One Piece: Did Kaido Awaken His Devil Fruit?

Eiichiro Oda’s One Piece manga is full of mysteries and surprises, which is not the least surprising for a manga over two decades old with more than 1,000 chapters. Fans have debated many of these mysteries for some time now, and the one we will discuss in this article is related to Kaidou, a character who is definitely among the most intriguing ones in the franchise. Now, the former Emperor of the Sea is among the strongest characters in the franchise, and many of his powers are related to his exceptionally powerful Uo Uo no Mi, Model: Seiryu, a Zoan-type Devil Fruit. Now, we know that Zoan-type Fruits have a will of their own and that their full potential is activated only when they are awakened. So, did Kaido awaken his Devil Fruit? Keep reading to find out.

Kaido never actually awakened his Devil Fruit, which was confirmed indirectly in the manga. Namely, when we saw the awakened form of Rob Lucci’s Devil Fruit, by comparing it to Kaido’s, we could see that Kaido never really entered that form, meaning that he never awakened his Fruit. This is probably because he never cared too much for his Devil Fruit powers (he relied on Haki), so he never achieved the necessary level of imagination and knowledge to master his Fruit.

The rest of this article will tell you two major things, both of which are related to the answer we have given above. The first one will explain Kaido’s Devil Fruit in more detail, including the so-called Awakening, while the other will tell you why Kaido was never able to awaken his Devil Fruit. The article will contain a lot of spoilers from both the manga and the anime, so be careful how you approach it if you’re not fully up-to-date with all the relevant events from the series.

Kaido’s Devil Fruit is quite powerful, and it can be awakened

The Uo Uo no Mi, Model: Seiryu is a Mythical Zoo Zoan-type Devil Fruit that allows the user to transform into a blue dragon and its hybrid. Kaido ate it in God Valley after Big Mom gave the Fruit when they lost the battle. The fruit resembles a large raspberry composed of blue scales in the inner part, with the characteristic spiral signs, which are similar to those that cover the skin of a dragon. It has the particularity of having two stems, instead of one, of a purple color and which recall the horns of the same mythological creature. They are connected to the fruit via two orange leaves.

The greatest advantage given by ingesting this fruit is the possibility of transforming into a blue dragon similar in size to a small town. In this form, the user is able to create clouds in the shape of flames on which to lean to move freely in the sky and which he can use to envelop an object and lift it into the air, even if it is an entire island. It also gets very resistant scales.

He can also control fire, lightning, and wind: in fact, he is able to transform his breath into a ray of fire so powerful that it is able to pierce mountains or into the wind cutting to the point of cutting a person in half, as well as giving off small electric shocks if it roars.

By enveloping his body in a powerful wind and spinning on himself, the owner can generate destructive tornadoes, while if he does it with flames, he gains greater defense and is able to liquefy rock.

The hybrid form is ideal in combat as it allows you to use all the attacks of the animal form while maintaining human dimensions. The transformation into a dragon, since it increases the size of the user, is disadvantageous indoors and also makes him an easier target to hit. In addition to this, the fruit carries the common weaknesses of all devil fruits. Kaido mainly uses this fruit for combat.

He also used it to destroy the ruins of Kuri Castle or to raise Onigashima to move it. The pirate’s control over his hybrid and animal form is so high as to be able to create a sort of mixture between the two. In its hybrid form, it uses its tail to immobilize the opponent. Although most people who have ingested a Zoan fruit have only three forms available, Kaido can use a fourth form very similar to the hybrid form but more muscular, with all the sharp teeth, a larger nose, and purplish scales.

Now, while what we said is applied to Kaido’s fruit specifically, all Zoan-type fruits have a special form called Awakening, which is a process present in all types of Devil Fruits but is difficult to achieve. It also comes with great risk, as Zoan fruits are related to animals, usually, so if a user manages to awaken their fruit, they are at risk of succumbing to the fruit’s animalistic instincts, which would turn them into mindless beasts incapable of rational or complex thought; this actually happened to the Jailer Beasts, at least four of them.

The awakening gives the user a significant boost in power, but if the user is unable to master their devil fruit and control it, they will become a beast, and it is currently unknown if one can return to their previous state after becoming a beast. A controlled Awakened Form creates a hybrid, and its main trait are the flames visible around the user, which has confirmed that Luffy, Rob Lucci, and Kaku have been able to activate this form; it is also possible that Yamato has activated it; but this has not been confirmed yet.

In appearance, the Awakened Form is similar to a Hybrid, but one can tell the difference by observing whether there are flames around the user. Those who have succumbed to the Zoan fruit’s basic instincts will also lose the flames.

Kaido never really cared enough about his Devil Fruit to bother mastering it

Now that we have explained Kaido’s Devil Fruit and the concept of awakening associated with it, we can confirm that Kaido never really activated his Devil Fruit. His second Hybrid Form is actually what confused fans, but we can confirm, now that the mystery of the Awakened Form has been solved (thank you, Lucci and Vegapunk), that Kaido’s second Hybrid Form is not the Awakened Form. How do we know? Well, it’s simple – there are no flames! Yes, sadly or luckily, it’s simple as that, as the flames, as we have said, is a distinction that helps identify the Awakened Form.

So, why was Kaido, despite his powers, unable to awaken his Devil Fruit? Dr. Vegapunk explained that Devil Fruits rely a lot on imagination, i.e., they require both a physical and mental aspect to be mastered. Since Kaido, by all means, ate the Devil Fruit only because he would have lost in God Valley had he not done it, and never really bothered for it much (he thought that the key to true power lies in the Haki, not the Devil Fruits), he never really put any effort to master it, and that is why he was unable to do it in the end, failing to awaken his Devil Fruit, which is what probably cost him his victory against Luffy in Wano, as Luffy was able to awaken his true Devil Fruit powers, with which he crushed Kaidou.