Who Is Imu's Voice Actor in One Piece? The Real Reason They Still Hide It

One Piece is inching toward finally pulling the curtain back on Imu, the shadow behind the Empty Throne. In the manga, the figure has started moving pieces around. In the anime? Still mostly a ghost. And the most persistent question right now isn’t just what Imu wants — it’s who’s going to voice them when they step fully into the spotlight.

The voice nobody will confirm (yet)

Rumors have been swirling that Takehito Koyasu is the one bringing Imu to life. Toei Animation hasn’t confirmed it, and honestly, I get why they’re cagey. Keeping the actor a secret preserves the aura around the character. One of the big oddities with Imu has always been identity — fans didn’t even know the character’s gender for a long time. Even now, the story has strongly suggested answers without a clean, official stamp from Eiichiro Oda, which keeps a sliver of doubt alive.

This is some real inside baseball: in anime, revealing a voice can accidentally answer questions the story is saving for later. If you know the actor, you can infer gender, age, even vibes. So Toei sitting on the name is a strategic move. Once the voice is out there, it’ll squash a lot of theories — including the ones insisting Imu is a woman or using a woman’s body — and lock in a definitive read on the character.

Why everyone keeps saying it’s Takehito Koyasu

Koyasu is the go-to voice for elegant menace. Fans have pointed to online listings and Reddit chatter claiming he’s already in the booth, but again, nothing official. Still, his resume basically screams ‘Imu energy,’ and he already voices Aokiji in One Piece, which means he knows this world inside and out. If the pick is real, it’s a logical one.

• Toji Fushiguro in Jujutsu Kaisen (IMDb: 8.5)
• Dio Brando in JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure (IMDb: 8.5)
• Zeke Yeager in Attack on Titan (IMDb: 9.1)
• Aokiji in One Piece (IMDb: 9.0)

Given that track record, the matchup feels right. If you want cold, controlled, terrifying — that’s Koyasu’s wheelhouse. It’s exactly the aura Imu needs when the mask comes off.

Why the reveal matters so much

The hype around Imu has always signaled ‘final boss.’ The story has been deliberately coy — light on motives, heavy on dread — because when Imu finally makes a proper entrance in the anime, it needs to hit like a bomb. The reveal is supposed to change the shape of One Piece, not just the week’s episode recap. And when Luffy ultimately collides with Imu, that’s the war that decides the entire world’s fate. No pressure, right? The voice has to sell all of that.

So when do we find out?

With the anime closing in on the big endgame setups, the identity reveal probably isn’t far off. Whether it’s Koyasu or not, the moment we hear Imu speak, a lot of long-running fan debates end immediately — and a much bigger one begins.

One Piece is streaming on Crunchyroll. And yes, I’m curious: does Koyasu feel like the perfect fit to you, or do you want a curveball?