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1 Year Later, One Piece Author Oda Reveals Elbaf’s Main Villain, And It's Not Imu

Published Nov 10, 2025, 7:31 AM EST

Rei is the Deputy Lead for TheBestWarGames's Anime Team from Kashmir, situated in Beirut. He's an avid fan of anime and manga. Rei grew up watching anime and had a knack for writing ever since he was a kid, and combining his two passions was rather easy for him. Rei worked as a Staff Writer for CBR for over two years before moving to The Best War Games, where he's gained tremendous experience for about 5 years now, and has risen to become the Deputy Lead Editor of the Anime Team. Rei is the author of some of the articles here that you liked, and others that you didn't. When he isn't writing, he often re-reads One Piece.

This article contains spoilers for the One Piece series.

One Piece’s Elbaf arc has surprised quite a lot of fans. Not only did this arc drop the biggest lore reveal of the series with the Elbaf mural, but it is also giving the fans an incredible flashback centered around Loki, which also includes the God Valley Incident, an event fans have eagerly awaited.

One Piece Straw Hats New Number 2 Zoro Sanji Loki

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Shortly before the flashback, One Piece’s author, Eiichiro Oda introduced Imu as the big villain in Elbaf, as he took over the body of Gunko. While it might seem that Imu is the main enemy in Elbaf, the truth is that Luffy is still not ready to face them. The most recent chapters make it clear that the real villain of Elbaf will not be Imu, but a corrupted Loki instead. After a year of incredible buildup, the Elbaf Arc's final villain now looks to be Domi Reversi'd Loki. The battle between Imu and Luffy is currently beyond Luffy's capacity to handle.

Oda Sets Up Loki To Be The Main Villain Of One Piece’s Elbaf Arc

Loki Could Be Domi Reversi'd By Imu

Loki as the main villain of elbaf one piece

Luffy Vs Loki has already been set up
Luffy will match Shanks and beat Loki

One Piece fans have known Imu to be the strongest character in the story for quite a while. But, the extent of Imu's power wasn't clear until the God Valley Incident, where they took over the body of Saint Saturn and endured attacks from six of One Piece’s strongest: Rocks, Kaido, Big Mom, Whitebeard, Roger, and Garp at the same time. Despite the overwhelming force, Imu regenerated and endured the assault easily.

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It is quite clear that Luffy is strong, but he's nowhere near the combined power of those six. Facing Imu now would almost certainly mean defeat for Luffy. It is also evident that Oda is setting up Loki as the true main enemy in Elbaf. Although Loki is currently on Luffy’s side, Oda has a unique tool that can turn Loki into the main villain, and that's Domi Reversi. Loki may soon be affected by Imu’s ultimate ability, Domi Reversi, which would turn him into Imu’s slave demon, much like Rocks was at God Valley.

gunko imu is too strong for luffy elbaf one piece

The battle between Loki and Luffy has already been set up in the story on many occasions. Loki was already introduced as Elbaf's villain at first, and Luffy himself said that if Loki causes trouble, he will beat him. Above all, Shanks is stated to have beaten Loki, and Oda might have Luffy replicate this feat by having him beat Domi Reversi'd Loki.

Luffy Will Beat Loki, But Zoro And Sanji Will Be Equally Busy

Zoro and Sanji Will Fight Dorry and Brogy

sanji and zoro vs dorry and brogy one piece

While Luffy fights Loki, Zoro and Sanji will most likely take on Dorry and Brogy, as the two have already been affected by Domi Reversi. Other enemies, such as Sommers and Killingham, are also present, along with Imu.

There may not be enough people to handle all these enemies, so Oda might have Imu retreat to Marijoa, which is already under attack. This would leave Dorry and Brogy to face Sanji and Zoro. No matter which way fans look at it, Elbaf is only going to get more exciting, and fans can't wait to see Luffy and the team hit the next level after fighting these monsters.

Eiichiro Oda's One Piece will be on break next week. One Piece Chapter 1166 will be out in two weeks. The official release date of One Piece Chapter 1166 is November 23, 2025. Fans can read the chapter for free on Manga Plus.

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Release Date: October 20, 1999
Network: Fuji TV
Directors: Hiroaki Miyamoto, Konosuke Uda, Junji Shimizu, Satoshi Itō, Munehisa Sakai, Katsumi Tokoro, Yutaka Nakajima, Yoshihiro Ueda, Kenichi Takeshita, Yoko Ikeda, Ryota Nakamura, Hiroyuki Kakudou, Takahiro Imamura, Toshihiro Maeya, Yûji Endô, Nozomu Shishido, Hidehiko Kadota, Sumio Watanabe, Harume Kosaka, Yasuhiro Tanabe, Yukihiko Nakao, Keisuke Onishi, Junichi Fujise, Hiroyuki Satou

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Cast

Mayumi Tanaka

Monkey D. Luffy (voice)
Kazuya Nakai

Roronoa Zoro (voice)

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One Piece is a Japanese manga written and illustrated by Eiichiro Oda. The series follows protagonist Monkey D. Luffy and his Straw Hat Pirate crew as they explore the Grand Line to find the King of the Pirates' ultimate treasure, the One Piece, in order to become the next king. The manga's popularity helped it spin off into a larger media franchise, including an anime with more than 1,000 episodes.

Studio: Toei Animation
Creator: Eiichiro Oda
Streaming Service(s): Crunchyroll, Netflix, Hulu, Pluto TV

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