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One Piece is commonly praised for its intertwined plot, involving complex worldbuilding as well as several secrets that are yet to be revealed. However, Eiichiro Oda's masterpiece is still a shonen.
As such, the series also features exciting battles, whose length can vary depending on the case. At times, to emphasize that the two contenders are very close in strength, the author has them clash for entire days at a time.
While this has led to some battles lasting for days or even years, other clashes, despite involving characters with similar levels of strength, conclude in the span of hours, if not minutes. This makes the duration of fights in One Piece a distinctive, yet controversial trait of the series.
Disclaimer: This article contains major spoilers from the One Piece manga up to chapter 1078 and reflects the opinions of the writer.
Depending on the case, fights in One Piece can be surprisingly long
Admittedly, fights are a crucial primary aspect of the shonen series. With regard to the length of the battles, the first thing that comes to mind is how many chapters or episodes the clash spans across.
As per One Piece, several battles in the series have been very extended. Regarding the anime adaptation, the fight between Luffy and Doflamingo took 13 episodes, while the one between Luffy and Katakuri lasted 22 episodes.
Still, within the internal timeline of the One Piece narration, those fights were relatively short, as their actual duration was only a few hours. Conversely, some fights were barely shown, if not completely off-paneled, but lasted much longer.
For instance, when Jack and a group of the goons in the Beasts Pirates attacked Zou in search of Raizo, their battle against the Mink tribe lasted five days. Jack fought without taking a break, while Nekomamushi and Inuarashi, the two leaders of the Minks, interchanged to rest.
Jack and the two Dukes fought themselves to a standstill, while the other Minks had the upper hand against the Beasts Pirates. On the fifth day of the battle, Jack used poisonous gas to beat all the Minks, ending the fight.
At one point in the past, Jinbe and Portgas D. Ace clashed for five days before they both collapsed from exhaustion. Ace aimed to take the head of Whitebeard, while Jinbe wanted to defend the latter, who was the protector of Fishmen Island.
The five-day-long battle between Ace and Jinbe was fierce. The former used his Flare-Flare Fruit, a Logia-class power, while the latter relied on his mastery of Fishmen Karate. They ended up in a stalemate, and with their maturing respect for each other, they later became friends.
After the Paramount War, Sengoku decided to resign from his role as Fleet Admiral. He suggested Aokiji as his successor, while the Five Elders considered Akainu. As such, a deep contrast ensued between the two Admirals.
Akainu and Aokiji challenged each other for the position of Fleet Admiral. The fierce battle between them lasted for ten days. As a result of their devastating Devil Fruit powers, the battlefield was permanently changed.
The fight, which took place on Punk Hazard, caused the island to end up frozen in one half and burnt in the other. After ten days of fierce clashes, Akainu emerged as the winner of the battle. Despite his usual ruthless behavior, Akainu decided to spare Aokiji's life.
Undoubtedly, the chronologically longest battle in the series is the clash between Dorry and Brogy, the two leaders of the Giant Warrior Pirates. One day, each beat a massive fish.
While celebrating their successful hunt, a girl asked them which of the two fishes was bigger. With both being confident that their respective prey was the greatest, they couldn't find an agreement.
Following the rules of Elbaf, they decided to resolve their argument through a duel. They started fighting in Little Garden, an island on the Grand Line, and have been doing so for the past 100 years, always repeating their duel and ending in a draw.
Despite being engaged in a life-and-death battle against each other, Dorry and Brogy are still great friends, with deep respect for each other. This was notably emphasized in the Little Garden Arc.
One of the latest installments of the series, One Piece chapter 1076, showed Dorry and Brogy friendly escorting the Red Hair Pirates on Elbaf. This implies that their hundred-year-long fight may have finally concluded.
Other than their notable length, all the aforementioned battles share a common trait. The trait is that for the most part, the battles weren't directly shown to the readers, but were carried out off-panel.
The debate among One Piece fans
The exceeding length of certain fights has led many fans into speculating on the subject. Some readers assumed that the longer a fight, the stronger the characters involved in it, and vice versa.
The basis for this idea likely was created by the comparison between Ace vs Jinbe and Akainu vs Aokiji. With the former lasting five days and the latter for ten, as well as the fact that Akainu and Aokiji are clearly stronger than Ace and Jinbe, fans assumed that this was intentional on Oda's part.
While this comparison is factual, it doesn't seem to originate in a consistent pattern. Conversely, many fights between incredibly powerful characters did not last even remotely as long.
For instance, despite involving established top tiers, other fights lasted much less, ending in a relatively short span of a few hours, and not exceeding a single day.
Moreover, the depiction of how long a battle can last is inconsistent. The series has implied that it is possible for characters to fight for days, but this only happens off-panel. Every time a battle is directly shown, fighters seem to get winded after hours, sometimes even after a few tens of minutes.
Power-scaling the duration of fights doesn't seem like a nice idea. The author is likely not putting much thought behind how long a fight is. He just uses the "day-long battle" as an expedient to emphasize that the contenders are close in strength.
In conclusion
As usual, fans analyze every detail in the series. Considering how absurdly long certain One Piece fights are, it was obvious that this aspect would have been the object of interpretation and debate.
However, with current knowledge of the series, it seems that the duration of a fight is not inherently tied to how powerful the contenders are. One Piece author Eiichiro Oda probably used the concept of characters fighting for days as hyperbole to make them look cooler.
After all, it wouldn't make much sense that, among characters of overall similar strength, some can fight for days while others can only fight for a few hours. Admittedly, there are much better arguments to base power-scaling theories on.
Still, given that all the day-long confrontations were carried off-panel, it would be interesting if a fight of such duration were ever fully shown to readers. With One Piece having entered its endgame, this may be the case with one of the decisive final battles in the series.
