One Piece Log - Fish-Man Island Saga: Caribou's Devil Fruit, explained

The second episode of One Piece Log – Fish-Man Island Saga aired on November 10, 2024. Titled Set Sail! The Dawn of Adventure to the New World, this episode marks the debut of Caribou’s character in the anime remake of One Piece’s first post-timeskip arc. Violent and wicked, Caribou is a pirate captain who idolizes Marshall D. Teach and enjoys killing people.

Caribou's many homicides have caused the World Government to place a relatively high bounty on his head, which granted him the reputation of being a “super rookie”. In terms of fighting skills, however, he is rather weak compared to most of the Eleven Supernovas of the Worst Generation.

That said, Caribou is a Logia user, as he can use the powers of the Swamp-Swamp Fruit to create mud and turn himself into the same element at will. Read on to learn everything about this insidious Logia-type Devil Fruit.

Everything One Piece fans need to know about the Swamp-Swamp Fruit

This Devil Fruit makes Caribou a living quicksand

Caribou with his brother Coribou and their crewmates (Image via Toei Animation)

Known as Numa Numa no Mi in the original Japanese version, the Swamp-Swamp Fruit allows Caribou to create and control mud, effectively making him a “Swamp Human” who can trap his enemies into bottomless swamps. As a Logia-type Devil Fruit, it also gives Caribou elemental intangibility, as he can turn his own body into mud in order, allowing attacks to pass through him harmlessly unless they are imbued with Haki.

Once transformed into mud, Caribou can absorb and assimilate any target he captures with his slime into his body, making them drown into sludge. This ability is vaguely reminiscent of Jiraiya’s Earth Release: Swamp of the Underworld technique from Masashi Kishimoto’s iconic Naruto series.

Caribou can also create a sphere of swamp around the head of his enemies to brutally choke them with the slime. When he captures a target into his swamp, the more they try to resist the being sucked in, the faster they will sink, much like quicksand. Interestingly, he can store a seemingly infinite amount of things and even people inside his muddy body.

Caribou explaining his Devil Fruit powers (Image via Shueisha)

Caribou can keep the trapped people alive, or suffocate them with mud until they lose consciousness. He often uses this ability to steal and store weapons, which he releases unexpectedly to perform surprise attacks on his enemies. He has been seen using a polearm, a scythe, and even a large Gatling gun.

Admittedly, Caribou’s offensive techniques are only effective against relatively weak fighters. His Devil Fruit powers are much more useful for stealth and supporting purposes. By turning his entire body into mud, he can infiltrate otherwise inaccessible places, sneaking in undetected unless someone is actively using Observation Haki to oversee the surroundings.

He can also eavesdrop on conversations, and use his ability to store people and objects inside his body to transport allies. While these powers would be great for espionage and covert activities, Caribou mostly uses them for his evil ends. He once tried to kidnap the Fish-Man Island mermaids and even steal the aforementioned country’s national treasure, but his plans were ultimately thwarted.

As of now, Caribou is One Piece’s weakest Logia user

Caribou as seen in One Piece Log — Fish-Man Island Saga (Image via Toei Animation)

Caribou has gained a reputation as a fearsome individual by killing innocent civilians and ordinary Navy privates. He lacks the combat skill to threaten any powerful individual, as evidenced by his two humiliating defeats against Pekoms and X Drake—characters whose overall strength, while remarkable, is light-years away from that of the franchise’s best fighters.

Overestimating his Logia intangibility, which had never really been tested due to the insignificance of his opponents, Caribou once thought himself to be invincible. Needless to say, he was wrong, and he learned the lesson the hard way when Pekoms – a relatively average Haki user – brutally beat him during the Fish-Man Island Saga.

Funnily enough, Caribou seems to have realized his limitations, as he dropped his tail after losing to Pekoms. Since then, he has tried to be deferential and falsely kind with anyone he understands to be stronger than him. This, of course, emphasizes him as a gutless coward who acts tough with the weak, only to become submissive with the strong.

Caribou is strong with the weak and submissive with the strong (Image via Toei Animation)

Until now, Caribou has spent his time preying on the weak and helpless, using the elemental intangibility of his Logia Devil Fruit to easily overpower them. He has never trained his other skills or developed Haki, which is why he is powerless against more adept fighters. With this in mind, Caribou can easily considered to be the weakest Logia user in One Piece.

This is because, in addition to Caribou’s own lack of combat prowess, the Swamp-Swamp Fruit lacks the overwhelming power of the other Logia. Furthermore, it has some glaring weaknesses. Its Logia intangibility can be bypassed not only with Haki, but also with simple water.

Caribou was captured by Franky (Image via Shueisha)

But unlike Crocodile’s Sand-Sand Fruit, Caribou can’t use the Swamp-Swamp Fruit to neutralize this vulnerability by absorbing the water, as his mud is made of earth mixed with water to begin with. Also, when using his Logia form, Caribou can’t transform back to his human form if he gets confined inside a space where his normal body can’t fit in. For this reason, he gets captured by Franky in a very embarassing manner.

While not as flashy and intimidating as the other Logia, the Swamp-Swamp Fruit could still be a dangerous asset if used by a skilled fighter, who could maximize its versatile and tricky features. The issue is that Caribou is not that person, and he probably never will be.