Is Joy Boy a MONKEY CLAN MEMBER?! One Piece Chapter 1198 Full Spoilers!

In the previous One Piece chapter, Sanji awakens his Conqueror’s Haki at long last.

One Piece Chapter 1198 is titled, “The Island Where Monsters Live”

Cover Page Request: Brûlée gives Pudding eyeglasses with three lenses as a present!

Their youngest sibling, Charlotte Anana, is below, trying to reach for Pudding’s glasses.

Charlotte Flampe is seen pouting in the back.

Editor’s Note: “Omen Panzer, destroyed!!”

The chapter begins where we left off as Killingham’s Omen Panzer (Omen Armor) is completely shattered, sending him crashing into the giant houses.

Sanji lands. We can see black, flame-shaped patterns on his right leg accompanied by the black lightning of Conqueror’s Haki.

Killingham lies on the rubble, his face completely bloodied.

He tries to get up but sees Sanji’s leg, which is already preparing another devastating kick and all Killingham could do is tear up.

Sanji then asks if the heart is his weakness, leading to Killingham screaming and frantically waving his hand in front of him.

Killingham is sent flying again by Sanji’s kick.

All of a sudden, Sanji hears the giants attempting to rescue the remaining kidnapped children.

We can see MMA Zaza’s torso stretching as she is crawling towards the waiting transport ship.

The giants continue resisting and they see the MMA Zaza stretch back to the ship,

The giants are being careful not to let MMA Zaza release the children at this moment, as the harbor is nearby.

If the children fall into the sea clouds surrounding the harbor, they will drop straight down into the Underworld of Elbaph.

Zaza arrives at the transport ship and severs the arm holding the kidnapped children, dropping them to the ship’s deck.

The giant children struggle to get out of Zaza’s water arm, but it’s no use.

The children worry about leaving Elbaph for the first time.

Killingham is on the roof of one of the giant houses and looks at the sval ship and notices it is still not sailing.

Killingham is impatiently waiting for Sommers to set sail.

Sanji lands on the nearby roof, where he says that his colleague is headed to the ship while Sommers has no chance of making it out alive, much to Killingham’s worry.

Of note, Zoro and Sommers do not appear in this chapter, only that Zoro has been chasing after Sommers.

Suddenly, a streak of Conqueror’s Haki lightning flashes above them, with Killingham noting this is coming from Imu himself, who is currently fighting Hybrid Loki.

Imu’s Sinister New Form

But Luffy is nowhere to be found, with everyone shocked that he ran away and Loki calling him a coward for it.

And here we also see Imu assume his latest form on Elbaph and its actually quite terrifying.

He is bigger than Hybrid Loki, who is three times bigger than all the normal Giants on Elbaph

Imu’s new form looks kind of like a Hollow from Bleach but he feels more like a Shinigami with the white robes over the black, which really tempts me to ask if Oda has maybe taken some inspiration from Bleach

But it is not far off from Imu’s core design of being a fallen angel, an angel of death, especially with the way he is holding his lightsaber.

He also has flaming hair, similar to Big Mom when Promotheus fuses with her, which could tie back to Imu’s relationship with Nika.

Because Luffy in Gear 5 form takes on a flame shape.

Flaming hair is the motif of Agni, the Hindu fire god, and also the way Imu holds the sun, is similar to the Harley mural, which is obviously him as the Devil stealing the Sun.

Prometheus also stole fire from the Gods, so it seems like this form could also be mimicking Nika.

Although we also see that Imu also has human hair flowing over the flaming hair.

This sun motif goes really hard once we tie this back to Luffy this chapter.

Finally, Imu’s face resembles the face on Enel’s Ark Maxim, although it is missing the figurehead’s flower on its forehead, which kinda looks like the fleur-de-lis, the symbol of France

But even more surprising is the cover spread of Chapter 449, where we see Nami, Luffy and Zoro riding on a dragon and behind Luffy is that same figurehead but this time, we see it has the body of an angel. The same face with the angel’s body. That looks exactly like Imu.

And I dunno about you guys but Oda must be magic because the numbers are too much of a coincidence.

Chapter 1189, he sets up Luffy’s Monkey King form via the Three Wise Monkeys cover page and now it is Chapter 1198.

Not to mention this chapter’s title is “Island Where Monsters Dwell” while in Chapter 449 is titled, “The Four Monsters of Thriller Bark”. Plus if you add 4 and 4 together, that’s 8. 8 and 9.

Almost like all these chapters are tied together.

This Idol also seems to be a prominent figurehead to put on ships 

Which could be a hint towards the Devil’s Fruit actually being the Sea God’s fruit.

After all, Imu has Fragarch, the Sea God’s sword, which weakens Devil Fruits and Marines use ships with Sea Prism Stone to make themselves invisible to the Sea Kings underwater.

All of these are countermeasures to the monsters of the world, whether they are sea monsters or Devil Fruit users.

But Imu also has ties to the Vearth Statues all over Skypiea.

Vearth means dirt or soil from the surface of the Blue Planet but it also refers to the statues scattering around Skypiea made of that soil.

Those Vearth idols came from Jaya, back when the Shandians inhabit the Blue Sea and worshipped four gods.

It’s not specified what this idol is but it has many of Imu’s distinct skin marks, including the lines and dots on its skin.

Those skin marks could also be inspired by Bori Ritual Body Art and Imu’s new face has ties in to another African inspiration, the Idimu Mask, a white mask which features a similar closed eye expression Imu has but also a small beard under his chin. The white color represents death and closeness to the ancestors.

In short, Imu’s current form represents inevitable death and that’s what he brings before Hybrid form Loki, which took 28 chapters to be revealed, literally since the first chapter of One Piece this year was for Loki to show off his Hybrid form.

Which has Loki’s back scales and wings, as well as his dragon tail and legs, basically like Kaido with wings.

But it is clear Loki is beat up, his Hybrid form not being enough against Imu’s previous form and now this one.

Imu constantly changing forms also reminds me of Frieza, where he uses those forms to suppress and control the overwhelming energy of his true, smaller form but here, he gets bigger and creepier, closing in to the giant lizard form that Sabo fought on the Empty Throne Room.

But this chapter does reinforce the idea of how Zoans have their own wills, tying back to the Jail Beasts in Impel Down who awakened their Zoan Devil Fruit but succumbed to the animalistic instincts of those fruits.

What if Imu changing forms is a sign that his Zoan, the Devil itself, could be fully consuming his body?

Anyway, Imu commands Loki to bring him to Elbaph’s lost technology, which could be referring to the laboratory on Elbaph that is over 3000 years old, dating back to the First World itself.

In the Harley Mural, we saw people gathering energy for what seems to be an Ark and they were marching from modern skyscrapers.

The atmosphere of Elbaph is naturally rich with energy, so that’s probably why the lab was built 3000 years ago, with the same technology Lilith created in the present day to suck up that energy, the Omni-Drain Converter (ODC).

So perhaps Imu is trying to recover the lost modern technology of the world before the current one in his preparations against the Revolutionary Army and other foes that have come down to burn down Mary Geoise.

Even though they have York, she has been complaining due to the situation on Mary Geoise and right now, Imu wants a quick fix so he can blow up everyone with the Ancient Weapon Uranus.

The entire world is cooking everything Imu has built and he is clearly desperate and out of time.

In spite of his injuries, Loki refuses to back down but Imu one-shots Loki with his lightsaber, which looks like a new Creator weapon.

And yes it is a lightsaber as we see Imu switch it off after cutting down Loki.

Yet that one move tires out Imu.

He did not expect to go this far or possibly even reach this form just to take over Elbaph.

With Imu at his limit, it is now or never before he could actually die.

And if he dies, all the fraud Knights die with him as their Covenants link them to Imu’s essence and without their immortality, they are cooked.

But what if Imu is also afraid of losing control of his own Zoan.

The more he transforms, the closer he is to the true form of the Devil’s Fruit, the actual Devil of One Piece and that’s why Imu looks like he is losing control over his body changing shape a lot.

Maybe this Devil could come out and Imu’s mind dies and that would be the end of it, although it is more likely that Imu is losing his life by the minute and he’s not really at full power.

He could easily assume his true Devil form in the Empty Throne Room without looking tired anyway.

Either scenario is still terrifying for our guys as Imu is still not really losing to them, only to his time limit.

Suddenly Imu senses Nika.

He does not say Joyboy. He says Nika.

This is not his old buddy from 800 years ago in the Second World but the actual Sun God himself.

Usopp is frustrated that Luffy ran away but Gaban understands that this is a critical moment for a Zoan.

Meanwhile Jinbe and Nami are headed to the Western Village where Luffy is heading and that’s also the direction where Zaza is kidnapping the giant children.

Monkey Form

And that’s where we finally get to see Luffy’s new MONKEY KING FORM, scratching his butt like a monkey would.

This isn’t a straightforward monkey form though as he also has the nose and mouth of a tiger

His body is covered in black fur all over him, with white patterns similar to his Gear 4 look or the swirls of the Gum Gum Fruit.

He comes out and blows air into the left arm of the fake Zaza, causing the fake Rain Goddess to explode into a puddle.

This might have been foreshadowed in a recent chapter cover as in Chapter 1189: “King of the World”, we see Zoro, Sanji and Luffy in monkey forms, following the three wise monkeys that embody “Hear No Evil, See No Evil, Speak No Evil”.

Look at the number, as it is reversed and it becomes 1198, with the title reflecting the story of Momotaro, with Imu as the Oni and Luffy as the Monkey.

Note that the Tale of Momotaro also inspired the Three Admirals (Monkey, Pheasant, Dog).

Elbaph might have also set up Luffy’s transformation in multiple steps.

The first form of Gear 5 is the God of Laughter.

The Monkey King might be the God of Destruction.

The final transformation could be the God of Liberation.

But the biggest thing is that this could also confirm that Joyboy might be from the Monkey Clan.

It would make sense if Nika’s full powers were awakened specifically by a Monkey Clan member, who could be descended from monkeys or just have the name due to that strong connection to Joy Boy specifically.

Gear 6th is coming!

Editor’s Note: “In an instant…!!! What on earth is this…?!”

Author’s comment: “I’ve decided to be happy!! I’ve decided to eat a big bowl of rice whenever I have barbecue!“

Break Next Week?

Unfortunately, there will be a BREAK NEXT WEEK.

One Piece Chapter 1199 will be released on November 23, 2026.

Which could potentially mean that the 1200th chapter of One Piece will be out on the first Weekly Shonen Jump issue of 2027 on December 7th.

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