‘One Piece’: What Race Is Charlotte Katakuri & Who Is He Based On?

As far as One Piece villains go, Charlotte Katakuri is undoubtedly one of the best and most popular ones. Although he was Luffy’s enemy and one of his toughest ones, at that, their fight was so full of sincere rivalry that people actually grew to respect him as a character. This is why he is so popular among the fandom and why people keep asking about him, despite him not being in the spotlight for some time. And to be honest, there are many interesting questions you might ask yourselves when Katakuri is concerned, and in this article, we are going to answer not one but two such questions. Now, we know that Katakuri was born into the numerous Charlotte family and that he is Big Mom’s second son. But what is his race in the world of One Piece? And also, whom was this dangerous character based on? Keep reading to find out.

With the identity of Katakuri’s father being a mystery, we can only confirm that he is a regular human on his mother’s side. Namely, Big Mom, despite her size, is not a Giant and seems to be a human, which also says a lot about Katakuri. As for his influences, Katakuri has some similarities to Zebra from the Toriko series, while his visual identity has been based on American biker gang fashion.

This article will be dedicated to Katakuri and the two questions we have promised to answer in this article. You will find details about his family and race in the series, as well as the influences behind the character that helped shape Katakuri into what he is now. The article might contain some spoilers for those who are not fully up-to-date with One Piece, so we’re just giving out a fair warning.

As far as it is known, Katakuri is a regular human, just like his mother

Katakuri definitely looks like a normal human… okay, a more or less normal human if you look at him. He has a very distinctive visual appearance, but he does look like a human. Save for his heights. But, while there are several humanoid species in One Piece, this fact allows us to exclude all those non-humanoid races, like the Fish-Men, for example. So, what is Katakuri’s race, exactly? In order to clarify that, we have to go back to his parents.

First of all, there’s Charlotte Linlin, a.k.a. Big Mom, who is Katakuri’s mother. However, she is 880 cm (28’10½”) tall and looks like a Giant. Big Mom’s race has been a question of debate for some time, as people wondered whether she is a Giant, especially due to her connection to the Giants.

Also, in One Piece, the Giants are a race of beings that greatly dwarf the other known races in the One Piece world in size. The most commonly known are those from the island of Elbaf. Their life expectancy is 300 years, so they are also the longest-living breed. There are also tribes of ancient giants and the unknown tribe of the Yeti Cool Brothers.

Now, knowing that Big Mom has connections with Elbaf and the Giants, it makes sense that people actually wondered whether she was a giant. But she isn’t. Oda himself actually confirmed this in Chapter 866 of the manga, where Big Mom’s parents were seen.

The manga chapter in question confirmed two things for us. First, Charlotte Linlin is a human, as Oda wrote on the page. We could also see that her parents are regular humans, supporting the claim. The second thing was that Charlotte Linlin had been oversized from childhood and had been significantly larger than her parents at the age of five. A reason was not provided, but we now know it is not because she is a giant.

So, as far as his mother’s side is concerned, Katakuri is a human. But what about his father? We know that Katakuri was born as the family’s second son, third child overall, and the oldest of the triplets consisting of him, Daifuku, and Oven. At the time, Big Mom was married to her third husband, as has been officially confirmed, but the identity of Big Mom’s third husband has not been revealed.

This is nothing unusual, as only a small number of Big Mom’s husbands have been revealed, so the fact that Oda has not revealed the identity of Katakuri’s father is not surprising. And this is what we know – officially. Katakuri has an unnamed father who was his mother’s third husband; that is all we know.

Based on that, we don’t know whether Katakuri’s father was human or not, but it is safe to assume that he could be. We know that Katakuri is certainly half-human, but he is probably fully human. We can definitely rule out all non-human races from One Piece, and while there was a slim possibility that he could be a Giant, this has also been explained in this article, so the chances of him being anything other than a regular human, despite his appearance, are quite slim.

Katakuri has several influences, but it is not known whether he was based on someone specifically

As for the influences behind Katakuri, Oda has not revealed one specific influence or character on whom Katakuri is actually modeled, so, as far as things stand, he is an original character in that aspect (unlike some other One Piece characters who are based on famous pirates or other historical persons). But, while he seems to be original, he does have some similarities with one character, and an obvious influence shaped his visual identity.

As for the first, it can be observed that Katakuri’s enormous strength, the fact that he is a glutton, his hair color, and his scarred mouth make him similar to the character Zebra from the Toriko series.

Zebra is the strongest but also the most rebellious of the four Bishoku-ya kings in the series. He was imprisoned in Miel prison for making 26 foods from the gourmet world disappear. Toriko will then free him to fetch the Cola from the gourmet pyramid. He fights with sonic blasts he produces with his vocal cords.

In addition, his sense of hearing is extremely developed, which allows him to locate himself like a bat. He doesn’t have a menu, but he starts it following negotiations with Komatsu. Whether Zebra was a direct influence is unknown, but the similarities are there, and you can evaluate that for yourselves.

As for his visual identity, it must be noted that Katakuri doesn’t look like a pirate, which is strange, as most characters in the series look like pirates or could pass as pirates. Katakuri couldn’t, and there is a good reason for that. Namely, his visual identity is obviously inspired by American biker gang fashion, where elements such as cropped leather vests, tattoos, belts, and decorative motorcyclist spurs are common, and that style obviously influences Katakuri’s visual identity.