One Piece: How Fast Is Kuro Exactly?

Contains spoilers for One Piece, Season 1, Episode 4 – "The Pirates Are Coming" 

Netflix's "One Piece" Season 1 pits Luffy (Iñaki Godoy) against the worst pirates the East Blue has to offer, taking them all down on his way to the Grand Line. However, one of his more formidable enemies is Kuro (Alexander Maniatis), the captain of the Black Cat Pirates, posing as Klahadore, Kaya's (Celeste Loots) devoted butler. Although Luffy manages to defeat him, his speed proves challenging for the aspiring King of the Pirates, but how fast is Kuro exactly? 

Unlike other enemies, Kuro doesn't boast any Devil Fruit powers, with his speed coming from his techniques and natural agility. According to "One Piece" creator Eiichiro Oda, the captain of the Black Cat Pirates can run 100 meters in about four to five seconds, meaning his speeds can reach roughly 25 meters per second or 55 miles per hour. The legendary manga artist answered the question in his frequent Q&A portion of "One Piece," saying, "To tell you the truth, it is extremely hard to measure [Kuro's] speed correctly, but I don't think it would take more than 5 seconds [to run 100 meters]. Think of it as four-point something. Whoa! That's a world record." 

With speeds like that, it's no surprise that Kuro earned one of the highest bounties in the East Blue with Netflix's "One Piece" revealing it to be 16 million berries. His insane natural agility also lends itself to various combat techniques, with Stealth Foot being his signature ability, combining stealth and speed for nearly undetectable movements.

"One Piece" has a habit of circling back to previous characters, tying them into the latest story arc, and making the overall world feel much more connected. However, that trend seems to have missed Kuro, as the captain of the Black Cat Pirates has yet to reappear in either the manga or the anime. However, the Netflix adaptation could beat them to the punch.

Netflix's "One Piece" has already taken a few creative liberties with the source material, with characters like Vice Admiral Garp (Vincent Regan), Koby (Morgan Davies), Helmeppo (Aidan Scott), and Buggy (Jeff Ward) having much more significant roles in the early story of the live-action adaptation. With that in mind, Kuro (Alexander Maniatis) could receive a similar treatment in Season 2. After his defeat at Syrup Village, his story ends abruptly, giving the Netflix series a clean slate to work with should they choose to expand his character. All we know about Kuro's life post-defeat is that the Marines learned that he's still alive, reinstating the bounty on his head as he returned to captain the Black Cat Pirates.

Although Kuro was a challenging enemy for Luffy early on, he pales in comparison to the people the Straw Hat Pirates meet later in their journey. If the Netflix series wanted to bring him back, more creative liberties would be necessary, but the show has already proven capable of pulling off such changes. However, outside of returning for a rematch against the Straw Hats, we aren't sure where Kuro's story could go, as he doesn't seem the type to become more of an ally, like Buggy. Still, since Netflix would have a blank slate to work with, he seems like a great character for the series to develop further.