Sandbox / One Piece: Sakazuki

Fleet Admiral Sakazuki/(Former) Admiral Akainu

Voiced by: Fumihiko Tachiki (JP), Andrew Love (EN), Osvaldo Trejo Rodríguez (OP Gold), Mario Castañeda (Latin American Spanish)

Age: 53 (Pre-Timeskip), 55 (Post-Timeskip)

Debut: Chapter 397 (Manga), Episode 278 (Anime)

Devil Fruit: Magma-Magma Fruit

^{Click here to see his Pre-Time Skip appearance} 

"If you're gonna do it, finish the job!! If, by chance, even a single scholar is hiding out in that ship, all this sacrifice will be for naught. You must destroy "evil" at its very roots!"

—Chapter 397

Real name Sakazuki, 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 Paramount War, he's the Marine most invested in destroying both Luffy and Ace because of their heritage. He has eaten the Magma-Magma Fruit (Magu Magu no Mi), a Logia Devil Fruit allowing him to possess the power of magma.

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

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A-K

• Advancing Boss of Doom: After he kills Ace in Marineford, he sets his sights on a traumatized and catatonic Luffy and gives chase. It's all that Luffy's allies (Buggy, Ivankov, Inazuma, Jinbei, and others) can do to stall him (and even then they get beaten up pretty badly) in the process of getting Luffy off the island and to safety with Law.
• The Alleged Boss: Since the Dressrosa Arc, he continuously loses face as Fleet Admiral and is unable to keep a grip on Fujitora and Ryokugyu, who use technicalities to get around his orders or have outright ignored them while Sakazuki is powerless to do anything about it. Fujitora's stunt at Mariejois infuriates Akainu while Sengoku pops in just to troll him over it.
  Sengoku: The job is difficult, isn't it... Fleet Admiral?
  Sakazuki: Shut up, you semi-retired old man!!!
• Arch-Enemy:
  • Luffy holds a big grudge on Akainu for killing his adopted brother Ace and leaving a permanent X-shaped scar on his chest as a reminder of that.
  • Akainu heavily contrasts Aokiji from an ideological standpoint — the resulting feud over the Fleet Admiral position was so bad that the higher-ups went ahead and had them fight a Duel to the Death just to get the position filled already. Subverted in that Akainu still holds some level of care towards his comrades to not kill Aokiji.
• Arc Villain: He's one of the two major antagonists alongside Blackbeard during the Marineford Arc, with Akainu being the person most persistent in trying to kill Luffy and succeeding in killing Ace.
• Asskicking Leads to Leadership: After Sengoku retires, the Five Elders suggest Akainu as the next Fleet Admiral, while Sengoku himself nominates Aokiji as his successor. To decide the matter, the two contenders fight for ten days on Punk Hazard. Akainu emerges victorious and earns the promotion.
• Authority in Name Only: Like Sengoku he finds out that the position of Fleet Admiral means very little: The Five Elders keep him in the dark, the Admirals do what they want, Garp does what he wants, CP0 works under World Nobles and he is not in the Seraphims' hierarchy.
• Bad Boss: He kills his own men for wanting to retreat from a battle they had no chance of winning and doesn't really care much about their lives compared to ensuring the destruction of all pirates. In fact, he's so horrible to work for that after he became Fleet Admiral, Aokiji chose to resign from the Marines rather than work under him. Then, on top of that, Fujitora flat-out defies him because if things were done Akainu's way after the Donquixote Pirates were rounded up and arrested, the World Government would have received another ill-gotten pat on the back for a job well done in a situation where an entire country was anything but okay in the aftermath of a huge and bloody battle.
• Big Bad Ensemble: As the Fleet Admiral after Sengoku and as the man responsible for killing Luffy's adopted brother Ace, Sakazuki is one of the top antagonists for the entire series alongside Blackbeard and Imu.
• Black-and-White Insanity: Sakazuki hates pirates with a passion and considers every single one of them scum not worthy of mercy as shown in the Paramount War where he brutally kills multiple pirates. While for the most part pirates are indeed evil, there are also some exceptions like the Straw Hats, and Sakazuki's methods and obsession to eradicate the pirates make him as cruel as them if not moreso.
• The Brute: Among the three Admirals, Sakazuki has the Devil Fruit with the most destructive power which, combined with his absolute justice, makes him the most dangerous Admiral.
• The Chains of Commanding: After being promoted to Fleet Admiral, Sakazuki is constantly busy because of the troubles caused by other Marines and doesn't like that he has to either take merits he has nothing to do with or hide the atrocities and troubles made by the World Government. Former Fleet Admiral Sengoku even mockingly asks Sakazuki if he's having fun with his new position. As events continue to escalate in the world with the Straw hat's arrival and absolute dismantlement of the 2-year status quo, it becomes clear that Sazazuki's position is literally holding him back from being able to muster the might of the Marines to absolutely crush the rampant piracy of the era like he dearly wants to.
  Akainu: (On being told of a clash between Blackbeard and Trafalgar Law) And here I am once again...waiting for a fight to conclude...Nobody told me that being Fleet Admiral would be so frustrating!!!
• Charles Atlas Superpower:
  • Besides his Logia powers, he shows enough strength to stop Whitebeard's quake-enhanced Bisento with his foot and Punch Parry Whitebeard. Because of this trait, he takes little damage even from Haki attacks known to devastate normal Logia users. The ground even cracks when he prepares to kill Ace because of his raw strength.
  • According to Oda, Akainu is so goddamn powerful that if he was the protagonist of the series, he could find the One Piece within a year! Remember that this is a sacred treasure that pirates spend their entire lives searching for, so for someone to find it in this short of a timeframe means that they are one of the strongest humans alive. This really speaks endless volumes about the sheer magnitude of strength that he possesses.
  • Later revelations of what this would actually entail show Sakazuki's strength in an entirely new light. To get to Laugh Tale, you have to decipher the four Road Poneglyphs. One of these is in possession of the Minks, a tribe of born warriors capable of fighting off an Emperor's crew. Another is in the possession of Big Mom, one of the Four Emperors herself, the third is Kaido's, and the fourth is missing. So not only would he have to track down the lost Poneglyph, he'd have to fight or sneak his way past two of the Four Emperors plus their crews (who certainly aren't pushovers themselves), fight off the Minks, and find someone who can read the language. Sakazuki would manage all that in less than a year.
• Cigar Chomper: After the timeskip, Sakazuki is often seen smoking a cigar, possibly as a way to deal the stress that comes with his new position as Fleet Admiral.
• Conscription: After the Battle of Marineford, Sakazuki issues a mandatory draft to bolster the forces of the Marines since two Admiral spots were now empty. To his credit, two sitting Admirals are recruited from his conscription.
• Convection, Schmonvection: He's made out of and attacks with lava, but nothing takes any damage unless it actually comes into contact with something. Even then, it acts more like a solid projectile than something that should vaporize everything around it. We'll forgive this one though, since if it was actually treated realistically, no one would be able to beat him. Also, proper and trained Logia users affect only what they want with their power.
  • Actually gets played with in the anime: Ivankov attacks Akainu with a weaponized kiss, getting his face burned. He then pulls his usual "it was just thick make-up" joke, showing an undamaged face... and then collapses from having his lungs burned by the heat and fumes.
  • Also, both in the Anime and the Manga, he can melt and move through solid rock as if it was air, again showing his control.
• Create Your Own Villain: Sakazuki couldn't bring himself to kill his comrade Kuzan when the two of them had their duel. Kuzan would later go on to join the Blackbeard Pirates.
• Cultured Warrior: The cover page for Chapter 592 shows Akainu calmly trimming a bonsai tree.
• Dark and Troubled Past: Implied to have one in an SBS with Oda, which shows a drawing of him as a child, armed with a knife and in bloodstained clothes.
• Death from Above: His "Ryuusei Kazan" (Meteor Volcano) move has him launching multiple fists of lava into the air, which then fall down like a meteor shower from above.
• Determinator: He is absolutely determined to bring the end of all pirates under his absolute justice, especially Luffy and Ace for their heritage, to the point where just about nobody else during the Paramount War can waver him. Not even getting his ass kicked by Whitebeard stops him at all, with him continuing to hunt down Luffy as if nothing had happened. He's also so determined to hunt down and kill Luffy that he ignores Blackbeard's assault on Marineford despite Blackbeard being the more dangerous threat at that moment.
• Did You Just Flip Off Cthulhu?: Sakazuki calling out the Five Elders - and by extension, Imu - is shocking, if not outright unthinkable, given that the six of them are beings of extreme power who are entirely unafraid to outright erase those who defy them. It's unknown how much of that Sakazuki is privy to, but he basically tells the true rulers of the world exactly what he thinks.
• Disproportionate Retribution: At Marineford, he decides to punish a deserting captain who was only trying to save his own life and see his family again by murdering him. He also decides to execute Koby for trying to prevent any more needless bloodshed at Marineford after Whitebeard's death. He is entirely obsessed with directly killing Ace and Luffy no matter the cost or the dirty tactics required, purely because of their heritage and the fact they were born into the world.
• Dragon-in-Chief: Before the Time Skip, Akainu is only subservient to the Fleet Admiral Sengoku in terms of authority within the Marines. Unlike his boss, he’s completely psychotic and without remorse and he manages to cause more damage to the Whitebeard Pirates than Sengoku does during the Paramount War by succeeding in murdering Ace.
• The Dreaded: Even among Admirals, Akainu terrifies people. He's utterly ruthless and is known far and wide as the least merciful of his colleagues. During the Paramount War, he's given a wide berth by other Marines, who simply opt to stand back and let him work. He's feared enough that after Blackbeard learns that the Marines sent Akainu after him, he chooses to run rather than stick around. Note that at this point, Blackbeard was in possession of Whitebeard's insanely powerful Devil Fruit in addition to his own and has five incredibly dangerous Level 6 Impel Down prisoners on his crew, and he still decided to flee rather than face Sakazuki. Even Kuma post-roboticized decides to halt his assault on Marijoa and flee when Sakazuki shows up and swiftly immolates his foot and half of his head.
• Elemental Punch: Barring the Inugami Guren technique, Akainu is much less flashy in his use of his powers than other Logia users. His basic game plan is: 1. Turn arm(s) into lava; 2. Enlarge it as necessary; 3. Punch until target is vaporized. Since he's literally living lava, it's pretty damn effective (and is probably one of the few times where this is a good idea in the first place). This attack is even just simply named Dai Funka (Big/Great Eruption).
• Elemental Rock-Paper-Scissors: As it turns out from his battle with Ace, lava beats fire. Not only is it hotter than fire, it also cuts off the air supply of it.
• Establishing Character Moment: Sakazuki first appears in Robin's flashback as one of the Vice-Admirals summoned for the Buster Call of Ohara. Although the order is to destroy the island so to get rid of the archeologists, Sakazuki orders to blow up a boat full of Ohara's innocent citizens, despite the Marines promising they would be allowed to leave, just in case one of the scholars stowed away on the ship, thus rendering the entire campaign pointless. It immediately settles Sakazuki as a man wholly devoted to fulfilling his orders to the letter and willing to eradicate the enemies of the World Government at any cost.
• Even Evil Has Standards:
  • He calls out the Five Elders for the stunt Doflamingo did involving his faking out of his resignation as the King of Dressrosa and makes it clear that he hates how the Marines are essentially attack dogs for the corrupt Celestial Dragons due to their influence.
  • In One Piece Film: Z, even he finds Z's plan to turn the entire Grand Line into a fiery wasteland too extreme because of all the Marines and civilians who would die in the crossfire.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: It’s implied that he has some attachment to his old instructor, Z, as he has no desire to kill him.
• Evil Is Burning Hot: Downplayed. Akainu's intentions are not evil, but he's the Marine most devoted to Absolute Justice; he's fine with killing innocents people without any hesitation if it ensures that an enemy of the World Government dies as well and, with the Magma-Magma fruit, he inflicts a terrible death to any criminal he encounters.
• Evil Sounds Raspy: He speaks in a deep and gravelly voice to convey his menace.
• The Fettered: Akainu draws his strength from his complete belief in absolute justice and refuses to bend his devotion to achieving it even slightly. However, as a result of following this justice so closely, Akainu will exterminate anyone who threatens it regardless if they're a friend or foe. This is best shown during Koby's What the Hell, Hero? speech to him during the Paramount War, where he is notably the only person who isn't even slightly stunned by the young Marine's reckless actions and heartfelt speech and simply responds by telling Koby that the Navy is no place for someone who doesn't believe in righteousness before trying to kill him.
  Akainu: "You've wasted several seconds of my time. The Navy has no use for soldiers who aren't righteous!" (raises his magma fist to punch him)
• Flaming Meteor: Akainu can use his Magma Man abilities to fire fist-shaped lava projectiles upwards. They rain down like burning meteors. The attack is appropriately named Ryusei Kazan, literally meaning "Meteor Volcano".
• Flaw Exploitation: When Luffy and Ace attempt to escape Marineford during the Paramount War, he exploits Ace's devotion towards Whitebeard by verbally insulting his captain. Sure enough, Ace falls for Akainu's bait, allowing Akainu a successful opportunity to kill him.
• Flower Motifs: He wears a pink rose on his suit, and has a large tattoo featuring many flowers on his left shoulder.
• For Great Justice: He wants to eradicate the pirate plague in the name of justice, but he's definitely a villain who goes way too far in trying to preserve peace, making him as bad as (if not worse than) the very pirates he's trying to stop.
• General Ripper: His relentless crusade against pirates and other enemies of the World Government reaches some rather frightening lengths, as he's willing to blow up innocent civilians just to ensure his enemies are eliminated.
  • And then there's him killing a captain who tried to flee the Marine HQ battle out of fear for his life simply because he isn't devoted towards finishing off the pirates at Marineford.
  • He also tries to murder Koby for pointing out that, by trying to kill a few pirates with no guarantee that they'll be able to do it, they're letting many more injured Marines die when they could easily be saved. The reason Akainu tries to murder him? Because during the minute or so Koby was talking, pirates weren't dying.
  • The reason he wants to kill Luffy and Ace so badly is solely because of who their fathers are. Sure, them being pirates is part of the reason, but he would probably still want them dead if they were civilians or even Marines.
• Genius Bruiser: Akainu is just as clever as he is strong, best showcasing his intelligence on two occasions:
  • He insults Whitebeard to goad Ace into staying behind and fighting him, knowing how deeply Ace cares about his captain.
  • After becoming Fleet Admiral, he correctly susses out that the Five Elders are merely puppets to some other force. As far as the rest of the world is concerned, the Five Elders are the men in charge with the existence of their true ruler, Imu, being a very closely guarded secret. So even though Akainu is wrong in assuming that the force controlling the Five Elders are the Celestial Dragons, he's a lot closer than others in discovering the truth.
• Hate Sink: Akainu is the Admiral most devoted to the extermination of the enemies of the World Government, brutally killing pirates even if they surrender, and doesn't care if his actions kill innocents so long as he eliminates evil. He's also fully willing to murder his own men if he feels they aren't upholding his justice, which includes any deserters scared for their own lives or Koby when he attempts to prevent any more needless Marine lives being wasted during the Paramount War after Whitebeard's death. And finally, he ends up killing Luffy's adoptive brother Ace right after Luffy finally frees Ace from execution and is dead-set on trying to kill Luffy as well. And the reason why Akainu was so insistent on killing both of them wasn't because of them being pirates but simply because of who their fathers are. However, after he becomes Fleet Admiral, it's downplayed when Akainu is shown to be put off by some of the choices made by the World Government, and hates the Celestial Dragons as much as everyone else does, making it clear even he has standards when it comes to enforcing his ideas of justice.
• Hell Hound: His signature move and the one that gave him the moniker 'Red Dog' is the Inugami Guren (Dog Biting Crimson Lotus) technique, making a giant doghead made of magma. He also has his similarly named Meigou (Dark Hound) technique, which is a simple claw-thrust with his magma powers.
• Hero Killer: While Ace isn't a conventional "hero", Akainu still manages to kill him by provoking him into a fight, leading to Ace performing a Heroic Sacrifice to prevent Akainu from killing Luffy as well.
• He Who Fights Monsters: While most of the pirates in the One Piece world are genuinely terrible and dangerous criminals, Akainu's obsession with eliminating them and willingness to sacrifice anyone necessary to stop them makes him just as brutal and arguably more monstrous than the criminals he hunts down.
• Hidden Eyes: During the Ohara flashback, he is shown with his Marine baseball cap and a hood covering his face. When he shows up in the present, he still has the cap obscuring his eyes until the scene is dramatic enough to show them.
• Hypocrite: His goal of serving "absolute justice" makes it hard for him to practice what he preaches. He argues with the Five Elders in regards towards Doflamingo's false resignation from the Warlords because of their need to make sure the Government doesn't look bad in the eyes of the public, yet once he learns of Fujitora revealing to the world Doflamingo's crimes and how the Straw Hats took him down, Akainu furiously argues with Fujitora for not reporting it sooner so that they could have covered up the incident so as not to disgrace the image of the Marines. Fujitora calls him out on his hypocrisy, since he's more concerned with the image of the Marines rather than taking responsibility for the Governments actions in turning a blind eye to Doflamingo's crimes.
• Implacable Man: When you plow through a whole Badass Army during the Paramount War and effortlessly shrug off everything but punches from Whitebeard in the pursuit of your enemy, you definitely deserve the title.
• Insane Admiral: He will go to any extreme to protect the World Government and any extreme to ensure the extermination of their enemies, no matter how little of a crime said enemies may have committed. This includes killing over one hundred innocent Oharan refugees to ensure none of the Oharan scholars escaped from the attack and killing his own men during the Paramount War for deserting a battle they had no chance of doing the enemy harm in.
• I Shall Taunt You: While Ace is escaping from Marineford, Akainu purposefully insults Whitebeard to goad Ace into attacking him. It works: Ace gets angry at Akainu's insult to his foster-father and faces Akainu, with Akainu easily killing him shortly after.
• Jerkass: At best, Akainu treats his allies at expendable, and is all too willing to kill any pirates or allies who are insufficiently dedicated to his brutal version of justice while insulting their viewpoints.
• Jerkass Has a Point: While his jabs at Whitebeard are really low blows, and purposely so in order to taunt Ace, Sakazuki is right in saying that history will always remember Whitebeard as a loser compared to his rival Gol D. Roger, who became the Pirate King.
• Kick the Dog: In his introduction in Robin's flashback, Sakazuki, still a vice-admiral, orders the destruction of Ohara's ships to prevent even the little chance that one of Ohara's scholars might escape. The scene immediately sets him as a brutal marine who wouldn't hesitate to kill innocent people to follow his Absolute Justice.
• Knight of Cerebus: Not only is he played more seriously than any antagonist before, but he breaks the Status Quo by killing major character Ace. Up until that point, no major named characters outside of flashbacks were killed off before.
• Knight Templar: Akainu is the most prominent character for the "Absolute Justice" ideal for the Marines. While his intentions of eliminating the criminals are good, his methods and his dedication are too extreme since he's willing to kill innocents for the sake of assuring justice.
• Know When to Fold 'Em:
  • When the Warlord system is abolished, he absolutely refuses to interfere in Kaido and Linlin's activities in Wano. Even Sakazuki knows warring with the former Warlords and two Emperors simultaneously will spell the end of the Marines.
  • Despite his personal animosity towards Luffy (and vice versa), Sakazuki still knows better than to pick a fight with him once Luffy becomes a genuine Emperor, as it now risks a massive war.

L-Z

• Lack of Empathy: He has little to no care about the lives of innocent people or his own subordinates compared to carrying out Absolute Justice. This is best shown when Koby screams that the charge being led by Akainu to finish off the Whitebeard Pirates was piling up needless casualties. Akainu doesn't even blink in response and simply tells Koby that "a few seconds have been wasted" before trying to murder him on the spot.
• Locked Out of the Loop: Despite his position as Fleet Admiral, Sakazuki has repeatedly been left uninformed about the higher World Government's actions and activities, apparently because despite his devotion to Absolute Justice, there are a very few lines that he won't cross in enforcing it, running counter to the top brass' motivations.
  • First, he gets duped by Doflamingo's fake resignation from the Warlords and acts on it while CP-0 is sent to handle the real situation. When confronting the Five Elders about why Doflamingo could pull stunts like that and demanding that it not happen again, they brush him off and dismiss his reputation as Fleet Admiral as a trivial matter.
  • Later on, Sakazuki is unwilling to send Kizaru to the Land of Wano due to not knowing anything about the country's forces. Then CP-0 are shown having an audience with its shogun, Orochi, on the matter of buying weapons "from pirates to fight pirates" as he puts it. Not only that, but CP-0 is aware of Doflamingo being the underworld broker Joker (something the Marines were ignorant about) and use him as a middle man for this business.
• Made of Iron: Even without his logia intangibility, Akainu is extremely durable. During the Paramount War, he's struck twice by an enraged Whitebeard, with the second blow managing to heavily damage a whole fortress. It only manages to make him go out of commission for a short while before he gets back up to resume his chase on Luffy, fending off a dozen powerful pirates and revolutionaries in the process.
• Magma Man: Sakazuki has eaten the Magma-Magma Fruit, which gives him the ability to turn himself into a literal magma-man and provides part of the origin of his epithet "Akainu". His Devil Fruit is among the most destructive ones shown in the series, and he uses it mainly to create huge magma punches or giant meteors. Judging by the damage done to Punk Hazard following his 10-day rumble with Kuzan, he can evidently do much, much more than that.
• Manipulative Bastard: As Ace is fleeing, Sakazuki intentionally provokes him by insulting Whitebeard, hurting Ace's honor. Despite the situation calling for an escape, Ace falls for it, and their fight ends with Akainu piercing Ace's chest with a magma punch.
• Meaningful Name: The "Inu" meaning Dog in Akainu, thus automatically making him Monkey D. Luffy's enemy by default since there is a common myth that dogs and monkeys are mortal enemies. He is also overzealously loyal to the government like a dog to its master.
• Moral Sociopathy: He always strives to do what he believes is right. Unfortunately, he also doesn't have any mercy towards criminals and doesn't care about who he has to kill to ensure his justice is carried out. He's even willing to kill innocent civilians without remorse so long as it ensures that the World Government's enemies are properly disposed of.
• Murder Is the Best Solution: Sakazuki is very brutal and, if he encounters a criminal, he tries immediately to kill the perpetrator, more often than not with extreme measures.
• Muscles Are Meaningful: He's the most muscular admiral, as a cover image of him shirtless shows. It is also a sign of him being the most dangerous of the three and one of the strongest characters in the world of one Piece.
• No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: After he kills Ace, Akainu suffers a complete beatdown by Whitebeard, including an earthquake being sent straight to his face. It only slows him down, and once he's back on his feet, he keeps pursuing Luffy doggedly despite the injuries from the World's Strongest Man trying to take his son's killer to the grave with him.
• No-Nonsense Nemesis: Unlike most of the previous villains, he does not play around with his enemies and tries killing them as quickly as possible. This type of attitude is what helps him successfully kill Ace. When Akainu is sent after pirates, their deaths are basically assured.
• Non-Standard Character Design: He's drawn in a much more realistic style compared to all of the other characters in the manga, which may very well be Oda's way of intentionally plunging him into Uncanny Valley to make him creepier. Although he and his fellow Admirals follow this, he's the most intricately drawn and meant to resemble the actor he's based on.
• Obviously Evil: He's supposed to present as one of the seemingly upstanding marines, but with his dark, grimacing look and choice of suit, he looks like he'd be a lot more at home as a Yakuza captain.
• Oh, Crap!:
  • After Akainu kills Ace, Whitebeard appears directly behind him and the admiral remains paralyzed in fear, knowing he's about to withstand a demonstration of just why Whitebeard is called "The Strongest Man in the World".
  • He's very surprised when Shanks introduces himself and his crew by blocking a magma fist with his sword.
  • When Lucci jumps at the chance to have a rematch with Luffy on Egghead Island, Akainu is extremely worried because Luffy is an Emperor, which means it might set off another war if they provoke him.
• Only Known by Their Nickname: Subverted. After he becomes the Fleet Admiral, he's mostly referred to by his real name. While his nickname "Akainu" is still there, he's rarely called as such. The Celestial Dragons still refer to him by his nickname, which is fitting considering that he's essentially their "dog".
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Through all of the Marineford Arc, he's completely unflappable and vicious as he maintains the upper hand in power alone. The first sign of this breaking is after he kills Ace, and an unfathomably pissed Whitebeard step right behind him to beat Akainu senseless; you can see the fear in Akainu's eyes the moment this happens.
• Orcus on His Throne: After his promotion as Fleet Admiral Sakazuki spends most of his time reading reports and fuming about everything going poorly for the World Government.
• Out of the Inferno: After punching through Ace and the Whitebeard Pirates' blast him with a counterattack in response, he emerges from a set of flames without much reaction. In the anime, it's rather terrifying — he has chunks of him torn off with lava dripping from his body.
• Perpetual Frowner: Akainu only seems to know two emotions: frowning and anger, and even the latter is just him frowning even more intensely than usual! His SBS picture as a child even shows him frowning and also looking pissed off. The one time we see him smile is during Marineford while taunting Ace, which means it was quite insincere. This deepens his contrast with Luffy, with Akainu's new position after the Time Skip giving him nothing but more stress and reasons to scowl, whereas Luffy eventually awakens his Devil Fruit, becoming the reincarnation of a legendary figure that turns him into a Perpetual Smiler, regardless of the context.
• Person of Mass Destruction: Thanks to his Devil Fruit, he's a living volcano capable of launching huge gobs of devastating lava on top of his enemies. His lava is proficient enough to where he permanently changed the climate of half of an island into a blazing inferno after his fight with Kuzan.
• Pet the Dog:
  • Considering that Kuzan directly opposes Akainu's ideals and fights in a battle to the death with him to prevent him from becoming Fleet Admiral, it would be in-character for Akainu to kill him after winning their fight. Instead, in a rare act of mercy, Akainu decides to spare Kuzan's life instead.
  • During the Marineford war, Akainu saves a Marine from Whitebeard by stopping his bisento attack with his foot, though his primary concern was stopping Whitebeard's earthquake powers from further damaging Marineford.
• The Peter Principle: Sakazuki's main strength as an Admiral is that he's an Implacable Man that can clear out the battlefield by himself, something he can't do after he becomes Fleet Admiral since he has to read reports and decides where the Marine should focus their attack when he'll rather fire from all front if he could. He also has a bad time ordering Admirals around as he can't just melt them like his rank and file.
• Punch Parry: He meets Whitebeard's quake punch with his magma fist at the start of his duel with Whitebeard.
• Real Men Wear Pink: As seen here◊, he has a pink flower he wears on his uniform. He's also got a flowery tattoo on his left shoulder, which does have pink, and apparently enjoys gardening during his free time.
• Rocket Punch: Some of his techniques involve him throwing his magma fists like a giant rocket.
• Say My Name: During the Paramount War, Sakazuki screams Edward Newgate's nickname: "Whitebeaaaard!!".
• Scars Are Forever: He receives a nasty scar from the left side of his face to his neck and a chipped ear, courtesy of Kuzan/Aokiji. What's scarier is while his power leaves obvious fire burns, Aokiji's scars him through ice burns.
• Shaping Your Attacks: His "Inugami Guren" attack has him creating a Hell Hound out of magma, indicating where his epithet (Akainu means "Red Dog") comes from. It's the only move that he shapes while most of the time he just relies on explosive bursts of magma or magma punches.
• Signature Move: Sakazuki distinct attack is the Inugami Guren, making a giant dog head out of magma, which is where he his epithet (Akainu means "Red Dog" in Japanese) from.
• Skewed Priorities: Becomes more focused on killing Luffy, the son of the Revolutionary Dragon who's not even a threat at the moment, rather than fighting Blackbeard, who's vastly more powerful and is actively trying to sink Marineford.
• Superpower Lottery: His Devil Fruit makes him able to convert his body into lava. Not only does that mean that you can't get anywhere near him without being vaporized, but it's also superior to (as in, can outright kill) at least two other Logias (up until seeing Akainu's powers in action, Logias are shown to either mutually nullify or have no effect on each other).
• Tattooed Crook: Despite working for the law, Sakazuki is by far one of the most brutal and underhanded antagonists in the story, and his large floral tattoos on his left arm and shoulder evoke the appearance of a Yakuza. The marks translate to "double suicide at death river".
• Theme Naming: As with the other three Admirals, he's named after a companion of Momotaro, specifically the dog ("Inu" means dog in Japanese).
• There Is No Kill Like Overkill: It's doubtful that he even knows the concept of overkill exists given he often tries to kill people with the full extent of his overwhelming magma powers, even people who are vastly weaker than him.
• Time-Passage Beard: He grows a beard over the Time Skip to indicate his promotion to Fleet Admiral, which makes him appear older and stricter.
• Tyrant Takes the Helm: He eventually replaces Sengoku as Fleet Admiral, and as a result the Marines lean more towards Sakazuki's brutal Absolute Justice and leads to the resignation of Aokiji/Kuzan.
• Undying Loyalty: He's wholly devoted to his Absolute Justice and, by extension since they can uphold said justice, the Marines. However, Sakazuki is an interesting case in that while he is unshakably loyal to the Marines, it is nuanced by the lack of Blind Obedience he has towards the World Government. Others who follow Absolute Justice like him defer to this on some fashion, but not him, and he's already starting to chafe with his superiors over it. On some level, even he recognizes how corrupt the World Government and the Celestial Dragons are, and hates it as much as those who ideologically opposed him do, such as Kuzan, Issho, and Smoker.
• Viler New Villain: As the new Fleet Admiral, and as his ruthless actions during the Paramount War and Sakazuki's prior act of blowing up a ship full of innocent refugees to ensure the elimination of some of the World Government's targets show, he is much worse than his more heroic predecessor Sengoku.
• Villain-by-Proxy Fallacy:
  • The first thing he does in his introduction is blow up a ship full of evacuees that the Marines had promised to spare on the grounds that there might be the slightest possibility that there is a scholar on board who could read the Poneglyphs.
  • The reason why he thinks that both Luffy and Ace deserve to die more than anybody else at Marineford is not because they're pirates, but because they're the sons of two of the most wanted men in the world, thus making their existence an unforgivable crime to him.
• Villain in a White Suit: Although Sakazuki wants to get rid of pirates and criminals, he's so extremist in his views that he doesn't hesitate to murder innocents if doing so could eliminate a pirate. After becoming the new Fleet Admiral, Sakazuki begins wearing an all-white suit similar to Sengoku's, which contrasts heavily with his blood red outfit from Marineford.
• Villain Respect: Although he wants nothing more than Luffy's death for being Dragon's son, he isn't above giving him praise for his determination to save Ace when he comes face to face against him, Aokiji, and Kizaru during the Paramount War.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: Akainu's main motivation is to exterminate every evil pirates, which on paper is a good goal, however, not only does he consider every pirate evil (including the likes of the good-natured straw hats) but his methods are so extreme and violent that he becomes as dangerous to the people as the pirates he wants to kill.

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