One Piece Reveals Its Three Mightiest Transformations in Elbaf Arc
The Elbaf arc has introduced three of the most powerful transformations in One Piece. This development comes four years after Luffy's Gear 5 debut. Two of these transformations are connected to characters in the current Elbaf storyline.
Eiichiro Oda’s One Piece follows Monkey D. Luffy and the Straw Hat Pirates as they seek the One Piece. The Elbaf arc has raised the stakes with the Holy Knights and the reveal of Nerona Imu, King of the World, in chapter 1179, published April 5, 2026, in Weekly Shonen Jump issue 19.
The arc groups three major transformations: Luffy’s Gear 5, Loki’s Ryu Ryu no Mi Model: Nidhoggr hybrid form, and Imu’s second-stage Akuma no Mi transformation. Gear 5 debuted March 28, 2022, and in Elbaf Luffy kept using it after being stabbed by Fragarach and Vohu.
This development could intensify fan discussion around One Piece’s final saga, drawing manga readers, anime viewers, and entertainment-culture commentators into debates about power scaling and narrative stakes. It may also boost engagement for Weekly Shonen Jump coverage, aggregator traffic, and social-media theorizing, while reminding publishers that long-running serialized manga can still generate major cultural moments. Fans who follow Elbaf may feel rewarded by the payoff, though newcomers could find the dense continuity harder to enter.