One Piece May Need to Reckon With a Classic Dragon Ball Issue

With the arrival of two additional Holy Knights and Loki being almost completely free from his chains after six long years, One Piece’s Elbaf Arc is finally taking off, with all the puzzle pieces for another grand battle finally falling into place. While the Holy Knights are already decided enemies, the same can hardly be said of Loki who is still teetering on the edge of being either Luffy’s next opponent or his next big ally, both literally and metaphorically. Jokes aside, the latest chapter of One Piece makes Loki more intimidating than ever before, finally revealing his tall stature in full and confirming an interesting running trend among the series’ antagonists over the last few years.

With all his chains save for one cuff on his ankle finally taken off after six long years, Chapter 1141 of One Piece sees Loki stand up for the first time giving birth to one of the coolest and most imposing panels the series has seen in quite a while. The framing and composition of the panel also put into perspective just how enormous Loki is, especially compared to Luffy, who barely even measures up to the toe-top of Loki’s boot. Interestingly, the chapter also sees Zoro refer to Loki as “Oars-sized,” thus putting him in the running as another one of One Piece’s biggest potential antagonists to date.

One Piece’s Villains Just Keep Getting Bigger in Size

While it has been quite clear that Loki is far bigger than the average giant ever since his introduction, it is safe to assume that fans did not have an idea as to exactly how much taller Loki was until Chapter 1140. Until now fans had only seen Loki seated while bound to Jewel Tree Adam, making him look deceptively smaller than he really is, and the latest chapter puts his true size into frightening perspective. Zoro’s statement comparing him to Oras also indirectly gives fans confirmation that Loki is just as tall as the Ancient Giant who stood at 67 meters or 219 hulking feet, which is nothing to scoff at.

More importantly, if Loki does indeed end up being an antagonist, this would confirm a rather hilarious pattern observed in One Piece, especially since the time skip: One Piece’s villains keep getting successively taller and bigger with every new arc. From Doflamingo on Dressrosa, to Charlotte Katakuri on Whole Cake Island, Kaido on Wano, and then the Five Elders on Egghead, Luffy’s major opponents since the time skip have not only gotten increasingly more challenging and powerful with every arc but also increasingly larger in stature.

On the surface, this height disparity with Luffy helps visually represent his underdog status in every fight, which is invariably overcome by Luffy’s creativity or perseverance, if not both. However, there comes a point after which it does get a little old and, intimidating as Loki may be, this trend should ideally end with him, as One Piece could otherwise risk falling into one of the same pitfalls as Dragon Ball with the infamous Great Ape transformation.

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One Piece Could Soon Have the Same Great Ape Problem as Dragon Ball

Surprisingly enough, this is an issue that even Dragon Ball has had to contend with as confirmed even by the series’ own editors. In a recent interview with Kosokoso as part of the J-wave radio podcast, Kazuhiko Torishima, Yu Kondo, and Fuyuto Takeda echoed the same sentiment about how monstrous antagonists didn’t seem to entice viewers as much for some reason.

The interview reveals this response was clearly observed in Dragon Ball, particularly with the Great Ape transformation, which was expected to be a hit among readers. However, the transformation continued to be ranked the lowest in popularity polls. As such, the key takeaway according to Kondo, who was Toriyama’s editor at the time when Vegeta’s Great Ape transformation would have debuted, is that audiences seem to find fights against human-like opponents far more compelling than giant monstrous ones (particularly giant monkeys) because they create “greater tension and engagement.”

Clearly, One Piece could maybe take some notes from Dragon Ball’s experience with antagonists. Intimidating as Loki may be, if this trend continues, it is funny to imagine how comically big Luffy’s opponents will continue to get in the Final Saga. Perhaps One Piece will inevitably come to a point where the final boss of the series will have to be a cosmic-sized entity, though fans can only hope it doesn’t go that far unlike the Sanji gag from Fishman Island.

One Piece is available to read from Manga Plus and Viz Media.