YMMV / One Piece: Land of Wano Arc

• Aluminum Christmas Trees: To younger readers not incredibly knowledgeable with Japanese history, Usopp selling toad oil would likely seem to be just nonsense. In actuality, toad oil was used as an actual ointment during the Edo period, and Usopp's speech is a reference to a common description used by merchants and street performers of the time.
• Arc Fatigue: Act 3 of the arc, the raid on Onigashima. Largely due to having to follow so many characters, the shifting opponents in battles, the numerous fights and unexpected developments, resulting in very slow progression. This wasn't helped when the manga had to take breaks every other week to work around the COVID-19 Pandemic. It ended up just shy of 100 chapters, more than twice the length of the first two acts combined, and longer than any previous arc except Dressrosa and the Water 7 Saga.
• Big-Lipped Alligator Moment: After the fight with King in the manga, Zoro ends up attacked by The Grim Reaper. This encounter is not explained or followed upon afterwards and it's very at odds with the usual supernatural elements of the series, which tend to trace back to Devil Fruits. Yet, there's nothing that could potentially justify this event except for a symbolic hallucination from Zoro's part, but that's completely speculative and would be no less random.
• Epileptic Trees: A common theory, bordering on a straight-up meme, is that Kaido is the biological father of Charlotte Katakuri (and Daifuku and Oven, but mostly Katakuri), supported by some vague physical resemblance between them and that Katakuri's birth year would line-up with when Big Mom and Kaido were in the same crew together. This led to jokes that the real reason Big Mom was going to Wano was to needle Kaido for child support, and later became Hilarious in Hindsight when Yamato, Kaido's biological child, debuted during Act Three.
• Fan Nickname: "Roof Piece" due to most of the climax taking place on the top of Onigashima.
• I Knew It!:
  • Fan speculation that the Three Disasters included a Queen and King seated above Jack had been on the rise. Then, two silhouettes we hadn't seen before appeared next to Jack's. In the same bombshell chapter where Blackbeard appeared for the first time post-timeskip, we finally get confirmation that the other two Disasters are indeed named King and Queen.
  • Kaido's "King of Beasts" epithet meaning he can become a dragon, a creature regarded as such befitting the title, and Eiichiro Oda's overdue Dragon Ball homage to Shenron, were confirmed in this arc.
  • Many of the fans accurately predicted that Komurasaki is none other than Hiyori, due to the Foreshadowing that occurred when Momo reminisced his 'younger' sister coinciding with Komurasaki's debut, and her Bitch in Sheep's Clothing not occurring in presence of Orochi, whom she has a more personal reason to hate than mere ideological differences.
  • During Kiku's first couple of introductory scenes, it was noticed in the original Japanese that Kiku uses sessha when addressing herself. As this is an archaic masculine personal pronoun that was typically used by samurai during the feudal ages, some speculated that this meant that Kiku may, in reality, be male. It was later confirmed that Kiku was assigned male at birth.
  • Ever since Corazon was exposed as a Marine spy in Law's backstory, many people suspected that X. Drake was also one, considering his unexplained motives for defecting from the Marines. This arc confirmed the theory as true, with Drake revealed as a member of a secret marine unit called "SWORD".
  • Due to several conspicuous details, many fans were quick to guess that the crew Kaido and Big Mom were both a part of was the enigmatic Rocks Pirates mentioned in the first chapter were it was confirmed they had a history. Likewise, many guessed that Whitebeard was part of the same crew as well, due to the suspicious mentions from Marco and his databook profile about him having been part of another crew once 40 years ago. Chapter 957 confirmed both parts of this to be true.
  • After "Over The Top" opening somewhat spoiled it, a lot of fans guessed that Kyoshiro was Denjiro after Hiyori was shown to have survived his "execution". Once he showed up in the flashback during Oden's younger years, it didn't take much to connect the dots as he's the only one that wasn't seen in the present day despite being mentioned. While anime viewers likely got it from his freeze frame in the opening, non-anime watchers pieced it together pretty quickly without it.
  • Chapter 974 confirms the identity of the traitor, who—among other things—revealed that Oden was coming for Kaido 20 years ago, as well as Raizo's location to Jack and the location of the Thousand Sunny to Orochi in the present day. It's Kanjuro, as some had guessed based on the timing of the above, being one of the few people to have acceess to all that information, his escape from "captivity" in Dressrosa being a little convenient, and Kanjuro being something of The Generic Guy among the other retainers.
  • Many figured Orochi wasn't really dead since he was just instantly offed without a second thought. Largely because the death was too sudden which isn't Oda's style when killing characters, but also figuring it was because of Orochi's Devil Fruit likely saving him. Likewise with Luffy fighting Kaido, the Akazaya Nine would need to face someone during the arc and they have much more personal beef with Orochi than Kaido. Same for Kanjuro surviving, who was beaten offscreen. Sure enough in Chapter 1,008, they're revealed to have survived.
  • Based on the fact that the right-hand men of many powerful pirates (like Rayleigh and Katakuri) possess Conqueror's Haki, many speculated that Zoro either had it or would develop it eventually, mirroring their position as Luffy rose in status in the New World and achieved similar power. These theories were proven right when Kaido confirmed it in Chapter 1010.
  • Many figured Luffy was going to gain a fifth gear in the arc or, at the least, awaken his Devil Fruit due to the severity of the threat they were facing, similar to how Luffy unveiled Gear Four against Dolflamingo. Sure enough, both theories turned out to be correct, Luffy's fruit awakens after he's knocked out in his third round with Kaido and he proclaims it his peak form and final gear. Though in a nice curve ball, many didn't see that this was because his fruit is actually a Zoan Human Model Fruit Type and one of a Sun God at that!
  • After Admiral Ryokugyu's face was shown as a shadowed out profile in Chapter 906, many Japanese fans guessed that he was modelled on actor Yoshio Harada and specifically his character in Roningai, noting the very similar hairstyles, love of women, and the same Signature Laugh. Four years later and this theory was proven to be true. In addition, based on the comments he and Fujitora makes during the Reverie, many fans begin to speculate that he has Green Thumb-related powers, a theory that would be proven true as he is shown to be using plant based powers to defeat members of the Animal Kingdom Pirates.
  • Many fans guessed that Tenguyama was in fact Kozuki Sukiyaki, as the anime conspicuously gave them the same voice actor, and Sukiyaki can at one point in the Whole Episode Flashback be seen playing with kokeshi dolls, which Tenguyama was said to make. Chapter 1053 confirms this to be correct.
• It's the Same, Now It Sucks!:
  • A lot of fans weren't happy with Sanji yet again facing a female opponent (this time Black Maria) and once more getting defeated because he can't hit women.
  • Kaido's defeat had a few fans complaining that it was too similar to Doflamingo's; Luffy flies up into the sky with his new Gear, creates a big black fist, punches down through the villain's final attack and sends him underground. It doesn't help that unlike Doflamingo's final clash, which was in a single chapter, this got drawn out over three before Luffy's final blow connected.
• It's Short, So It Sucks!: One of the more common criticisms about the Wano arc in the manga is that the epilogue after Kaido's defeat is way too rushed. It's why Episode 1084 is really appreciated in the anime as it provided an expanded ending, such as good-byes for certain characters, especially Carrot, that were glossed over in the manga.
• Jerkass Woobie: Eustass Kid is a Jerkass to the nth degree, and his first mate Killer isn't exactly all that nice either, but it's hard not to have at least some sympathy for everything that happened to them since the end of Dressrosa. It turns out that one of their allies, Apoo, completely screwed over them and their other ally, Hawkins, as he was working for Kaido all along and him joining the alliance was a trick from the start. Hawkins, despite not being in on this deception, chose to save himself and bend the knee to Kaido, and did nothing at all to help Kid and Killer when they fought Kaido, lost, and were beaten up and imprisoned. Kid later finds out that, while he was in jail, Killer (his best friend since childhood) was forced to eat a faulty SMILE Fruit that made him laugh all the time (even though Killer deeply hated his laugh) and work for Orochi, and Hawkins speculates that the rest of Kid's crew was forced to work for the shogun as well. Apoo's and Hawkins's respective betrayals, and what happened to Killer in the aftermath, seems to have deeply jaded Kid, who states that the only people he'll trust from now on are his crewmates.
• Like You Would Really Do It: Due to rampant abuse of Not Quite Dead this arc, especially in Act 3, many fans are extremely skeptical of any supposedly lethal situations or injuries. Which made it all the more jarring when Ashura and Izo did die during the war.
• Magnificent Bastard:
  • Kaido, "The King Of Beasts", is one of the Four Emperors, considered to be the strongest creature in the world. A soldier since childhood and former apprentice in the Rocks pirates, Kaido's will, strength and intellect have led him to carve out a pirate empire that led to him taking over Wano as his own weapons factory. Intending to raise his child Yamato as a new Shogun, Kaido manipulates the depraved Shogun Orochi with intent to dispose of him when his usefulness is complete and uses his links to Donquixote Doflamingo to create his own army with SMILE fruits. Respecting will and strength, Kaido kills those who dishonorably intervene in his fights with worthy opponents, clashing with Luffy for the most difficult fight of his career and grows to see Luffy as a true and worthy rival with all Wano County on the line.
  • King the Wildfire is Kaido's strongest, most loyal, and most intelligent subordinate. Born under the name Alber, King is one of the last Lunarians, a people marked for genocide by the World Government. Rescued by Kaido from a government experimentation lab, King pledges his life to his savior, believing him to be the prophesied successor to Joy Boy, an ancient messianic figure - and assists him in everything from his conquest of Wano to reining in the excesses of his two associates, Jack the Drought and Queen the Plague. King has also achieved full mastery of his Pteranodon Devil Fruit, keeping Roronoa Zoro on his toes at every turn while simultaneously having a friendly philosophical debate with him, and when overpowered at last calmly accepts his defeat.
  • Guernica is the enforcer of the will of the Five Elders and the World Nobles. Appearing first in the Dressrosa arc, the commander assists Doflamingo in setting his trap for Trafalgar Law by faking his resignation from the Seven Warlords, coolly making his exit before the fighting begins. At Wano, the commander attempts to negotiate a deal between the Elders and Shogun Orochi, refusing the Shogun's demands when they become far too weighted in his own favor, and later reports on the final battle to the Elders while calmly enjoying a game of Go with his men. Upon joining the battle himself, he defeats X Drake before surprising Luffy with a sneak attack, enabling Kaido to critically wound him. Ending up on the receiving end of Kaido's distaste for fighting dirty, the commander simply tips his hat to the Emperor before the end.
  • Lady Komurasaki, real name Kozuki Hiyori, is the most beautiful woman in Wano. An elegant courtesan who deceives men into selling everything they own, including their families, only to abandon them, it is revealed she did this to members of an arson ring for the sake of the people. Faking her own death with the help of retainer Denjiro, Hiyori later lures the tyrannical Orochi into a trap, revealing her true identity and managing to ensure the wicked Shogun's demise.
• Memetic Loser:
  • SMILE users, in general, have this reputation, primarily due to their atrocious combat record, ridiculous designs, and they seem to avoid Heart Is an Awesome Power as most of them manifest animal features in bizarre and borderline useless ways, with some even being more of a hindrance than a benefit. Granted, the fact they are made by Caesar should have been a clue as to their quality. This gets taken up to eleven when we learn that there's only a 10% chance of the Fruits even yielding these flawed powers; the other 90% of the Fruits are duds that come with only the drawbacks (becoming unable to express any emotions but smiling and laughing, and unable to swim) and none of the perks. It's quite telling that everyone above the rank of Headliner in Kaido's crew (including the man himself) have natural Zoans.
  • The Big Mom Pirates fell into this after getting knocked down from entering Wano twice, with only Big Mom herself and Perospero having any role in the conflict.
• Misaimed Fandom: The point of Sanji's decision to ask Robin for help to deal with Black Maria was to show that he trusted his friends to cover over his weaknesses. However, some fans instead took it as Sanji refusing to deal with his faults and would rather pawn an enemy he doesn't want to fight off to his allies rather than deal with her himself. Ironically enough, this is the same thought held by Black Maria, who mocks Sanji's choice, while Brook and Robin reply that she doesn't understand him, and Robin even says to have liked Sanji's call because it proves that he trusts her.
• Padding: The initial strike between Luffy and Urashima is particularly infamous for this; turning a brief clash that only takes up a few panels of the manga into a tremendously stretched-out sequence in the anime that goes on for several minutes. Viewers will often point to this as the defining moment that showcases everything wrong with Toei Animation's efforts to drag out the series.
• Salvaged Story: Episode 1084 contains mainly anime-only material, but it adds the moments where the Straw Hats say goodbye to the supporting cast, which happened off-screen in the manga. Previously, there was criticism that the ending of the arc felt rushed and that not having proper goodbye scenes to the other characters despite the length of this arc made it feel underwhelming. The episode also adds Zoro paying respect to Yasuie's (and Pedro's) grave(s), something that people wanted to see in the manga, since a good portion of Zoro's motivation comes from Yasuie's death. There's also an added bonus of Chopper giving Bepo a Chekhov's Gun which will be used in the next arc. Overall, episode 1084 adds more weight to the fact that the Straw Hats do not say goodbye to their long-time comrades Momonosuke and Kin'emon, something that will happen later in episode 1085 (which is in the manga).
• Shocking Moments: The Arc.
  • The reveal of Time Travel in the One Piece universe, and the fact that Momonosuke and his retainers are actually from 20 years in the past.
  • Kaido as a freaking giant dragon, menacingly parting the clouds like an evil Shenron.
  • Think that Luffy is finally in the same league as the Four Emperors after his victory over Katakuri? Think again, as Kaido shows why he's called the "Strongest Creature In The World" by defeating Luffy with a single attack, while Luffy was in Gear Fourth, no less.
  • Big Mom washes ashore on Wano's coastline... but as a result of the attack King gave her, she now suffers from amnesia.
  • Chapter 954: Big Mom and Kaido JOINED FORCES.
  • Chapter 956: A major HSQ chapter. Something has happened to Sabo and Alabasta but it isn't revealed what exactly yet. We find out Drake is an undercover Marine part of a branch dubbed "Sword", which Coby is a part of, and has been monitoring the events of Wano. But more importantly, the Shichibukai system is abolished and all the Warlords that were working for World Government are now back on the Wanted list whom the Marines quickly attack before they know it. ^note  The chapter is notable for having begun trending before the majority of people even knew what happened in it. The early reactions from leakers regarding the shocking events of the chapter were extreme enough that people began making memes before many had even read it.
  • Chapter 957: Another major HSQ chapter where we learn more details about the Rocks Pirates. While it's confirmed that Big Mom and Kaido were both in the same crew and that crew happens to be the Rocks, Whitebeard, the Token Good Teammate of the Emperors, was also a crewmember with them. We know that Garp is responsible for taking them down, but we didn't know that he teamed up with Gol D. Roger to do it while protecting the Celestial Dragons and their slaves. We also learn the name of the Rocks Pirates former captain: Rocks D. Xebec. Then we learn all the current bounties of the Emperors and Roger's bounty, which is revealed to be 5,564,800,000 Beri, the highest bounty in the world's history. And to put it mildly, even Blackbeard's immense bounty seems nothing in front of the rest of the Emperors.
  • Chapter 1017: The end of this chapter has two whammies for the price of one. Not only is Tobi Roppo member Who's-Who a former member of CP9, but he was discharged after failing to guard a certain Devil Fruit... which just so happens to be Luffy's Gum-Gum Fruit!
  • Chapter 1042: Luffy loses for the third time after one of the CP0 agents prevent Luffy from preforming his final attack, allowing Kaido to knock him out with his final strike.
  • Chapter 1044: Luffy revives with a new Gear, Gear Fifth. What's more the Gorosei finally divulge why the World Government was so desperate to get the Gum Gum Fruit. It's because it's not a Paramecia as first thought, but a Zoan-type. A Mythical Zoan to be specific. A Human-Human Fruit Model Nika, The Sun God!
  • Chapter 1053: Luffy, Law, and Kid all have their bounties raised to 3 billion each upon dethroning Big Mom and Kaido. Behind the scenes, Mr. Tengu is revealed to be Kozuki Sukiyaki, Oden’s father, and another person able to read Poneglyphs; he and Robin both confirm that Pluton is in Wano. On top of that, Admiral Ryokugyu has arrived on Wano, and easily defeats both King and Queen with plant-based powers. Finally, the new Yonko roster is revealed, replacing Big Mom and Kaido with Luffy and, of all people, Buggy the Clown.
• Take That, Scrappy!: In Chapter 925, Absalom, one of the series' most disliked characters (to the point Oda himself said in an SBS that he doesn't have many fans) is stated to have been unceremoniously killed off-screen by the Blackbeard Pirates, with Catarina Devon even mockingly offering to give his corpse back to Moria.
• The Un-Twist:
  • Shutenmaru, the Acrofatic reigning bandit of Kuri with a clear history with Kaido, is the same person as Ashura-Douji, the Acrofatic reigning bandit of Kuri with a clear history with Kaido. You'd be hard-pressed to find anyone surprised. The amount of Foreshadowing kept this from being a Captain Obvious Reveal: Ashura-Douji's silhouette looked virtually identical to Shutenmaru. Shutenmaru looked horrified when Oden Castle was destroyed and referred to Oden with an honorific. His name is also a big clue since Shutendoji is a well-known Yokai. Notably, the anime didn't bother making this any kind of reveal at all; when Kin'emon and Kiku are telling their allies about the other three samurai they need to find, Kiku straight-up says that Ashura is going by the name of Shutenmaru these days.
  • The courtesan Komurasaki is Momonosuke's once-younger sister Hiyori, now all grown up thanks to aging normally rather than time-traveling as Momo did. Like the above example, this had hefty amounts of foreshadowing: the very chapter that introduces Komurasaki cuts from her to Momo telling Tama about his lost little sister who is surely still alive and would be about 26 (which fits Komurasaki's apparent age), she shows barely-concealed contempt for Orochi (the man who killed her parents), and when she refuses to bow before Orochi, she states that she is the daughter of a samurai.
  • Toko being from Ebisu Town. Pretty much everyone guessed that she was from there as her signature quirk was something that everyone in Ebisu Town possessed.
  • Due to the anime for the Wano arc having a Spoiler Opening, the reveal that Kyoshiro is actually Denjiro becomes a very popular theory, as Kyoshiro is shown together with the other Akazaya in the opening theme. It's further foreshadowed by the fact that Kyoshiro clearly has some contempt for Orochi despite being considered a close ally of his (as his very first words onscreen are calling Orochi a coward), and even though he supposedly kills Komurasaki in punishment for standing up to the Shogun, she later turns up alive and well, hinting that he only pretended to kill her to save her life.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character:
  • Oden's wife, Kozuki Toki, had the ability to travel into the future, and explains to Oden that she was actually born 800 years before their encounter, putting her smack-dab in the middle of the Void Century. However, her life before meeting Oden is given virtually no detail, so her ability is only relevant to the story for sending Momonosuke and some of the Akazaya Nine into the future.
  • Many ended up feeling that Zoro deserved far more focus than he got, particularly after Whole Cake Island expanded Sanji's backstory. It was heavily hinted that Zoro had some kind of connection to the Shimotsuki clan (e.g. his village was named after the clan, he parallels Shimotsuki Ryuma as a one-eyed samurai, he has a similar physical appearance to Shimotsuki Ushimaru, etc.), but in the end it was left open to interpretation. It was eventually confirmed in an SBS that Zoro is in fact descended from the clan, though some were left unsatisfied that his lineage was relegated to an SBS of all things.
  • A good portion of readers were disappointed by Carrot's lack of screen time throughout the Raid and especially towards her and Wanda's offscreen loss against Perospero. Worse still is that she doesn't contribute much to the Raid after Nekomamushi defeats Perospero, and the fight itself was set up to be a way to resolve her emotional trauma surrounding Pedro's sacrifice. The plot thread of Carrot becoming the next leader of the Mink Tribe has been cited by some as a lazy attempt to consolidate her fans over her being sidelined and not becoming a member of the Straw Hats. Possibly the last straw for some fans was her not getting to say goodbye to Luffy and the others despite being with them for a good amount of time. This was rectified in the anime, as Carrot gets a proper farewell in Episode 1084.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot:
  • A number of mysteries surrounding Kaido and Yamato (For instance, Kaido states that Yamato is an "Oni" and therefore cannot live alongside humans, but it's never elaborated on what exactly an Oni is) were left unexplored, much to some fans' disappointment.
  • Tama being a Kurozumi was speculated by fans for a long time. When it was ultimately confirmed to be true in the SBS for Volume 105, many felt that this could have made for an interesting subplot if explored in the main story.
  • Many fans feel that Kaido's backstory was actually fairly interesting and served to flesh out a character who had been just shy of a Generic Doomsday Villain for the vast majority of the arc. Some wished that it could've been longer or more in-depth to give us more insight into the Emperor.
  • Yamato is a rare example of someone who wanted to join the Straw Hat crew rather than Luffy asking someone to join. However, Yamato ended up backing out of it at the last second once the war against Kaido is done with.

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