a piece and Naruto Always two of the most revolutionary shonen manga series of all time, and it's no surprise to learn that they've been in fierce competition with each other throughout their run. Even the authors, Ichiro Oda and Masashi Kishimoto, respectively, have openly called them friendly rivals. However, these stories have distinctly different powers, and with its most recent revelation in the Elbaf arc, a piece Introduces a final villain who gives Naruto a lesson and shows how Kaguya Otsutsuki should have been handled in the Fourth Great Ninja War.
One Piece: The 7 arcs that follow Elbaf
Elbaf is great, but even bigger arcs are coming in one piece after it.
Breaking Down Introducing Eiichiro Oda's masterful Nerona Imu
One Piece has its fair share of incredible villains, but the one who is the most over-built and far stronger than anyone else is the ruler of the World Government and one of the first 20 kings, Saint Nerona Emu. Oda introduced Nerona Emu 8 years ago during the Reverie Arc. At the time, the emu was presented only as a mass of darkness cloaked in silhouette, pulling strings from the shadows as the true sovereign of the world. However, in the Elbaf Arc, Oda took things beyond all expectations by fully unleashing both the physical form and the power of the World King for the first time.
In doing so, the author has been slowly building up to his ultimate villain for over 8 years, and with more lore to follow in both the Elbaf arc and the Void Century that will be explored later down the line.
Analyzing Oda's meticulous construction approach with Imu
Eiichiro Oda has taken a careful construction approach with most of his plots, and Nerona Emu is no different. The World Government was established long ago as the main antagonistic force in the world of One Piece, and their oppressive nature was quickly overlooked as the series' Arabian arc. In fact, there were hints of a certain person ruling as God from above from the first mention of heavenly dragons. Eight years ago, in the Reverie arc, Oda finally brought this figure to the world.
Since then, the author of the story has carefully and intricately woven the story around Emu Nerona and Joy Boy, and connected it to the Zero Century, which was woven into the story 20 years earlier. It shows a very careful approach in creating the ultimate rival that transcends time itself and aims to establish a complete grip on the world of One Piece. Elbaf, in the grand scheme of things, only serves as the culmination of all these ideas by bringing Nerona Emu to the surface and unveiling them to fans for the first time.
8 years later, a fragment officially confirms the true gender of St. Imu Nerona
The gender of the emu has been a mystery for nearly a decade. Now, Oda reveals her true gender in the latest release of One Piece.
How the final villain of One Piece compares to Kishimoto's Kaguya Otsutsuki
It goes without saying that Masashi Kishimoto's Naruto series is absolutely fantastic and has its own lovable villains like Penn, Madara Uchiha and many more. However, the final main villain, Kaguya Otsutsuki, pales in comparison to the vast majority of her own villains, let alone Saint Nerona Imu. Kaguya, despite some build up at the end, came out of nowhere, and what's worse, she replaced Madara Uchiha, who had been carefully built into the story since before the timeskip.
Holy Land … I leave you! – Saint Nerona Emu, a piece 1180
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Kaguya's entire character was completely hollow, and her ultimate goal, as well as the execution of the lore surrounding her character, certainly did her no favors. Kaguya and the Otsutsuki clan itself is one of the most poorly written plot lines in the Naruto series, and it's painfully obvious to see in the final part of the story. While Kishimoto certainly had some interesting ideas with the character of Kaguya Otsutsuki, the execution was a complete failure. Kaguya should have been made over a long period of time, and the story itself, which was very basic in nature, should have been much better.
In the Naruto series the Otsutsuki lineage itself was largely obscured and only expanded upon in Boruto. Even in the expansion, it still functions as a sub-par villain group with little to no impact on the world. It's unfortunate that Naruto's story in Kaguya Otsutsuki was left off with a rather surprising final villain. That said, the series still carries some of the most iconic anime villains of all time, such as Pen and Madara. For that, Naruto will always be remembered as a legendary series that even assisted Eiichiro Oda on many occasions.
One Piece Chapter 1180 will be available to read on Manga Plus on April 19, 2026 at 11 am EST.
a piece
- Release date
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October 20, 1999
- network
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Fuji TV
- directors
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Hiroaki Miyamoto, Konosuke Uda, Junji Shimizu, Satoshi Ito, Munehisa Sakai, Katsumi Tokoro, Yutaka Nakajima, Yoshihiro Ueda, Kenichi Takeshita, Yoko Ikeda, Ryota Nakamura, Hiroyuki Kakudou, Takahiro Noimauji, Tokahiro, Enoji Maudo Shishido, Hidehiko Kadota, Sumio Watanabe, Harume Kosaka, Yasuhiro Tanabe, Yukihiko Nakao, Keisuke Onishi, Junichi Fujise, Hiroyuki Satou
- The authors
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Jin Tanaka, Akiko Inoue, Junki Takegami, Shinzo Fujita, Shouji Yonemura, Yoshiyuki Suga, Atsuhiro Tomioka, Hirohiko Usaka, Michiru Shimada, Isao Murayama, Takuya Masumoto, Yoichi Takahashi, Momoka Toyoda
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Mayumi Tanaka
Monkey d. Luffy (voice)
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Kazuya Nakai
Roronoa Zoro (voice)
