Hogan Reviews

It’s time for the seventh and would you believe final One Piece Wano Arc review! It’s been quite the journey, with the first Wano arc review going up back in 2020, but it’s time to finally see Kaidou get defeated and the long, LONG suffering Samurai to finally have their classic post-arc banquet. So let’s take a look!

Before we get to the obvious, already review-thumbnailed climax I feel the need to mention that Izou, formally of Whitebeard’s crew and even more formally (if that’s correct grammar) of the Samurai, sacrifices himself to slow down CP0’s attempts to get involved with Luffy’s fight against Kaidou; Orochi is actually, FINALLY for-real-this-time killed as Komurasaki reveals her connection to the Oden family while he gets buried under rubble and then burns to death / gets beheaded by Denjiro (with sea prism stone meaning he can’t use his powers to revive again); and Raizo outlasts his former mentor Fukurokuju in their battle of “who can survive on fire the longest without dying”. With those subplots out of the way let’s look at Luffy vs. Kaidou, which sees our main protagonist use his most powerful form to try and land a decisive blow but thanks to the interference of CP0 member Guernica he takes a direct hit instead and is seemingly killed. While Kaidou takes out his anger and kills the government agent for ruining his victory and then begins to head towards Luffy’s allies Luffy undergoes a new transformation into “Gear 5”, giving him the ability to alter the physics of everything around him like a cartoon, something far beyond simply having rubber powers and something the massive elephant island thingy Zunesha recognises as the same as legendary pirate Joy Boy.

Yes, Luffy’s new power even makes his foes pull weird cartoony faces. It’s quite the ability!

We then see the “Five Elders” talk about the fact that Luffy’s fruit wasn’t the Gum Gum Fruit at all but instead the Mythical Zoan type fruit called the Hito Hito (or Human-Human) Fruit Model: Nika, able to transform whoever eats it into the “Sun God Nika”. As Jimbei and Raizo finally put out the fires rampaging throughout the castle and Momonosuke creates new “flame clouds” to stop it from crushing the capital Luffy begins to overwhelm Kaidou with his new abilities, proper loony toon-ing him about the place. In classic One Piece anime style Luffy readies his final attack in Episode 1074 but doesn’t actually hit it to end the fight until Episode 1076 thanks to the final moments of Orochi detailed above and some admittedly fun Kaidou backstory padding out the few seconds of action. As Kaidou’s lifeless body falls into the same underground magma chamber that Big Mom was knocked into Momonosuke manages to safely land Onigashima just outside the Capital. The battle is FINALLY over.

The actual decisive blow, for real this time.

Momonosuke, now in his adult human form, announces Kaidou and Orochi’s death and his role as son of Oden, declaring himself the new Shogun and promising a better life for the people of Wano. We then transfer to the usual big banquet as everyone celebrates, though during this Nico Robin and Trafalgar Law takes a trip to the ruins of old Wano with Tenguyama (who reveals he’s actually Sukiyaki, Oden’s father / Momonosuke’s grandfather, who has been hiding his shame for twenty years…) all in order to look at another Road Ponyglyph and confirm that the legendary weapon Pluton is housed in Wano (a call back to the Alabasta arc from DECADES ago…) Meanwhile Shanks and his Red Hair Pirates are on their way to Wano, as is a Navy Admiral…

Overall Thoughts:

Luffy gets some big news! What is it? Well, read the spoiler section! (though you could probably guess…)

The Wano Arc comes to a close with a fun new transformation for our lead protagonist and a few good moments in the final fight (ruined slightly by the classic One Piece anime pacing issues) The post battle come-down stuff is all pretty standard, as are the “technically not numbered episodes but they still aired in the middle of actual episodes” recap episodes, but I technically can’t count them… Anyway, it was a fun end I’ll admit. “Gear 5” is certainly a lot of fun and I look forward to seeing it more as we head into the final over-arching story, no doubt comprised of several arcs that will last many years… Hooray!

Yes we’re not quite done with the action as Admiral Ryokugyu arrives during the celebrations and begins to use his Devil Fruit power to control nature to fend off several members of the Red Scabbards, who have now resumed their role as protectors of Wano and the Shogun. Momonosuke arrives in his Dragon form and after a while lands a big fire breathing blast against his foe and believes it makes him retreat but in reality just by unsheathing his sword on a far-off shore Shanks generated enough Haki to overcome the Admiral and make him flee. A nice reminder of how over powered Shanks is!

Momonosuke bites a giant tree man as his first order of business as Shogun, following the ancient tradition.

As everyone gets ready to leave we hear a new line up of Four Emperors has been revealed thanks to Big Mom and Kaidou’s defeat and its now Shanks, Blackbeard, Luffy and, um, Buggy the Clown, who is now running a group called the “Cross Guild” comprised of himself, Crocodile and Mihawk (more on that next time!) Kidd is peeved that Luffy is an Emperor instead of him and declares once they leave Wano they’re enemies again. The three pirate ships depart as the literal curtain comes down on the Wano Arc.