Oda's inspiration for One Piece's Final Saga & more may come from a legendary science-fiction film

Throughout the numerous theories in the past, it could be established that One Piece has numerous inspirations from various forms of media, be it movies, manga series, and mythologies.

Where the origins of the ruler of the World Government, Imu, could be related to Voodoo and Japanese mythology, their powers could be related to Sauron from the Lord of the Rings. Moreover, where the Iron Giant's origins could be related to Talos from Greek mythology, the four Gods of the Skypiea Island could be related to four mythologies, indicating that One Piece is full of references.

But there could exist an even more obvious inspiration in One Piece related to the powers of Luffy's awakened devil fruit and the final saga of the series. This inspiration could be Keanu Reeves' The Matrix movie, more specifically, its first part.

Disclaimer: This article contains the author's opinion and contains potential spoilers for the One Piece manga series.

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Exploring the relationship between The Matrix and One Piece

Keanu Reeves as seen in The Matrix (Image via Warner Bros)

The Matrix is a sci-fi movie series of which the first part was released in 1999. The movie starred some of the best acting cast at that time, with the spotlight on Canadian actor, Keanu Reeves, who acted as the main protagonist, Thomas Anderson (alias: Neo). The film series was directed by the Wachowskis sisters.

The synopsis of this movie was centered around the war between Artificial Intelligence and humanity, as the former had trapped the latter inside a simulation called the matrix. The scenes in this film showcase Neo with the power to convert everything around him into rubber.

Luffy as seen in the anime (Image via Toei Animation)

In the film, Neo tries to touch a mirror but it is converted into rubber and his fingers bounce back. Later, Neo tried to jump from a building but failed and fell onto the road. However, instead of getting hurt, the road is converted into rubber and he bounces back. This could indicate that Neo's powers could be an inspiration behind the awakened devil fruit of Monkey D. Luffy.

Luffy awakened his devil fruit, the mythical Zoan Human-Human devil fruit during his fight with Kaido. This gave him the ability to transform everything around him into rubber, just like Neo.

Vegapunk York as seen in the anime (Image via Toei Animation)

Cypher is a person released from the Matrix but doesn't want to abandon the lavish life he had inside the Matrix and decides to go back. He later betrays the Nebuchadnezzar, the protagonist's group, to aid Agent Smith, a program of the Matrix. He could be considered a parallel to York, the traitor of Egghead Island, who wanted to achieve the status of a Celestial Dragon and enjoy life.

Lastly, all the agents, like Agent Smith, who were programmed by the Matrix to prevent humans from escaping it, were created by the Architect and were controlled by him. The Architect and the agents could be parallels to Imu and the Five Elders who are currently fighting on Egghead on the orders of the Imu, as speculated by fans.

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Animatrix and the mysteries of One Piece

Animatrix is an anime film released in 2003 based on The Matrix's lore. The anime film has a lot of references to the mysteries of One Piece. The eye of Imu as the eye of AI, the B1-66-ER robot as the fortified human beings created by German 66, the movie is filled with references to Oda's work.

The most mind-boggling reference could be the scene where an apple was converted into a brain inside the film, which could be parallel to the scene in One Piece where an apple converts into a devil fruit.

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