one piece The Elbaph arc has proven to be quite unpredictable, with some of the most interesting developments unfolding over the past few chapters. With Saint Imu Nerona deciding to head to Warland himself, it was only a matter of time before some of the biggest mysteries surrounding this individual were finally revealed to fans. Now Oda has confirmed Imu's actual gender for the first time, and it turns out that the person is male.
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Why did Oda hide the gender of the world's monarch?
Founding 20's Saint Imu Nerona debuted in One Piece at Reverie Arc eight years ago. When the empty throne was first revealed, an individual sat directly upon it and declared himself king of the world. At this point, it becomes clear that Imu will be the final villain of the story. one piece.
Much to the surprise of readers, Oda hid Imu's true appearance and covered the entire character in silhouette, which was done intentionally. Oda's main reason for taking this approach was to hide Imu for the time being. At the time, One Piece hadn't even started the Wano Country arc, and it had to deal with bigger threats like Kaido and Big Mom. In order not to overshadow this threat and set the stage for the final story, Oda decided to hide Imu's appearance. With war against the World Government just around the corner, now is the perfect time for Oda to reveal the true form of Saint Imu Nerona, which is why he did so in the Elbaf Arc. As was clear in this chapter, Imu has now landed in Warland and revealed his true form for all to see.
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How Elbaph Arc Confirms Imu as a Man
The Elbaph arc in One Piece focuses a lot on the character of Saint Imu Nerona, ruler of the World Government and one of the founding twenties, and the most recent chapter takes this one step further by bringing the character to Elbaph to battle Nika and Nidhogg. As soon as Imu was introduced, it became clear that this was a man. Imu boasts white hair and tanned skin. In addition, Imu has black wings, a pointed tail, and awakened abilities.
The five elders, Mu, leave the sacred land for a while. — Saint Imu Nerona, One Piece Chapter 1178
Looking at the character design, it is clear that Imu is male. However, there was a lot of confusion because the design looked quite feminine. Now we can see that Imu is actually a masculine character, although he is simply a feminine man. This is further supported by the way the five elders refer to Imu in Japanese. The Celestial Dragon has its own honorific title. Heavenly Dragon Men call it “-sei” and women call it “-guu”. The Five Elders and Holy Knights clearly refer to Imu as “Imu-sei”, leaving no doubt as to the character's gender. Imoo is a manAnd this has now been officially confirmed in the story.
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Analysis of the relationship between Imu and the world's major races
The fact that Imu is male is a huge reveal in itself, but there's more to the character design than that. Imu is also likely to be connected to a major race. one piece The world in some way. First of all, Imu has tanned skin and white hair. This is one of the main defining characteristics of the Moon race and suggests that Imu may be connected to them in some way.
At the same time, Imu also sports horns that indicate its ancient giant lineage. It is unclear whether Imu's horns come from a Devil Fruit transformation or are natural. If they are all natural, the Imu may have connections to an ancient race of giants, or may have past connections to the land of Elbaph, which they are currently trying to take over. It would also be quite poetic for Imu to return to this country. Because in this case, it will eventually become their home. Imu's appearance in Elbaph certainly improves the story tremendously and makes it more interesting than before. More information will be revealed about this character in the coming weeks, and fans absolutely cannot wait.
One Piece Chapter 1179 can be read on Manga Plus from April 5, 2026.
one piece
- release date
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October 20, 1999
- network
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Fuji TV
- move
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Hiroaki Miyamoto, Konosuke Uda, Junji Shimizu, Satoshi Ito, Munehisa Sakai, Katsumi Tokoro, Yutaka Nakajima, Yoshihiro Ueda, Kenichi Takeshita, Yoko Ikeda, Ryota Nakamura, Hiroyuki Kakudo, Takahiro Imamura, Toshihiro Maeya, Yuji Endo, Nozomu Shishido, Hidehiko Kadota, Sumio Watanabe, Harume Kosaka, Yasuhiro Tanabe, Yukihiko Nakao, Keisuke Onishi, Junichi Fujise, Hiroyuki Sato
- author
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Jin Tanaka, Akiko Inoue, Junki Takegami, Shinzo Fujita, Shoji Yonemura, Yoshiyuki Suga, Atsuhiro Tomioka, Hirohiko Uesaka, Michiru Shimada, Isao Murayama, Takuya Masumoto, Yoichi Takahashi, Momoka Toyoda.
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Mayumi Tanaka
Monkey D. Luffy (voice)
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Kazuya Nakai
Roronoa Zoro (voice)
