One Piece‘s Whole Cake Island arc has set a new stage for the fight between Luffy and Katakuri, and although it seems like the fight has set up a number of new stages lately, this newest stage comes with a new power for Luffy.
Videos by ComicBook.com
After trying and failing to harness the Observation Haki in the same way as Katakuri, the preview for the next episode teases that Luffy will finally be able to use it in the fight and turn the tables.
Episode 869 of the series is titled, “Wake Up! The Color of Observation Able to Top the Strongest!” and the preview for the episode teases that Katakuri once again has taken control of the fight and is pushing Luffy back at every turn. But it seems that during the fight he will relive another training moment with Rayleigh once more, and is doing much better at dodging his attacks.
The preview then sees Luffy (in the flashback) calm his mind while a red outline highlights his face. Then, toward the end of the preview, he does it once more so this could be a hint at the anime’s version of the Observation Haki. It’s been shown as red when Katakuri activates it, so it could be Luffy doing the same.
Given that the title seems to emphasize that Luffy will awaken this power as well, it could make for a huge turning point for Luffy. Katakuri has essentially controlled much of the pace of the fight, but things have been changing in the last few episodes. The latest episode of the series saw Katakuri respect Luffy as an opponent, and even ended with them standing on an even ground for, arguably, the first time in this entire fight. It’s only going to shift even more from here on out.
Eiichiro Oda’s One Piece first began serialization in Shueisha’s Weekly Shonen Jump in 1997. It has since been collected into over 80 volumes, and 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 over 430 million copies sold. The series still ranked number one in manga sales in 2018, which surprised fans of major new entries.
