One Piece's Elbaf Arc Has a New Shanks-Level Haki User (And He Can Get Even Stronger)

In the last tale of One PieceShanks stands tall as one of the strongest characters. Introduced at the beginning, fans have been waiting decades for Oda to shed some light on the character of red-headed Shanks. Finally, in the last segment of the story, Shanks gets the attention he deserves. It's pretty clear for fans to see that he is easily one of the strongest characters in the entire story, with Haki that is monstrously powerful.

Shanks does not use a Devil Fruit, and as such the vast majority of his powers come from Haki. When it comes to overall Haki manipulation, it goes without saying that Shanks is one of the strongest in the world One Piecewith hardly anyone who can compete with him. However, over the course of the Elbaf arc, Oda has officially introduced another character with Haki that rivals the redheaded Shanks. This character is none other than Shank's very own twin brother, Shamrock Figarland, and evidence points to him being even stronger than the red-headed emperor overall, thanks to powers from Imu.

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One Piece: All Powers and Abilities of Advanced Conqueror's Haki Explained

Advanced Conqueror's Haki is one of the strongest powers wielded by the best fighters in One Piece and it grants great powers to the wielders.

Shanks is one of One Piece's strongest Haki users right now

When it comes to the manipulation of Haki, it goes without saying that Shanks is easily one of the strongest in the world of One Piece. He doesn't have any Devil Fruit ability, but he stands at the top of the One Piece world. Shanks has tremendous control over Haki and he can use the advanced forms of all three Haki types, but his greatest strength is the utilization of his Conqueror's Haki.

Shanks has shown feats with Conqueror's Haki that no other character in the world has. He can use Conqueror's Haki from miles away and completely paralyze someone as strong as an Admiral. More than that, Shanks can even deliver Conqueror's Haki shockwaves so strong that he can take out pirates with a bounty of over 3 billion in a single swing of the blade. Also, Shanks can use his Conqueror's Haki to kill Observation Haki from his enemies, and that's what makes him really special. There is hardly anyone in the world of One Piece as skilled with Haki as Shanks. In fact, in the Egghead arc, Oda directly compared Shanks Haki to the Joy Boys, showing how truly dangerous he is when it comes to Haki manipulation.

One Piece's Elbaf Arc confirms that Shanks and Shamrock have equal skill

Oddly enough, in the Elbaf flashback fans received recently, Oda confirmed that Shamrock Figarland is just as skilled and talented as Shanks. Both Shamrock and Shanks were born together and are linked by fate itself. While Shamrock was raised by the Celestial Dragons, Shanks was raised by the Roger Pirates. That said, both were born with equal talent and skills, and this was confirmed by Garling Figarland in the Holy Land of Marijoa in Elbaf's flashback. It was stated that if Shanks received the power of the Shallow Sea Pact from Imu, he would then be able to match Shamrock, given that they were both of a similar skill level. Essentially, Oda was trying to portray Shamrock as a step above Shanks at the time.

Also, when Shamrock and Shanks interacted, it was pretty clear to see that they had a similar rank in terms of power. Added to that is the fact that the five elders deeply respect Shamrock Figarlan and go so far as to speak to him with great respect, which may be due to his incredible skill.

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One Piece: Shamrock Figarland's Strength and Abilities Explained

Shamrock Figarland, Shank's twin, possesses powerful abilities and power.

It must also be remembered that in the Elbaf arc, Shamrock was clearly portrayed as even stronger than Loki, and a single attack from him put the legendary giant on death's door. Additionally, when Loki was asked to join the Holy Knights, it was to work under the command of Shamrock Figarland.

Shamrock possesses immense power, and given that he does not have a Devil Fruit but instead relies on his sword Cerberus, the vast majority of his own powers come from Haki, just like Shanks.

Shamrock Figarland should be a top level Haki manipulator and potentially stronger than Shanks

Shamrock and Shanks are canonically said to have the same skill, meaning they must be equally skilled at the utility of Haki as well. It wouldn't actually be a surprise to see Shanks use a Devil Fruit sword, just like Shamrock. One must remember that Shank's sword is named Gryphon, while Shamrock's sword is named Cerberus. One sword can have the power of Gryphon and the other has the power of Cerberus, meaning both would have a similar skill set as well. The only difference would be that Shanks is a pirate, while Shamrock fights for the government.

In either case, it has been clearly stated in the story that Shanks and Shamrock are comparable in overall power, meaning that Shamrock's Haki should be on par with Shanks. Above all, what confirms Shamrock as someone with high-level Haki manipulation ability comparable to Shanks is that he has the ability to completely erase his presence. According to One Piece 4 billion volume, this is an advanced Conqueror's Haki skill called Observation Killing, and besides Shamrock, only Shanks can do it in One Piece.

Then, when you look at the fact that Shamrock is just as skilled as Shanks, but also has the Deep Sea Pact with Imu, giving him even more superhuman strength, regeneration, and immortality, a very strong argument can be made for Shamrock being even stronger than Shanks. Shamrock has everything Shanks has, but the reverse isn't necessarily true. As hard as it may be to believe, Shanks may actually end up as the inferior of the two, and that's something that Oda will surely showcase in the Final Saga as the story progresses. A confrontation between these two brothers could happen in the Final Saga, and fans absolutely cannot wait for it.

One Piece can be read on Manga Plus.

Release date

October 20, 1999

Network

Fuji TV

Directors

Hiroaki Miyamoto, Konosuke Uda, Junji Shimizu, Satoshi Itō, Munehisa Sakai, Katsumi Tokoro, Yutaka Nakajima, Yoshihiro Ueda, Kenichi Takeshita, Yoko Ikeda, Ryota Nakamura, Hiroyuki Kakudou, Takahiro Imamura, Toshihiro Ma Shihi Endo, Toshihiro Ma Shihi Endo, Kadota, Sumio Watanabe, Harume Kosaka, Yasuhiro Tanabe, Yukihiko Nakao, Keisuke Onishi, Junichi Fujise, Hiroyuki Satou

Author

Jin Tanaka, Akiko Inoue, Junki Takegami, Shinzo Fujita, Shouji Yonemura, Yoshiyuki Suga, Atsuhiro Tomioka, Hirohiko Uesaka, Michiru Shimada, Isao Murayama, Takuya Masumoto, Yoichi Takahashi, Momoka Toyoda

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  Mayumi Tanaka

  Monkey D. Luffy (voice)

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  Kazuya Nakai

  Roronoa Zoro (voice)