One Piece has spent decades building toward one showdown, but the story’s own history says otherwise. Bleach walked this exact road first. Aizen commanded nearly the entire series as its central threat, plotting, scheming, and terrifying an entire generation of readers, only for Yhwach to arrive out of nowhere and reveal that the real war had barely begun.
Now, with Imu cornered in Elbaf and Blackbeard quietly making his move back home, Oda might be following the same script Kubo’s magnum opus anime series began portraying years ago.
TITLEOne PieceBleachCREATOREiichiro OdaTite KuboIMDb RATING (As of September 2, 2026)9/108.3/10WHERE TO WATCHCrunchyrollHulu, Disney+
How Aizen Ruled Bleach Before Yhwach Rewrote the Whole Story
Sosuke Aizen from Bleach | Credits: Studio Pierrot
For basically the entire runtime of the original Bleach, Aizen was the guy. He wasn’t just a villain; he was “THE” villain, the one every arc built toward, the one Ichigo trained his whole life to beat. Aizen orchestrated the Arrancar army, manipulated half the Gotei 13 without anyone noticing, and eventually fused with the Hōgyoku to become something close to unstoppable. When Ichigo finally took him down, it felt like the end of the story. Urahara sealed him away in Muken, and that was supposed to be that.
Except it wasn’t! When the Thousand-Year Blood War Arc rolled around, Kubo pulled off one of the boldest moves in shonen history. Yhwach showed up, and suddenly Aizen’s entire reign looked like a footnote. Yhwach wasn’t just another strong guy with a grudge; he was the Quincy King, the son of the Soul King, someone whose fingerprints were all over events that long predated Aizen’s rise. Aizen even got pulled out of prison just to help fight this new threat, which says everything about how the power gap was framed. The guy who terrorized Soul Society for hundreds of chapters became, in the grand scheme of things, just one piece on a much bigger board.
That’s the blueprint. The series didn’t waste Aizen; it used him. His entire arc gave the story stakes, texture, and a villain worth hating, and then Kubo revealed there was an even older, even scarier hand pulling strings the whole time. It’s a structure that rewards long-term planning over a quick, tidy conclusion, and 22 years after Bleach started doing exactly that, One Piece looks like it’s setting up the same trick.
One Piece: How Imu and Blackbeard Mirror the Aizen-Yhwach Formula
Credits: Shueisha
Look at where One Piece actually is right now – Imu has been built up for years as the shadowy figure on the Empty Throne, the true ruler hiding above even the Five Elders, and that build-up has finally paid off in Elbaf. Recent chapters have shown Imu stepping out of the shadows entirely, transforming into something massive and monstrous while fighting Luffy, Loki, Hajrudin, and Gaban all at once. For a character who spent most of the series as a silhouette, this is Imu’s Aizen moment, the point where the mystery villain becomes an active, visible threat everyone has to reckon with.
But here’s where it gets interesting. While Imu is busy in Elbaf, Blackbeard is making his own play back home, positioning himself near Mary Geoise while the Holy Land sits without its strongest protector. Notice a pattern here: every time Imu is distracted, Blackbeard edges closer to declaring himself the new power at the top.
That’s not a coincidence; that’s Oda setting up exactly the kind of rug-pull Kubo already pulled off. Imu gets the spotlight now: the transformation, the big fight, the horror reveal. But if Oda is really taking notes from Kubo’s playbook, none of that guarantees Imu is the one Luffy fights at the very end. Honestly, One Piece still has years left before its actual conclusion, and Oda has never been shy about long-term setup.
Using Imu as a devastating mid-saga threat while quietly building Blackbeard into something even bigger fits perfectly with how Bleach handled its own villain hierarchy. Aizen made readers believe he was unbeatable right up until Yhwach proved there was always a bigger picture. Twenty-two years later, Oda might be borrowing that same page.
What are your thoughts on our theory? We’d love to know your opinions in the comments below.
All episodes of One Piece are available to watch on Crunchyroll, and Bleach is available to watch on Hulu and Disney+.
This post belongs to FandomWire and first appeared on FandomWire
