Video version: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=luOo_aOsQBc

Rather than focus on the broader aspects of the chapter, today I’d like to focus on the core focal question of “who is Nika?”, particularly given the importance in needing to understand who he is for the role he plays in Bonney and Kuma’s story at present. Especially since a lot of details about Nika’s identity have to do with Japanese translation and particular details, let’s try to encompass it all together:

And one last thing before starting, next week I will be uploading the complete One Piece Timeline, going over the entire canon history of every date in the series in a colossal video, so keep an eye out for that!

Who is Nika?

So for starters, Nika was originally presented as a figure who slaves from ancient times venerated like a god. Bearing the title of the “Warrior of Liberation”, he was described as a legendary figure who was said would deliver people from their suffering by delivering smiles and laughter to their faces. It’s said that Nika had the power to make people laugh through being silly and whacky, in the same way that it makes us laugh when we see him in the story.

This is most visibly clearer in Nika’s own name, as “Nika” is one of the Japanese sound effects for laughter, one that can even be seen when Luffy first transforms into Nika. This joy meant so much to the slaves of ancient times, those who barely had any joy in their life otherwise, that they began to venerate this figure like a deity, calling it the “Sun God Nika” and praying that he could one day appear to liberate them.

Nika is described as a figure with a stretchy body literally made of rubber. There’s a slight misconception that Luffy has the power to literally do anything his imagination lets him do, but while his powers do evidently affect the way he stylizes things around him, he is still made of literal rubber, which is why he is able to be immune against lightning, for example. The Japanese version specifically states that Nika’s key characteristic was that his body was made of rubber, one that attained greater freedom when awakened, and thus stretches around like a rubberhose cartoon.

Nika is further described as having white hair, red eyes, and clad in white. This is particularly relevant as it is the color scheme also shared by the Lunaria race, as well as the color scheme attained by Sulong transformations and energy steroid transformations, which will probably bear some connection to all of their origins in the Void Century. Nika was also said to always appear to the beat of the “Drums of Liberation”, a funny rhythm that depicts him in the pose of a party dance, a comparison that has been pointed out to us several times.

Nika in turn bears a really close connection if not being the same person as “Joyboy”, a historical figure from the Void Century. We know at present that “Joyboy” is seemingly some form of title, as Luffy has been described as a “Joyboy” as well, but this was a title first attributed to someone who existed in the Void Century, someone who was very influential within the D. clan, the ancient kingdom, and its many allies.

Zunesha was said to be a comrade, or literally “nakama” if we go by Japanese, of the first “Joyboy”, even having a personal internal monologue with him, and Robin also noted an apology in “Joyboy”‘s name being recorded on Fishman Island’s remaining poneglyph. And of course, Roger attributed the One Piece treasure being connected to “Joyboy” in some form or way, meaning that “Joyboy” was very evidently a key figure within this ancient kingdom.

Ancient Kingdom and Nika

900 to 800 years ago, during the Void Century, we know there existed this kingdom which was described as “immense”, one that was incredibly technologically advanced, and one that had very progressive ideals of union and equality among races. This kingdom was then opposed by 20 allied rulers from human kingdoms, who banded in an alliance to overthrow this kingdom, and thus then establish the World Government to rule the world. These 20 kings were commanded among them by King Nerona Imu, who then became the King of the World.

It was through Imu though that we were given confirmation of what many of us suspected for a long while, being that this immense kingdom was formed by the members of what is now called the D. clan. We lack a lot of the finer details, but essentially the D. clan was a group of people, from many races and origins, who operated within this ancient kingdom and thus got themselves this D. initial in their names, its true meaning bearing some important significance, though allies that didn’t bear this D. (at least publicly) existed too. These D. clan members believed in what they called the “Dawn of the World”, an ideal of a hypothetical day in which the world is turned upside down and the world can be unified as one, which has led to many to widely believe that “Dawn” could be the meaning of the D. initial, one that would make perfect sense and almost feels obvious, but that’s still not confirmed so we’ll leave that as speculation aside.

Regardless, the imagery of the sun was very focal to these people, as particularly it’s been strongly inferred that the sun was the mark of their people, specifically a sun with eight rays or spheres, which can be seen across their emblems in all of their cultures. This mark is seen present in the flag of Alabasta, as Queen Lily was secretly a D. clan member, in the icons of Shandora, the symbol of the Kouzuki Clan of Wano, the mark of the Sun Pirates, the church of the Buccaneers, and while non-canon, also the people descended of the Birka in One Piece Odyssey. This is likely where the concept of the Dawn connects with the imagery of the Sun God.

After all, the Sun God was also revered by several of the allies pertaining to the kingdom, such as the Shandians mentioning a Sun God, and the giants of Elbaf also praying to a Sun God during the winter solstice we see in Big Mom’s flashback, not to mention the Lunaria race of the God Country also having a connection to Joyboy. The people of Fishman Island also believed in the ideal of all people living under the same sun as an ideal of equality and unity. As such, it’s evident that in their ideals of liberation, many of the people of the D. clan and the ancient kingdom believed in the Dawn of the World and the Sun God Nika as a figure that could help bring freedom and liberation to a broken world.

However, as it has been told, few records remain from that time, so Nika’s identity is much harder to prove now. It was described by Clover that the ideals of freedom of the kingdom was likely what the Government feared the most, which is why they completely erased all traces of information from the Void Century. After all, people only die when they are forgotten, so completely erasing any information would ensure that those ideals from this kingdom would vanish, but ultimately the desire for freedom persisted even across the ages, just like Vegapunk described, stating that much like Nika, people’s wishes always find a way to be born upon this world.

Nika: Reality or Fiction?

However, that’s where all of this is thrown for a twist, because we’ve ultimately come to be told that Nika… isn’t real. A historical figure who was referred to as “Joyboy” did exist during the Void Century, but the figure of the Sun God Nika, the Warrior of Liberation, does not exist.

We’ve been told directly by the Government that Nika isn’t real and never really existed, but that may be easy to dismiss since after all this is being told by the Government, who are prone to lying for the sake of erasing the truth. But then, the same was also said by those who wanted to believe in Nika, with Kuma stating that Nika is just a legend, someone who didn’t really exist, instead preferring to believe in people who could make a real significant change in the world like Luffy. And when you think about it, going back to Who’s Who original dialogue about Nika, even he mentions “Did he exist or did they dream him up?”, even describing Nika as simply a “legendary warrior”.

But nothing has become more obvious of Nika not being a real figure than Luffy’s own current devil fruit. Because we now know that Luffy has eaten a Mythical Type Zoan and Mythical fruits are a subsection of Zoans that let the user transform into creatures that never existed. Animals from Zoan fruits have been directly described as being “imaginary creatures”, fantastical beasts that arose from human creativity rather than already existing within nature, at least within the present of their creation.

As such, it makes sense that Nika was simply a mythological figure that people prayed to in ancient times. It’s why they prayed that he could one day come save them, because people in ancient times wanted to believe that Nika could somehow be real and rescue them from their suffering, whether it was out of denial or just sheer hope in desperation, in the same way someone like Bonney wavered about the fact of if it was too convenient for Nika to exist.

But as Vegapunk explained to us, these wishes and hopes took form in reality. Because devil fruits are the incarnation of people’s dreams and desires, and Vegapunk even directly compared Nika’s own existence to the way that devil fruits are born, claiming that people’s wishes for someone like Nika to possibly exist resulted in his existence appearing upon the world.

And so, it makes perfect sense. Nika was originally a mythical figure that didn’t really exist, but through the Hito Hito no Mi, Model: Nika, it was made reality, allowing Nika to exist in this world in some form by some user incarnating him. This would explain the correlation between the “Joyboy” of the Void Century and Nika, as “Joyboy” was seemingly the first user of the devil fruit and earned that title as a result of becoming Nika, as seen in the fact that Luffy is now called “Joyboy” as well for having awakened the devil fruit once more.

The Will of the Nika Fruit

We know for a fact that the previous user of the Nika fruit, the first “Joyboy” who had so much influence in the ancient kingdom, is now dead, and the devil fruit was reborn, which went on the run for 800 years. The Government attributed the fruit having a will of its own, as Zoan fruits seemingly possess a will, and the Nika fruit used that influence to somehow continuously run away and draw people towards it to help it escape. That would be until the present when it would choose Luffy, who ended up eating it. Whether that’s out of destined fate, or simply because it believed in Luffy’s dream, or if it really was all an accident, we don’t really know.

But it’s particularly relevant that Zoan devil fruits can retain a will of their own. This is how Vegapunk was able to develop the technology to make items eat devil fruits, such as Mr. 4’s gun dog Lassoo or Spandam’s Funkfreed sword, as the will of the fruit would be the part coming to life within the inanimate object. This is also something that is seen within Zoan awakenings; it’s been described that upon awakening a Zoan fruit, if the user’s will isn’t strong enough, then the will of the fruit will end up consuming the user, essentially taking over. It was explained this is what happened with the Impel Down guards, who if you remembered were described as awakened Zoan users all the way back in Impel Down by Crocodile, and it was later elaborated that they are users who failed their awakening, thus having their consciousnesses consumed by the animals, turned to brutish animal instincts.But in the case of a successful awakening, the user will retain control, but even then, aspects of the animal will manifest more directly.

This is the reason why Luffy’s personality has such a drastic change while in Gear 5th. Why he is always laughing even when the situation doesn’t call for it, why he starts saying random things like brining up the Dawn of the World or even mentioning lyrics from Binks’s Sake, because the personality of Nika is resurfacing within him. After all, Vegapunk mentioned how memories and core instincts developed through memories can remain within the bloodline elements, the genetic code of people, which would explain what is happening with Kuma as well, so it makes sense that the bloodline elements of the fruit would retain the will and personality of Nika that was created through the fruit, though we don’t know exactly how that came to be, whether it was artificially reproduced or came to be from someone’s own memories of what they believed Nika to be like.

But ultimately, we still haven’t fully answered our question. Who is Nika? Yes, we know he is a mythological figure that people in ancient times prayed to, and a figure that was incarnated by the first “Joyboy”, but even if he wasn’t real, what was Nika actually like?

Who is Nika, really?

And see, this is where the details that get lost in translation come to play in. Because it was stated directly by Kuma that his dream was “to become a hero like Nika”. Interestingly, it was also stated that this wish is literally the reason why the Buccaneer race, Kuma’s race, was enslaved, which would imply that the original “Joyboy” could’ve been a Buccaneer, and thus the Government sought to eradicate and enslave the entire race to ensure that didn’t happen again, completely ignoring the fact that becoming Nika isn’t something tied by race or blood, but likely more inherited will. This could even explain the Buccaneer-sized hat found in Mary Geoise, which would have fit a Buccaneer perfectly. But this is only implied, we are entering into speculative territory, so let’s stick again to what we know as a fact:

What really matters to us in this case is Kuma’s own wording: because he stated that he wanted to “become a hero like Nika”. But you see, the Japanese word used here is “ヒーロー”, which is literally the Japanese reading of the English word “hero”. However, like a lot of English words in Japanese, they have a slightly different meaning, like as a random example the word “cooler” not referring to a water cooler, but rather air conditioning in Japan. A lot of English terms have slight nuances in Japanese that change with cultural influences.

So in English we usually associate the word “hero” with someone who commits heroic actions, like a fireman, or a savior of people, and that still applies both in the context of Kuma and the Japanese context, but in that language the word “ヒーロー” usually refers more to the fictional cartoon kind. Particularly what we call a “superhero” in English. In Japanese this is usually abbreviated to just “ヒーロー” , whereas the virtuous hero that helps people we think of in English is usually just called by the kanji term of “eiyuu”. This terminology is particularly noted and differentiated even within One Piece, with heroes like Garp or Koby described as “eiyuu”, while a “superhero” like Nika is described as a “ヒーロー”. Though the words can be interchangeable in their meaning a bit, talking to any Japanese person or even just a quick google search will show you the different ways that people interpret these words.

So essentially, Kuma said that he wanted to be a “superhero” like Nika. Meaning that in other words, Nika was a fictional cartoon superhero. This becomes even evident when listening to Kuma’s descriptions of Nika in Japanese, referring to Nika as someone he “idolized” ever since he was a kid. And when you think about it, it’s pretty evident. The title of “Nika, Warrior of Liberation” is a superhero title, as we have a direct comparison within the world of One Piece, being “Sora, Warrior of the Sea”, literally written word by word with the same kanji.

Sora is a fictional cartoon superhero who embodies the ideals of the World Government, and given all the connections we’ve had between Imu and the Sea Devil, which I’ve talked about in the past, it would make sense if Sora embodied the ideals of the “Sea” itself, literally Imu’s ideals. But on the other hand, Nika is the “Warrior of Liberation, a fictional cartoon superhero who embodies the ideals of freedom and liberation.

This would explain why Nika is a mythical figure, because he literally isn’t real, he is a “ヒーロー”, a fictional cartoon superhero. And above everything else, this explains… why Luffy becomes a living cartoon when awakening his fruit. As Kaidou described, Nika seems like something straight out of a comic strip, it’s cartoonish and ridiculous, yet it’s those silly actions of his that make you laugh. Nika’s original story was a tale made to make you laugh, he’s a superhero who is meant to be silly and whacky, yet the joy that creates within you meant so much to those who knew nothing but suffering that they saw this figure as a salvation, venerating it like a god. Not out of fear, but out of appreciation because of how much it impacted their lives, almost like how One Piece has helped impact our lives as well.

This may also be why the first user of the Nika fruit, “Joyboy”, came to be known by that epithet, because “Joyboy” is a superhero nickname, much like Astroboy, Superboy, or many other similar heroes. I guess “Joyman” didn’t embody the whimsical nature of Nika quite as well, so “Joyboy” became a fitting title for this superhero who delivered laughter and joy by embodying Nika.

And so, I’ll leave you with one final thought. If Nika, embodied by “Joyboy”, is a mythical, or fictional cartoon superhero, originating from a story that only existed to make people laugh… then what was that story? Could that perhaps be the “laugh tale” associated to “Joyboy” that Roger witnessed, one that made him laugh just like we do when we witness Nika in the story…?

Well, that’s still all speculation. But I’m sure Nika’s own role in the story will become more and more evident as time goes on. As after all, Nika may not be real, may never have existed, but he still means so much to so many. Just like Luffy isn’t real, but has impacted and changed so many of our lives. These fictional superheroes may not have existed, but the impact they leave on the world could not be any more real.