In ‘One Piece’ Chapter 1187, titled “The Root of the Problem,” the Final Saga battle on Elbaph reaches a new peak. World Government ruler Imu impales Prince Loki with a black flame attack called “Stigma,” and Monkey D. Luffy answers by shifting into his all-white Gear 5 form to face Imu directly.
As Luffy squares up, Imu looks at him and says something that sets the fandom off: “So you’ve finally appeared, Joy Boy.” Luffy fires back immediately: “Stop calling me by another name!! My name is Luffy! I’m the man who will become the Pirate King!!” That short exchange carries more weight than its size suggests, and it answers a question fans have been asking since Luffy’s Devil Fruit reveal.
Imu Sees A Ghost, Not A Person
Across the Elbaph arc, Oda has shown that Imu views the present entirely through the Void Century. Imu doesn’t call things by their current names. He reaches for ancient ones instead, the same way he referred to Loki’s dragon form as “Nidhogg” rather than anything from this era.
That habit explains the Joy Boy line. Imu isn’t looking at Monkey D. Luffy, a 19-year-old pirate standing in front of him. He’s looking at the ghost of an 800-year-old rival and mapping it onto Luffy’s face. It’s a window into Imu’s biggest weakness: he’s an immortal ruler stuck in the past, and he can’t process a new generation with its own will and its own reasons for fighting.
Additionally, Imu’s fixation on Joy Boy doesn’t read as pure hatred alone. There’s an obsessive quality to it, almost devotional, as if Imu has spent centuries waiting for this name to mean something again. Whether that’s fear, reverence, or both is still an open question, but the intensity of the line points to something more complicated than a villain recognizing an old enemy.
Luffy Answers The “Chosen One” Question
Since fans learned the Gomu Gomu no Mi was actually the Hito Hito no Mi, Model: Nika, a chunk of the fandom worried about where the story was headed. The fear was that Luffy might be a literal reincarnation of Joy Boy, or that the Fruit’s will could end up overriding Luffy’s own personality and choices.
Chapter 1187 answers that directly. Imu calls him Joy Boy, and Luffy rejects it on the spot. Oda uses that single moment to settle the debate: Luffy is his own person. No ancient spirit is riding along inside him. He ate a Devil Fruit that happens to carry the same desire for freedom Joy Boy once had, and that’s where the connection ends.
That rejection also lands as the clearest statement yet of what One Piece has been building toward since the beginning. Imu stands for control, rigid prophecy, and a world still bound to an 800-year-old war. He expects Luffy to slide into the role history already wrote for him.
However, Luffy wants none of it. He isn’t fighting to settle some ancient grudge on a ghost’s behalf. He’s fighting because Imu is in the way of his friends and his dream, and that’s reason enough. He’s just Luffy, the man who’s going to become the Pirate King, on his own terms.