The True Identity of Pluton: A Homage to “Space Battleship Yamato”
Oda has consistently paid homage to classics across the manga world:
- Germa 66 = Shotaro Ishinomori’s Cyborg 009
- Brook = Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas
- Davy Back Fight’s three-round structure = Ghibli’s Porco Rosso
- Vegaforce-01 = Mitsuteru Yokoyama’s Tetsujin 28-go
Applying this homage pattern to the Ancient Weapons, the identity of Pluton becomes obvious: it’s modeled on Leiji Matsumoto’s Space Battleship Yamato.
The clues match perfectly:
- “The worst monster in shipbuilding history” / “the world’s worst battleship” — confirming it’s a ship. Probably flies too.
- “A single shot can obliterate an entire island without a trace”
- Sleeps deep beneath Wano Country
“A Single Shot That Annihilates an Entire Island”
The weapon that fits this description exactly is the Wave Motion Gun (Hadouhou) aboard Space Battleship Yamato.
Here’s the setup of Space Battleship Yamato:
2199 AD. Earth is under attack from the mysterious alien empire, Gamilas. With their forward base on Pluto, Gamilas launches indiscriminate planetary bomb attacks. The seas evaporate; Earth becomes barren and radioactively contaminated. Humanity retreats underground — but destruction is one year away.
Then, a crashed spaceship on Mars yields a message capsule from Iscandar, a planet 148,000 light-years away in the Large Magellanic Cloud — offering both a radiation-removal device and the blueprints for a warp-capable Wave Motion Engine. Earth secretly rebuilds the battleship Yamato — the real WWII Japanese warship sunk in Kyushu’s waters — and outfits it as the space battleship that will retrieve the device.
The Wave Motion Gun fires the Wave Motion Engine’s energy forward — essentially reversing the engine’s thrust into a devastating beam. Its power? It can obliterate a floating continent the size of Australia in a single shot.
The Thousand Sunny is effectively a miniature Pluton.
Franky had memorized Pluton’s blueprints — and couldn’t resist building his dream ship.
The Gaon Cannon is the Sunny’s Wave Motion Gun equivalent — a weapon that fires the ship’s energy forward. Franky literally built a Pluton prototype without telling anyone.
The Battleship Sleeping Beneath Wano Country
In Space Battleship Yamato, the ship was built underwater in Kyushu, and its maiden voyage began by rising from a Japanese ocean base — then flying through the atmosphere into space.
This matches Kozuki Sukiyaki’s testimony: “The ancient weapon sleeps in the depths beneath Wano Country.”
The real battleship Yamato was sunk in Kyushu’s waters during the Battle of Okinawa — its wreckage still rests there. This is also where the fictional Yamato was secretly built.
Why Zunisha Came to Wano in Preparation for “Opening the Country”
To release Pluton, the walls surrounding Wano Country must be destroyed. Zunisha arrived at Wano specifically in preparation for that moment.
Had Momonosuke declared “Open the country,” Zunisha would have smashed those walls.
But the walls aren’t the only reason Zunisha was needed.
Pluton’s Power Source
The Iron Giant — built roughly 900 years ago — moves on a “lost power source.” Similarly, the Moon City and Moon Robots lost their power source and were revived by Enel’s lightning.
Both the Moon Robots and the Iron Giant are powered by electricity. If Pluton was also built around 900 years ago on a world that had electrical power, it too likely runs on electricity.
So — how do you recharge Pluton?
The “Country-Opening” Clan That Guards the Battleship — and the Clan That Carries Its Power
When you think about the power source, the brotherhood between the Kozuki Family and the Mink Tribe suddenly makes sense.
Zunisha had two roles: break the walls of Wano Country, and carry Pluton’s power source on its back.
In other words: Momonosuke calls Zunisha; Zunisha destroys the walls; the Mink Tribe uses Electro to charge up Pluton.
Then Pluton launches — and Wano opens to the world!
If the electrical charge isn’t enough, Nami and Zeus might step in. And the one who pilots Pluton? It’s probably Franky — the only person who truly understands its structure.
The Wave Motion Gun’s trigger? That sounds like Usopp’s specialty.
Luffy, the true Pirate King, breaks through the atmosphere and goes to fight space pirates — is that a possibility?
“There can only be one king.” This line has always echoed through the series. Perhaps the one true Pirate King must eventually extend that reign to space.
