It may just be coming to a close in the One Piece anime, but Wano’s Raid on Onigashima has been over for a while in the manga. After all that’s happened and how the anime has been paced, it’s easy to forget some of the less focused on parts. That’s why we’ve got a huge explainer for fans to find out exactly what happens during One Piece’s climactic Raid on Onigashima!
Warning This article contains spoilers for One Piece through the end of the Wano arc. The easiest way to catch up is with the manga, available online through Viz or MangaPlus. That’s the only warning!
What Leads to the Raid on Onigashima?
The events leading up to the raid on Onigashima are twenty years in the making since Orochi took over. Now, with the alliance of pirates, samurai, and Minks everyone takes their position to reclaim the land of Wano. After many deaths and a brief delay when Luffy is locked up in Udon Prison, everyone is ready to make the final move on Kaido’s island fortress, Onigashima. Everything is going to plan, even with the unexpected presence of Big Mom to throw things into turmoil.
Even with multiple setbacks and having to change their plans, everyone is ready to go the night before the raid. Onigashima is having a massive party to celebrate the alliance with Big Mom, and it’s going to be a bash to remember. Now, the samurai who formerly served Kozuki Oden are lining up at the port, ready to make their way across to fight or die trying.
Kanjuro’s Betrayal
It was a little too convenient that the Wano rebellion was constantly having their plans found out by the higher-ups. As Kin’emon, Kanjuro, and the others gather at the port with Momo to start the raid, they realize that nobody else is there. It’s already heartbreaking, feeling that all their planning and work has been for naught when the Straw Hats don’t show, but then Kanjuro rubs salt in the wounds. This creep has been a spy for Orochi the entire time, as he’s even a part of the disgraced Kurozumi Clan!
Kanjuro does a villain monologue for a minute before taking Momo and running off to Onigashima on one of his paintings. Oh, Kanjuro was also lying about being a shitty artist, as he becomes a Davinci-level painter all of a sudden. Despite everything going wrong and all hope seeming lost as Kanjuro reveals Orochi destroyed everything, help arrives at the most unexpected time.
The Raid Begins
Luffy and the others all suddenly appear from around the coastline in their ships, ready to fight alongside the samurai. Turns out they worked through the night. They also kept the samurai out of their plans since they knew one must be a traitor. Now, they’re ready to fight with the traitor exposed and give it their all. Despite everything, they make it through the small force sent out to stop them and begin their journey to Onigashima.
Ahead of them, Kanjuro makes it into the palace first. There’s a whole party going on at the Performance Floor. Queen is the resident DJ and every Beast Pirate is moving to the funk. It’s all a happy, joyful occasion when Kaido gets up to make his big announcement as Kanjuro hands over Momo.
Kaido and Big Mom Alliance
That big announcement begins pretty swiftly with Kaido knocking Orochi’s head clean off. It’s a great shot, but unfortunately not enough to kill the sniveling little bastard. His Zoan Dragon-Dragon Fruit lets him move his brain into another head just in time. He plays dead while Kaido makes his big announcement. Now, he and Big Mom will form an alliance to reach the One Piece! Kaido’s lead performers have already had their say about it, though. Queen is busy getting in a huff while King says he’ll follow Kaido through anything.
The two Emperors were formerly crewmates under Captain Rocks D Xebec of the Rocks Pirates alongside Whitebeard. Of course, after the battle at God Valley, the crew dissolved and tensions flared between the ones who became Emperors. Despite their history of conflicts and differences though, Big Mom and Kaido make a pact. All to find the ultimate treasure, then kill each other for it. Now with no more need for Orochi, Kaido makes his point that they are taking over Wano from now on.
Straw Hats Crash the Party
The Straw Hat Pirates manage to sneak in and disperse themselves throughout the party at the Performance Floor. They mingle a little before someone finally realizes who they are, and all hell breaks loose. Oden’s former samurai all attack Kaido while the pirates clean up Beast Pirates on the Performance Floor. Even with their tenacity, the Scabbards are quickly defeated despite their numbers. Kikunojo even loses her arm before being saved by Kin’emon as they all scatter in defeat.
Meanwhile, the Straw Hats have been cleaning up so well that Queen gets involved. The mad scientist of the Beast Pirates has a special virus he’s made just for a situation like this. He unleashes it on the attackers despite the danger it poses to his own men. Now the Performance Floor becomes a bloody mess. Everyone begins to turn into an Ice Oni, with no mind to halt their bloodlust. Queen’s virus will make everyone fight until they burn out and die, with nobody left on either side. Even worse, he throws in one bottle of antibodies and tells everyone to fight over it!
Queen’s Gambit
When Queen throws the antibodies for his Ice Oni virus into the crowd, he doesn’t expect anyone to actually make a cure. He doesn’t know the Straw Hat doctor Tony Tony Chopper though, who manages to work out a vaccine while the others keep him protected. Though Chopper himself is infected, he works tirelessly to make sure there’s enough vaccine available for everyone, friend or foe. It manages to make some of the Beast Pirates come to their side, turning the tide of battle just a little in the highly uneven match.
Queen is a sore loser in the worst sense, and decides to rampage in his Ancient Zoan form. The Dragon-Dragon Fruit, Ancient Model: Brachiosaurus is… not what a Brachiosaurus really looks like but Queen makes it work. The dino man with cybernetic augments seems like he would be a good match for Frankie, but instead goes up against Sanji and his Germa66 Raid Suit.
The Tobiroppo
As always with One Piece though, a lot of things are happening at once. While Sanji is facing Queen and the Supernovas are heading to the roof, the other Straw Hats have to fight Kaido’s commanders, the Tobiroppo. These include dino-twins Ulti and Page One, former Vice-Admiral Who’s-Who, and spiderwoman Black Maria among others. X Drake is also among their numbers, but decides to fight back against the Tobiroppo instead. Scratchman Apoo and his crew are also there, but he serves as an enforcer for Kaido now as well.
The fights begin to go down as Sanji disappears briefly, coming up against Black Maria as he separates from Queen. Knowing he doesn’t stand a chance against women, he calls in Robin to help. She brings Franky along, and with a new Demonos Fleurs, takes out Black Maria despite her drug-enhanced abilities. As the others split off Nami and Usopp face Ulti and Page One, while also trying to protect Tama, who followed them there. Thankfully Tama had some preparations and had a massive amount of her Dango dumplings to feed to all the SMILE Fruit users, called Gifters.
Is Drake Working for the Navy?
Yes, Drake, one of the Worst Generation and an infamous pirate now, is still a Navy agent working with SWORD. This elite squad is comprised of a few Marines who have “left” the Navy, with paperwork officially showing them inactive. Instead, they’re allowed to act at their own discretion and disobey Navy orders if they feel like it. It’s somewhat of a counter to the World Government’s Cipher Pol Aegis 0. Except they’re usually aligned with more morally upright causes.
Drake is just one of the members of SWORD. Former agents included Corazon, Donquixote Doflamingo’s brother, as well as Monkey D Garp. There is even more to them, but for now, it’s just X Drake doing his best. He tries to help the Straw Hats when he finds out CP0 is in Onigashima. The secret agents are there to find out about the Kaido and Big Mom alliance, but things are about to get much more complicated.
Yamato: Son of Kaido
When the Beast Pirates are told they need to find the Son of Kaido, nobody expects who shows up. Yamato doesn’t look anything like Kaido’s son, a tall, feminine-looking figure with the same massive horns as Kaido. He doesn’t accept his father though, and despises him for killing Kozuki Oden twenty years ago when he was a child. Yamato actually manages to get hold of Oden’s journal, though it’s missing the records of Laughtale, and begins to live as the samurai, determined that he is Kozuki Oden. Even when Kaido throws Yamato in the Udon Prison cells, the old samurai in there who fought for Oden give the young one healthy respect. They know that he has life before him, and share what little food they have with him.
Yamato would later befriend Ace when he visits the island as part of Whitebeard’s crew. Though they don’t get along at first, Yamato comes to look up to Ace much like Luffy did, and is determined to help Ace’s little brother fight his father. Yamato joins the battle on the roof with his Dog-Dog Fruit Model: Okuchi no Makami, which allows him to turn into Wano’s guardian wolf deity. It even allows him to shoot ice beams, and he teams up with Luffy to fight his father for his own freedom.
Orochi Runs Away
This sniveling little coward manages to survive Kaido’s hit before scurrying away to a room to hide. He hides away with Kanjuro, who reveals that it was Orochi who gave him the role of Oden’s traitor, and that he had been working with him the entire time. Though Kanjuro quickly gets stabbed by one of the surviving samurai in revenge, he turns himself into a raging flame that makes its way down through the palace and toward the basement. Just so happens, that basement is full of explosives that will take out the entire island and anything under it.
After an extended chase with everyone from Nami and Usopp to Yamato trying to head it off, most of the island is on fire. They still manage to snuff out most of the flames before the worst happens though, and the last flames of Kanjuro’s spirit go crawling back to their master in a pitiful, groveling state.
Rooftop Showdown
The five Supernovas gather on the rooftop opposite Big Mom and Kaido, both insulting them for appearing. Luffy, Zoro, Law, Kid, and Killer all stare them down, and Luffy lets off one of his newest moves. Now trained with Advanced Conqueror Haki, he uses the Gum-Gum Red Roc. This is a Gear Third Gum-Gum Pistol with both Conqueror and Armament Haki to back it up. For the Emperors, it leaves one hell of an impression. Meanwhile, Zoro gets a hit in on Kaido with his newly acquired sword Enma, formerly the weapon of Kozuki Oden. With this blade, Zoro is the second in history to cut Kaido, despite the power of his Armament Haki.
Things get wild here though, as Killer is knocked down to a lower floor to fight Basil Hawkins, while Zoro veers off to fight King. This leaves Luffy, Law, and Kid to face down two Emperors and decide how to divide them up. Kid and Law split off to another part of the Skull Dome to fight Big Mom while Luffy takes on Kaido. It’s a showdown to shake the earth no matter where they go, but things get much, much worse.
Onigashima’s Flight
Things are bad enough now that everyone is split up and Big Mom’s forces have arrived. Then Kaido turns into his dragon Zoan form and begins to lift the entire island of Onigashima! His dragon clouds surround the island, holding it afloat high in the air before moving it toward Wano. Kaido has a plan since he doesn’t need Orochi anymore. So, he decides to take his base straight to the Flower Capital of Wano!
Kaido plans to drop the entire island onto the Flower Capital, killing all who are currently there for the yearly festival. Kaido has no qualms about murdering half of Wano, as he sees the country as having already outgrown its usefulness. Now, he just sees the country as a base of operations free from the World Government, easily defended while he and Big Mom search for the One Piece.
Zoro’s Journey Through Onigashima
The fight between Zoro and King is probably the best fight from Zoro since Enies Lobby. He has a good moment fighting Pica in Dressrosa, sure, but his fight with King tops it. Zoro soaring through the air and overcoming death is amazing. After being knocked down by Kaido, Zoro is wrapped up in basic first aid and carried to Chopper by Sanji. However, Sanji also uses his completely bandaged form as a weapon to beat some Beast Pirates with. When he finally gets to Chopper, the Straw Hat Doctor gives him a medicine that will give his strength back. The drawback is it will make him twice as hurt when it wears off. Zoro doesn’t care though, and takes it quickly before jumping back into the battle with King.
The battle itself is ridiculous too, as King has the Pteranodon Model Dragon Dragon Fruit, and just like Queen, uses it oddly. He’s able to pull back his head and fire his beak at Zoro. Eventually, the Straw Hat Swordsman lands just the right hit on King, slashing his mask off and revealing his greatest secret- he’s hot! Actually, he’s the last surviving member known of a race called Lunarians who lived atop the Red Line.
King’s History
The history of King shows during the battle, which is a hell of a lot more than Queen got. Still, King’s story is a much more tragic tale. He’s alone, the last of his race on the run when the World Government catches him. King is kept in Vegapunk’s lab, experimented on thanks to his Lunarian DNA. Here he’s just one patient alongside Kaido who Vegapunk studies for his Devil Fruit abilities. The two undergo torture and pain from the World Government before Kaido eventually frees himself, offering King the chance to come with him. King accepts, and the Beast Pirates are born.
Onigashima flies into the skies toward the Flower Capitol as everyone squares off, with battles raging all around. Will the Straw Hats be able to pull off the Raid on Onigashima successfully? Check out this explainer for the fights of Onigashima to keep everything straight through the chaos! The finals battles are here, and everything is about to come to a major finish.
