Imu appeared in chapter 907 after more than eight hundred chapters of buildup and sits on the Empty Throne as the highest authority behind everything the World Government has done in the series. The question of who can defeat Imu splits into two halves: what the manga confirms and what readers have pieced together from hints. This ranking keeps those two halves separate.
Spoiler warning: everything below assumes you’ve read the manga, including the Egghead and Elbaf arcs.
What Imu can actually do
| Ability | What it does | Possible counter |
|---|---|---|
| Mind and body control | takes control of another character | strong Haki apparently resists it |
| Immortality | extreme regeneration | unknown, and this is the real problem |
| Summoning the Abyss | teleportation through magic circles | strong Haki can neutralize it |
| Presumed Devil Fruit | demonic transformation | Blackbeard’s Yami Yami no Mi |
The first three have been shown. The fourth is a deduction from the transformation panels.
Immortality is what turns the whole question into a real puzzle. Every candidate below has to answer not “can they hurt Imu” but “can they keep Imu down”.
Eight candidates
1. Nika, the sun god
Recent chapters confirmed that Nika really existed and isn’t just a myth. Nika is the ideological opposite of everything Imu stands for: liberation versus control, joy versus oppression. The strongest evidence, though, is behavioral: Imu went to enormous lengths to obtain and hide the Hito Hito no Mi, Model: Nika fruit. Nobody hunts a fruit for centuries unless it scares them.
2. Joy Boy
Imu’s ancient counterpart and the one figure the World Government erased from history most thoroughly. The Void Century framing makes him the closest thing to a proven threat: the entire government exists to keep his story buried.
3. Monkey D. Luffy
The story’s answer. Luffy inherits both Nika’s fruit and the title of Joy Boy, and One Piece has been pointing toward this clash for a thousand chapters. If the series is meant to end with someone toppling the Empty Throne, the structure says it will be him.
4. Shanks
Masterful Haki plus something rarer: access. Shanks stood before the Five Elders and walked out on his own two feet, which means he knows more about how the top of the world works than almost anyone. Conqueror’s Haki capable of stopping a battlefield is exactly the kind of counter Imu’s control abilities apparently respond to.
5. Rocks D. Xebec
The only man explicitly said to have gone straight for the throne. God Valley is an event the World Government stays silent about to this day, and whatever happened there, Rocks came so close to victory that it took Garp and Roger together to stop him.
6. Marshall D. Teach
A mechanical answer instead of a thematic one. The Yami Yami no Mi nullifies Devil Fruit abilities on contact, which is the cleanest counter to a presumed Devil Fruit user with regeneration, and Blackbeard is the only one who carries two fruits at once.
7. Kaido
“The Strongest Creature” wasn’t marketing. In a direct one-on-one fight, that kind of endurance and striking power is exactly what forces even an immortal to stop playing around. The catch is that Kaido lost, and losing to Luffy is precisely why he sits below him here.
8. Loki
A giant from Elbaf who defied a god and ended up in chains for it. His arsenal and his willingness to go straight against the top of the world make him a real threat, not just a fan pick: we break down his abilities separately.
Canon, deduction and pure theory
| Confirmed by the manga | Strongly implied | Fan theory |
|---|---|---|
| Imu rules from the Empty Throne | Imu fears Nika’s fruit | Blackbeard’s fruit is a hard counter to Imu |
| Mind control and teleportation exist | Haki resists Imu’s control | Rocks would have won at God Valley |
| Nika existed historically | Joy Boy stood against the same regime | Kaido would beat Imu one-on-one |
Keeping these columns separate is the whole art of One Piece power debates. The middle column is where the interesting arguments live; in the right one they usually get lost.
The honest answer
By the logic of the story, not a stat sheet, Luffy defeats Imu, because the narrative has been building toward this fight since chapter one and because he carries both the power and the symbol Imu has suppressed for centuries.
By pure mechanics, the uncomfortable answer is Blackbeard. If Imu really is a Devil Fruit user, the Yami Yami no Mi is the only confirmed tool in the series that turns immortality into a problem instead of a wall.
FAQ
It’s unclear. The regeneration shown so far has no proven limit, which is why every serious argument revolves around neutralizing the ability rather than dealing enough damage.
The supreme ruler of the world, revealed in chapter 907. Imu sits on the Empty Throne above the Five Elders and is responsible for the actions of the World Government.
Nika represents liberation against Imu’s control. The behavioral evidence is that Imu spent centuries trying to obtain and hide the fruit that holds Nika’s power.
Mechanically it fits, since the Yami Yami no Mi nullifies Devil Fruit abilities on contact, but it rests on the assumption that Imu uses a Devil Fruit, which the manga hasn’t confirmed.
The story has been heading there for a thousand chapters, but Oda hasn’t confirmed the fight. Take it as the series’ strongest structural expectation, not as a fact.
Information verified as of 7 September 2026. One Piece is still ongoing, and new chapters can move any of these points from theory to canon, so check the date on every power ranking, ours included. More breakdowns: all of Loki’s abilities, eight god-tier anime heroes, the System in Solo Leveling and Naruto’s fate in Boruto. Looking for something new to read? Try ten manhwa like Solo Leveling.