The raid on Onigashima has started and with that the final act of Wano is underway. It’s a long act with lots of fighting and action, so let’s take this opportunity to approach this recap a little differently. Instead of going through everything like we normally do, let’s do a sped up version and then at the end go through all of the important parties on each side. There are a ton of characters in this arc after all.
We pick up where the last volume ended, with Kanjuurou betraying everyone and taking Momonosuke hostage. The plan has failed and their leader is captured. Just when everything seems to be over, things shift. Luffy, Law and Kid have already shown up, but the yakuza boss Kyoshiro finally reveals himself to be Denjiro and he brings all the people who were captured in the capital. Some shenanigans about the plan ensue with everyone thinking Kin is much smarter than he really is and the rest of the army joins forces with Kin. Everyone sails through the Torii gate – the guards get taken out by Zoro and Luffy – and we get one more important person who shows up here. First son of the sea, former member of the sun pirates, former warlord of the seas and now the newest member of the Straw Hat pirates: Jinbe finally shows up. He casually destroys a ship and sails the straw hats to their destination.
Meanwhile in Onigashima we meet a bunch of colorful characters on Kaido’s side of the battle – we’ll get to them later – while Luffy and his friends infiltrate. Kid fights Apoo, Luffy punches a guy over food and the other straw hats come face to face with Big Mom. But one more important thing is happening alongside all of this. Kaido’s son has gone missing. We find Yamato – Kaido’s son – towards the end of the volume, as he proclaims to Luffy that he is Kozuki Oden due to how much he looks up to the deceased samurai. His journal with his adventures – which are his stories that we saw in the flashback – belongs to Yamato now and he treats it as his bible. Since Yamato refers to himself as a man, I will do the same throughout the story. Most pronouns used in the translation are male, but Yamato’s introduction panel does say “Daughter of Kaido” here. Still, since male pronouns seem to be the most common, that’s what we’re going with. Just like how Kiku prefers to be seen as a woman.
Alright, with all that out of the way, let’s look at all of the important parties in this fight. We’ll start with the pirate-mink-ninja-samurai alliance. We have the three pirate crews. The Kid pirates, the Heart pirates and the Straw Hat pirates (with Killer returned to the Kid pirates and Jinbe joining the Straw Hats). From the minks we get both Cat Viper and Duke dogstorm as well as many of their soldiers including the notable ones that are the Musketeers and Carrot who has been with the crew since Zou. Of course we have all of the Ayakaza Nine as well as the samurai, prisoners, thieves and yakuza that they recruited for this mission, totalling well over 5000. Lastly, we have two very powerful newcomers joining the fray in Marco the Phoenix and Izo. Izo was originally one of Oden’s men, but stayed with Whitebeard and we met him during the war at Marineford where he served his captain until the crew disbanded. That sums up the allies but we still have Kaido’s forces to go through and we’re introduced to a few new ones this volume, so strap in.
The enemy forces are led by two people. Orochi had Kyoshiro under his command as well as the Oniwabanshu – which Shinobu once belonged to. That is more or less the limit of his forces. Kaido on the other hand has a large group of people working for him. There are the four all-stars that are at the top of his team. These are referring to Queen, King, Jack and Joker – with the last one being more of a separate ally in the form of the now imprisoned Doflamingo. All three of the all stars have powerful zoan abilities and are in a league of their own. Below these four are the Tobi Roppo, six powerful warriors that are revealed in this volume. Sasaki is a loyal crew member and so is Black Maria. We also have Who’s Who, who seems to have more to him than we first see as he seems to be wanting to remove someone from their position. We don’t yet know who this refers to. The other three consist of X-Drake – who we know to be working for Sword at this point – and Page One and Ulti. This sibling pair seem to be very powerful fighters and they already clash with Luffy in this volume.
Then we have his foot soldiers and his allies. There are the gifters – over 500 soldiers who all have zoan devil fruit powers – as well as the waiters, who are still awaiting their chance at a devil fruit. Powerful and known gifters are Holdem – who fought with the gang in Okobore town – as well as Speed who was converted by Tama’s devil fruit powers. There are also the pleasures, those who tried to get devil fruit powers but failed. They still fight for Kaido despite having basically gone mad due to the side effects of the smile fruit making them laugh no matter what happens to them. When it comes to allies, we have Hawkins and Apoo, who are technically members of the crew by this point, but still feel like outsiders due to not having similar devil fruits. Even Drake has a mythical zoan after all. Lastly, there is Big Mom herself. Her crew may be trying to land on Wano, but so far they don’t seem to do a great job at it. All in all it’s a pretty big group of people, but if the top of the snake’s head gets cut off, the rest will likely fall as well. The Straw Hats definitely have their work cut out for them.
What’s most interesting here is Yamato and his sudden interest in joining up with Luffy. He even reveals to have known Ace and says that Luffy reminds him of Ace. With Marco and Izo landing – two members of the legendary Whitebeard Pirates – and the remaining soldiers from Zou joining in on the fight, we now have all the pieces in place. The small island of Onigashima is going to be where we spend the next few volumes and Kaido is about to make an important announcement while Momonosuke is tied up next to him. I wonder what that is all about.
That was a lot, wasn’t it? I hope you enjoyed this recap and know all the characters involved a little bit better now. That way we don’t have to take a step back every time we talk about an upcoming fight. Thanks for reading and I hope to see you here again next week for volume 98!
Opal Kaharis 