handle in one piece

Every weakness is Haki

While Haki was officially introduced to One Piece towards the halfway point of the series, the power itself has been around since the beginning of the series. Despite this, Haki still feels like a new system compared to Devil Fruits. That being said, while the two systems work well together, Haki can only overshadow some parts of Devil Fruits that made the first big fights against Devil Fruit Users so interesting.

First, Haki in One Piece gives characters without Devil Fruits a much easier way to deal with Devil Fruit users. For example, if Zoro were to fight a character like Akainu, it would be impossible for the swordsman to harm the admiral at all, leaving the non-devil fruit user at a severe disadvantage. However, with the use of Haki, Zoro is able to bypass the intangible ability provided by the Magma-Magma Fruit, lowering the game board.

While this makes sense from a power scaling standpoint, the use of Haki overshadows one of the previously important weaknesses of Devil Fruits in One Piece. In the past, the only important way to overcome a Devil Fruit was to exploit its natural weakness. Instead of just attacking with Haki, the characters had to outwit the Devil Fruit Users, creating interesting fights that really explored all aspects of the Devil Fruits.

Haki creates a One-Note solution in one piece

No more creative solutions

Now with the advent of Haki, One Piece battles against strong enemies only result in slugfests that don't fully explore the strengths and weaknesses of their Devil Fruit powers. In the past, Luffy needed to detect and exploit weaknesses, such as using water to freeze and beat Crocodile to counter his Logia Devil Fruit, or bind and remove parts of Buggy's body to emerge victorious. Now it seems that all fights have the same resolution; hit the target harder and harder until a victor emerges.

Haki is a power that lies dormant in all the world's creatures. – Rayleigh

While these two power systems in One Piece works very well together, in this small way Haki overshadows Devil Fruits. However, due to the nature of Devil Fruits, it's probably a better decision in the long run to have Haki as an overall weakness for Devil Fruits. Ultimately, hopefully, Oda includes some interesting Devil Fruit weaknesses in the future One Piecewithout relying too much on Haki to be the solution to all problems.