IMU IS THE ORIGINAL DEVIL FRUIT USER! One Piece Chapter 1179 Early Spoilers!

In the previous One Piece chapter, Loki and Luffy easily exorcise Imu from Gunko’s body but this is far from over, as the real Imu intends to depart and finish this business once and for all.

One Piece Chapter 1179 is titled, “The Incantation of Nerona Imu”

The Five Elders try to stop Imu from leaving the castle, suggesting they send an Admiral or go themselves instead.

But of course, someone have to proof their divinity for real.

While Gerd finds Sommers’ black heart and Zoro has an idea to destroy it…

In Aurust Castle, there is a massive burst of Conqueror’s Haki and out comes…

The true form of Imu.

Imu’s True Face

After 271 chapters and 8 years (the same length as Jujutsu Kaisen), we now have a good look of Imu’s true form.

Constantly hidden in shadow, Imu’s identity has always been an incredible mystery.

Now we have a good look and it is actually:

St. Nerona Imu

King of the World

One of the Twenty Founders of the World Government.

Special Power: THE Devil Fruit

Full Appearance

Imu is a man.

An angelic figure with dark skin, long white hair but with devil horns and a tail.

Basically, Lucifer.

Black clouds surround him.

Imu has long horns similar to Kaido and the Ancient Giants, but they curve twice, forming the letter “S.” He is not wearing any upper clothing, but he has a cape with a logo (only half of it is visible).

Imu’s devil-like tail seems to be the one seen piercing Sabo instead of Gunko’s arrow, meaning Imu’s true size might be bigger than the already gigantic pure Lunarian King, who is 20 feet tall, taller than the average human but shorter than the biggest human, Big Mom, who is at 28 feet.

He also has white circular tattoos all over his body, including an eye tattoo on his right hand.

He also has a tattoo on the left side of his face.

He possesses the same black hagoromo clouds seen in awakened Zoan users like Lucci and the Five Elders; however, instead of swirly cloud patterns, his clouds have eyes—similar to those of a biblically accurate Ophanim often depicted online.

He wields a polearm weapon: the butt end tip has black clouds, while the blade is zigzagged and curved at the tip.

Imu being a fallen angel, a Lunarian at that, ties to the opening scene of Episode 1148: “”, released on November 2, 2025, 5 months before the release of this chapter.

This scene shows Icarus falling down since this episode adapts Chapter 1114: “Wings of Icarus”

That is on top of the Harley mural in Chapter 1138 showing Imu, a gigantic winged figure, holding the Sun and facing off against Joy Boy in the Second World.

Perhaps the anime was already hinting about Imu’s true identity all along.

After all, Egghead is where we get the first mention of Imu’s real name and the anime then shows Icarus.

So that might have been the intent all along.

Imu’s Gender

Imu is actually a man.

A beautiful man.

In the anime, both Japanese and English voice actors were only credited as “unknown” and heavily filtered with multiple voices (two or three) speaking simultaneously but both show a particular bias towards the female voice being prominent.

Many have assumed that Imu was a woman due to possessing Gunko in Chapter 1149 but this became somewhat contested but mostly ignored by Chapter 1162 when they possessed Saturn.

Given the heteronormative approach to romance in One Piece, if Imu is romantically obsessed with Nefertari D. Lili, then Imu would have been male but the female identity remained a strong theory.

And it seems that we have gotten that confirmation now.

The Devil Devil Fruit

The original Devil Fruit, it seems that this is the true power of Imu.

The form and ability of a Devil but most of all, the means to produce other Devil Fruits.

As established in our Covenants discussion, there are four Covenants Imu imposes, all of which take away a portion of the user’s lifespan and as the last chapter hints, possibly their human hearts, in exchange for stronger, immortal bodies that regenerate.

The faint Shallows Covenant does nothing but tie the person to Imu’s telepathic network.

The regular Deep Sea Covenant gives the main package: immortal bodies, the ability to produce the Abyss teleportation pentagram, a link to the original user to the point that the user can possess the target and a warped god complex like the original user.

The Diabolical Covenant is an enforced contract that turns anyone struck by the power of the Devil Devil Fruit until Demons, the “shadow self” of the regular person.

And most relevant of all, the Abyssal Covenant of the Five Elders.

The bodies of those with the Abyssal Covenant are like those of a Devil Fruit user, specifically a Mythical Zoan.

The difference between the Devils under the Devil Devil Fruit and regular Devil Fruits is that Devils like the Five Elders do not have the curse of the sea.

Either this seems to be a specific protection because they have the essence of the Devil Devil Fruit user or because the Devil Devil Fruit is the origin of all Devil Fruits and can impose different conditions.

However, this Devil Fruit has a core tradeoff: Imu loses portions of their being like Horcruxes in Harry Potter.

With this weakness, this could mean that the Devil Devil Fruit is not the Creator of all Devil Fruits but merely the original prototype Devil Fruit with its own flaws but with the advantage of reproducing Devil Fruit effects.

A new power shown from this Devil Fruit is that, like Big Mom’s Soru Soru no Mi, it can make inanimate objects come alive but without an exchange of the soul from the user or any target.

Imu also seems to be emitting black clouds around instead of the flames of the Lunarian, which could be part of the hint that Imu might be a hybrid outside of already being in Hybrid Form.

Which is telling because the true Zoan appearance was shown to be much larger than even the Five Elders, who were gargantuan yokai in their own right.

Also, the clouds have eyes, like the biblically-accurate angels, especially the Ophanim.

Or like Yhwach from Bleach when he obtained the power of the Soul King.

It seems Imu has a deeper connection with Elbaph than initially suspected, as Imu has shown wariness about the Elbaph Giants, saying that “Elbaph is D”.

Imu Might Be a Lunarian-Ancient Giant Hybrid

While Imu has the key traits of a Lunarian (dark skin, white hair, tattoos all over the body, wings), there are other traits that do not add up.

Imu lacks the constant flames from the back, which give Lunarians their invulnerability.

While this could be due to Imu using the awakened Mythical Zoan power and having hagoromo clouds like the Five Elders, Lucci and Luffy, King, an Ancient Zoan user, also had flames on, although he was not an awakened Zoan at the time.

Even then, what if Imu did have some form of invulnerability or part of it as a Lunarian.

Perhaps this trait is what Imu shares with the Holy Knights and Five Elders via the Covenants.

The “sharing of Fire” is a motif of another Greek mythical figure of human technological progress, Prometheus.

Imu’s wings are also devilish and there is a devil’s tail that is not seen with any other species.

These could be features of the Devil Fruit and we will see

However, the horns are likely an Ancient Giant feature, so it is possible that Imu is like Kaido and Yamato, hybrids called Oni that are disgraced by their peers (humans and Lunarians).

Just like Loki himself, an ill-fated child.

A Lunarian Angel from the Land of the Gods with a devil-like appearance and a Giant with devilish eyes.

Both rejected, both vowing destruction over the world.

Road’s Land of the Gods could have been set up for more than just Loki but also Imu’s origins.

If this is true, then this furthers Imu’s implied hatred towards his own race, the Lunarians or even both of them, as well as an even more hidden self-loathing

A Fallen Angel, the Devil Himself

St. Nerona Imu, the secret King of the World, is one of the Original Twenty.

He is potentially of Lunarian descent and might have betrayed his people to gain complete control over the world.

Due to his Devil-like features, probably due to the Mythical Zoan Devil Devil Fruit, he has horns, possibly devil wings instead of King’s black wings and a tail.

Lastly, Imu has a trickle of blood from the left side of his mouth.

This must be from all the damage sustained fighting Luffy and Loki while possessing Gunko.

Break Next Week

Unfortunately, with such a monumental chapter, it was bound to lead to this.

There will be a BREAK Next Week.

One Piece Chapter 1180 will be released on April 20, 2026.

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