Sengoku vs. Garp: Who Would Win in a Fight?

One Piece is an anime that certainly has its fair share of strong and powerful characters. And while its protagonist, Monkey D. Luffy, is most often in the center of our comparisons, this time we’re going to focus on two other characters. In this article, we are going to analyze two powerful Marines, Monkey D. Garp, Luffy’s grandfather, and Sengoku, a former fleet admiral of the Marines, to determine who the stronger Marine is among the two. Keep reading to find out more.

Sengoku would come out as the winner in this duel, although the difference is practically insignificant. Namely, at their primes, Sengoku and Garp were almost identical in terms of powers and abilities, but it is believed that Sengoku was a bit above Garp in that category. Taking that fact into consideration, Sengoku is the winner of this duel, although not by much.

The rest of this article will further elaborate on the above-given answer, as we are going to compare Monkey D. Garp and Sengoku in more detail. Through several categories, you are going to see who the stronger of the two is and why our answer is like it is, i.e., why Sengoku is still stronger, even if only a bit, than Monkey D. Garp.

Physical powers

As a former Fleet Admiral, Sengoku had absolute power over all actions the Marines do, including calling a Buster Call or giving someone the power to call it. The only ones above him who have greater authority over the Marines are the Marines. Five Elders and Commander-in-Chief Kong. Due to his former position, Sengoku knows the secrets of the Will of D. and the Void Century.

Currently holding his position as Inspector General, Sengoku’s mission is to find new recruits and train them. He is also a military commander of the first order, as demonstrated at Marineford. He is shown to have brilliance in organization and tactics, such as the plan to trick Squard into injuring Whitebeard and his “Siege of Wall Plan” combined with Admiral Sakazuki’s Ryusei Kazan were successful in confronting the Whitebeard Pirates and their allies.

He was referred to as “The Strategist Sengoku the Buddha”, an apt name. Gol D. Roger held him in high regard, as after defeating a group of Marines, Roger commented that he was one of only two Marines worth his time, the other being Garp. Twenty years before the start of the series, when Shiki was wreaking havoc in Marineford for Roger’s capture, Sengoku fought alongside Garp, and together they were powerful enough to overpower him and imprison him looking like he’d taken a massive beating while destroying the half of Marineford in the process.

Even without his devil fruit powers, it is implied that Sengoku also has enough superhuman strength to hold down an enraged Garp.

His fists are also incredibly powerful. In fact, they are so powerful, that one punch of his was able to hurt Luffy and make him feel pain and in the War, he managed to hurt Marco in his Phoenix form with a single punch, this is because he is an expert user of haki. Also, his alias “Garp the Fist” is due to this quality and he calls it “Fist of Love”.

He claimed to have crushed eight mountains during his training to face Chinjao. In addition to his legendary strength, Garp has extreme stamina and an absurd tolerance for pain, as shown when he was attacked by Captain Morgan and was able to withstand the cut from Morgan’s ax without issue or pain, however. this can be attributed to him being asleep during the incident (he also did not wake up).

He also fell from the execution platform and despite this, he managed to get up with few injuries despite receiving a blow before the fall that would also damage him to the joy and surprise of other marines who were glad that he was still alive after that fall and still had enough strength to prevent to Jesus Burgess attacking Sengoku when he was fighting with Blackbeard and managing to knock out and surprise his strength.

Garp has shown to possess incredible speed (possibly greater than that of CP9’s Soru), as he was able to dodge all of the Straw Hats and reach Luffy to knock him awake. It is evident that Whitebeard respects Garp’s strength as he mentioned during his talk with Shanks. It should also be noted that Garp is not seen carrying any weapons, aside from the cannonballs he throws, implying that he is more likely a hand-to-hand fighter like his grandson.

He is a great teacher as he was able to make Koby and Helmeppo into capable fighters in a short amount of time and was also selected to be an instructor. He was also the one who trained Luffy and Ace, making them strong enough to set sail on their own. Gol D. Roger said that he and Garp nearly killed each other on many occasions. The fact that Garp could fight Gol D. Roger implies that he is one of the strongest characters in the series.

This is a very complex category to evaluate, since it’s not fully clear who the stronger was at their respective peaks, if anyone. This is why we ultimately decided to split the points in this category.

Points: Sengoku 1, Garp 1

Devil Fruit

Sengoku ate the Hito Hito no Mi, Model: Daibutsu, a mythological Zoan-type devil fruit, which allows him to turn into a Buddha and become a giant, which is the reason for his nickname. Nearby marines claim that they had never seen him use this power before the war. While Marine’s jacket, goggles, and pants are extended with him, it is unclear what happens to the rest of his uniform. The color of his body (and his uniform) seems to change to a bright golden color that resembles gold.

In this form his body takes on a different proportion, his torso and arms being much larger than the rest of his body. This ability gives him superhuman strength, enough to cause the standing execution platform to begin collapsing in a connecting indirection fist. A single blow from Sengoku was also enough to destroy the execution platform that Ace, Luffy, and Galdino were on even though Luffy’s Gomu Gomu no Gigant Fusen had absorbed the weight of the attack.

He can also create powerful shockwaves like explosions from his palms similar to Kuma’s ursus shock, which turned out to be strong enough to hurt the mighty Blackbeard Pirates (minus Sanjuan Wolf) all at once.

Monkey D. Garp is one of the rare characters that are on such a high level of power but don’t have any Devil Fruit powers. Monkey D. Garp never are a Devil Fruit in his life, which is why, ultimately, we don’t have anything additional to say as far as this category is concerned; at least when Monkey D. Garp is in question.

Since Monkey D. Garp never really ate a Devil Fruit in his life, it makes sense for the points in this category to be allocated to Sengoku, as the Marine actually ate a Devil Fruit and an extremely powerful one at that.

Points: Sengoku 2, Garp 1

Haki

It was said that all Vice Admirals possess Haki, so with two ranks above a Vice Admiral, Sengoku is also capable of using it. Sengoku is one of the few people who can use all three types of Haki: Kenbunshoku, Busoshoku, and Haoshoku. Sengoku can use Kenbunshoku Haki, although its level of use is unknown. Sengoku used Busoshoku Haki to attack Luffy, making him bleed. Sengoku can use Haoshoku Haki, although he has never been seen using it.

As a Vice Admiral, Garp is capable of using Haki. Garp is capable of using Observation Haki. When Koby awakens Observation Haki, Dr. Fishbonen recommended that Koby ask Garp how to master it, suggesting that he has enough experience with it to guide others. Garp has shown extremely proficient skill in the use of Armament Haki, being able to injure Luffy several times, and overcoming his rubber body.

He is able to coat his fist with haki, allowing him to counter and even crush Chinjao’s haki-enhanced drill-like head thirty years ago, showing superior dominance against an already powerful Armament Haki user. During the Battle of Marineford, he managed to hit and damage Marco, despite the latter being in his regenerative Phoenix Form.

Garp uses a technique called Ai Aru Kobushi, which is a simple but powerful blow to damage Luffy by hitting him in the head, imbued with Armament Haki to hurt him. It has been shown that he also used it on Ace during his childhood.

From what we could deduce by simply analyzing their powers in this category, Sengoku’s Haki abilities are a bit above Garp’s and this is a category that actually makes a difference.

Points: Sengoku 3, Garp 1

Weapons

Sengoku has not been seen using a weapon and we don’t really have any information for you here. He is probably skilled with some of them, but details have not been revealed.

Until now, Garp has been seen throwing cannonballs (including a gigantic one). His fists could also be considered a weapon.

This is a category where we cannot award any points at all because neither of these two characters has used weapons during their fights, so we cannot really evaluate their abilities.

Points: Sengoku 3, Garp 1

Sengoku vs. Monkey D. Garp: Who would win?

And now for the most important and interesting section of our article – the analysis. Here, we are going to use what we have found out about these two characters and analyze how all these facts would (or would not) help them in a fight against each other. Let us continue.

Sengoku and Garp have not fought so far and they probably won’t in the future, not really. This is why it was relatively difficult to compare this. Also, we had to evaluate their powers and abilities during their prime and that wasn’t easy because we never saw them properly during that period. We know that both Garp and Sengoku were beasts during their primes, but it seems that Sengoku was a bit stronger.

In terms of pure physical power, if there is any difference at all, it’s insignificant so we couldn’t really pick a winner there. Senogku has the advantage of having eaten a Devil Fruit, which gives him an edge over Garp, as well as the fact that he seems to be a better Haki user than Garp. Now, the Haki difference is also very small, but it makes a difference on a general level and that is why we had to take it into consideration.

All of this brings us to the conclusion that Sengoku is stronger than Garp and from what the numbers tell us, it really does seem to be true. In his prime, Admiral Sengoku was a bit stronger than Garp and that is why we have him win this match-up.