One Piece’s Joy Boy Mystery is Connected to a Surprising Character

Warning: Contains spoilers for One Piece chapter #1043

The latest chapter of One Piece finally revealed the supposed identity of Joy Boy, the mysterious figure teased for a long time throughout the best-selling manga created by Eiichiro Oda. However, Joy Boy still has an unexplained connection to another character, Momonosuke, the rightful shogun of Wano.

Not much is known about Joy Boy. He was an important man from the Void Century (the part of history, 900 years before the current events in the manga, that the World Government has “erased” to keep it hidden) who visited Fish-Man Island and left an apology letter for breaking a promise with the inhabitants. During Kozuki Oden’s flashback, showing his time on the ship of the Pirate King Gol D. Roger, Joy Boy was mentioned as the first one to discover the Grand Line’s final island, Laugh Tale, and leave there a mysterious treasure that would become known to the world as the One Piece. Roger wished that he had lived during the same time as Joy Boy, and after that several characters have mentioned an expected return of this mysterious figure, including Kaido and Kozuki Oden in his diaries. In chapter #1043, it was teased that Joy Boy returned as none other than Luffy, the captain of the Straw Hats.

Related: One Piece’s Creator is Teasing an Answer to a Big Series Mystery

Exactly why and how Joy Boy has returned after 900 years is still a mystery, but there could be an underlying connection to the land of Wano. After returning to his home country, Oden made plans to open up the enclosed land in preparations for Joy Boy’s return, and the island of the samurai could very well be the place that holds the key to this mystery. At the height of the battle on Onigashima between the pirate-samurai-Mink alliance and Kaido’s Beasts Pirates, the ancient giant elephant called Zunesha arrives near Wano. In chapter #1040, the son of Oden, Momonosuke (the only one who can hear the elephant’s voice), reveals that Zunesha was once Joy Boy’s companion who has been wandering the seas since the end of the Void Century as punishment for a yet unrevealed crime it committed. Momonosuke, in fact, seems to be connected to Joy Boy’s mystery.

Chapter #1041 begins with Momonosuke, in his dragon form, talking to Yamato, Kaido’s child who joined the uprising against their father. Both Momo and Yamato read Oden’s diaries, so they are privy to information that the readers have not learned yet. Yamato says that Momo is “the one who is meant to lead the world to its dawn“, just like Oden predicted. Considering that Oden was waiting for Joy Boy’s return, it was possible that Momo was Joy Boy himself, but the ending of chapter #1043 points towards Luffy instead. The connection between the two is confirmed by the fact that they are the only ones who can speak to Zunesha, Joy Boy’s former companion. Back when the Straw Hats first met Zunesha, he was under attack by Kaido’s lieutenant Jack. The elephant could not act on his own due to expiation for his past sin, and he begged Momonosuke to give him the order to defend himself. Now, Zunesha has arrived in Wano to aid Momo in his battle, and after Luffy is defeated by Kaido he feels that Joy Boy has finally awakened.

Momonosuke learned from Oden’s journal that there is a big destiny or important task awaiting him, hence he cannot die during the battle. From his words, there is ground to believe that this destiny is connected to Laugh Tale in some way, but Oden purposefully tore off the most crucial pages of his diary. Whatever the truth about Joy Boy and Momonosuke is, One Piece readers can expect it to be revealed soon, or at least part of it, at the end of the Wano Arc.

Next: One Piece’s Luffy Could Be Awakening a Power Even Greater than Gear Fifth

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Author: Francesco Cacciatore