Shanks & Mihawk's Rivalry, Explained One Piece

Shanks and Mihawk have an interesting personal history. Here's all you need to know about the rivalry between the two. 

 

Shanks and Mihawk are certainly two of the most important characters in Eiichiro Oda's One Piece. The former was introduced to the fans in the very first chapter and ended up becoming the key reason why Luffy set sail 10 years later. Entrusting his beloved Straw Hat to Luffy and asking him to return it one day, Shanks established himself as one of the most important characters in the world of One Piece.

Although not nearly as important, Mihawk was introduced to the fans during the Baratie arc where he was challenged by Roronoa Zoro, Luffy's number two. With the goal of wanting to surpass Mihawk, Zoro left his village years, and just as Shanks became a goal for Luffy, Mihawk did the same for Zoro. Interestingly enough, Shanks and Mihawk also have a history with each other, as was revealed when the story moved forward and their rivalry could potentially be one of the greatest ones ever seen in history.

Both Shanks and Mihawk seem to have had humble beginnings in the One Piece world and weren't nearly as strong as they are today. Shanks was an apprentice on Gol D. Roger's ship and went on to learn a great deal from the likes of Roger himself. By the time that Roger disbanded the crew, Shanks had already been entrusted with the legendary Straw Hat, and eventually, he went on to start the Red Hair Pirates. As for Mihawk, fans don't know much about his past just yet, only that he trained ridiculously hard and beat quite a lot of powerful swordsmen to reach the pinnacle of the art. Even in the Great Pirate Era, Mihawk was quite a famous swordsman. Eventually, he ended up becoming the World's Strongest Swordsman – a title that he carries even now and Zoro chases to this day.

After making a name for themselves, Shanks clashed with Mihawk on quite a few occasions. According to Whitebeard, takes of their battles rung across the Grand Line like legends and they're still famous to this day. Shanks and Mihawk dueled several times and, given that they did it repeatedly, it is safe to assume that all their fights ended up being draws back then, otherwise Mihawk would certainly not have entertained the idea of fighting him again and again, and Shanks wouldn't have been where he is today. While their rivalry was quite phenomenal, fans didn't ever get to see it as it faded into nothingness after a while.

Until 12 years ago, Shanks and Mihawk were still rivals in the One Piece world. They fought often and, by the looks of it, drew all of their battles which just goes to show that they were equally matched then. However, after Shanks lost his dominant arm in the East Blue, Mihawk stopped fighting him, likely thinking it wouldn't be fair to win in that manner. Consequently, their rivalry ended. Shanks and Mihawk are still quite powerful even today. If anything, Shanks ended up getting even stronger after losing his arm.

Six years after losing his arm, Shanks had improved his strength to such a point that he became one of the Yonko despite being handicapped. When the two fought in the past, Mihawk might've been the World's Strongest Swordsman, however, Shanks was far from his peak as a pirate. Currently, Shanks is considered to be one of the strongest people in the world, if not the strongest. Even Kaido, the World's Strongest creature, acknowledged Shanks to be among the five most legendary men that he had ever fought.

 

Mihawk, on the other hand, might or might not have improved. Given that Mihawk didn't find a worthy opponent after Shanks until he ran into Zoro, it is likely that he didn't improve in terms of skill much. Despite holding the title of the Strongest Swordsman in the World, Mihawk is, more likely than not, weaker than Shanks at the moment. However, that's not to say that the two aren't relative in terms of strength. It is quite easy to see that Oda has established the two as fierce rivals and Mihawk is quite close to Shanks in terms of power level.

 

In fact, it would be incredibly surprising if Mihawk wasn't, at the very least, close to Yonko level. With that much strength, it's quite easy to see that Mihawk is a worthy rival to Shanks even today, even if he might be slightly weaker than the Red-haired Yonko currently. However, now, he's invested all his interest in Roronoa Zoro, who is gradually becoming stronger and getting closer to the level where he can overtake him as the greatest. As for Shanks, all eyes are on Luffy, who traverses a far more perilous path than the one Zoro has taken, and for that, Shanks would have to live up to higher expectations.