One Piece: 3 Reasons Haki is Stronger Than Naruto’s Sage Mode (& 3 Reasons Why Sage Mode is an Absolute Beast Mode)
Eiichiro Oda and Masashi Kishimoto, the authors of One Piece and Naruto, respectively, stand at the top of the anime mountaintop with their immensely popular shōnen’s with One Piece selling approximately 523.2 million copies and the Naruto franchise selling approximately 250 million copies.
It is safe to say that Naruto and One Piece have held a firm grip on the top of the chart when it comes to anime. In their very own universes, both “Haki” and the “Sage Mode” play great roles in helping the elite characters stand out from the rest. However, there have been discussions on which anime has the more supreme power-ups than the other.
An introduction to “Haki” from One Piece
Haki first made its appearance in the One Piece storyline when Shanks used a variation of the power to ward off a sea creature in Chapter 1 of the Manga or Episode 4 of the Anime. But the somewhat bizarre thing about the Haki is that the name wasn’t mentioned by Oda until chapter 234 of the Manga and was not explained until chapter 597 of the Manga or episode 516 of the anime, where the “Dark King” Silvers Rayleigh would go in-depth on what the Haki actually is.
While training Monkey D. Luffy at Rusukaina Island, the right-hand man of the Pirate King stated, “Haki” is a power that lies dormant in all the world’s creatures… “Presence”, “fighting spirit” and “intimidation”… It is not different from the things that humans can naturally sense such as these… ‘The act of not doubting’. That is strength!”- which explains that there are particularly 3 types of Haki that almost all living beings possess in the One Piece Universe.
There are basically 3 types of Haki in One Piece, the Observation Haki, Armament Haki & Conqueror’s Haki. The Observation Haki lets its user enhance his senses to predict attacks and find weaknesses in an enemy. The Armament Haki lets the user coat themselves and their weapons in energy, enhancing their offensive and defensive ability. The last is Conquerer’s Haki, which is considered the rarest application of Haki to awaken as it lets the user exert their willpower over others.
Though there are quite a lot of characters in the verse who are able to utilize Haki, only a select few are able to master all three and unlock advanced variants.
Why Haki has the potential to trump Sage Mode
1. Enhanced Offence and Defence: Having an advanced form of Armament Haki lets its users harden their weapons and parts of their bodies, giving them an edge over their opponents. An advanced version of Armament Haki makes the attacks more devastating with “Emission” & Internal Destruction”.
2. Flexibility: Having mastered all three types of Haki puts the user leagues above the rest, as it leaves little to none openings for any sort of weaknesses. The best example would be none other than the red-haired pirate, Shanks. As despite not having a devil fruit, he is considered to be among the strongest, if not the strongest character in the One Piece series.
3. Stability: In a battle of attrition, Haki users have an edge over Sage Mode as though Haki can be depleted if used extensively, it requires less effort and focus to use as compared to Sage Mode in Naruto.
Reasons why Sage Mode still holds its own against Haki
1. Enhanced Energy manipulation: Tapping into the Sage mode enables the user to create Senjutsu Chakra, which lets them utilize the natural forces of the world. This helps them gain enhanced physical prowesses as well as new Senjutsu techniques, even allowing them to combine it with their own techniques.
2. Multiple forms: If there’s one thing that the Naruto-verse has shown fans, is how many different Sage Mode forms there are, each granting their own unique strengths to users. The three most notable are, Perfect Sage Toad Mode, Snake Sage Mode & Hashirama’s Senju Sage Mode.
3. Ability to sense hidden enemies: The Sage Mode greatly enhances the ability of the user to sense chakra, making them aware of any hidden threats.
