Sakazuki

Admiral Akainu (赤犬大将, Akainu Taishō) is an Admiral of the Marines, one of only three to hold such a position and subordinate only to Fleet Admiral Sengoku. His real name is Sakazuki (サカズキ, Sakazuki), and was originally introduced as a Vice Admiral. Because of his actions, Akainu can be considered one of the main antagonists of the Marineford arc.

Appearance
Akainu has a square-shaped face with hollowed cheeks. He has a Marine coat hanging loosely fom his shoulders, and he wears a standard Marine cap, hiding his face in all of his appearance before the Battle of Marineford. He sports a crimson, double-breasted suit, decorated with what appear to be a rose on his left buttonhole. Unlike many high-ranking Marines, he doesn't wear a tie, instead leaving his flower-patterned shirt unbuttoned in order to show his muscular neck and a black tattoo (light-blue in the Anime) he has on the right side of his chest, that from what can be seen, appears to contain numerous images of flowers integrated into its design. On the cover of Chapter 592 it was revealed that the 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 sword on his right bicep near the shoulder. He is also just as tall as his fellow Admirals, Aokiji and Kizaru.

Twenty 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.

Personality
We have to be thorough! If even one of those scholars made it onto that ship, all of the sacrifices we've made would be for nothing! We must eliminate the very possibility of this "evil" existing!!

Akainu is a firm believer in Absolute Justice, and is ruthless in his maintenance of it. Of the three Admirals, he is the only one who has had a stern, dead-serious disposition. He is emotionless, expressionless, and also has the most ruthlessness out of all the three.

Akainu's beliefs led him to go as far as destroying a refugee ship simply because of the minuscule possibility that a scholar could be hiding on board. His logic is that if even one of the scholars of Ohara had escaped with it, the mission would've been a failure, much to the dismay of Aokiji, who called him a fool for overdoing things. Akainu takes his extremist attitude as far as to kill anyone who doesn't share his point of view, as he attempted to kill Coby for his plead to stop the war. Additionally, he has no tolerance for Marines who desert their posts and even appeals of wanting to return to families instead of dying does not sway his sympathy, the only consolation he does offer is that they should not dishonor their families by running away. To Akainu, any marine who is not willing to fight for "Justice" is not worthy to be called a Marine.

Despite his status as Admiral, Akainu is also known to use underhanded tactics and is willing to lie or misdirect his enemies in order to achieve results. So far Akainu's manipulations have been incredibly successful such as he managed to deceive Squardo through Sengoku's master plan, 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 in many ways unthreatened by older legends and comments on this when Whitebeard claims to his men not to be intimidated by Garp, while Akainu says that he and Garp are of the same generation and promptly attacks him.

Prior to Sengoku making it public, Akainu is 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 high 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 must be eliminated. In fact, Akainu's beliefs of heritage run deep enough that he declares that even if every other pirate escapes, he personally will not permit Ace or Luffy to leave the war alive due to their bloodlines, to the point of actively hunting Luffy himself even though Blackbeard is destroying Marineford.

Marines
As a high ranking Marine, as well as being one of the top three fighters of the organization, Akainu has command over the lower-ranking subordinates, who respect him enough to call him "Admiral Sakazuki" most of the time, as opposed to his alias.

Nevertheless, his ruthless beliefs in the "Absolute Justice" has made his colleagues fear and despise him, especially Aokiji, who called him a fool for taking things too far. In turn, Akainu can easily kill any Marines who contradicts his beliefs, as he murdered a soldier for leaving his post in fear, and attempted at Coby's life for voicing his objections for taking this war too far.

Akainu also did not show any respect to Monkey D. Garp, despite the old Vice Admiral being a "hero" who was eligible for the position of Admiral, due to him being from the previous generation and from the same bloodline with Dragon and Luffy. Garp, in turn, tried to kill Sakazuki for killing Ace, and had to be restrained by Sengoku.

Whitebeard Pirates
As Akainu boldly insulted Whitebeard, he has earned the wrath of Portgas D. Ace, who viewed the captain as a father figure. This made Ace lose his chance to retreat in an attempt to strike down Akainu in revenge, only to fail and ultimately lose his life at the hands of the Admiral. Akainu, in turn, views Ace as one of the two most dangerous lifeforms in the world, due to his father being Gol D. Roger.

Akainu feigned sympathy towards Squardo to get him to betray Whitebeard, then brutally injured Whitebeard and killed Ace, which resulted in the rest of the Whitebeard Pirates directed their hatred against him, and the remaining commanders attempted to fight against him, even if they must die. Whitebeard himself brutally injured Akainu in revenge for Ace's demise. Akainu, however, views all pirates as criminals that are not allowed to exist, and that the Whitebeard Pirates are no different.

Monkey D. Luffy
Due to Luffy being the son the Revolutionary Dragon, Akainu views him as the most dangerous threat to the world, along with Ace, who was the son of Pirate King Gol D. Roger. As a result, he kept hounding at Luffy throughout the remainder of the war, insistent that he will not escape Marineford alive. To this end, the Admiral ignored all other threats around the area, and focused solely on Luffy's life. Akainu does show his frustration when Shank's arrival has allowed Luffy to get away.

Akainu kept referring Luffy as "Dragon's son", as though that is all he thinks of Luffy as, and the very reason that he must be eliminated.

Abilities and Powers
As an Admiral, Akainu is able to command vast number of Marine troops that are under his rank. Most of all, he has the ability to order a Buster Call attack on any island.

Being one of the strongest characters amongst One Piece, Admiral Akainu is able to take on against Whitebeard all by himself and must have an incredible amount of durability by the fact that not even two quake-powered blows from Whitebeard were able to keep him down (just one was enough to incapacitate a giant). His durability also extend to Haki attacks since it took Whitebeard's Haki to actually affect him. He also has some knowledge of haki.

He has also shown an ability (alongside with his other two Admiral mates) to reflect shockwaves, as seen when he, Kuzan and Borsalino counter a shockwave punch attack from Whitebeard which was about to destroy the execution platform where they and Sengoku were standing. The nature of this ability has yet to be explained.

Devil Fruit
Akainu possesses a currently unnamed Logia-class Devil Fruit which grants him the ability to become magma. As a Logia, Akainu can let physical attacks pass through him without injury and can only be wounded with the use of Haki or Kairoseki. Apparently, Akainu is aware of Haki and found some way to avoid Haki attacks, even after Marco and Vista sliced him in the neck by Haki infused attacks.

Akainu's signature method of offense is to transform his fist into magma and launch it with a forward motion, much like a rocket. Against Whitebeard, Akainu created a magma wave shaped like a dog's head, and had it attack the great pirate. When it comes to travel, Admiral Akainu can move at extremely high speeds by launching himself like a real volcano blast towards his target and can even melt tunnels to move underground.

His ability is naturally of a higher order than Ace's fire-based abilities, and the higher heat of his magma allowed him to successfully harm Ace despite Ace's Logia-defense. In fact, while Ace confronted Admiral Aokiji's ice abilities on equal terms, Akainu's magma is hot enough to instantly evaporate ice without melting it first (as well as greatly heating up the sea). Just by forming an attack, the heat coming off of his body has been shown to melt enemy weapons around him. In essence, Akainu's Devil Fruit is a much stronger and deadlier version of the Mera Mera no Mi, to the point of being so great that he can take on people like Ivankov and Jinbei with minimal effort.

Aside from the standard Devil Fruit weaknesses, Akainu's powers doesn't seem to be weak against anything specific. However, it is worth mentioning that even though Akainu's Devil Fruit was able to overpower Ace's fire based abilities, it was completely unsuccessful against Marco's phoenix Devil Fruit.


 * Dai Funka (大噴火, Great Eruption): Akainu's signature technique, he transforms his right fist into one made out of pure lava before throwing it forward, like some over sized rocket, similar in size to that of Luffy's Gear third fist. The explosion causes volcanic rock to hit the ground, in a method similar to meteors. This was first seen when he used it to evaporate an iceberg hurled at his fellow Marines by Jozu. According to spectators, the battlefield resembled an apocalypse after this one attack. In the Viz Manga, this is called Great Eruption.


 * Ryūsei Kazan (流星火山, Meteor Volcano): Akainu creates a great number of lava fists that he fires into the air in order to let them rain down upon the battlefield, causing enormous amounts of area damage. This looks like a cross between a meteor shower and a volcanic eruption. This was first used to destroy the ice floor Aokiji created along with the pirates who were standing on it. He managed to take out Whitebeard's flagship, the Moby Dick, with this technique.


 * Meigō (冥狗, Dark Dog): Akainu lashes out with a magma claw-thrust similar to his Dai Funka technique. This technique is powerful enough that a glancing blow tears off half of Whitebeard's face.

Ohara Incident
He was known as Vice Admiral Sakazuki before his promotion. He was present at the Ohara incident, being one of the five vice-admirals, leading the Buster Call offensive. He ordered the destruction of an evacuation ship of civilians and soldiers, claiming it needed to be destroyed in case a single scholar managed to sneak on board (an action that horrified even Spandine).

War Against the Whitebeard Pirates
Vice Admiral Momonga mentioned to Boa Hancock that the three Marine Admirals, including Akainu, will lead the Marines against the Whitebeard Pirates following the announcement of Portgas D. Ace's execution. Akainu was seen sitting beneath the execution platform of Portgas D. Ace with his fellow Marine Admirals.

Akainu stepped into the battle when Jozu hurled a massive iceberg, displaying abilities to control volcanic rock by launching a fist made of lava to destroy the iceberg and sending small burning rocks flying all over the place, destroying one of Whitebeard's ships.

He is later seen confronting a Marine officer who is fleeing from the battle not wanting to die out of concern for his family. Akainu attacks, and brutally kills, the Marine officer for this "cowardice", much to the horror of Coby and Helmeppo who were watching (having nearly ran into the Admiral themselves doing the same thing). Akainu then receives a report on the Den Den Mushi that the preparations for Sengoku's plan are set.

Luffy's arrival at Marineford has Admiral Akainu commenting that, as the son of Dragon, Luffy is the one pirate who must be eliminated at all costs.

During the battle, following Sengoku's orders, Akainu talks to Captain Squardo, making him believe that Whitebeard has betrayed his allies, trading their lives with Ace's one. He demonstrates his words making Squardo notice that the Pacifistas has attacked everyone in the bay but Whitebeard's pirates, this being also part of Sengoku's plan. He tells Squardo he doesn't agree with the plan of sparing Ace's and Whitebeard's life, and offers him the chance to save himself and his own crew if he kills Whitebeard. Because of his deep hatred for Gol D. Roger, who killed his first crew, Squardo believes him and attacks Whitebeard, stabbing him in the chest.

Whitebeard survives Squardo's attack, forgives his ally and starts a massive attack against the Marines, using his Devil Fruit's powers. Akainu, along with Aokiji and Kizaru, manages to stop Whitebeard's seismic waves directed to the platform on which Ace is chained. When the steel wall is finally raised around the pirates, Akainu starts to attack the pirates with his Ryūsei Kazan, melting Aokiji's ice and destroying the Moby Dick.

Much later, when Luffy is hurled over the siege wall and lands before the execution platform, Akainu sneers before commenting on how bold the son of Dragon is. After Whitebeard and his crew successfully enter the plaza, Whitebeard begins to swing his Bisento for another attack when Akainu intervenes, telling him that the island won't hold out long if he keeps on like that, Whitebeard then tells him he should try and protect it. They both use their devil fruit powers and clash with each other.

When Garp joins the battle, Whitebeard tells his men that he is just an old man and should not be fooled, Akainu retaliates and says that Whitebeard himself is also of the same generation. The two clash again, causing another rampage in the Marineford. Akainu is angry at Whitebeard and shouts at him for destroying the city, Whitebeard repeats what he said before and tells him he should protect it. Suddenly, Whitebeard grabs his chest and coughs up a massive amount of blood. Akainu comments on how Whitebeard cannot escape the effects of the old age and takes full advantage by landing a devastating blow to Whitebeard's chest with molten magma.

When Luffy unleashes a wave of Haoshoku Haki, saving Ace from the second execution attempt, Akainu notices that Luffy used his power unconsciously.

When Ace is finally freed, Akainu assures his men that there's nothing to worry about, since the two pirate brothers are going to be captured again and executed. He then confronts Luffy and Ace, and provokes Ace into attacking him by badmouthing Whitebeard. He says that his magma can consume Ace's fire (magma can extinguish fire by smothering it) and is thus able to injure Ace despite his Logia intangibility, making him his natural enemy. Stating that both Luffy and Ace deserve to be executed due to their parentage, he attacks Luffy, but Ace throws himself in the way, taking Akainu's devastating attack through his torso, which shortly leads to his tragic death. He then burns Jinbei as the latter attempts to protect Ace from a second strike for the head. Marco and Vista then attack Akainu; however, with his Logia abilities, Akainu nullifies their attacks. He did feel some discomfort, commenting on how irritating it is that they were both Haki users. He then tells them that it is too late for Ace. After killing Ace and making another attempt to kill Luffy, Akainu is seen to be attacked by Whitebeard himself. After Whitebeard strikes at Akainu he is seen to be defeated by his second punch. He managed to injure Whitebeard's face and he was seen falling into the fissure that was created when Whitebeard struck the Marine HQ.

Akainu, having survived Whitebeard's onslaught, reappeared in front of Jinbei as he is making his way to the escape ship. Akainu demands Jinbei to hand over Luffy, but Jinbei refuses, stating that he will protect Luffy with his life. Akainu then prepares to attack, but Ivankov appeared and blasted Akainu with a Hell Wink. He later heard Blackbeard as he declared to the entire world that the age of Blackbeard has begun. Despite Blackbeard's grave announcement and his newly acquired power, he still chose to continue persuing Luffy.

Akainu then subdued Ivankov and Inazuma and continued to chase after Jinbei and Luffy, which ends in Akainu piercing through Jinbei and straight towards Luffy, critically injuring the both of them. When he is prepared to finish them off, Crocodile repelled him and got Luffy and Jinbei out of the admiral's reach. Akainu then prepared to face off against Crocodile and the Whitebeard Pirates. The outcome of this match was left unseen.

He takes down Curiel and goes into a blind rage yelling to the marines to not let pirates roam this earth. He, along with the whole battlefield, is stopped by Coby as he yells for the fighting to stop. Akainu is outraged at this and attacks Coby, only to have his punch blocked by Shanks with a shocked expression.

Akainu is angered that Shanks' interference has caused Luffy to escape his grasp. He orders Kizaru and Aokiji to pursue Luffy in the Heart Pirates' submarine but he escapes. After Sengoku complies with Shanks' demands to end the Whitebeard War, Akainu is last seen looking very displeased.

Translation and Dub Issues

 * Sakazuki's alias, "Akainu", means "Red Dog" in Japanese.

Trivia

 * The way Akainu's character design is drawn resembles the famous Japanese actor, Bunta Sugawara. Akainu's real name, Sakazuki is apparently based on the three movies of Bunta Sugawara with "Sakazuki" in the title.
 * 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).
 * Before being revealed in the manga, Akainu's abilities were the center of many myths among fans.
 * The anime-only Vice Admiral Jonathan is said to be Akainu's protege, but unlike his mentor who is a pure believer in Absolute Justice, Jonathan believes more in Moral Justice.

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