Combined with his power as well as the deep care he shows for his family, he is one of
the most popular membesr of the crew in all of Whole cake Island.
On top of all this, Katakuri also introduces us to the concept of future sight, a very
advanced form of Kenbunshoku Haki, that allows him to look several seconds ahead into the
future and react accordingly, a skill so rare that it’s not even shared by his Mother
Big Mom.
And so overall, when Luffy manages to pull Katakuri into a 1 vs 1 fight in the mirror
world to enable his crew’s escape, naturally we all anticipated this battle to be one of
the most challenging ones for Luffy so far, against an antagonist that seems extremely
rational and calculated.
And what follows is one the best battles and character arcs in the story so far.
This is where the main theme of Katakuri’s character comes into play.
And it’s actually so important, that it will serve as the overarching framework for
this entire character analysis.
Mirrors.
Everything about Katakuri is reflected in the symbol of the mirror.
On the smallest level, this can be seen in terms of his future sight, that is all about
looking ahead and seeing things that you usually can’t, just like you use a mirror to look
around corners.
And just like a mirror, your future sight can be blurred when loosing composure.
But I honestly think it’s so much more interesting to look at this symbol on a much larger scale.
Because the main implication here, is that Katakuri and Luffy mirror each other as characters
on more than just one way.
To really understand to what extend Oda has created Katakuri as a mirrored version of
Luffy, I think it’s best to peel away the layers one by one.
On the most superficial level, Luffy and Katakuri are similar simply based on their devil fruit
powers.
While Luffy is made of Rubber, Katakuri is made of Mochi a malleable sort of rice cake
that can easily change its shape.
This is not the first time that Oda has shown us a villain with a smiler over to Luffy’s.
Thinking back to before the time-skip, Bellamy was also quite similar to Luffy’s ability
in terms of speed and bounciness.
The purpose of this trope is to have the protagonist ‘fight and overcome himself’ and thus
give us an idea where he stands in terms of his power development.
In Bellamy’s case we saw that Luffy was actually way stronger than him, which was
in line with his up-and-coming rookie status before the Alabasta Arc.
Katakuri however shows us the exact opposite.
While his powers are even more similar to Luffy’s, his message at the beginning of
the fight is clear: Whatever you can do with your devil fruit, I can do better.
And so we learn very quickly that the underlying subtext of this battle is for Luffy to overcome
himself and increase his fighting abilities.
In other words, this was the first battle where, in line with Rayleigh’s explanation
on Ruskaina, he will have to become stronger DURING a battle, compared to training beforehand
as he did for instance against Lucci.
And what makes this battle against Katakuri so unique from Luffy’s perspective, is the
incentive for it.
You see, in almost every single major battle, Luffy’s victory ends in the liberation of
the people oppressed by villain, as he’s fighting for their sake.
Luffy defeating Arlong meant freed Nami and her village form her oppression.
Taking out Crocodile meant the end of the civil war and suffering in Alabasta.
And when Luffy punched Doflamingo down into the ground it literally cut the strings that
were controlling Dressrosa.
It’s this pattern that usually makes his fights so satisfying to see.
Against Katakuri however, Luffy doesn’t free Whole Cake Island or the Big Mom pirates
from the Yonko’s rage and tyranny.
Beating Katakuri wouldn’t change the country itself.
And since Luffy had already retrieved Sanji and protected his crew by shutting himself
into the mirror world together with Katakuri, there was no-one to liberate or rescue.
And so suddenly, his battle and relationship with katakuri moved to a much more personal
level, that was about personal power and ideology, for the very first time being fully able to
focus on himself and his own ambitions.
This I think is what makes Katakuri so different and unique in the story.
So here we have the main objective for LUFFY.
However, moving down yet another layer, Luffy and Katakuri mirror each other not only on
a physical level, but on a personal level as well.
And this is where we get to the really interesting part of this video.
As we slowly learn over the course of their fight, Katakuri’s cool and composed demeanour
starts to crack and slowly fall apart.
Both him and Luffy have crazily similar personalities, only that Katakuri has built up this false
persona over time in the hope to protect his family.
In his flashback we see a happy and careless boy, that is unapologetic about who he is.
When Perespero tells him that his life would be easier if he simply covered his mouth,
Katakuri answers that he doesn't care what others think about him and that he would beat
up anyone if necessary.
The second trait we notice about him, is his strong
protective nature when it comes to his family.
This strongly reminds us of the Luffy we know today.
He only adopts his "perfect" persona when Brulee was attacked because of him.
He lost his true self to the desire to protect his family.
We actually saw a similar moment in Luffy's life after Ace's death were he lost faith
in himself.
Luckily however, he had Jinbei in that moment to set him straight.
Unfortunately for Katakuri though, he didn't have someone like that within the ranks of
his quite unloving family.
Therefore he adopted this new persona, to protect his loved ones.
We can also see this discrepancy really well during the Marienda scene.
While Luffy doesn’t care looking weak in front of his friends, as we see in his encounter
with Sanji, nor about showing happiness and enjoyment, Katakuri literally puts walls around
him to keep anyone from seeing his love for lying down and eating Doughnuts.
Luffy has to break down those literal walls for him to wake him up to the loneliness he’s
in.
Despite being a well-respected member of the biggest family in the world, nobody understands
him and knows who he really is at heart.
And so, I believe that what really sparked Katakuri’s interest and initial anger when
facing off against Luffy, was the fact that he saw himself and his lost potential reflected
in Luffy.
And so he had to prove to himself that he made the right decision in hiding his true
self and covering up his face.
Thus, at the beginning of the fight, the emphasis wasn't just on "I am stronger than you" but
rather it was "Everything you do, I do better."
I believe that his excuse that Luffy will be a danger to Big mom that needs to be eliminated,
was only a part of his motivation.
And so the fight became much more personal for Katakuri has well.
As a result we have a fight of two people who are incredibly involved with each other,
one fighting to reach his potential in terms of power and the other in terms of character.
And I think the resilience and will Luffy demonstrates to ultimately beat Katakuri,
are also wonderfully reflected by their similar devil fruit powers as well.
While Katakuri is Mochi that when pounded stays as it is, Luffy being Rubber always
bounces back and can’t be squashed.
This fantastic thematic concept, combined with a compelling multi-layered personality
is what gives Katakuri’s character this intimate and likeable feel, that is quite
unique in the story so far.
Both Luffy and Katakuri make the other reflect on themselves and their respective weaknesses.
As a result, the battle is one of the best sequences of character crafting and character
development at the same time, mixing great physical growth on Luffy’s part with great
psychological growth on Katakuri’s.
As their fight progresses, Katakuri gains more and more respect for Luffy.
This is evident in the shift of language used as Katakuri now is saying things like or . He
starts to admire Luffy’s resilience and the rapid development of his future sight
skills.
It reaches a point where both are fighting at full strength, but both also seem to be
enjoying their duel.
This becomes especially clear in the iconic scene where Katakuri stabs himself to make
up for the wound he inflicted to Luffy after Flampe’s interference.
The fact that both of them take her and the other onlookers out of the picture with conquerors
Haki makes the relationship between the two even better.
At this point Luffy has convinced Katakuri that being yourself and living authentically
is important, not only for your own happiness and growth, but also for that of the people
around you.
Better to be understood & accepted by few, like Brûlée rather then admired for pretending
to be someone else by someone like Flampe.
Thus Katakuri throws off his scarf and starts embracing his true self again.
And so, while both fight at full strength, his motives change.
At this point, Katakuri has a direct interest in Luffy actually winning and proving that
he can be his true self.
In a way, Luffy defeating him, would set him free from the facade
he has built.
And so, while I believe that Luffy fairly beat Katakuri in terms of strength, he made
it a point to fall on his back, showing Luffy his respect for his growth, while at the same
time breaking the biggest aspect of his old, fake self.
Now, his character has changed completely form the cold and calculated villain to a
compassionate and honourable antagonist, that has now developed a liking towards Luffy.
And so, bringing this back to what we talked about earlier, what makes this fight so different
is that Luffy is not liberating someone from the antagonist, but in this case liberates
the antagonist himself.
This culminates in the heartwarming scene after the end of the fight, as Brulee tended
to her brothers wounds.
She knew perfectly well, that Katakuri had fallen willingly on his back, and when Katakuri
asked about Luffy, Brúlée guessed that he would be pleased to know that Luffy escaped
Totto Land.
Katakuri smirked, confirming her assumption.
And so, in the end it was only Brûlées of all people, who cared the most for her brother’s
true self & suffering.
And bringing the theme full circle, it was her that with her mirror powers enabled his
and Luffy’s change in the first place.
As a result I think it is more than fair to argue, that while Luffy won the overall battle,
Katakuri went out of this fight as a true winner himself, having regained his sense
of self and being pulled from his loneliness and isolation.
It sets him up to become relevant again in the story and makes him one of my favourite
antagonists in all of One Piece.
If you feel like watching a little longer, I really recommend checking out some of my
other character analyses right here.
Thanks guys.
Peace.