What we saw from Apoo in the latest chapter really, really shocked me.
The man straight up 1 shot Luffy and was able to get a slash off on zoro, which is no easy task. These feats however, are in contrast to his portrayal so far. He has by no means been portrayed as weak. However it is undeniably surprising for someone with a bounty as low as apoo's to be able to 1 shot, even momentarily, someone like luffy, who has mastery in both CoA and CoO.
So how does this make sense? Apoo obviously isn't kaido's level.
Well I think that Apoo is essentially the inverse of Capone bege. Whereas Capone has one of the strongest defenses of the supernova, being able to take hits from Big Mom that would otherwise 2 shot Queen, his offense clearly isn't the best(albeit guns shouldn't be underestimated!). Apoo, on the otherhand is likely something of a glass cannon with him specializing in offense but lacking in defense.
As far as offenses go, I think Apoo could be even above YC1 level. However the mechanics of these offenses combined with his lack of defense and weakness in close combat ultimately prevented him from being a tobi roppo.
As for the specifics of his abilities, I think they are profoundly haxxed. In my opinion, Apoo's attacks can neither be blocked nor dodged. This is because his attacks are transmitted through sound itself. If you reread the chapter, Apoo doesn't physically do anything to zoro or luffy. Zoro and Luffy simply take damage. What I'm saying is that Apoo didn't launch a slash to cut zoro, Zoro simply was slashed. He didn't need to launch a bomb or a projectile to explode Luffy, Luffy simply took an explosion.
These attacks cannot be blocked because there is nothing there to be blocked. They also cannot be dodged in the traditional sense as you cannot dodge sound waves. As long as you are in his range and apoo performs his attacks, you will take damage. This essentially means that things such as advanced haki are useless against apoo, allowing him to land hits on powerful haki users like zoro and Luffy.
there is a caveat to this, however. Apoo's attacks, imo, can't simply be launched. It seems as if Apoo is playing a particular song or that he has to go through a specific motion in order to launch certain attacks. This can be seen by the fact that in both cases where apoo used his abilities, he has used them in a very specific order.
Against kizaru, first he used a slash, then he used an explosion.
against the straw hats, first he used scratch, then a slash, then an explosion.
what is interesting to note is that slash did more damage than scratch and explosion did more damage than slash(knocking out luffy, whereas Zoro was able to stand after the slash). This seems to indicate that in addition to his attacks needing a charge up time for him to play the specific notes required to perform his fighting music, he can't use his high end moves right off the bat, his moves need to follow a specific order.
Ultimately what this means is that if you are in a 1v1 with apoo and blitz him before he can progress far into his fighting music, he is ultimately much less of a threat, and is probably comparable to someone like sanji in strength.
However if he fights in a tag team or is able to get off surprise hits, he could easily bring down YC1s and even do decent damage to top tiers who don't have logias. Its because of this I think its very likely that perhaps sometime after Eustass Kidd beats him, he could switch sides, making him a powerful weapon against kaido.
The man straight up 1 shot Luffy and was able to get a slash off on zoro, which is no easy task. These feats however, are in contrast to his portrayal so far. He has by no means been portrayed as weak. However it is undeniably surprising for someone with a bounty as low as apoo's to be able to 1 shot, even momentarily, someone like luffy, who has mastery in both CoA and CoO.
So how does this make sense? Apoo obviously isn't kaido's level.
Well I think that Apoo is essentially the inverse of Capone bege. Whereas Capone has one of the strongest defenses of the supernova, being able to take hits from Big Mom that would otherwise 2 shot Queen, his offense clearly isn't the best(albeit guns shouldn't be underestimated!). Apoo, on the otherhand is likely something of a glass cannon with him specializing in offense but lacking in defense.
As far as offenses go, I think Apoo could be even above YC1 level. However the mechanics of these offenses combined with his lack of defense and weakness in close combat ultimately prevented him from being a tobi roppo.
As for the specifics of his abilities, I think they are profoundly haxxed. In my opinion, Apoo's attacks can neither be blocked nor dodged. This is because his attacks are transmitted through sound itself. If you reread the chapter, Apoo doesn't physically do anything to zoro or luffy. Zoro and Luffy simply take damage. What I'm saying is that Apoo didn't launch a slash to cut zoro, Zoro simply was slashed. He didn't need to launch a bomb or a projectile to explode Luffy, Luffy simply took an explosion.
These attacks cannot be blocked because there is nothing there to be blocked. They also cannot be dodged in the traditional sense as you cannot dodge sound waves. As long as you are in his range and apoo performs his attacks, you will take damage. This essentially means that things such as advanced haki are useless against apoo, allowing him to land hits on powerful haki users like zoro and Luffy.
there is a caveat to this, however. Apoo's attacks, imo, can't simply be launched. It seems as if Apoo is playing a particular song or that he has to go through a specific motion in order to launch certain attacks. This can be seen by the fact that in both cases where apoo used his abilities, he has used them in a very specific order.
Against kizaru, first he used a slash, then he used an explosion.
against the straw hats, first he used scratch, then a slash, then an explosion.
what is interesting to note is that slash did more damage than scratch and explosion did more damage than slash(knocking out luffy, whereas Zoro was able to stand after the slash). This seems to indicate that in addition to his attacks needing a charge up time for him to play the specific notes required to perform his fighting music, he can't use his high end moves right off the bat, his moves need to follow a specific order.
Ultimately what this means is that if you are in a 1v1 with apoo and blitz him before he can progress far into his fighting music, he is ultimately much less of a threat, and is probably comparable to someone like sanji in strength.
However if he fights in a tag team or is able to get off surprise hits, he could easily bring down YC1s and even do decent damage to top tiers who don't have logias. Its because of this I think its very likely that perhaps sometime after Eustass Kidd beats him, he could switch sides, making him a powerful weapon against kaido.
