One Piece: Who Was the First Joy Boy & What Happened to Him? Explained!

With the recent revelations in the anime, fans have once again, a year and a half after the original manga story, begun to focus more on the character of Joy Boy, a very mysterious and enigmatic figure in the lore of One Piece. Now that Zunesha has identified Luffy as the new Joy Boy, fans are once again wondering about the original Joy Boy, and in this article, we are going to tell you who he was and what happened to him.

Joy Boy is the name and title of a legendary figure from the One Piece lore. Joy Boy is said to be a warrior of liberation whose goal is to bring peace and freedom to the peoples of One Piece, as he would be the one to free them from all forms of tyranny. The original Joy Boy lived a long time ago, and his true identity has never been revealed, but he was a friend of Zunesha’s, so the gigantic elephant knows all about him. This is why Zunesha was able to identify Luffy as the current Joy Boy.

In the rest of this article, we will tell you everything we know about the persona of Joy Boy in the One Piece franchise, as you might have deduced from the title and the introduction. You’ll find out the known history and notoriety of the character, i.e., why the title of Joy Boy is such an important factor in the mythology of One Piece and why Luffy being identified as the current Joy Boy has a lot to do with his future role in the series. This article might contain a certain amount of spoilers, so be careful how you approach it.

The original Joy Boy’s identity remains unknown as of now, but Zunesha holds the key to identifying him

As fans of the series will know, Joy Boy is an incredibly important part of the lore of One Piece. The story of Joy Boy is a story of freedom and liberation, which is why the name and the title have such an important role in the series.

The title of Joy Boy is, as of the time of writing, associated with Monkey D. Luffy, who has been identified as the new Joy Boy by Zunesha in Wano Country. But since we actually know everything about Luffy’s new form and title, we won’t be dealing with him here. In this article, we will focus on the original Joy Boy, the first one (so far, only two people have ever been called that), and tell you what we know about him and his fate in the series.

Joy Boy was a legendary figure in the lore of One Piece that lived in the Void Century and significantly impacted the history of Fish-Man Island. He was initially referenced in the Poneglyph of the Sea Forest, which is the first time that Joy Boy was mentioned as a character. About 900 years ago, Joy Boy brought Noah, the ship, to Fish-Man Island, and about 800 years ago, so a century later, when he wrote his repentance, the poneglyphs were created.

This would imply that Joy Boy was a real person and had global influence for more than a century, which wouldn’t be too strange for the lore of One Piece. The One Piece treasure, or at least a part of it, had formerly belonged to Joy Boy, and his share of the treasure would make up everything that Roger would later accumulate and hide on Laugh Tale.

The people of Fish-Man Island pledged Joy Boy some nine hundred years ago, which is when he first appeared. Joy Boy gave them Noah, which would play a pivotal role in their history one day. It appears that Joy Boy was unable to maintain his word, whatever the details of this pledge were.

The people of Fish-Man Island vowed to protect Noah until a particular day, although we have yet to find out all the details related to this. Joy Boy later apologized to Poseidon in a letter found in the aforementioned Poneglyph for not upholding his end of the contract. At the time, Joy Boy was also a friend of Zunesha’s, and the two of them were well-know around that time, although information about their shared adventures is still quite scarce.

Joy Boy eventually made his way to the last island of the Grand Line and left behind a portion of the treasure that would later become known as the One Piece, which we have said above. The Fish-Man Island vow was partially broken during the Fish-Man Island arc’s events when Monkey D. Luffy was told to protect the island by all means, even if it meant ultimately destroying Noah.

A squad of Sea Kings that Shirahoshi unwittingly summoned managed to stop Noah before Luffy totally destroyed it, preserving Fish-Man Island and upholding the nation’s commitment to Joy Boy. But there was still significant damage to the ship. The ship was afterward transported to the Sea Forest by the sea kings, where repairs would be conducted. And with this, the known story of the original Joy Boy comes to an end.

As we have said, very little is known about Joy Boy, as Zunesha wasn’t really talkative about that part of his personal history. We know about the connection between Joy Boy and Fish-Man Island, but the identity of the great liberator has yet to be revealed, as well as his ultimate fate. It is assumed that he is dead since so much time has passed, but whether he was killed or died is still unknown, but we don’t have any doubts that Oda will reveal more details about the original Joy Boy later on in the story.