Will The Tobi Roppo And Lead Performers Return As Awakened Zoans?

Chapter 1305 gave us an amazing fight sequence between Zoro and King.

The Onigashima raid seems to be going considerably well for the Straw Hats, but the successive losses of the Beast Pirates have been raising questions about the strength and reputation of the crew – namely the Lead Performers and the Tobi Roppo.

The Lead Performers (or All-Stars, Calamities) consists of King, Queen, and Jack, the 3 members second in command and power only to Kaido himself.

The Tobi Roppo (or Flying 6) are the strongest of the Shinuchi and include Who’s Who, Black Maria, Sasaki, Ulti, Page One, and X Drake.

Could gaining the upper hand over Kaido, the strongest creature in the world, be this easy? Are the commanders gone for good? No way.

Will the Tobi Roppo and Lead Performers come back? Will they return as Awakened Zoans?

The Tobi Roppo and Lead Performers are coming back as Awakened Zoans. The Calamities and most members of the Tobi Roppo all have Ancient Zoan Devil Fruit powers which gives them amazing durability.

If and when they awaken their DF, they’ll return fully recovered, just like the Jailer Beasts.

Oda introduced the Jailer Beasts back in Chapter 530. That was also the first time we were shown what Awakened Zoan Devil Fruit users could actually do. Crocodile gives it to us straight:

Their greatest strengths are their toughness and recovery speed. They won’t stay down for long. They all have Devil Fruit powers. They’re Awakened Zoan-types!

Narratively, the Beast Pirates are the most important Zoan-type Devil Fruit users in the history of One Piece.

If lowly Impel Down jailers could Awaken their Zoan abilities, it would only logically follow that the strongest Ancient Zoans would have this power. And, we are in Wano, the Empire of the Zoans.

There was no other reason for Oda to introduce the Jailers other than to show us what Awakened Zoans were capable of; the Jailers literally don’t have any other role to play in the manga, and they are never mentioned again.

Additionally, the panel with the unconscious Jailer Beasts before they Awaken, is very similar to the panel with the defeated Flying 6.

Oda loves his symbolism and is great at foreshadowing; remember how he foreshadowed Ace’s death with the burning Vivre Card? Some of the Tobi Roppo are definitely coming back Awakened.

The Zoan-type has been so hyped throughout the series, and yet the Tobi Roppo Zoan users seem to have been defeated pretty easily, especially Who’s Who and Sasaki, who are among the stronger members of the group.

Jinbei crushed Who’s Who’s hands and defeated him using Fish-man Karate infused with Haki. Franky outperforms Sasaki and blasts him with his Radical Beam.

A lot of people believe that the Tobi Roppo were defeated not because they were weak, but because the Straw Hats are proving to be unpredictably strong.

I don’t deny this – the Tobi Roppo were clearly created as an instrument to challenge the Straw Hats sans the Monster Trio, leaving Luffy, Zoro, and Sanji to take care of the Calamities and Kaido. They put up a pretty good fight, Wano would already be free.

While Sanji and Zoro appeared to emerge victorious against Queen and King respectively, I don’t believe the fight is over just yet.

In fact, even though the battles were epic and climactic, we don’t actually know whether the Lead Performers were truly defeated. Inuarashi beat Jack but Jack was only implied to be unconscious.

Queen was sent flying off the island by Sanji’s kick, but is he dead? King is a Lunarian, who can create fire from his body.

It’s a little strange that these guys went down without Awakening – which just makes me surer of the fact that it’s going to happen sooner than later.

As for the Tobi Roppo, one thing we know is that the Tobi Roppo always get back up.

I mean, look at Ulti. She took hits from Luffy, Yamato, Usopp, Nami, Zeus, and Big Mom, before finally being defeated. She just doesn’t relent. And what about Black Maria? The 2v1 with Robin and Brook was hardly fair.  

It’s way too early for the Kaido’s commanders to be defeated. These guys are the elites, the strongest of the strong, and it would only make sense for them to come back with their full and final abilities before going down for good.

Which of the Tobi Roppo and the Lead Performers will get back up?

The Calamities: King, Queen, and Jack, and the strongest of the Flying 6: Who’s Who, Black Maria, Ulti, and Sasaki, will get back up and return as Awakened Zoans.

Awakenings are quite rare in One Piece – only Doflamingo, Katakuri, Kid, and Law have been confirmed to have Awakened their Devil Fruit abilities.

None of the Zoan-type Devil Fruit users, apart from the Jailer Beasts, have been shown to have Awakened their powers.

Awakened Zoans are supposed to morph into their full beast forms and revert to their primal instincts, fight mindlessly through raw power.

This is how we know that neither of the Tobi Roppo and the Lead Performers are Awakened yet, because as we’ve seen with the Jailer Beasts, Awakened Zoans become pure beasts, in mind, body, and soul.

The Jailer Beasts also showed inhuman resilience and revival powers – Luffy clearly defeats that Minotaurus but he simply comes back to life.

Awakenings are kind of the final stage of Devil Fruit abilities – and the Lead Performers and the Tobi Roppo haven’t yet reached their final stage.

Sure, we have to consider the fact that they might already be Awakened, especially the top 3 Beast Pirates; they might be displaying abilities in a different manner that the Jailer Beasts, i.e., they might still be conscious of their thoughts and actions and not have morphed into mindless killing machines.

But what I mean when I say they will return, is that they will return stronger in the future, with a more blatant use of the full extent of their powers.

All the Tobi Robbo battles have been rushed and underwhelming, without any awe-inspiring displays of power.

Sure, we’ve seen characters like Ulti give it back good to many of the pirates we consider to be the strongest – and if I didn’t know better, I’d say Ulti already had Awakened Devil Fruit powers by the way she kept getting back up.

King and Queen too, were defeated simultaneously by Zoro and Sanji, and were flung off the island.

Sanji stomps Queen’s left arm in the Left Brain Tower, Zoro slices King’s right wrist on the right side of the island, and Luffy is fighting Kaido at the Skull Dome.

It’s not possible that Kaido’s right and the left arm are not going to regenerate at least once before dying for good.

Even Jack, who was defeated by the Mink Tribe, needs a chance to redeem himself and show us why he’s part of the All-Stars.

Another point to consider is that Oda might be following the structure of Japanese Kabuki Samurai plays, that usually have 5 acts.

Considering how much is remaining story-wise, it might not be too premature to assume that we are nearing the end of Act 3 in the Wano arc.

Things are going seemingly well with our heroes winning their respective battles, but the end of the act will see it all turn sideways; we can expect at least one major tragedy.

With King, Queen, Jack, Who’s Who, Black Maria, Ulti, and Sasaki using their Awakened abilities, the Straw Hats will be pushed to the very edge, before Luffy triumphs over Kaido, and they burn Onigashima and the Beast Pirates to the ground.

Conclusion

We may not get 1v1 battles again but it’s very likely that the Lead Performers and the Tobi Roppo will come back to challenge the characters that defeated them.

It would be fitting to see the Beast Pirates live up to their name – to see them throw away the last of their humanity by entering into their Awakened Zoan state.

About One Piece

One Piece is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Eiichiro Oda. It has been serialized in Shueisha’s Weekly Shōnen Jump magazine since July 22, 1997.

The man who had acquired everything in this world, the Pirate King, is Gol D. Roger. The final words he said at the execution tower were “My treasures? If you want it, I’ll let you have it. Look for it; I left all of it at that place.” These words sent many to the seas, chasing their dreams, headed toward the Grand Line, in search of One Piece. Thus began a new age!

Seeking to be the greatest pirate in the world, young Monkey D. Luffy also heads toward the Grand Line in search of One Piece. His diverse crew is joining him along the way, consisting of a swordsman, marksman, navigator, cook, doctor, archaeologist, and cyborg-shipwright, this will be one memorable adventure.