One Piece 1153: Oda Slip-Up or Masterstroke? JoyBoy’s Size Could Change Everything

One Piece just dropped Episode 1153 and immediately kicked the hornet nest. Not only did we finally get a tease of Joy Boy's Haki, we also saw his silhouette for the first time ever. And yeah, he looks Luffy-sized. Which makes that massive straw hat in Imu's ice closet a lot more complicated than fans thought.

So... Joy Boy does not look like a giant

Episode 1153 is the first time Eiichiro Oda has given any visual hint of Joy Boy's appearance, and the outline looks a lot like Monkey D. Luffy in proportions and posture. That undercuts the long-running theory that the giant straw hat in the Holyland belonged to Joy Boy. If Joy Boy's body type is basically human-sized, that refrigerator-grade hat is not his. Which leaves two options: either Oda tossed us a rare red herring, or he is foreshadowing something bigger.

About that enormous hat in Imu's bunker

Imu's debut was one of the series' bigger shock reveals, mostly because it confirmed Luffy's ultimate endgame villain and hinted at a weird connection to Luffy, Shanks, and Roger through the straw hat motif. Back in Episode 885, titled 'In the Dark Recesses of the Holyland - A Mysterious Giant Straw Hat,' we saw an oversized straw hat preserved in ice inside a hidden chamber beneath Pangaea Castle. Given Joy Boy's ties to the Void Century and Imu's whole deal, fans naturally linked that hat to Joy Boy.

But with Joy Boy's silhouette now looking normal-sized, the giant hat probably belonged to someone else entirely — likely a giant — who mattered during the Void Century. That does not break the lore. If anything, it widens it.

Two hats, two threads to follow

• Imu's giant straw hat: An enormous straw hat kept on ice in a secret room in Pangaea Castle, first shown in Episode 885. If Joy Boy is not giant, this hat was not his. It points to another major figure — possibly a giant and a would-be challenger to Imu and the World Government — from the Void Century.
• Luffy's straw hat: The hat we know was passed from Roger to Shanks to Luffy. It is the same style, but based on the new visuals, almost certainly not the same physical hat Joy Boy ever wore. More than an artifact, it functions as a symbol of inherited will, freedom, and defiance against the World Government.

The working theory (for now)

For years, it was easy to imagine one singular hat moving from Joy Boy to Roger to Shanks to Luffy. After Episode 1153, that tidy line does not hold up. The safer read is that multiple 'straw hat' successors have risen across the centuries, each carrying the will — not necessarily the same hat — and not all of them succeeded. One of those failed inheritors could have been a giant, which would neatly explain Imu's oversized keepsake and why it is stored like a trophy.

If that is where Oda is heading, it means the Joy Boy lineage is broader than just Roger, Shanks, and Luffy, and that Imu has been swatting down heirs to that will for a very long time. That is a big story swing, and it makes the endgame even spicier.

Who do you think wore Imu's hat? A giant from the Void Century? A failed successor between Joy Boy and Roger? Hit the comments.

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