One Piece: Strongest Garp Students, Ranked

Monkey D. Garp is one of the strongest characters in all of One Piece, which is certainly saying something given the caliber of powerful individuals that have shown up over the course of the story. The Hero of the Marines may not be as proactive these days as he was back in his prime, but he has still taken it upon himself to share his skills and talents with several students, despite not all of them going on to become Marines.

During the Egghead Island arc of One Piece, fans were able to get a clear view of just how immensely powerful this Marine truly is after he decimated an entire island with a single punch. Needless to say, anyone who has the honor of training under Garp will inevitably grow into an absolute powerhouse by putting in the hard work and effort, but when looking at overall strength and accomplishments within the series, here is how all of Garp’s students stack up against one another.

5

Helmeppo

Helmeppo Soared Through the Marine Ranks Thanks to Garp

• First Appearance: Episode 2

Unlike his partner Koby, Helmeppo has been given only a brief amount of screen time so far in the story, which can make it a little tricky to determine just how strong he truly is. Having said that, though, after training with Garp for long enough, he was able to reach the position of lieutenant commander in only a handful of years, and considering he was able to keep up with Koby once they traveled to the new world, it’s clear as day that he’s become much stronger since he first appeared in the series.

In fact, Helmeppo was even able to hold his own against an entire pirate crew and come out the victor, proving that he’s much more than a simple grunt in the Marine’s regiments. While he’s clearly nowhere near as formidable as Garp’s other students, Helmeppo still deserves some credit as someone who undertook Garp’s brutal training regime and came out the other side a different man.

4

Portgas D. Ace

Ace Learned How to Survive and Put His Talents to Good Use

• First Appearance: Episode 91

Garp took Ace in from an early age due to a promise he made with his father, the infamous Gol D. Roger, who Garp had a pretty complicated relationship with back when the Pirate King was still around. As someone who always had a target on his back, Ace was forced to fend for himself so much of his life, but it was Garp who taught him how to go about achieving this by putting him through an extremely dangerous training protocol. In the flashbacks, it has been shown that Garp had no quarrels about testing Ace’s strength and durability by attacking him with his deadly Fist of Love, or teaching him the importance of stocking up on food before a fight.

It may not have been a very pleasant upbringing, but Garp’s attempts to mold Ace into a perfect Marine did ultimately end up making him a lot stronger, even though he decided to become a pirate instead. It is also important to remember that a lot of Ace’s strength comes from his Fire Fire fruit, which is considered to be one of the best offensive fruits in the series, though even as a hand-to-hand combatant, he was still shown to be extremely dangerous, and a lot of that is thanks to his legendary mentor, Garp.

3

Koby

Koby Has Been Able to Mimic Some of Garp’s Strongest Abilities

• First Appearance: Episode 1

It’s honestly hard to remember a time when Koby was little more than a scared and timid errand boy, considering that these days, he’s an immensely powerful Marine who is so strong that he was even able to replicate a few of Garp’s moves. The prime example of this, and the clearest indication of Koby’s underlying strength, is when he unleashed the devastating Honesty Impact onto Pizarro, who was fused with an entire island at the time.

Koby was able to decimate Pizarro’s arms, ultimately destroying him from the inside out, and though this is a far cry from Garp’s Galaxy Impact, the fact Koby is even able to mimic the technique demonstrates how far he has come. It seems the Marines themselves have also acknowledged Koby’s strength, as he has earned a position in the undercover SWORD group, and was also sent to apprehend Boa Hancock after the abolition of the Warlords, which is a mission that isn’t just handed out to your average Marine.

2

Aokiji

Despite Being at Odds With Garp, Aokiji Always Respects Him as a Teacher

• First Appearance: Episode 227

While Aokiji and Garp may not see eye to eye in the current story, considering that the former is now a member of the Blackbeard Pirates, there’s clearly still a level of respect between the two because of the amount of time they spent together as teacher and student. When Aokiji was still learning the ropes as a Marine, Garp decided to take him under his wing. Garp’s go-to method for training Aokiji was through the use of battleship bags, which he would task Aokiji with destroying using only his bare fists, without relying on his ice abilities or any form of Haki.

Considering the sheer number of characters in One Piece who rely so heavily on their Devil Fruits, this was a clever way for Garp to encourage Aokiji to focus on his physical prowess first, and that’s a big reason why he is considered so durable in the main story. In the current day, Aokiji is one of the most dangerous pirates out there, even managing to stand his ground against Akainu, despite coming out the loser. Luffy and the Straw Hats were forced to acknowledge Aokiji’s strength first-hand when they met him back on Long Ring Long Island, so it’s interesting to ponder how they would fare against him these days, considering they are all much stronger than before.

1

Monkey D. Luffy

Garp Could Never Have Expected Luffy Would Become a Yonko When He Was Still a Young Boy

• First Appearance: Episode 1

Luffy has actually had several teachers throughout the One Piece story, but it was Garp who first fulfilled this position when Luffy was still a boy. Similar to Ace, Garp’s method of training Luffy wasn’t exactly all that humane, as he would often task him with surviving in a dark and dense jungle, surrounded by ferocious beasts. Thankfully, though, this did end up giving Luffy the confidence that he needed to fend for himself when out on the open seas, and despite Garp’s desire for Luffy to one day become a Marine, he never could have expected that his plucky young student would actually go on to become a Yonko instead.

Luffy has taken down a myriad of tough opponents over the course of the series, including several Warlords, and even Kaido himself, after Luffy was able to awaken his Gear 5 technique. In the recent arcs, he has been able to face off against Admirals without even breaking a sweat, to the point where some characters even see him as a god considering his overwhelming levels of power. One thing is for sure — Garp made the right decision to start training Luffy when he did, as he effectively kicked off the boy’s adventure to become not only a great pirate, but also a liberator of the world.

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)