Warning: Contains spoilers for One Piece chapter #1150.One of the biggest mysteries in One Piece is undoubtedly its main villain, Imu. The fact that One Piece even has a central antagonist was a big reveal on its own, but even after almost a decade, barely anything has been revealed about them, making them a figure as enigmatic as they are imposing.

Few characters in One Piece are as mysterious as Imu, and that’s especially true of their powers. With how varied their abilities are and how they seem oddly magical, it’s been hard to figure out what Imu’s powers are, or even if they’re human. That’s all changed with the most recent chapters, however, as ’s most recent chapters suggest a truly wild explanation for Imu’s powers. Nothing has been explicitly stated, of course, but if this theory were to be true, it would be the perfect way for One Piece to handle Imu’s character.

One Piece's True Villain Might Have Weirder Powers Than Fans Think

The Wildest Theory About Imu's Powers Explained

Ever since One Piece started presenting a few inklings of Imu’s powers, fans have heavily debated what Imu’s power is, with the most popular theories being that umibozu or that Imu is a literal devil, whether by way of a Devil Fruit or from somehow literally being said creature. Those theories and others have plenty of merit to them, but after One Piece’s most recent chapters, one theory for Imu’s powers seems the most likely: Imu’s true powers are toon force in the same vein as Luffy’s Gear 5.

In chapter #1150, Imu repeatedly makes things like guns and books appear out of nowhere, and that, of course, is one of the oldest jokes in cartoons, and it’s even something Luffy has done in Gear 5 when he randomly pulled out things like goggles, a paintbrush, and a baseball helmet. Imu’s actions are framed as being magical, just like everything else associated with their character, but that could easily be an aesthetic choice on Imu’s part, so in the end, Imu’s ability to summon things from thin air gives credence to the idea of them having toon force.

Imu having toon force can even explain how they’re able to turn the giants into their demonic minions. The idea of Imu having toon force could mean that their black form is less a silhouette and more them being made of some sort of inky mass, and with the giants turning black before solidifying their transformations, Imu’s Domi Reversi technique could be an abstract representation of something being dyed black with ink, much like when someone puts a pen to paper. All of this is hypothetical, of course, but that doesn’t make it any less plausible a theory.

Why Imu Having Cartoon Powers Would Make Them Luffy's Perfect Foil In One Piece

Luffy And Imu's Rivalry Can Be So Much Better

While One Piece has yet to fully explore it, Luffy’s Gear 5 abilities appear to be a form of genuine toon force, with Luffy constantly interacting with people and objects in ways that don’t make logical sense and him repeatedly invoking the classic gag of a cartoon character’s eyes popping out of their head in shock. At this point, it’s impossible to write off as a simple visual gag, so with that in mind, Luffy and Imu both drawing their powers from toon force would make them perfect foils for one another.

The way Luffy and Imu could contrast one another goes further than them just having the same powers, of course. As previously mentioned, Imu’s toon force can be seen as them being the ink that dyes a piece of paper black and forces it to be a specific way, and by comparison, Gear 5’s white coloring could represent the freedom afforded to an artist by a blank page, which reflects Luffy’s desire for freedom, so Imu having toon force, combined with the way they use it, could work to further contrast their need for control with Luffy’s need for freedom.

Imu also invokes the appearance of a cartoon devil while possessing Gunko, which is something the kind of old-school cartoon heroes Gesr 5 references would have to fight.

Naturally, that contrast goes back further than Luffy’s unintentional antagonism of Imu. Joyboy was the last person to awaken the Gum-Gum Fruit and use its cartoonish powers to oppose Imu, and while he was defeated, he left an undeniable legacy that still has people following his ideals, and sensing his Haki was even enough to make Imu fall to their knees in disgust. Luffy’s inevitable battle with Imu will work to complete a battle that’s been going on for hundreds of years, and if Imu has similar powers to Luffy and Joyboy, the payoff to that would be even greater.

One Piece's Final Villain Needs To Be As Weird As Possible

One Piece Has A Chance To Make Imu The Perfect Villain

Imu weaponizing toon force would make them One Piece’s weirdest villain, by far, but the story would be all the better for it. One Piece has always been a story about rejecting arbitrary conformity and the importance of freedom, so Imu using a power that allows for unbridled freedom to restrain everyone’s actions would be nothing but ironic. If anything, though, Imu’s misuse of toon force to restrain people instead of granting them freedom can emphasize the importance of freedom in One Piece, so it would make perfect sense for the story to go down that route.

Another point is how that idea would play into One Piece’s overall aesthetic. As serious as One Piece’s story can be, One Piece always tries to be as goofy as possible with its characters and overall writing, and the way that contrasts with the more serious themes is a big part of why the writing is so great. As such, One Piece giving its main villain such an inherently goofy power would be the perfect representation of how the series balances its silly and serious tones, and that would be the perfect way to cap off the final saga.

The perfect representation of how the series balances its silly and serious tones.

That idea, of course, ties into the entire philosophy behind Gear 5. In a recent interview with Eiichiro Oda, he said that Gear 5 was created so that there would always be some levity in One Piece, all of which comes from Gear 5’s cartoony nature, so Imu having the same toon force as Gear 5 could work to add even more levity to One Piece as the story gets increasingly serious in its final saga. There’s no telling what that would look like, but with how great Gear 5 has been, there’s plenty of reason to be excited.

At the time of writing, Imu having toon force, much like any theory surrounding them, is no more than speculation, but with the strong evidence in of it, combined with how much sense it would make from a narrative perspective, Imu having toon force is one of the strongest theories for how their powers work in One Piece, especially when it comes to playing into One Piece’s themes. If One Piece were to capitalize on that idea, it could go a long way toward solidifying it as a legendary manga, and hopefully, the series will do just that.