Pole Shift
- The magnetic field goes haywire and compasses stop pointing north
- A massive impact — from a meteor strike, explosion, or similar force — tilts the planet’s axis
These are the two forms of polar shift that can occur in reality.
Let me explain by starting with the first type — which has already been depicted within One Piece.
Evidence That the Magnetic Field Has Gone Haywire
In this famous scene, two maps are overlaid to form a skull — but there’s actually a major contradiction hidden in it.
If you look closely at the compass direction on each map, you’ll notice something: there are two “souths.”
The Skypiea map was found aboard a ship that fell from the sky — drawn approximately 200 years ago. Two maps of the same island, drawn with the same orientation — yet the “south” direction differs. That’s proof that a pole shift occurred during those 200 years.
Incidentally, when a pole shift happens, whales with magnetoreception abilities become disoriented and sometimes beach themselves.
Laboon got lost roughly 50 years ago. So which compass era is accurate?
Speaking of 200 Years Ago
That’s also around when giant fighting fish began appearing in the waters near Green Bit.
If the fighting fish were also affected by the distorted magnetic field, then the pole shift may have started 200 years ago.
Perhaps the cause was the awakening of a Jiki Jiki no Mi (Magnet-Magnet Fruit) ability.
Someone Who Was Alive 200 Years Ago Would Know?
Has the compass direction changed over these past few centuries? Was there any incident, accident, or meteor impact 200 years ago that could have caused a magnetic reversal?
If only we could ask someone who was alive 200 years ago…
And right at that moment, Kid — who controls magnetism — lands on Elbaf, where 300-year-old giants live. Surely this is Oda’s setup to have them explain the pole shift?
Pole Shift in Manga and Fiction
In Osamu Tezuka’s Demon of the Skies, the villain’s evil science faction attempts to change the Earth’s axial tilt to warm Antarctica and build their empire there.
In Hayao Miyazaki’s anime Future Boy Conan, the world is set after a great upheaval caused by a super-magnetic weapon that twisted the Earth’s axis.
In Neon Genesis Evangelion, the Second Impact also shifted the Earth’s axis — leaving Japan’s surface in a tropical climate.
Many of the great creators Oda pays homage to have left behind works featuring polar shift as a theme — events that radically transform the Earth’s environment.
It goes without saying, then, that Oda will depict a pole shift in One Piece as well.
Jules Verne, Father of Science Fiction
Jules Verne — the founding father of science fiction, famous for Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea (the inspiration for the Disney Sea attraction) — also wrote a novel called The Purchase of the North Pole, which uses polar shift as its central theme.
It seems Oda is quite a fan of this author.
“Everything that a man imagines, other men will prove to be possible”
This is a famous quote from Jules Verne.
“Everything that a man imagines, other men will prove to be possible.” (Tout ce qu’un homme est capable d’imaginer, d’autres hommes seront capables…)
This quote is nearly identical to the words attributed to the physicist “Willy Garon”:
“Every event a person can imagine is a reality that can occur.”
In other words: Oda used a quote from a sci-fi author who wrote about pole shift in the prologue to the Skypiea arc — and in that very Skypiea arc, he embedded proof of a pole shift in the maps. He’d been dropping hints this whole time.
Hopefully that gives you a sense of just how important a keyword “pole shift” is in this story.
Using the “One Piece” to Tilt the Earth
Finally, let me think through how One Piece might end if a pole shift were triggered.
Kaido referred to the “One Piece” as an Ancient Weapon.
That suggests it’s a device so destructive that using it incorrectly could kill people all over the world.
In other words, I believe the “One Piece” is a device capable of shifting the tilt of the “Blue Star” (Earth) — triggering a pole shift.
If that device tilted the “Blue Star” by 90°, the Red Line would collapse. The two seas that had been divided would become one — and the title of the manga pays off as the ultimate callback.