“Five Monsters”: One Piece’s Five Elders And Their Powers Were Inspired By These Mythical Beasts

One Piece’s Five Elders have revealed the full might of their demonic forms, each based on fascinating folklore creatures from around the world.

SUMMARY

 The Five Elders in One Piece have monstrous mythical beast forms based on folklore from around the world.
 Each Elder has a unique transformation representing different Warrior God roles, and are more than ready to devastate Egghead Island.
 The Elders might not just be Fruit users but actual demons in the thrilling Egghead Island arc.

One Piece‘s terrifying Five Elders have revealed themselves and their transformations, and they are each based on a Japanese yokai or another legendary beast from other countries’ myths and folklore. Luffy and Dr.Vegapunk’s hijinks on Egghead Island hath summoned the wrath of the Highest Authorities of the World Government. While most of their monstrous forms have been teased, readers and Gear 5 Luffy finally received a detailed look at each of the Elder’s mythical forms.

One Piece‘s World Government has been a mysterious and dangerous entity throughout Luffy’s journey to becoming Pirate King. However, the Fiver Elders and the secret ruler of the world, Imu, stayed hidden in the background of Eiichiro Oda’s story for more than half of its run. Such a creative decision has made the impact of their arrival as monstrous as their appearances. YouTuber Artur – The Library of Ohara has released a helpful video about the Five Elders and the mythical beasts they represent, but there is more to discover below.

Elder St. Jaygarcia Saturn has been struggling to gain control of the situation on Egghead Island, with Kuma and Luffy standing in his way. With the threat of Luffy’s awakened Nika Devil Fruit and Dr.Vegapunk’s prerecorded message preparing to broadcast forbidden secrets to the world, Saturn saw no choice other than to summon the remaining four emperors. Chapter #1110 sees a double spread of all Five Elders in their monster forms, all based on legendary creatures from folklore and mythologies around the world.

The Five Elders transformations are primarily based on supernatural creatures, demons, or spirits from Japanese mythology, known as Yokai.

Gyuki – Warrior God of Science and Defense, St. JayGarcia Saturn

A poisonous demon from Japanese folklore

The first Elder to arrive on Egghead Island and reveal their intimidating transformation was St. JayGarcia Saturn, in his Gyuki (or Ushi-oni, aka Ox-Demon) form. Gyuki is a beast from popular Western Japanese folklore with many different stories and incarnations. However, they would usually be represented as a demon with a spider-like body and an ox-head. And much like St.Saturn, the creature is not one that people in the legends would want to come across.

St. Saturn’s Gyuki form has been shown to use powerful acid to disintegrate objects, but that is only one of the troubling traits the monster was known for. Different areas in Japan have their own versions of the ox demon. Still, many of the tales warn of a monster that enjoyed eating people next to bodies of water, like a beach. Once slain, its body and blood created islands and flowing rivers. The same legendary creature was also featured in Naruto as the Eight-Tailed Beast that resided inside Killer B.

Itsumade – Warrior God of Environment, St. Marcus Mars

A dreadful, haunting spirit from Japanese folklore

Each of the Five Elders is guilty of committing mass genocide, and St. Marcus Mars showed almost no remorse when sentencing the entire Kingdom of Lulusia to obliteration by Imu’s orders. Now, the Warrior God of Environment has arrived on Egghead in the form of a giant bird-like creature with a snake’s body known as an Itsumade. The stories from which Itsumade is made are the fuel of nightmares.

Japanese tales described the Itsumade as an eerie bird that fed off the misery of the dead. It would fly over villages suffering from widespread illness while shouting “itsumade, itsumade” which translates to “until when?” as a taunt to the living in hopes that they would become filled with dread when they pass, providing a fine meal for the haunting spirit when those infected by its chant perish. The legendary creature was slain by being shot with a hero’s arrow; luckily, the Straw Hat’s have a talented sniper who may do something similar.

Fengxi – Warrior God of Justice, St. Topman Warcury

A demonic, vandalizing board from Chinese mythology

The Elder who holds the title of the Warrior God of Justice has proven to be critical of those who do not take their roles in authority seriously. However, St. Warcury was one of the few Elders to pause and remind Imu that the Kingdom of Lulusia was heavily populated before they all decided to wipe it off the map. Still, the mythical beast that Warcury transforms into is one that is more than familiar with burning civilizations to the ground.

A Fengxi, or Hoki in Japanese, is a demonic boar from stories in Chinese mythology. The creature was said to revel in destroying entire villages with its multiple tusks and body engulfed in fire. While Warcury has yet to demonstrate his abilities, if the legends are any indication, the giant boar should prove more than capable of causing massive amounts of devastation upon Egghead Island.

Bakotsu – Warrior God of Finance, St. Ethanbaron V. Nusjuro

A ghastly, vengeful horse yokai from Japanese folklore

Despair, the pale horse of death by theDURRRRIAN

St. Nusjuro has consistently stood out among the other Elders with his large katana and samurai-like attire. As he is one of the highest-ranking Celestial Dragons, fans have assumed that the Elder owns one of the world’s rarest swords and has the skills to use it. Chapter #1110 proved that to be the case and demonstrated mastery of his hybrid transformation powers with a Bakotsu creature form, which translates into Skeleton Horse.

In a short amount of time, St. Nusjuro went from being summoned to Egghead and appearing as a haunting skeletal horse to traveling around the island as a hybrid between a samurai and a centaur. He single-handedly disabled nearly half of the Pacifistas, proving his incredible speed, power, and swordsmanship skills which may rank among One Piece‘s strongest.

The Bakotsu is a not very well-known yokai comprised of the bones of burnt-up horses, who seek revenge after death. St. Nusjuro seems to have ice-based powers too in his hybrid form. In fact, Oda seems to have modeled the creature after the Skeleton Horse of one of the four horsemen of the apocalypse, whose appearance marked the coming of death and had the ability to utilize the cold of the underworld to chill opponents to the bone.

Sandworm – Warrior God of Agriculture, St. Shepherd Ju Peter

The Mongolian monster that inspired Dune

Sandworms concept art by John Schoenherr for the Dune novel series.

The Warrior God of Agriculture has been another standout among the other Elders with his blonde hair and maroon-colored suit. He’s often been one of the more hasty authority figures, especially with his frantic actions to destroy Straw Hat Robin’s home filled with scholars, Ohara. After arriving on Egghead Island, St. Peter was one of the first of the reinforcements to try to attack Gear 5 Luffy as a hulking Sandworm, a mythical creature that’s seemingly spawned from Mongolian stories.

St. Shepherd Ju Peter is not only the most Western-sounding name of the Five Elders, but the mythical beast he transforms into, the Sandworm, is also a beast that is more popular in Western legends than the beasts the other Elders are from. With Denis Villeneuve’s stunning Dune films mesmerizing viewers worldwide, the Sandworm is a creature many have become more familiar with in the last few years. St. Peter’s Sandworm has already proved capable of digging through the earth at high speeds. Like St. Saturn’s Gyuki, the Sandworm has also been known to be extremely poisonous.

The Five Elders Might Be Actual Demons

When author Eiichiro Oda provides a proper introduction to important characters with Devil Fruit powers, he gives their name and their Devil Fruit’s complete names. Chapter #1110’s introduction had the chance but did not state that the Elders are Fruit users. Despite being capable of turning into mythical creatures, a popular theory among fans is that the Five Elders are, in fact, some kind of Devils themselves. More information about their true identities and abilities will indeed be revealed by the time One Piece‘s thrilling Egghead Island arc reaches its conclusion.