Last updated on October 11th, 2023 at 05:10 pm
Wano Country Arc is undoubtedly one of the best arcs of One Piece, and there are plenty of reasons to support that conclusion. One of them is the primary antagonist of the arc, Kaido, one of the Four Emperors of the Sea and the “strongest creature in the world.” Another reason is this is the arc where Luffy finally awakens his Devil Fruit and unlocks Gear 5.
Throughout the arc, Luffy and Kaido clash multiple times, most of the times ending with Kaido coming out as the victor, except for the last fight between him and Gear 5 Luffy. Though Luffy ultimately defeats Kaido, there are plenty of factors behind it to make us wonder whether Luffy would’ve won if only Kaido were at his full strength.
So, here is our take on the Luffy vs. Kaido fight if both Luffy and Kaido were in their prime condition when their last round began. Before we analyze the Luffy vs. Kaido fight, let’s first go through their strengths and weaknesses.
Table of Contents
I. Kaido (Fresh)
As everyone already knows, Kaido is the Governor-General of Beasts Pirates and one of the Yonko. He is an oni and is considered the “strongest creature in the world.” Kaido currently rules over Wano, using the country to manufacture the artificial Devil Fruits known as SMILE.
He used to be in the crew of Rocks Pirates along with his former fellow Yonko, Big Mom, and Whitebeard. Kaido is also irrefutably one of the strongest characters in the series.
Appearance
Kaido is a huge man with a bulky muscular body, dark hair, and a beard. As an oni, he has a pair of curved horns protruding out of his forehead. In his dragon form, he becomes a massive azure eastern dragon with multiple small limbs and his signature mustache.
In his hybrid form, Kaido gains some of his azure scales on his face and some on his body. He also retains his dragon tail in this form. While using Flame Dragon Torch, Kaido’s dragon form is completely covered with blazing fire.
Strongest Forms
Thanks to his Zoan Devil Fruit powers, Kaido has three other forms aside from his usual human form. Every form has its advantages, and he uses all three of them during his fight against Luffy and the alliance between the Straw Hat Pirates, Akazaya Nine, Heart Pirates, and Kid Pirates.
The forms of Kaido are:
- Beast Form: This is the basic Zoan form of Kaido, where he transforms into a huge blue eastern dragon. His dragon body is massive, almost the size of a small town, and has scales so tough that not even normal Busoshoku Haki can wound his body.
- Beast-Human/Hybrid Form: The hybrid form of Kaido is his most useful one for battles. In this form, he primarily retains his human appearance but with some features from his dragon form, including his blue scales and his tail. This form is faster, stronger, and more durable.
- Flame Dragon Torch Form: The Flame Dragon Torch form of Kaido is basically his Beast form but in this case, he covers his entire dragon body with powerful flames that make it impossible to physically hit him. The flames covering his body are strong enough to char anything that touches him. Kaido uses this as his ultimate shield against Luffy’s massive punch.
Power & Abilities
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- Kaido possesses the Mythical Zoan type Devil Fruit: Uo Uo no Mi; Model: Seiryu. As previously mentioned, this Devil Fruit gives him the ability to transform into a massive dragon and also has a special hybrid form.
- As a dragon, Kaido can shoot powerful flames from his mouth. He can also create special clouds known as the Flame Clouds that can float in the air and even hold something up. With the help of the Flame Clouds, Kaido has been holding the entire Onigashima afloat in the air.
- Both as a dragon and in the hybrid form, Kaido’s natural strength, agility, and durability increase multiple times.
- Kaido is one of the very people in the world who can use all three types of Haki: Busoshoku, Kenbunshoku, and Haoshoku, and all of their advanced forms.
Weaknesses
- Kaido is called the “strongest creature in the world” for a reason. He’s almost completely invulnerable with his only weakness being advanced Busoshoku Haki which, in Wano, is known as Ryou.
- Aside from this, his weakness is the standard Devil Fruit user weakness: sea and sea stones.
II. Luffy Gear 5
For the longest time, Luffy’s Devil Fruit was thought to be the Paramecia-type Gomu Gomu no Ni. It’s only during the concluding Luffy vs. Kaido fight on Onigashima that it’s revealed that Luffy’s true Devil Fruit is actually the Mythical Zoan-type: Hito Hito no Mi; Model: Nika.
During his fight against Kaido, Luffy is attacked from the back by a CP0 agent and is on the brink of death when his Devil Fruit finally awakens in the form of Gear 5.
Appearance
It’s only during Gear 5 that Luffy’s Devil Fruit shows its true nature. In typical Zoan fashion, the fruit allows Luffy a special transformation. In Gear 5, Luffy’s hair, eyebrows, and clothes all turn completely white, and the sash around his waist becomes purple.
Luffy’s hairstyle also changes into a flame-like shape, completely white. The shape of his eyebrows also changes, becoming thicker and swirlier towards the ends. His irises become red, surrounded by black. Most prominently, a huge grin is always plastered on his face.
Power & Abilities
- Hito Hito no Mi; Model: Nika allows Luffy to transform into the Warrior of Liberation: Sun God Nika. In this form, Luffy gains an unbelievable power which is said to be the “world’s most ridiculous power.”
- Gear 5 Luffy retains his stretchability but it is elevated to its peak. Before Luffy had a limitation of how far he could stretch, but in this form, there’s seemingly no boundary at all, evident when Luffy transforms his entire body into that of a giant.
- As the Gorosei discuss among themselves, Luffy’s powers basically have no limitation. Like the original Nika, he can move however he wants and his powers are only limited by his own imagination.
- This mysterious Devil Fruit also acts like a Paramecia and its awakening allows Luffy to turn anything he touches into rubber too.
Weaknesses
- Because of his rubber body, Luffy has always been immune to blunt attacks. But slashing and flames are just as dangerous to him as they are to everyone else.
- Gear 5 is the peak of Luffy and it eats away a lot of his stamina that makes it difficult to maintain for a long time.
- Like every other Devil Fruit user, the sea and sea stones are his weaknesses.
Kaido’s Flame Dragon Torch vs. Gear 5 Luffy
Both Kaido’s Flame Dragon Torch and Luffy’s Gear 5 are their strongest forms, and the last round of their fight ends with these two forms. However, that isn’t to say that they were in their peak condition when using these forms.
Kaido has been fighting back-to-back the whole night against numerous opponents and multiple times against Luffy himself. On top of that, he was also keeping the whole Onigashima afloat in the air at the time.
Luffy, too, has suffered heavy damage and was almost on the brink of death when his Devil Fruit awakened. But if Kaido and Luffy were using Flame Dragon Torch and Gear 5 from the very start of their fight, the result could’ve been different.
Even after Luffy awakens his ridiculously powerful Gear 5, Kaido is able to fight on par with him. Sure, in certain moments Luffy overpowers him, but he gives as good as he gets. But if Kaido hadn’t been fighting for so long and hadn’t suffered through his injuries, it’s easy to visualize him overpowering Luffy.
Another evidence of that inference is that Luffy has only just awakened his Devil Fruit and hasn’t mastered Gear 5 yet. Kaido, on the other hand, has complete mastery over his forms and fights Luffy on par without his own Devil Fruit awakening. So, we can conclude that if Kaido and Luffy were fighting fresh with their Flame Dragon Torch vs. Gear 5, Kaido would win the battle, even if by a very small margin.
For a better understanding, we’ll now look into the individual aspects of the Luffy vs. Kaido fight:
I. Based on Strength
If we compare the strength between Luffy and Kaido, the Yonko very clearly comes off as the winner. Kaido is a lot bigger and more muscular than Luffy in size. During their fight, he’s shown his immense strength multiple times. When he transforms into one of his three forms, he becomes even more powerful physically.
Luffy, on the other hand, is not actually known for his brute strength. That’s not to say that he isn’t physically strong. In fact, in Gear 5, Luffy can transform himself into a giant and wield massive strength. However, when compared to Kaido, he comes up short.
II. Based on Speed and Reflex
In a fight, only strength is not enough and one needs to have exceptional speed and reflexes to win a battle. Both Luffy and Kaido have those. They are far faster than normal pirates and their reflex times are exceptional, aided by their Advanced Kenbunshoku Haki.
But Luffy’s speed and reflexes overpower Kaido’s. Luffy has been seen dodging attacks that even Yonko-level pirates will have difficulty attempting. His reflex time is even faster than light. This means in this round of Luffy vs. Kaido, the rubberman is the winner.
III. Based on Durability
Kaido wins the round of durability irrefutably since his durability is the reason behind this article, after all. He has been continuously fighting enemies the whole night and has suffered some injuries, but more importantly, has lost a lot of energy. Yet he remains consistent in his power and is even able to fight Gear 5 Luffy on equal feet after Luffy awakens his Devil Fruit.
However, Luffy has had brief moments of respite to rest and replenish his strength after being defeated by Kaido twice on the same night. In those moments, his allies battle the Yonko in his place. Luffy is also undeniably durable, able to suffer such damage again and again, and awakening his Gear 5 at the brink of death. But in the case of durability, Kaido is definitely superior.
IV. Based on Haki
As Kaido says during the last round of the Luffy vs. Kaido fight, Devil Fruit abilities aren’t the most important in the world of One Piece, instead it’s Haki that gives someone the edge. He supports his statement by giving the example of Gol D. Roger who became the King of Pirates without having any Devil Fruit power.
Luffy and Kaido are both prominent Haki users and two of the very few characters who can use all three types of Haki and all of their advanced forms. Luffy, despite being smaller in size and younger in experience, is capable of countering Kaido’s advanced Haoshoku Haki. Kaido, too, has shown his proficiency in Haki again and again during his fights.
So, we suppose we’ll have to give this round to both of them.
V. Based on Devil Fruit Abilities
Now we’ve finally reached the Devil Fruit part. Both Luffy and Kaido possess Mythical Zoan fruits and own more power than most characters in the series. Kaido’s Uo Uo no Mi; Model: Seiryu is definitely powerful but Luffy’s Hito Hito no Mi; Model: Nika is one of the most mysterious and most powerful Devil Fruits ever featured in the story.
Luffy’s Devil Fruit gives him a ridiculous and immeasurable power which he displays during the last stage of the Luffy vs. Kaido fight after unlocking his Gear 5. The abilities of Gear 5 are too unrestricted to be predictable and as we very clearly see in the fight, Kaido will have a hard time countering.
That’s why Luffy is the clear winner of this round.
Conclusion
As we see from our discussion above if Kaido and Luffy both begin their last round completely fresh, without past exhaustion and damage, Kaido could defeat Luffy. It’d be a very close fight but Kaido’s experience, his durability, and his powers could overpower the relatively new abilities Luffy has discovered with his Gear 5. But then again, if Luffy actually had complete mastery over Gear 5, there is no doubt that he’ll win the Luffy vs. Kaido fight.
We conclude our discussion here. For more One Piece-related articles, check out Otakus’ Notes.
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Anamika loves words and stories and putting them to pages. She also loves anime, manga, books, movies and everything fantasy. She has been a fan of anime since childhood and her admiration for it only grew with years. Her passion for writing is even more elevated by writing about the things she loves.
