Eiichiro Oda loves to tease his fans, and amongst everything in One Piece, he’s chosen to keep Imu’s gender under wraps. The Supreme Ruler of the World Government is hidden from the eyes of the public. So to keep the illusion up, he has made them equally mysterious for the fans.
We know about Imu’s existence and what they’ve done to the One Piece world behind the scenes. However, their origins, who they are, and the true nature of their powers are still unknown to us.
The anime took it another step and hid the voice actor from us, deliberately choosing androgynous-sounding voices and crediting them as “???”. Recently, the English dubbing of Imu’s voice has two layers, leaning towards masculine with a hint of femininity, once again hiding their gender.
Imu’s gender won’t be revealed any time soon and Eiichiro Oda wants to keep it that way
The tyrant doesn’t want the One Piece world to find out about their existence. They’ve destroyed islands for fun and tormented and killed those who know about their existence. Sabo only escaped because Cobra distracted them and the Five Elders. Now the Revolutionary Army knows about Imu.
Anything about Imu will be kept under wraps. We won’t be getting any hints from the monarch, but other characters might have a clue about who they really are.
Emporio Ivankov has mentioned a Saint Imu of House Nerona who lived during the Void Century. This would make the Imu we know one of the original First Twenty.
Cobra too questioned if they were related to this figure. Their immortality could be explained if there was an Ope Ope no Mi user who did the Perrenial Youth Operation on them.
It does explain Imu’s hatred towards Joy Boy and why they have the giant Straw Hat, the Will of D. clan, the Nefertari family, and their greed for power. Some fans have taken this as a confirmation of the monarch’s gender. However, it’s not confirmed until says so.
One Piece’s anime has deliberately chosen androgynous voices for Imu
If Eiichiro Oda wants to keep Imu’s gender a mystery, the studio has no choice. Getting a voice too feminine or too masculine would ruin the mystery, so they had to layer the voices.
In episode 1118, we heard Imu’s voice for the first time in the Japanese dubbing. They didn’t say much and it wasn’t enough to hint at their gender. They were also credited as “???,” so that didn’t help.
The English dub of One Piece has revealed Imu’s voice with their full speech to Cobra in episode 1119.
YOOO we got Imu’s voice reveal in dub🔥
— 𝐌𝐚𝐫𝐜𝐨 (@MarcoGrandFleet) March 19, 2025
Idk if you notice but its layered with 2 voices which sound male and female, Imu might actually be a thing or an it rather than either gender
— MaruGoat (@maru_goat) March 19, 2025
This is GODLIKE! It’s amazingly well done!
— Roberto Rodrigues (@rob_piece) March 19, 2025
Dub Imu sounds like a young male
Sub Imu sounds like a women what is it now😭— Dinho☯️ (@MoonGod_Dinho) March 19, 2025
Despite now having two different versions, One Piece fans are more confused than ever. The Japanese version sounds more feminine, whereas this leans towards masculine. The studio and Oda are messing with us.
Still, it does a fantastic job of keeping up Imu’s mystery. They feel less human and more like a God or something that transcends the living. One Piece probably won’t reveal it soon since the focus is now on the God’s Knights and Loki, not Imu.
One Piece is available on Crunchyroll and VIZ Media.
This post belongs to FandomWire and first appeared on FandomWire
