Imu-sama is a character that I’ve been obsessed with since their debut. From everything about their character being shrouded in mystery, yet we can gather enough from context clues surrounding them and the bits of lore thrown at us to get an idea of what they might be. Of course, we still don’t have the full picture, so we can only assume so much.
This theory kind of runs on the theory that Imu-sama is originally from the Void Century. So, here’s my theory:
Imu-sama is a sentient artificial human created by the Great Kingdom
We now know that the Great Kingdom had technology beyond that of even Vegapunk’s, which is what’s gotten me thinking of this in the first place. We ALSO know that the bulk of lead-up to Vegapunk thus far has been his involvement with the WG and its creation of androids/human experiments, being Kuma/Pacifistas, Giant Kids on Punk Hazard (through Caesar’s connection), the Vinsmokes (through Judge), and Seraphim more recently.
There’s also the case of him recreating devil fruits, but I’d like to focus on the experiments relating to artificial life for the moment.
In Egghead, we’ve also seen Vegapunk’s “clones”. These are currently the closest we’ve had to sentient, individual artificial humans in the manga. An argument could be made for Vinsmokes, but they were genetically modified, not artificially made, as Judge and Sora were their parents, and their emotions are inhibited from their modification.
The thing is about Vegapunk’s clones, though, is that they are still part of Vegapunk, and they carry specific mannerisms of his. They aren’t an entirely new being, but born from Vegapunk’s own genius.
Ok so, we know about the Great Kingdom having technology and Vegapunk’s ties to artificial humans in the story. But where does Imu come into this?
Uranus
Something that’s been at the back of my mind for a while has been the nature, exactly, of the Ancient Weapons. Not in how they work, but what they are. The two weapons we know of currently are different in how they were MADE: one is man-made, a ship, and the other is a living being, born naturally.
The two weapons also have connections in their names and use. Pluto is the Greek God of the Underworld and in One Piece, it is a weapon of mass destruction and death, and currently resides deep underneath Mt Fuji in Wano. Poseidon is the Greek God of the Seas, in One Piece, it is currently a mermaid princess with the power to command sea kings, something passed down through the royal line.
Uranus is a Greek primordial deity – as in, before the Gods and Titans – and is the personification of the sky. In One Piece, we caught a glimpse of what was very likely Uranus in Chapter 1060, which destroyed an island FROM THE SKY using lightning. This scene is interwoven with panels featuring the Elders and Imu (who reside in the closest thing to the sky that’s NOT a sky island), so it’s a fair guess to assume that Imu has power over, or literally is, Uranus.
The thing is that Uranus just. We don’t KNOW if it’s man-made or a power from genetics/a living being. And it could very well be either of those things. But with what we know now of the Great Kingdom’s technology – isn’t it very likely that they could have created a living human from scratch with power equal to Poseidon/Pluto? Hell, in Enel’s cover story, we see artificial robots on the moon.
Which yeah, is a big stretch at the moment, but there’s two more things I want to bring attention to.
The first being Imu’s name. The OP wiki mentions this in Imu’s trivia page: ” When written in katakana, Im’s name is composed of the two radicals comprising the character 仏, which means “Buddha”. ”
If we assume this was intentional by Oda (which I think there’s a very big possibility it is) then it mean they’re called that for a reason. A possible link/reason to this being the case is the concept of Bodhi in Buddhism, translated as enlightenment in english. Bodhi is actually the ‘final enlightenment’ of Buddhism, in which one attains Buddhahood and nirvana through their ‘awakening’. You can read more about this concept and various quotes here – basically, the purpose of Bodhi is to be at complete peace and happiness, and to AWAKEN from delusion.
Which is very, VERY similar to how one would describe an AI gaining sentience. “Awakening” and “enlightenment”, to be aware of one’s place in the world. In fact, it’s not exactly the first time an AI would have used connections to philosophy to convey its awareness. I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream, a sci-fi short story from 1967, featured a sentient AI supercomputer as its villain, called AM. It was named after Descarte’s “I think therefore I am” philosophy – because it thinks, it is alive. It exists.
And for the last thing, I REALLY think that Imu’s only defining feature other than their general body… shadow… shape being their eyes is important, ESPECIALLY in juxtaposition to the Ds, whose defining feature is their smile.
I mean, obviously with the Ds we know what they look like unlike with Imu, but their smiles/laughter is relevant to the plot. Ace’s smile at his death, “Roger laughed”, Gear 5’s whole deal. They’re vibrant, full of life (even in the face of death), and that’s told through their grin.
Imu, on the other hand, we don’t see how they react to things. The most we get is their eyes, perhaps a “…” to imply they’re thinking, maybe the aftermath of them cutting up bounty posters. To us, there’s no connection to them in regards to their feelings/emotions. Where most every other character in the series is larger-than-life, Imu is controlled.
TL;DR
Imu was one of the Ancient Weapons created by the Great Kingdom, an artificial human doubling as the weapon Uranus. At some point they gained sentience not as intended by the GK and split away from their creators, resulting in the World Government we know today. Possible that the Op Op fruit has connections to them too.
If you read this far thank you, I know it’s a silly theory but I’ve been thinking about it for a while.
Theory by oswin (https://www.reddit.com/user/blazingmoo)
