What Does The Logo On Nika’s Shield Mean?

With One Piece quickly approaching its end game, it seems like fans are finally getting some answers to longstanding questions. Classic theories are being confirmed or denied, mysterious characters are having some interesting developments, and the ancient history of the entire One Piece world is being slowly unraveled. This includes information on one of the series’ most important figures, the Sun God Nika.

Being linked to Luffy, fans have been searching for any information they can get on the ancient figure, Nika. Luckily, with the introduction of the Elbaf Arc, the Giants and citizens of Elbaf have revealed far more information on the Sun God than ever before, including new drawings. One interesting thing that some fans have latched onto in these drawings is Nika’s shield, which features a strange symbol that may harbor a deeper meaning.

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One Piece Delves Deeper Into The Lore Surrounding Nika

Fans Get A Good Look At Official Nika Imagery

During the Elbaf Arc, with the Sun God Nika being an important element of Giant culture, the Giants reveal new information regarding the ancient being tied to Luffy’s Nika Devil Fruit. Mainly, the Giants reveal that Bika has multiple sides, both as a god of liberation and a god of destruction, leaving the figure up to interpretation whether they are good or not. Outside of this, fans are also shown the Ancient Mural, something that depicts an ancient event of One Piece’s past, involving a battle between Nika and Imu.

From this Ancient Mural and another drawing, fans were given new visuals of the Sun God Nika. In these interpretations, rather than being shown to be unarmed like usual, Nika is shown wielding a sword and shield. These more warlike interpretations of the Sun God are most likely a direct result of being an interpretation from the Giants, who prioritize combat and battle in their culture. Additionally, although his equipment seems fairly standard, Nika’s shield has an interesting symbol on it: a large circle surrounded by smaller circles.

Nika’s Shield Has A Strange Symbol On It

One Reddit User Explains The Significance Of This Symbol

• The Symbol On Luffy’s Shield May Be A Japanese Symbol
• This Represents The Celestial Bodies

While this design may seem fairly simple at first, in a post on Reddit by user dazzbones, the user points out that there may be some symbolism behind this One Piece symbol. Interestingly, this Reddit user noticed that the symbols on the shield seemed to line up with something called “九曜” or Kuyo, a Japanese version of the Hindu concept of Navagradha or the 9 Heavenly Bodies. In this concept, each of the circles of the symbol represents a different observable celestial body between the Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, and two Lunar Nodes.

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From here, the theorist goes on to explain that each of these celestial bodies may relate to a character in One Piece’s history. Mainly, with each body in Japanese translating to a unique idea. Specifically, Mercury translates to water, Venus to gold, Mars to fire, Jupiter to wood, Saturn to the soil, Uranus to king of the sky, Pluto to king of the underworld, and Neptune to king of the sea. From here, each of the symbols may represent both the gods of One Piece, and Ancient Weapons, Pluton, Poseidon, and Uranus.

The Symbol May Represent Important Characters In The Series

The Gods And Ancient Weapons Could Be Represented

To put it simply, the sun could represent Nika, Saturn could represent One Piece’s Earth God, Jupiter could translate to the Forest God, Mercury could symbolize the Rain God, Uranus could represent the Ancient Weapon Uranus, Neptune could symbolize Poseidon, and Pluto could represent Pluton. As for the rest of the planets, different concepts, like the Mother Flame representing Mars, are also possibilities. Of course, as is with most theories, the direct character these ideas relate to is always up to further interpretation.

However, this Reddit user has created a very in-depth One Piece theory that expertly dissects a seemingly nice detail in the world. Although this detail may seem a bit too in depth for one symbol, Oda seems to put a lot of thought into the symbology he has used throughout the series. Despite starting from a symbol on a One Piece shield, this theory could be another step forward into solving the true nature of Nika.

One Piece

Release Date

October 20, 1999

Network

Fuji TV

Directors

Hiroaki Miyamoto, Konosuke Uda, Junji Shimizu, Satoshi Itō, Munehisa Sakai, Katsumi Tokoro, Yutaka Nakajima, Yoshihiro Ueda, Kenichi Takeshita, Yoko Ikeda, Ryota Nakamura, Hiroyuki Kakudou, Takahiro Imamura, Toshihiro Maeya, Yûji Endô, Nozomu Shishido, Hidehiko Kadota, Sumio Watanabe, Harume Kosaka, Yasuhiro Tanabe, Yukihiko Nakao, Keisuke Onishi, Junichi Fujise, Hiroyuki Satou

• 

  Mayumi Tanaka

  Monkey D. Luffy (voice)

• 

  Kazuya Nakai

  Roronoa Zoro (voice)