Apoo is a weird case in that he’s at once highly enjoyable to watch, yet he might also be the most herky-jerk messily handled of all the supernovas in Wano? Like, his personality is great, his design is great, his ability is great, it’s just fun to watch Apoo exist, but it also feels like Oda was constantly changing his mind on what Apoo should be doing.
Apoos biggest pre-existing character connection is to Kid, and indeed even though he arrives to the arc late we pretty much launch directly into a confrontation between the two after a fun showcase of Apoos powers. I don’t think the idea of “Apoo the backstabbing informant” gels perfectly with what we were shown during Kaidous introduction, but “Guy who joined Kaidou vs guy who wouldn’t break” is a fine enough basis for an encounter…But then they immediately disengage. The beef between them ceases to be a point of focus, and is not commented on when Apoo shows back up after the end of the raid. From this point on, his musical abilities also sort of fade away?
Apoo then becomes the centerpiece for the just established Ice virus plotline! Its a bit sudden, but the hunt for the antidote could lead to a fun chase and it’s a potentially fun spin on his just-established interplay with Queen…but then the antidote is recovered straight away.
Then its Zoro but mainly Drake vs Apoo, whom he has never interacted with before but announces to have "always hated" – and then Zoro but not Drake cuts Apoo down in a decisive manner, all cool like.
Wait no Apoo later lurches to his feet in order for Drake to transform and casually chomp him down in a big spread because he needed something to do as part of the "ancient Zoan" gang in the "ancient zoan spotlight" chapter. I guess this pays off their supposed beef? And concludes the stop-and-go handled antidote subplot? Is Apoo down now?
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Drake and Apoo are now forming an alliance! No wait, they aren’t, wait, they’re teaming up after all to fight CP0 because Apoo has completely bailed on the whole battle offscreen and wants to sell CP0 pictures to Morgans, but then they disengage and Apoo just hangs around until after the battle where he’s offscreen become on good terms with the alliance, despite only Drake- who was just left to rot in the castle- witnessing his "turn" if you can even call it that.
Also, Apoo is the commander of the Numbers because I guess they needed to tie into something, and it’s a neat idea, but it doesn’t feel like it amounts to much (because the numbers amount to so very little).
And the thing is, I like all of these ideas, they’re entertaining ideas, and if just half of them had been allowed to build properly I think we could’ve gotten some truly spectacular sequences out of it. Like a committed arc-long interplay with Drake, or a more elaborate Antidote chase involving the numbers as a deadly literally jazzed-up dance troupe or something. Or it the story could’ve leaned into Apoos later flightiness and make it more of an overt quirk, with the story explicitly highlighting his worminess. As is, while Apoos snippets are entertaining, they’re very messy and disjointed snippets.
And like pretty much all of the Supernova, Apoo is largely detached from the Wano-centric characters. He’s an “external” character who almost only bounces off other “external” characters. You could plonk him and Drake into onother scenario with very little trouble.
Also… it’d have been cool to see an extended battle for the Ice Virus Antidote in a burning castle between a musical goofball with a gang of dancing giants vs Straw Hat musical goofball who has unique immunity to the Ice Virus. It could be a battle of who can make the giants dance the most!
Sigh.