One Piece may have an interesting reason for Gear Five’s white coloring and the answer may lie in Luffy’s coloring in the latest volume cover.

One Piece has a genius reason to explain one of Gear Five’s biggest mysteries and it may have been staring fans in the face all along. One of the weirdest, unexplained features of Gear Five is that it mysteriously turns Luffy’s hair and clothes white. When Gear Five first made its debut in the manga, many assumed its official colors would be yellow, not white, due to the connection to Sun God Nika. The reason for Gear Five’s colors was never truly revealed but the cover of One Piece‘s latest volume may provide some answers.

Volume 108 of One Piece features several key figures from the Egghead Arc on the cover, including Luffy in Gear Five who is prominently splayed across the center. The volume cover garnered plenty of attention, particularly due to Luffy’s unique coloring, which is distinct from the other characters featured in the illustration. In fact, Luffy’s multicolored shading strongly resembles refracted light, almost as though Gear Five Luffy is made up of light itself.

This raises the possibility that Gear Five, or rather Nika’s true form, may not represent the sun but sunlight itself, which isn’t actually yellow light but rather white light, thus explaining Gear Five’s white color. To add to this, Nika representing sunlight could tie in with the Vegapunk’s hints about the Ancient Kingdom’s mysterious power source, as well as one of Luffy’s most curious powers.

One Piece Already Hinted at the True Reason Behind Gear Five’s Coloring

Written and illustrated by Eiichiro Oda

While it is possible that Luffy’s shading on the cover of volume 108 was simply a stylistic choice by Oda, there is the fact that none of the other characters featured are nearly as colorful as Luffy. Oda is also known to drop hints through color spreads that volume covers, which have foreshadowed even big twists like Ace’s death and the future Four Emperors. Hence, it may not be as much of a stretch to assume volume 108 could also hint at a fundamental truth about Gear Five.

The possibility that Sun God Nika embodies sunlight might finally explain how exactly Gear Five has managed to awaken the Iron Giant on Egghead.

More importantly, the anime also provides additional proof to support this theory. Upon closer inspection, one might notice that Gear Five gives off a faint white glow during the big battle against Kaido which is especially apparent when Luffy is pictured against the night sky. Even in the more recent episode #1100, when Luffy transforms into Gear Five on Egghead, his hair and clothes clearly appear to be glowing as they turn white.

The Ancient Kingdom’s Power Source May Be Similar to Solar Power

       

The possibility that Sun God Nika embodies sunlight might finally explain how exactly Gear Five has managed to awaken the Iron Giant on Egghead. When the connection between Nika and the giant robot was first revealed, it confirmed Nika’s connection to the futuristic Ancient Kingdom as well. If so, Nika may be the key to the Ancient Kingdom’s mysterious power source that Vegapunk failed to recreate, as well as what caused the Ancient Kingdom to fall.

In chapter #1068, Vegapunk describes his dream to create a world with abundant energy that is accessible to everyone around the world. Vegpunk describes this energy as existing everywhere around them, waiting to be harnessed, and that the closer he gets to harnessing this latent energy source, the closer he gets to the ancient energy that powered the Iron Giant.

Vegapunk’s description just so happens to fit that of solar power, which could be the mysterious power used in the past. If so, Sun God Nika, or rather his light may have been the source of energy powering the entire Ancient Kingdom and all their weapons and inventions, serving as the second sun Lilith mentioned when the Straw Hats first landed on Egghead Island. This raises the possibility that Nika’s defeat or capture during the Void Century could have led to the Ancient Kingdom’s fall due to them losing their primary power source and thus the ability to use their weapons during the long dark night.

Overall, Gear Five and Sun God Nika are still shrouded in mysteries, many of which are yet to be officially explained. Though fans eventually accepted Gear Five’s official colors, it is still difficult to guess the reasoning behind it, which could be something as simple as depicting Nika’s morality or something with greater relevance to the story. Regardless, Luffy’s Gear Five continues to surprise fans with its ridiculous powers and likely has plenty more surprises in store for the Final Saga of One Piece.