Like every major shonen series, One Piece has its own power system. There are two types of powers in One Piece—Haki and devil fruits. Haki is of three types—Armament, Observation, and Conqueror's Haki. Armament and Observation Haki can be awakened by a character if they train hard enough. However, Conqueror's Haki can only be used by characters who are innately born with it. Haki has advanced stages and a character who can use the advanced forms can become extremely strong. On the other hand, devil fruits are special fruits that grant their users special powers. Once a person eats a devil fruit, they gain a new power but lose their ability to swim. This makes the open sea or any other water body their biggest enemy. Like Haki, devil fruits are of three types— Zoan, Paramecia, and Logia.
Paramecia-type devil fruits are the most common kind of devil fruits, and they grant their users the ability to change their bodies, affect their surroundings or create a specific substance. Some examples of paramecia-type devil fruits are: Ope Ope no Mi, Soru Soru no Mi, and Gura Gura no Mi. Logia-type devil fruits are the rarest types of devil fruits, and they allow their user to control a natural element. Without Haki, it is almost impossible to hit a character, who has eaten a logia-type devil fruit, and it makes them seem nigh invincible. Mera Mera no Mi, Hie Hie no Mi, and Magu Magu no Mi are a few examples of logia-type devil fruits. The final type is zoan-type devil fruits. These devil fruits let their user turn into certain animals. The users can either partially, or they can completely transform into animals. In addition to these two modes, zoan users can also morph into a human beast hybrid form.
Types of Zoans
There are two types of zoan devil fruits—ancient and mythical. Both of these devil fruits are rarer than ordinary zoans and according to Kizaru, mythical zoan type devil fruits are even rarer than logia type devil fruits. Ancient zoans grant their wielders the ability to turn into prehistoric creatures, for example, Ryu Ryu no Mi, Model: Allosaurus, Ryu Ryu no Mi, Model: Brachiosaurus, and Ryu Ryu no Mi, Model: Pteranodon. All these devil fruits allowed their users into dinosaurs, who existed many years ago.
Mythical zoan types enable their users to change into mythical characters that exist in various folklore. Tori Tori no Mi, Model: Phoenix, Hito Hito no Mi, Model: Nika, and Uo Uo no Mi, Model: Seiryu are some mythical zoan-type devil fruits that have been shown in the series. However, unlike Paramecia and Logia-type devil fruits, zoan-type devil fruits carry a certain risk that can prove to be fatal to their users.
Harmful Awakenings
Despite being the second most common type of devil fruit, there have hardly been any zoan type users who have awakened their devil fruits, and there is a big reason behind this. In the most recent edition of "Road to Laugh Tale," Eiichiro Oda revealed that zoan type awakenings can prove deadly to their users. The nature of the animal can consume the consciousness of the user, which is very scary. Oda highlighted this problem by citing the example of the Impel Down jailers.
They had consumed zoan type devil fruits, but they could not revert to their human forms. Throughout the entire arc, they remained animals. The jailers in Impel Down had overused their devil fruits and eventually, it resulted in the devil fruit taking over. Previously, it has also been mentioned that characters who have carnivorous zoan type devil fruits are much more wild and violent.
Impact On The Rest Of The Story
Kaido has a mythical zoan type devil fruit, but he did not use the awakening while fighting Luffy, which suggests that the former Yonko was possibly aware of the dangers of using it. So, to maintain his sanity, Kaido improvised and created drunken forms to offer more variety in fights. This raises the question of what is going to happen to Luffy since his devil fruit is actually a mythical zoan type devil fruit. The actual name of Luffy's devil fruit is Hito Hito no Mi, Model: Nika. When Luffy awakened his devil fruit in the fight against Kaido, the latter was surprised by Luffy's behavior.
He was surprised and even asked Luffy who he was. With Oda's new statement, it seems very likely that it wasn't just Luffy who was fighting Kaido, but it was Nika as well. This claim is further backed by several incidents that took place during the fight. When Kaido landed what seemed like the knockout blow on Luffy, every Observation Haki user said they couldn't hear Luffy's voice anymore. Then Zunesha said that it heard the drums of liberation after 800 years, and he also confirmed that Joy Boy had returned. This is yet another instance that suggests that the zoan type devil fruits have their own will. Taking all the incidents into consideration, it is very likely that if Luffy continues to use Gear Fifth, it could lead to him losing himself and becoming Joy Boy/Nika. While this is an annoying condition, it is an extremely efficient way of keeping Luffy's power in check. Otherwise, he would be impossible to stop as his devil fruit is extremely overpowerful.