Weak Characters Who Became Absurdly Strong in One Piece

While the modern One Piece story is full of characters who can demolish entire islands with a single punch, many of these individuals didn’t start off as this strong to begin with. Sure, a Devil Fruit can definitely give someone a tactical advantage in combat, but in order to face off against some of the world’s most dangerous pirates and marines, a character still needs to put in enough training to even have a chance of standing up against the very best.

This has resulted in many characters, who were once regarded as fairly weak, eventually becoming absolute powerhouses, to the extent that they could even be considered slightly overpowered when going off their impressive feats in the series. It’s time to take a look at the One Piece characters who fit this description to understand how exactly they ended up becoming so strong, and why they were considered weak to begin with.

Shirahoshi

Shirahoshi Musters Up The Courage To Control The Sea Kings

• First Appearance: Episode 531

As the ultimate weapon known as Poseidon, Shirahoshi possesses an incredible amount of underlying power, which is more than enough to destroy the entire world if she were to master it. However, as someone who was extremely cowardly and naive, all Shiahoshi was able to do when Luffy first met her was cry at even the smallest inconveniences. Considering she was desperate to avoid conflict by any means necessary, she wasn’t exactly considered all that strong, at least not until near the end of the Fishman Island arc, where she began to activate a hidden power.

Shirahoshi was able to communicate with and control multiple Sea Kings at once in order to protect Fishman Island from being destroyed by the Noah. It’s important to remember that Sea Kings are some of the most ferocious creatures in the world of One Piece, capable of dealing earth-shattering damage due to their size and strength, so while Shirahoshi may have started off as little more than a big crybaby, she has now become one of the most dangerous characters in the series.

Bleackbeard

From A Timid Ruffian To The World’s Most Infamous Pirate

• First Appearance: Episode 146

Before Blackbeard was stealing other people’s Devil Fruits and terrorizing Islands with his ragtag crewmates, he was simply a poor boy who had found himself serving under the legendary captain known as Whitebeard. While his other crew members at the time, such as Marco and Jozu, had all proven themselves to be formidable fighters, Blackbeard could often be seen watching battles unfold from the sidelines, implying that he wasn’t exactly all that strong back in the day.

This would all change, however, after he betrayed the crew and stole the Dark Dark Fruit, giving him the ability to control darkness itself while also deactivating other people’s abilities in the process. It wouldn’t stop there, though, as much later in the series, Blackbeard would also steal his former captain’s Devil Fruit, which allows him to create entire earthquakes with a single punch. Needless to say, he’s come a very long way since those early days back on Whitebeard’s ship.

Koby

It’s Amazing What A Little Bit Of Training With Garp Can Lead To

• First Appearance: Episode 1

When Koby debuts in the very first episode of One Piece, he’s a snot-nosed errand boy who can barely even hold his brush, let alone a sword. Because of this, it was clear the young man had a very long way to go before he could fulfill his dream of becoming a marine, though thanks to a little help from Garp, he would find himself rising through the ranks much faster than anyone could have anticipated.

As the story of One Piece has gone on, Koby has been gradually growing in strength, until eventually, he would be made a member of the undercover group known as SWORD, which is certainly no easy task. More recently, he has shown some incredible displays of power, such as when he unleashed his devastating Honesty Impact, which is very similar to Garp’s Galaxy Impact, which almost destroyed an entire Island, providing a clear indication as to just how strong Koby has truly become.

Katakuri

Katakuri’s Dedication To Protecting His Family Pushed Him To Become Stronger

• First Appearance: Episode 825

Just like the majority of Big Mom’s children, Katakuri didn’t exactly have the happiest of upbringings. Because his obsession with eating donuts ended up enlarging Katakuri’s mouth, he was bullied relentlessly when he was still young, to the point where his sister Brulee would even be attacked by a group of thugs due to her connection to the deformed Katakuri. To ensure this would never happen again, Katakuri would train for years on end to become strong enough so that he could protect his family, and as Capone rightly points out, he ended up becoming an absolute monster by the time he appears in the main series.

While his Mochi fruit allows him to extend his body in any way he can imagine, Katakuri has also mastered his Observation Haki so that he can peek a few seconds into the future, making him virtually untouchable. He had also put in a tremendous amount of physical training to make his body as durable as possible, so much so that even Luffy had trouble knocking on his back while he was in Gear 4.

Trafalgar Law

Law Was On The Brink Of Death, But He Came Back Swinging

• First Appearance: Episode 392

When he was still young, Law inherited the Amber Lead disease, which was believed to be incurable. While this obviously had a massive impact on his mental state, it also drained a lot of his physical energy to the point where it seemed like a given that the young boy would sadly lose his life. The good news is, this didn’t end up happening thanks to Corazon, an undercover marine who gifted Law with the Ope Ope no Mi fruit, which he would then use to extract the disease from his own body.

Since then, Law has been honing his abilities to become a dangerous pirate, not only in terms of his swordsmanship, but also in the ways he can use his Devil Fruit. Law can essentially turn the surrounding area into his own personal playground, allowing him to manipulate people’s bodies in any way he can think of, such as removing their organs or even switching the body’s hosts. Nowadays, he’s extremely powerful and someone whom the marines are forced to always keep a close eye on.

Sanji

Sanji Has Put in The Work To Become Someone Luffy Can Depend On

• First Appearance: Episode 20

Unlike his siblings, who were all born with superhuman strength and speed thanks to their father Judge, Sanji didn’t turn out this way. In fact, Sanji was considered to be a failure, which is why he was locked away in a cell and forced to starve while the rest of his family lived a seemingly happy life. Despite being told he would amount to nothing, Sanji’s luck began to change after he got caught up with a chef by the name of Zeff, which eventually led him to Luffy and the Straw Hat crew.

Despite not having a Devil Fruit, Sanji was able to become one of the crew’s strongest members through sheer willpower and hard work alone, alongside awakening some of his latent powers a little later in the story without even realizing it. He would activate his Diable Jambe technique in Enies Lobby, which allows him to ignite his leg with flames, and thanks to his Armament Haki, he’s able to take down even the toughest of opponents with no more than a few attacks. It’s unlikely that a young Sanji would have ever thought he would be a part of a monster trio when he grew up, but he ended up achieving this position thanks to his dedication to becoming a crew member that Luffy can depend on.

Zoro

Zoro’s Come A Very Long Way Since The Early Episodes

• First Appearance: Episode 2

While Zoro was clearly stronger than the average human when he first appeared in the series, it’s fair to say that in the grand scheme of things, especially with hindsight, he was actually fairly weak. He may have been able to wield three swords at once, but Mihawk was still able to cut down Zoro without even breaking a sweat, all while using a simple butter knife. The truth is, though, that humiliating defeat had a massive impact on Zoro going forward, as he would continue to push himself to the limit of his abilities until eventually becoming one of the strongest characters in the entire series.

Since the timeskip, Zoro has accomplished some truly staggering accomplishments in battle. Not only was he able to slice apart Pica, who was the size of a giant mountain, but he also managed to land a scar on Kaido, with the only other person who’s been able to do so being Oden. Considering he is also one of the few people to be capable of using Supreme King Haki, it’s no wonder that Zoro is considered such a threat these days, despite being a pretty lowly swordsman in the beginning.

Luffy

Luffy Has Become Immensely Powerful Since His Epic Journey Began

• First Appearance: Episode 1

Thanks to his elastic Devil Fruit, Luffy has always been considered a hard hitter, but when looking at him in the context of the wider world, he wasn’t exactly considered all that powerful back in Romance Dawn. With no Haki to his name and only a few years of combat experience to speak of, Luffy could easily be counteracted by anyone who was considered even remotely strong, but that’s certainly no longer the case. By mastering his Devil Fruit and learning the Gear techniques, Luffy has slowly but surely become stronger as the journey has gone on, taking down a plethora of strong opponents along the way.

By far, his most significant power was activating Gear 5, where he unleashed the hidden potential of his Devil Fruit by harnessing the power of the Sun God Nika. By this point, Luffy is more than capable of going toe-to-toe with Admirals and Yonko, but this definitely wasn’t the case when the series first started.

One Piece

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 Maeya, Yûji Endô, Nozomu Shishido, Hidehiko Kadota, Sumio Watanabe, Harume Kosaka, Yasuhiro Tanabe, Yukihiko Nakao, Keisuke Onishi, Junichi Fujise, Hiroyuki Satou

Writers

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)