When it comes to One Piece villains, Charlotte Katakuri is undoubtedly one of the best and most popular. Although he's Luffy's enemy and one of his toughest, their fight was so full of genuine rivalry that people began to respect him as a character. This is why he's so popular among fans and why people continue to ask questions about him, even though he's been out of the spotlight for a while. And to be honest, there are many interesting questions you might have when it comes to Katakuri, and in this article, we're going to answer not one but two of those questions. Now, we know that Katakuri was born into the large Charlotte family and is Big Mom's second son. But what is his race in the world of One Piece? And also, who was this dangerous character based on? Keep reading to find out.

Since the identity of Katakuri's father is a mystery, we can only confirm that he is an ordinary human on his mother's side. Namely, Big Mom, despite her size, is not a giant and appears to be human, which also says a lot about Katakuri. As for his influences, Katakuri shares some similarities with Zebra from the Toriko series, while his visual identity is based on American biker gang fashion.

This article will focus on Katakuri and the two questions we promised to answer in this article. You'll find details about his family and race in the series, as well as the influences behind the character that helped make Katakuri who he is today. The article may contain spoilers for those who aren't fully up to date with One Piece, so we're just giving a fair warning.

As far as is known, Katakuri is an ordinary 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 looks human. Except for his height. But, while there are several humanoid species in One Piece, this fact allows us to rule out all those non-humanoid races, like the Fishmen, for example. So, what exactly is Katakuri's race? To clarify this, we need to go back to his parents.

First, there is Charlotte Linlin, aka Big Mom, who is Katakuri's mother. However, she is 880 cm (28'10½") tall and resembles a giant. Big Mom's race has been a matter of debate for some time, as people wondered if she was a Giantess, especially because of her connection to Giants.

Additionally, in One Piece, Giants are a race of beings whose size dwarfs the other known races in the One Piece world. The most famous are those of Elbaf Island. Their lifespan is 300 years, making them the longest-lived race. There are also tribes of ancient giants and the unknown tribe of the Yeti Cool Brothers.

Now, knowing that Big Mom has ties to Elbaf and the Giants, it makes sense that people would wonder if she was a giant. But she isn't. Oda himself 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 ordinary humans, which supports this statement. The second thing was that Charlotte Linlin had been oversized since childhood and was significantly taller than her parents at the age of five. No reason was given, but we now know that it's not because she's a giant.

So, on his mother's side, Katakuri is human. But what about his father? We know that Katakuri was born as the second son in the family, the third child overall, and the eldest 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 isn't unusual, as only a small number of Big Mom's husbands have been revealed, so Oda's not revealing the identity of Katakuri's father isn't surprising. And this is what we know—officially. Katakuri has an unnamed father who was her mother's third husband; that's all we know.

Based on this, we don't know if Katakuri's father was human or not, but we can 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 is a slight possibility that he could be a giant, that was also explained in this article, so the chances of him being anything other than an ordinary human, despite his appearance, are rather slim.

Katakuri has several influences, but it is unknown if he was based on anyone in particular.

As for the influences behind Katakuri, Oda hasn't revealed a specific influence or character that Katakuri is actually modeled after, so as it stands, he is an original character in that aspect (unlike some other One Piece characters who are based on Katakuri, famous pirates, or other historical figures). But while he does appear original, he does have some similarities to a character, and there is an obvious influence that has shaped his visual identity.

As for the first, we can observe that Katakuri's enormous strength, his gluttonous character, his hair color and his scarred mouth bring him closer to the character Zebra from the Toriko series.

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Zebra is the strongest but also the most rebellious of the four Bishoku-ya kings in the series. He was imprisoned in Honey Prison for having made 26 foods disappear from the Gourmet World. Toriko then frees him to retrieve the Cola from the Gourmet Pyramid. He fights with sonic blasts produced with his vocal cords.

Additionally, his sense of hearing is extremely keen, allowing him to locate himself like a bat. He doesn't have a menu, but he starts it up after negotiations with Komatsu. It's unclear if Zebra had a direct influence, but the similarities are there, and you can assess them for yourselves.

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