One Piece: Is Kaido Joy Boy?

Eiichiro Oda’s One Piece manga is full of mysteries and surprises, which is not the least surprising for a manga that is more than two decades old and has more than 1,000 chapters. Some of these mysteries are bigger, some are less important, some have been solved, and some haven’t. The most recent episode of One Piece gave us a look into King’s and Kaido’s past while also discussing one of the series’ biggest mysteries, the identity of Joy Boy. And while manga readers will certainly know what happened to Joy Boy, the anime still hasn’t reached that point, so we can discuss it here. During a flashback scene, we saw that King and Kaido, back in the day, discussed Joy Boy and that King, at one point, thought that Kaido might be the legendary warrior. In this article, we will tell you whether that is true or not.

Kaido is not Joy Boy, as was confirmed later in the manga. King thought that he might be Joy Boy because of his strength and his willingness to change the world, but even Kaido doubted that he was Joy Boy, stating that Joy Boy would be the one who defeats him. King replied that that meant that Joy Boy would never come, implying that Kaido was invincible, but he would be proven wrong later in the manga, while Kaido would be proven right.

In the rest of this article, we will tell you everything we know about the persona of Joy Boy in the One Piece franchise and whether it is possible for Kaido to be Joy Boy, as King stipulated in the series. The article will contain some spoilers from the manga, so we advise you to be careful how you approach it.

Joy Boy is a legendary figure

Joy Boy was a figure that existed during the Void Century and played an important role in the history of Fish-Man Island. He was first mentioned in the Sea Forest Poneglyph. Joy Boy delivered Noah to Fishman Island 900 years ago, and the poneglyphs were invented 800 years ago when he wrote his apology.

This would mean that Joy Boy existed and was relevant worldwide for over a century. Joy Boy was also the previous owner of at least part of One Piece. About nine hundred years ago, the inhabitants of Fish-Man Island made a promise to a man named Joy Boy. He gifted them Noah, which will have an elemental role one day. However, it seems that Joy Boy couldn’t keep the promise.

The Fish-Man Island inhabitants promised they would keep Noah safe until a certain day came. In the aforementioned Poneglyph is a letter of apology from Joy Boy to Poseidon, apologizing for breaking his end of the bargain. He was also Zunesha’s partner. At some point, Joy Boy sailed to the final island of the Grand Line, leaving behind part of a treasure that would come to be known as the One Piece.

When Monkey D. Luffy was instructed to defend the island at all costs, even if it meant ultimately destroying Noah, the Fish-Man Island vow was partially broken during the events of the Fish-Man Island arc.

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. The ship was still seriously harmed, though. Later, the sea kings took the ship to the Sea Forest, where repairs would be made.

More than once, the title of Joy Boy has been depicted as a warrior eager to be released into the world. Oden said he planned to open Wano Country “before Joy Boy’s arrival.” After defeating Luffy a second time, Kaido said, “he couldn’t be Joy Boy either.” But was he correct?

Kaido is not Joy Boy, but he was right about his identity

As we have learned in Episode 1062 of One Piece, Joy Boy was a topic of discussion between King and Kaido a while ago. Namely, we know that Kaido freed King from Punk Hazard and promised him that he would change the world, so King followed him and became one of his most loyal crewmembers. Now, while the two of them were discussing Joy Boy, as King seemed to have some notions about who he might be and what he could do, a very interesting fact has been implied, namely, that Kaido might be Joy Boy.

Knowing his strengths, his determination to change the world, and the legend of Joy Boy, King thought that Kaido could very well be the next Joy Boy after the unnamed original holder of the title. Interestingly enough, King could not recognize Joy Boy, although he knew his story, unlike Zunesha, the giant elephant, the only character seemingly able to identify Joy Boy. Whether Zunesha actually met Kaido is unknown, but he certainly did not react to his presence, and Kaido was well-known around the pirate world.

Even Kaido himself doubted that he was Joy Boy, as he said on one occasion that while he is not Joy Boy, Joy Boy is probably the guy who will be able to defeat him; that is why he said to Luffy when he defeated him, that he was not Joy Boy. King stated that if that were true, then Joy Boy would never arrive, as he firmly believed in his captain’s power. But King was actually wrong there, and Kaido was both right and wrong when he talked about Joy Boy.

We won’t be revealing everything in this article – we wrote about this in a separate article some time ago – but we can state that Kaido was right when he said that Joy Boy would be the one who defeats him, but he was wrong about his identity.