After 28 Years, Oda Confirms One Piece Sets Sail For Its Final Voyage
In 1998, Eiichiro Oda hinted that a surge of Shanks would signal One Piece’s endgame. In 2025, the Red-Haired pirate is everywhere as the series sails into its final saga.
Oda once said the day Shanks starts popping up a lot is the day One Piece is in its final act. Well, it is 2025, we are in the final saga, and Shanks is suddenly everywhere. If you feel like the story just nudged the endgame button, you are not wrong.
"When Shanks appears frequently in the manga, you can assume One Piece has entered the final saga."
- Eiichiro Oda, 1998
Spoiler warning: One Piece chapter 1167 spoilers ahead.
Shanks finally steps out of the shadows
Shanks shows up in the very first chapter, then basically becomes the manga version of a rare bird sighting. Across the whole series, he only drops in here and there, lands a decisive move, and vanishes. That disappearing act kept fans guessing about his real strength and agenda for years.
Chapter 1167 changes the temperature. Shanks gets a lot of page-time, and it looks like the coming chapters will orbit him too. When a character this scarce suddenly becomes a regular, that usually means big reveals are about to land.
What chapter 1167 reportedly puts on the table
- We finally see what Shanks was doing during his stint in the Holy Land.
- He is depicted colluding with the World Government.
- He straight-up says he hates being in the surface world.
- The framing suggests this Shanks focus will continue for the next few chapters.
- All of this reopens the core question: is this the real Shanks, or a mask he wears to pry into Imu and the World Government?
- Theories are already flaring up again, including the idea that Shanks may have been the one who nabbed the legendary Devil Fruit from Elbaph that eventually wound up with Luffy.
So... who is Shanks really siding with?
One Piece loves a double-cross. We have seen government loyalists flip, pirates sell out pirates, and masks peeled back mid-arc. Shanks now sits right in that tradition. Until Oda spells it out, it is impossible to say whether he stands with the pirates or is aligned with the God's Knights and Imu. That tension is the point: the character has always been built as a walking contradiction, and this latest chapter leans into it hard.
Endgame vibes
Oda has a habit: once he starts tugging the threads on long-held mysteries, we are close to the finish line. Shanks moving to the center of the board lines up with that old 1998 comment. If you have been waiting for the curtain to start lifting on the biggest secrets, this is that moment.
If you want to catch up on the animated side while the manga heats up, the One Piece anime is streaming on Crunchyroll.