In One Piece, Ruffy has several strong opponents. One of them is the Fleet Admiral of the Marines, Sakazuki alias Akainu. He is so powerful in the manga and anime that even the Straw Hat Pirate had to flee from him. Now, Akainu proves that he is too strong even for the One Piece trading card game.
Why is Akainu too strong? Akainu appears multiple times in the One Piece trading card game (TCG). Three cards of the Fleet Admiral have been banned because their effects were too strong.
- For 2 of the cards, once per turn, a card can be discarded from the hand and a new one drawn. He has a strength of 5,000 and 4 life points.
- For the 3rd card, a hand card is again discarded. After that, one of the opponent’s characters is defeated at a cost of 0.
This means that while the card can still be bought and collected, it cannot be used in official tournaments. Thus, Akainu only holds collector’s value, but his effects can only be used in fun matches against friends.
You can view the cards on the Twitter account of sandman_AP:
What do fans say about it? The user jokes about Akainu’s ban from the TCG. If the Fleet Admiral were the protagonist of One Piece, the manga would already be over in a year. The user implies that Akainu would be so strong that he could have fought his way through to the One Piece in no time.
Other users share his opinion: There must be a reason why Oda banished the Fleet Admiral behind a desk. If Akainu were out in the wild hunting pirates, most of them would probably be captured in no time.
Many are also sad that Akainu was banned from the TCG. Especially when the deck is built around such strong cards, it is frustrating when exactly that card can no longer be used in official tournaments. “Admiral fans will go crazy over this news,” writes Sitback101, for example.
Akainu managing from his office
What role does Akainu currently play in One Piece? Akainu became well-known mainly during the Marineford arcs because he is responsible for the death of a popular character. After the time skip, he was promoted to Fleet Admiral and manages the events of the Marines from his desk.
Since then, Akainu has been seen briefly in almost every arc. Most of the time, he is not involved in any fights, but he briefly enters the battlefield in the current Egghead arc.
Many fans are concerned that the anime is already showing events on Egghead Island: “They should have waited a year”: The new arc of One Piece starts in January 2024, but fans would have preferred a bit of a break
