The question I’m trying to answer in this post is simple. What is Kaido’s power?
And I think the theme that may answer that question is Japanese mythology. So let’s start off with the directional guardians in Japan.
Seiryu:
Also known as the eastern dragon, its color is said to be blue-green or green and is the guardian diety of the east. It can control weather and wind. All of these traits seem to be heavily linked to another character: Monkey D. Dragon, as he enjoys facing the east. Had a green wind come when facing smoker, and may have caused the rainstorm in Loguetown. What I’m trying to get at with Dragon is that Oda has given the directional guardian deity fruits to certain characters in the story.
Fushichō
Also known as the Vermilion bird or the phoenix, fushicho is the guardian deity of south. And so far we already have a character called Fuschicho Marco, or Marco the Phoenix. Obviously there are stylistic differences between Marco and the real fushicho, mainly their color, but I think that Oda can make design differences without affecting the general idea. I’m sure we will see Marco in Wano country (though at the moment he decided to remain in Whitebeard’s home village because of the possibility that Weevil would attack it).
Genbu
Also known as the black tortoise. It is associated with the elements of water and earth. And is shown as either two entities(a tortoise wrapped in a snake) or a chimera like tortoise-snake beast. So far I can think of no character that has this ability but I believe its user will be revealed in Wano.
Byakko
Also known as the white tiger. It is the guardian deity of the west. He is associated with the element of metal(Zoro vs Byakko?), the wind, and obviously the color white. I believe that he will be the Shogun of Wano because Byakko is often linked with and confused with a Chinese diety Qilin which is translated to Kirin in Japanese. And I believe Kirin to be Kaido.
Kirin
Kirin often appears tigerlike in artwork so it is often confused with Byakko. However it truly is a unique diety as it is said to look like a deer with scales like a dragon’s covering its body and often has a great horn. It has a tail like an ox’s and a flowing mane. Its body and mane are covered in brilliant holy fire. Quite fitting for Yonkou who is called Hundred Beast Kaido, the Strongest Creature in the World.
However for me personally I think Kaido is even more than that. I also believe him to be an actual dragon explaining his horns and dragonlike moustache and the Samurai clearly hate them. The reason we see Kaido as a human is because Kirin-Kirin no Mi‘s chimera like ability allows him to assume human form. I believe that Kaido is one the last of his species and the samurai of Wano(including Ryuma’s generation) killed off almost everyone of his kind and ATE them. This is why Kaido wanted to take over Wano so bad and actually ate the Shogun himself. He somehow acquired the Mythical Zoan fruit Kirin-Kirin no Mi and became Hundred Beast Kaido. This would also explain why he is suicidal and depressed, who wouldn’t be if they were literally the last of their species!
Plus this fits in with Oda’s way of writing because it makes Kaido EXTREMELY OVERPOWERED. Think about it. A japanese dragon (which is a water deity known to have the ability to control weather) with a Zoan fruit which is essentially the ultimate chimera. Since Zoans can have hybrid and full forms, this could mean that this fruit allows him to turn fully into different types of beasts again, with the ability to control weather. And since dragons in Japan are known as water deities, then perhaps he has the ability to overcome the main weakness of devil fruits, weakness to the sea, hence why he is called the strongest creature in land, air, and sea. I’m actually fanboying just thinking about it right now.
And this brings me to another point. All of these directional guardian based fruit holders will meet in Wano. Marco (the southern Fuschicho), the Shogun (The Western Byakko), ??? (The Northern Genbu), and Dragon (The Eastern Seiryu).
But the gist of it is that Kaido may be producing an extremely valuable ore with the intent of plunging the world into destruction, which would obviously be of importance to Dragon. But besides that reason let’s not forget that having the 4 guardian dieties go at it would be EXTREMELY COOL.
Had a lot of fun writing this, so please leave your thoughts! Thanks for reading guys!
*Theory by cardboardspectator
