Eiichiro Oda Explains Why [SPOILER] Won Luffy v Katakuri Already

The One Piece manga is currently in the climax of the Whole Cake Island arc, and with it, came one a fight most fans were looking forward to seeing play out: Luffy vs. Katakuri.

After some conversing and battling over a few chapters, fans were mixed over the final result in which Luffy bested Katakuri since most assumed Katakuri was strong enough to defeat Luffy. But the series creator explained why Luffy won long ago: because he shouts.

In an interview with One Piece series creator Eiichiro Oda in 1998, he was asked about the intensity of the series' villains and how much they seemed to overpower Luffy and responded as such, "I have a policy that says that whoever screams, wins. Even if their belief is a little off, the one who screams their feelings out is the winner. The one that gets overwhelmed, loses."

This especially comes into play during the final moments of Luffy and Katakuri's battle as Katakuri asks about Luffy's future. "One day will you come to defeat Big Mom?" he asks, and Luffy responds with "You bet! I'm gonna be the Pirate King!" Katakuri's odd response? "Guess you can really see the future."

This also matches up with the final part of Oda's interesting quote as he elaborated to say, "And that's why despite the fact that [Luffy] wants to be a tremendously bad fellow, namely the Pirate King, but if he shouts it out full of energy, he wins in my head."

Although fans were sure Katakuri would win, Luffy won in the end because of his energy and perseverence that allowed him to push beyond his limit, and could even one day lead him to becoming the Pirate King.

Eiichiro Oda's One Piece first began serialization in Shueisha's Weekly Shonen Jump in 1997. It has been collected into 87 volumes, with a few chapters yet to be included. It has been a critical and commercial success worldwide with many of the volumes breaking printing records in Japan. The manga has even set a Guinness World Record for the most copies published for the same comic book by a single author, and is the best selling manga series worldwide with 430 million copies sold worldwide.

Eiichiro Oda also revealed some upcoming news for One Piece's future at Jump Festa 2018. Not only will the manga see Wano sooner rather than later, the next villain of the series is "one of the legends which lurks in the One Piece world. The greatest enemy ever for Straw Hats will hinder their way...Can you believe Marineford Summit War will look 'cute' compared to that?"

The new live-action One Piece series also got some new information as it was revealed that the series will portray the Straw Hats' adventures from the very beginning, and will take place in the East Blue.

One Piece is currently in the middle of the "Whole Cake Island" arc and is now streaming on Crunchyroll and FunimationNOW.