Sakazuki

Sakazuki, also known as Akainu, is a character from the One Piece anime and manga.

Akainu was one of the three Admirals (before being promoted to Fleet Admiral), the strongest fighters in the Marines. Akainu is apparently the most hard-line of the Marines, following the doctrine of Absolute Justice. During the destruction of Ohara, he destroyed an evacuee ship full of civilians on the small chance that one of their targets was aboard, saying that if one is to do a job it must be done thoroughly.

During the two years that Luffy was training, he battled Aokiji for the rank of Fleet Admiral and won. He then moved to the Marine HQ to the other side of the Red Line to put more Marine presence in the New World.

In the XP4 fics, Sakazuki made his debut in XP4 Heroes Coalition Mission Chronicles Chapter 11.

Appearance
Sakazuki is an incredibly tall, light-skinned, unusually muscular man (the most muscular of the former admirals). He's about as tall as his fellow admirals, with a square-shaped face, very pronounced facial features, and short black hair. He stands at 306 cm (10'), making him taller than other massive characters like Jinbe, who is 301 cm. He usually wears a standard Marine cap and sports a crimson, double-breasted suit, decorated with what appears to be a pink rose on his left buttonhole. Unlike many high-ranking Marines, he does not wear a tie, but instead leaves his light colored flower-patterned shirt unbuttoned, showing his muscular neck and part of his tattoo. He wears black gloves and black shoes.

The tattoo on the left side of his chest is black (light-blue in the anime), containing numerous images of flowers integrated into its design. Sakazuki's tattoo has flame-shaped edges, and it extends from the admiral's left shoulder to his hip, covering part of his back and ribs. He has another, smaller tattoo in the shape of a black sword on his right deltoids and a small part of the biceps. In the anime, his eye color is seen to be brown, and this was also shown in a colored drawing by Eiichiro Oda.

In his youth, Sakazuki wore an open red shirt, as well as a set of khaki pants held up with a loosely tied yellow-orange ribbed belt with a silver bullseye shaped buckle, and a pair of red sneakers. He also carried a katana on his back.

Twenty-two years ago at the Ohara Incident, he wore a simple white Marine cap under a dark gray hood that seemed to be a part of a cloak he wore beneath his suit, or Marine coat. Until getting off his chair in order to destroy an incoming iceberg during the Battle of Marineford, his face was always hidden by the bill of his cap.

As a child, Sakazuki still had the grim disposition he retained as an adult. He also wore tattered clothes and carried a dagger. He wore a cap similar to the Marines' cap he would don in the future, except it has the kanji for "justice" instead.

After the time-skip, as a result of his intense battle with Kuzan at Punk Hazard, the right side of Sakazuki's neck and face are scarred, and a chunk of his right ear is missing. In addition to his injuries, he also grew a mustache and goatee. He has also replaced his trademark red suit for a white one, similar to what Sengoku wore when he was Fleet Admiral; however, Sakazuki still wears the same floral pattern shirt underneath and doesn't wear his black signature gloves. He is also frequently seen smoking a cigar.

Personality
While he is a very capable and strong leader who has consolidated the power and prestige of the Marines, Sakazuki would be best catagorized as an extremist and highly dogmatic. Sakazuki is an adamant believer in Absolute Justice, and is ruthless in his maintenance of it. His motto is "Thorough Justice" (Tetteiteki na Seigi). He has a stern, dead-serious disposition, grim, expressionless, and was the most ruthless out of all three admirals two years ago. This has given him a very fearsome reputation, but of greater concern is his dogmatism, which may end up making the Marines into a force that is worse than the enemies they hope to eliminate. Despite this disposition, like Eustass Kid, Akainu seems to be able to restrain himself at times, having chosen to spare the life of Jewelry Bonney and her crew after they were left by the Blackbeard Pirates for Akainu to salvage, and letting his colleague Aokiji live despite Aokiji losing to him after a 10 day duel to the death for the position of fleet admiral.

During the Buster Call attack on Ohara, Sakazuki's beliefs led him to go as far as destroying a refugee ship because of the possibility that a scholar could be hiding on board. His logic being that if even one of the scholars of Ohara had escaped with it, the mission would have been a failure, much to the dismay of Kuzan, who called him a fool for overdoing things. His extremism has turned him into a borderline, if not outright psychopath, willing to do anything to serve his own goals no matter the cost. He mostly sees the Marines as an extension of himself and his own beliefs, willing to kill those who disagree with him, and showing little care for people placed under his charge. While this has made him extremely powerful and feared among pirates, it also makes him feared and loathed by his own men, losing a very useful and powerful ally in Kuzan because of it. The best example of this is when he attempted to murder Koby for his plea to stop the war. His extremism also caused him to bar Fujitora from ever entering a Marine base due to his prostration in Dressrosa, though it was mostly because Sakazuki couldn't stand to see his version of justice and honor shamed because his enemies showcased its own failure. Fujitora rightly pointed out that Sakazuki's version of Justice had no credibility or honor in the first place if it was that fragile, which only inflamed Sakazuki's rage, seeing it as a personal slight.

Additionally, he has no tolerance for Marines who desert their posts, which the only consolation he does offer is that they should not dishonor their families by running away. Caesar Clown also believed that Sakazuki would desire his ideas of mass-murder weapons and inhumane experimentation on prisoners, in contrast to the more pragmatic Sengoku. To Akainu, any Marine who is not willing to fight for justice is not worthy of being called a Marine. Again though, despite all of this, even Sakazuki could not kill his former compatriot Kuzan.

As Fleet Admiral, Sakazuki holds immense pride in the name of the Marines. For example, when he learned that Fujitora had let the world know of what transpired in Dressrosa, Sakazuki was furious. His pride is so great he would rather cover up the ordeal to ensure that the Marines are adamant and credible to his doctrine of Absolute Justice. This conceited behavior also led to him yelling at the Five Elders for declaring Doflamingo's resignation from the Shichibukai as a false report, as he knew the world's confusion would damage their trust in the Marines, as well as the reputation of the Marines.

Despite his position as an admiral prior to promotion, Akainu is willing to lie to and deceive his enemies in order to achieve Justice. So far, Akainu's manipulations have been incredibly successful, such as when he managed to deceive Squard through Sengoku's master strategy, or insulting Whitebeard to get Ace angry enough to stop his attempt at escape.

He finds people who attempt to interfere with him as nothing more than irritating obstacles. Furthermore, he seems to be unafraid of older legends, as when Whitebeard told his men not to be intimidated by Garp due to the Marine being an old man, Akainu mocked Whitebeard's comment, saying that Whitebeard was also from the same generation as Garp before attacking the Yonko. While other Marines such as Sengoku and Garp share a decent amount of respect for their accomplished enemies, Akainu has no such empathy, instead disparaging them at every chance he gets.

Prior to Sengoku making it public, Akainu was one of the few who knew that Luffy was Dragon's son. It is unknown if he has some past relationship with Dragon, or if it was simply common knowledge among the higher ranking Marines that Dragon is Garp's son. As such, Akainu deems that Luffy's mere existence, due to being Dragon's son, is enough to be a threat to the world and therefore must be eliminated. In fact, Akainu's beliefs about heritage run deep enough that he declares that even if every other pirate escapes, he would personally ensure that neither Ace nor Luffy were allowed to leave the war alive due to their bloodlines. This conviction fueled Akainu even to the point of actively hunting Luffy himself, even though Blackbeard was destroying Marineford at the time.

Akainu does not see it as the business of the Marines to involve themselves with the business of the Celestial Dragons. This was proven during his confrontation with the Five Elders, where he disparages them for permitting the Celestial Dragons' CP-0 to falsify Donquixote Doflamingo's resignation from the Shichibukai. He even questions if the Five Elders are puppets to the World Nobles.

Surprisingly, Sakazuki can demonstrate caution in regards to battling pirates or causing disturbances in global affairs. Despite Borsalino's request to travel to Wano Country to deal with the possible alliance of the Beasts Pirates and Big Mom Pirates, he declines citing that Wano's military strength is an unknown factor and they are not within their jurisdiction.

Abilities
As the current fleet admiral, Sakazuki has control over the entire Marine organization, from ordering all soldiers and officers as he sees fit to issuing a Buster Call on any island he deems to be a threat, and to revoke any Shichibukai's title at any time, as well as including the authority to promote and demote any Marines as he sees fit on top of granting the power and authority to either temporarily grant others similar authority and power, or near-permanent power to anyone he wants, or has to. His only superiors are the World Government's Commander-in-Chief Kong and the Five Elders.

Sakazuki's background, specifically his black-hearted behavior, is renowned, especially among the stronger figures in the New World, striking fear into the hearts of pirates and marines alike. After Van Augur identified Akainu aboard a marine ship for negotiations, Blackbeard immediately fled, knowing the consequences of battling against him, even though Blackbeard had gained the powers of the Gura Gura no Mi, and had strengthened his crew with several of Impel Down's most powerful criminals.

Many within the high ranking echelons within the World Government suggested Akainu to become the succeeding fleet admiral over Sengoku's personal recommendation for Kuzan, thus further supporting his incredible military might. Furthermore, Jinbe noted the Marines have become a much more powerful organization under Akainu despite the resignations of Garp, Sengoku and Kuzan, indicating great leadership on Akainu's behalf.

He is a very skilled manipulator, using his knowledge of his opponents to deceive them into doing what he wants. He feigned sympathy to Squard, and used his hatred of the late Pirate King to influence him into betraying his loyalty to Whitebeard. He also used Ace's devotion to Whitebeard to his advantage, as seen by his insulting Whitebeard in order to provoke Ace into attacking him and preventing his escape, and ultimately killing the young pirate by aiming for his younger brother.

Physical Abilities
Sakazuki has an immense amount of superhuman durability, as is illustrated by the fact that not even two Busoshoku Haki enhanced quake-powered blows, which caused far more damage at point-blank range, from Whitebeard were able to keep him down, one of which was powerful enough to split Marineford in two, and he was still able to fight the Whitebeard Pirates and two former Shichibukai (Crocodile and Jinbe) all at the same time. He has enormous stamina, being able to fight numerous enemies and being able to keep going without showing any signs of exhaustion.

His durability also extends to Haki-enhanced attacks, as not even Marco, Vista, and Jinbe, who are highly skilled Busoushoku Haki users, could deal any significant damage to Sakazuki. It took Whitebeard's own powerful Haki to actually injure him.

Sakazuki possesses tremendous physical strength, as shown when he pinned Whitebeard's giant bisento down to the ground with just one leg. Akainu is also a powerful and skilled hand to hand fighter, which he combines with his Logia abilities for destructive offense. He easily defeated Inazuma, as well as two extremely powerful martial art masters such as Ivankov and Jinbe. Furthermore, he was the one who emerged victorious from the ten day duel between him and Aokiji for the position of the fleet admiral, although they both suffered grave injuries.

He also has extremely acute hearing, being able to hear activity underwater before the Whitebeard War began.

Devil Fruit
"Main Article: Magu Magu no Mi"Sakazuki possesses the Magu Magu no Mi, a Logia-class Devil Fruit which grants him the ability to transform his body into magma and manipulate it at will, as well as produce near-limitless amounts of it. As a Logia, Sakazuki can let physical attacks pass through him without injury, and can only be wounded with the use of Haki, Seastone, being caught off guard, and his elemental weakness.

His ability is naturally of a higher order than Ace's pyrokinetic abilities, as the higher heat and smothering abilities of his magma allowed him to successfully harm Ace despite Ace's Logia-defense, and ultimately kill Ace due to this superiority. The destructive heat and explosive powers from the magma enables Akainu to cause massive damage, and to take on people like Emporio Ivankov and Jinbe with minimal effort. During the decisive ten day battle on Punk Hazard for the position of fleet admiral, Akainu showed the furious power of his Devil Fruit as he changed the weather of one side of Punk Hazard and left it in a blaze. His Devil Fruit also boasts the highest offensive power amongst all the Devil Fruits.

Haki

 * Main Article: Haki

It was stated that all vice admirals possess Haki, so being two ranks above vice admiral, Sakazuki can also use this ability.

Busoshoku Haki
Sakazuki possesses the ability to use Busoshoku Haki. He was seen using an advanced level of Busoshoku Haki to negate Whitebeard's attempt to destroy the execution platform, by creating, with his fellow admirals, a shield combination of their three Haki.

Kenbunshoku Haki
Sakazuki possesses the ability to use Kenbunshoku Haki.

Weapons
Sakazuki was seen wielding a knife as a child, and a katana during his youth as a Marine.

Trivia

 * Sakazuki's alias, "Akainu", means "Red Dog" in Japanese. His real name Sakazuki means "sake cup".
 * The anime-only vice admiral Jonathan is said to be Sakazuki's protege, but unlike his mentor who is a pure believer in Absolute Justice, Jonathan believes more in Moral Justice.


 * The way Sakazuki's character design is drawn resembles the famous late Japanese actor, Bunta Sugawara. Akainu's real name, Sakazuki, is apparently based on the three movies of Bunta Sugawara with "Sakazuki" in the title. Even Sakazuki's birthday is based on Sugawara's.
 * His nickname, along with the other admirals' (Aokiji, Akainu, and Kizaru), are taken from Momotaro legends (Momotaro met Pheasant, Dog, and Monkey as friends to accompany him in his journey).
 * According to an interview with Eiichiro Oda, Sakazuki is so strong that, if he were to become the protagonist, he could end the One Piece series within a year.
 * In the 5th fan poll, Sakazuki ranked 47th.
 * Before his full appearance was revealed, many non-canon sources had attempted to depict Sakazuki after the timeskip, which would later turn out to be highly inaccurate to his actual appearance in the manga. In these sources, his face is depicted as being totally intact, as well as having identical attire to the clothing he wore before the timeskip in non-canon sources, including One Piece Film: Z, Wake up!, Hard Knock Days and Super Grand Battle. In One Piece Film: Gold, Sakazuki is depicted with the scars on his face but he still wears his pre-timeskip clothing.