Spoiler Warning: This article contains major spoilers from the latest chapters of the One Piece manga
Summary
- Imu possessed Holy Knight Gunko, enhancing her powers and sparking speculation on the true nature of the Holy Knights.
- Imu's ability to possess others may be tied to reanimating corpses, similar to Gecko Moria's zombies.
- Gunko's personal memory fragment suggests a suppressed soul in the Holy Knights, hinting at historical figures revived by Imu.
Over the past few chapters of One Piece, the Holy Knights have launched a brutal assault on Elbaph, shaking the battlefield with overwhelming power and terrifying precision. But the latest chapter took an unexpected turn when Holy Knight Gunko—mid-combat—was overtaken by Imu, who somehow managed to not only gain full access to Gunko but also significantly enhanced her powers, all without ever stepping foot outside Mary Geoise.
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This moment has sparked intense speculation across the One Piece community, with many now questioning the true nature of the Holy Knights. Are they really just elite government enforcers, or could they be something far more unnatural—reanimated corpses controlled by Imu using powers that date back to the Void Century?
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Gunko paused during the heat of battle after experiencing what looked like a personal memory or emotional trigger. She seemed to have remembered Brook out of nowhere, despite showing no signs earlier of any connection to him. But before she could act on this memory and reach out to Brook, her body stiffened and her expression blanked out, and her eyes changed to the double-ringed irises that fans have seen in previous instances tied to Imu’s appearances.
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The sequence has led many fans to believe that Imu may have the power to directly hijack the bodies of others, potentially even those who are long dead. That idea becomes even more compelling when considering that the Holy Knights’ somehow don't remember their past and have this mechanical obedience to Imu, both of which could be signs of something more sinister: they might not be alive at all.
Gecko Moria’s Zombies: A Precedent for Corpse Control
How Thriller Bark Foreshadowed Imu's Army of the Undead
The idea of corpse manipulation isn’t new to One Piece. Gecko Moria’s Kage Kage no Mi allowed him to steal shadows and implant them into corpses, creating zombies that retained the combat abilities and quirks of the shadow’s original owner. While Moria’s zombies were crude and lacked true sentience, they were fully functional fighters who couldn’t die, didn’t tire, and remained fiercely loyal to their master.
Zombies like Ryuma and Cindry proved that the technique could create eerily lifelike warriors, albeit with telltale behavioral oddities. While Moria’s process was imperfect, it introduced the concept of body reanimation through Devil Fruit powers and Imu, whose existence may stretch back to the Void Century, could have access to a much more advanced or forgotten variant of that same principle.
In fact, one moment in the Thriller Bark arc may help explain what Gunko experienced. Despite being a zombie, Cindry managed to briefly act against her programming. She smiled, something she only did in life, and chose to disobey Hogback’s orders to protect him. This flicker of will and self-control mirrors what may have happened to Gunko before Imu reinforced his will upon her.
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The Difference: Gunko’s Memory Fragment Suggests a Suppressed Soul
Could the Holy Knights Be Historical Figures Revived by Imu?
What makes the Imu theory even more intriguing is the key difference between Gunko’s situation and Moria’s zombie creations. Moria’s zombies did not retain their original personalities, only the behavior of the shadow used to animate them. Gunko, however, appeared to recognize something personal before being possessed. That brief flash of emotion suggests a deeper horror: if she is a corpse, then her original soul might still be trapped inside, suppressed but not exactly erased.
The theory reaches its peak when all these threads are tied together. The Holy Knights are silent, hooded, and utterly loyal to Imu. They appear to act without hesitation or emotion. Gunko’s possession implies soul-level manipulation. Moria’s shadow-based reanimation proves that corpse control is possible within the rules of One Piece. And Imu’s ancient, possibly otherworldly power suggests access to techniques no longer understood in the present day.
- 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
Cast
-
Mayumi TanakaMonkey D. Luffy (voice) -
Kazuya NakaiRoronoa Zoro (voice)
WHERE TO WATCH
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.
