Everyone was sitting on the edge of their seats during the whole of Marineford Arc. And after Ace’s death , when Garp wanted to kill Akainu, it really made us excited to see the power of the “Hero of Marines”, Vice Admiral Monkey D Garp. It took a lot of self-constraint and even the Fleet Admiral at the time, Sengoku to hold down Garp. This begs the question, can Garp defeat Akainu for real?

For every fan, there is always a hater, and many people just claimed it was just Oda hyping up Garp without any substance. Well, 2023 is here and we’re finally getting the tiniest of glimpses of Garp’s strength that made him rival even the Pirate King.

Can Garp defeat Akainu?

This topic has been the subject of heated debates for many years now. Ever since Garp threatened to kill Akainu all the way back in Marineford, the fandom has been split into 3 – Garp fans, Akainu fans (and Power Scaling haters).

Well with chapters 1080 and 1081 finally showing us what Garp can do, I think it’s time we asked the question again. Could Garp have killed Akainu back in Marineford? Is Garp stronger than Akainu?

To start off let’s see what Garp did in the latest chapters.

For years fans argued that Garp too was a Conqueror’s Haki user due to a few words mentioned in Chapter 570, which seemed to imply that it was heredity. Well, Garp is finally revealed to have Conqueror’s Haki.

The old man enters the battlefield by taking a page of his grandson’s book, through a flying ship that leaves everywhere shocked, definitely not ready for what’s to come next. Finally, Garp destroys the whole square (while claiming he has lost his edge) using a move called – Galaxy Impact, a grand name for a grand attack.

Skip to the next chapter and we see Garp fighting against Aokiji, who is now revealed to be the final member of the Ten Titanic Captains.

Seeing the Hero of the Marines fighting against an Ex-Admiral is truly a treat to the eyes, revealing many new details about their relationship. Aokiji was once Garp’s senior apprentice which just shows how strong Garp was in his prime, to have trained an Admiral.

Well all this just shows that even though Garp isn’t immune to ageing, he still has it in him to take on one of the strongest people in the world. But before drawing conclusions from just this much, lets take a closer look at some of Garp and Akainu’s feats.

Is Garp stronger than Akainu?

Powerscaling in One Piece is meaningless in the normal sense. A Bulbasaur is stronger than a Squirtle, which in turn is stronger than a Charmander which itself is stronger than a Bulbasaur. So in this situation which one is the strongest?

In One Piece terms it would mean you can’t really decide the power of a user just by their devil fruit. Similarly there are other things like Haki and “a character’s battle creativity”, that must be taken into account before deciding someone’s strength.

To compare Garp and Akainu we first have to take a look at their individual attributes.

Garp is the Hero of the Marines. He is the man who was on par with the King of the Pirates and the man who defeated Rocks. Taking that and his very long career in the marines, he has unparalleled experience in battle and was easily one of the strongest people in his prime.

As we have seen so far, Garp is a physical fighter. His fighting style mainly just involves punches. Punches strong enough to destroy whole towns and cities. Apart from this he is impossibly powerful as well , throwing a cannon ball as big as a ship and literally throwing cannon balls faster than a cannon can. Apart from this he is also the man who bent, Don Chinjao’s spiky head, a feat the was reversed by his grandson decades later.

Garp was also an Admiral candidate. If he had chosen to get promoted, who knows we might’ve seen Fleet Admiral Garp instead of Sengoku. All of these feats give you an idea of what a powerhouse Garp was. A master of haki and raw strength, only rivaled by the strongest beings in the world.

Up against him is Sakazuki “Akainu”, the current Fleet Admiral and a believer in Absolute Justice. Sakazuki is quite a monster himself , being the user of the Magu Magu no mi, the fruit with the highest offensive power. It is so strong infact, that it can cleanly melt off body parts of people like Whitebeard and Aokiji.

Akainu’s main power is his control over devil fruit and his mindset. You know the thing Katakuri does with his devil fruit to dodge attacks using future sight? Turns out the Admirals can do it too. Combine that with red hot magma that even the strongest Emperors succumb to and you have a deadly fighter who you must run away from.

His second strongest ability would be his mindset. In order to achieve his Absolute Justice, Akainu is willing to sink lower than even Blackbeard. Manipulating and scheming in order to take down Whitebeard shows his ruthlessness.

He will do anything it takes to achieve “his justice”. Many people downplay Akainu and the other Admirals because of Marineford. But one thing that everyone forgets is that, the Admirals fought to protect. They couldn’t use their full strength because it would destroy the Naval HQ. When Admirals truly fight it results in abominations of nature like Punk Hazard.

Conclusion

Well in a one on one in their primes, Garp would obsoletely demolish Akainu and use his lava to cook a meal. Unfortunately like all other characters, Garp isn’t immune to ageing and it is clear he has lost his edge. After the events on Marineford, he has actually stepped out of his role, being a Marine just in name.

Though it does not seem like he aged rapidly like Sengoku, it is certain that he has gotten far weaker.

In a current one vs one, we can say that Akainu is in his actual prime and would be capable of defeating Garp, though not unscathed. Garp’s decades of experience fighting against both the strongest fighters and devil fruit users, definitely would have taught him a trick or two.

Just like Aokiji lost a leg fighting against Akainu , Akainu too would lose an arm or so fighting against this monster of the past.