One Piece Finally Does An Imu Face Reveal In The Elbaph Arc

The Elbaph arc of One Piece has thrown a lot of focus on the character of Saint Imu Nerona, one of the Founding 20 Kings and the sovereign of the world. With last week’s declaration of Imu wanting to visit the Warland, Oda finally delivered and unleashed the real face of this individual. For years, Oda hid Imu’s face behind a silhouette, but the Elbaf arc has torn this mask off his face and revealed the true form of the final antagonist of the entire series.

Assessing The Reason Behind The Sovereign’s Elbaph Arrival

One Piece Chapter 1178 saw Imu make a massive declaration towards the end. After fighting Nika and Nidhogg through the body of Gunko, Imu realized that the threat he faced was grave enough for him to do something about it personally. As such, towards the end of the chapter, Imu declared to the Five Elders that he would be heading off to the warland himself.

For the very first time in a generation, Imu decided to leave the Holy Land of Marijoa and set foot down on the world below, because the predicament required him to do so. Had Imu not stepped foot on Elbaf himself, the Straw Hat Pirates as well as the Giants would have won over him rather effortlessly. Now Imu’s arrival tips the scales in the World Government’s favor once again and sets the stage for a grand finale that bears terrible consequences for the protagonists of the series.

Eiichiro Oda Finally Unveils Imu’s True Face In Chapter 1179

Given that Imu was poised to make an appearance in Elbaf, Oda delivered tremendously and completely revealed their face to the fans for the very first time in eight years. For almost a decade, Oda was teasing the mystery surrounding Imu’s face. Every time this individual appeared in the story, they were covered in a silhouette, but One Piece chapter 1179 did tremendously well to rip this mask off the character and show their true face.

Imu holds a particularly unique face when it comes to the men of the One Piece world. For one reason or another, Imu’s face doesn’t look like the typical character from One Piece. The facial features are somewhat feminine, and Imu certainly looks very unique. Imu sports white hair, which runs down one side of his face, and possesses tanned skin, which is quite similar to the Lunarian race of the One Piece world.

More than that, Oda also gave the fans a proper look at the true form of Imu, as he was revealed to sport giant black wings during his transformation, as well as a pointy tail. Even Imu’s Devil Fruit ability was unleashed by the author of the series, which signals that this is the beginning of the end, not just for the Elbaf arc but for the entirety of One Piece as well.

Related

One Piece Delivers New Production Update For The Wit Anime Remake

One Piece’s new anime by WIT studio receives a new update from George Wada, the CEO of Wit Studio.

Breaking Down Imu’s Connection To Major One Piece Races

With Imu making a proper debut in the Elbaph arc, the connections that he bears to some of the biggest races of the world are quite clear for all to see. Imu having tanned skin and white hair in itself, draws a very deep connection to the Lunarian race of the One Piece world. Not many in the world of One Piece are known to have tanned skin. In fact, having tan skin and ash-white hair is a key indicator of someone having Lunarian blood, and it seems that Imu has this connection. This would be fitting because the Lunarians were once known as the Gods of the World, and Imu considers himself to be the one true god of the entire world.

It is possible that Imu fought against his own people long ago and then stood as one of the Founding 20, eventually taking over the entire world. More than that, Imu also sports giant horns, which could be traced back to the bloodline of Ancient Giants. Whether these horns stem from a Devil Fruit transformation or if they are natural remains to be seen, but if they truly are natural, then Imu might even hold an Ancient Giant bloodline, which would significantly boost his power even further.

Gauging The Implications Of The World Ruler Bleeding Upon Landfall

A key thing to note is that Imu started bleeding immediately upon arriving in Elbaf. This means that Imu’s body is weakened in one way or another, and this could be tied back directly to the previous battle with Joy Boy that wrapped up around 800 years ago. In the end, Joy Boy died, but it appears that Imu bears severe consequences for taking part in this war against Joy Boy.

For some reason, Imu’s body is severely weakened, and it likely cannot put out full power for long. This means that Imu’s stint in the Holy Land of Elbaph will be short-lived, and he will use all his powers at their disposal to end the threat of Nika and Nidhogg for good immediately.

One Piece chapter 1180 will be available to read on Manga Plus on April 19, 2026.

One Piece

Release Date

October 20, 1999

Network

Fuji TV

Directors

Hiroaki Miyamoto, Konosuke Uda, Junji Shimizu, Satoshi Itō, Munehisa Sakai, Katsumi Tokoro, Yutaka Nakajima, Yoshihiro Ueda, Kenichi Takeshita, Yoko Ikeda, Ryota Nakamura, Hiroyuki Kakudou, Takahiro Imamura, Toshihiro Maeya, Yûji Endô, Nozomu Shishido, Hidehiko Kadota, Sumio Watanabe, Harume Kosaka, Yasuhiro Tanabe, Yukihiko Nakao, Keisuke Onishi, Junichi Fujise, Hiroyuki Satou

Writers

Jin Tanaka, Akiko Inoue, Junki Takegami, Shinzo Fujita, Shouji Yonemura, Yoshiyuki Suga, Atsuhiro Tomioka, Hirohiko Uesaka, Michiru Shimada, Isao Murayama, Takuya Masumoto, Yoichi Takahashi, Momoka Toyoda

• 

  Mayumi Tanaka

  Monkey D. Luffy (voice)

• 

  Kazuya Nakai

  Roronoa Zoro (voice)