One Piece Suggests Its Most Famous Villain Theory Was Right All Along

After seven long years of lurking in the shadows, One Piece‘s biggest, most mysterious antagonist, Imu, has finally stepped into the limelight on Elbaph, and it seems all but certain that he’s going to be the series’ final villain. That said, even with the open display of Imu’s powers through Gunko in the present and through Saturn during the God Valley flashback, there are still many unanswered questions and mysteries floating around Imu.

The biggest of these mysteries is Imu’s appearance itself, which until now was assumed to be a silhouette that Oda was planning to reveal later down the line. However, One Piece’s latest chapter hints this may not be the case, finally clearing up a huge misconception about Imu’s appearance, and in turn teasing that an age-old fan theory about the mysterious final villain might be true after all.

One Piece Already Revealed Imu’s True Appearance

Chapter #1165 of One Piece sees Garp and Roger team up to finally take down Rocks, who is under the influence of Imu’s Domi Reversi spell. With the battle wrapped up and Rocks presumably defeated, the latest chapter then sees Roger ask Garp about Imu, who had descended onto God Valley by taking over Saturn’s body, much like he has with Gunko on Elbaph in the present.

Interestingly enough, Roger refers to Imu as an “enormous black monster,” implying that what fans have seen so far isn’t a silhouette, but Imu’s true appearance. This is the first time a character within the series has directly addressed Imu’s appearance, and it makes for quite an unexpected twist, as over the years, Eiichiro Oda has established a pattern of teasing antagonists through silhouettes before eventually giving them a big reveal.

Even the Five Elders were similarly teased during the Reverie before recently making their full debut on Egghead. As such, many naturally assumed that Imu would follow the same pattern and would eventually be revealed in the Final Saga. Over the years, fans have even come up with countless theories about Imu’s true appearance, with one new yet especially popular theory being that Imu may have possessed the body of Nefertari D. Lily.

All that said, while these various theories have now been thrown out the window, this new revelation about Imu in the latest chapter may have just revived one very popular fan theory about the mysterious ruler and the inspiration behind his character.

The Umibozu Theory About Imu May Be True After All

It’s been seven years since Imu first made his debut in chapter #908 of One Piece and one of the most prevalent theories over the years has been that Imu could be an umibozu, or at least inspired by one. This giant black sea monster from Japanese folklore is said to cause storms and drown sailors and visually bears a strong resemblance to Imu.

The theory speculated that Imu was simply “umi” backward, which just so happens to be the Japanese word for the sea. This inevitably led to speculation that Imu could be connected to the devil fruits, particularly their weakness to the sea and inability to swim, which would make sense given the stories about the umibozu drowning sailors.

Interestingly enough, there also exists an in-world misconception about devil fruits being incarnations of the sea devil in One Piece. Adding to this, the recently revealed Harley texts of Elbaph also mention a “forest god taming its devils” which almost immediately invokes imagery of Imu in the Room of Flowers in Mariejois.

Overall, given how the Five Elders have since been revealed to have yokai-inspired transformations, this theory is currently stronger than ever, especially since their powers are heavily implied to have been bestowed by Imu. Still, with the God Valley flashback coming to a close, it likely won’t be long till the Elbaph Arc returns to the present day, and hopefully that brings some answers about Imu.