Major spoilers for One Piece chapters 179-181 below!
Ok lets get things straight its analysis time. I have a hill I'm willing to die on.
This fucker doesn't actually look like that ^
Why? Well. First off, the shillouette doesn't match up. And yes, I know, Oda's original shilouettes are often misleading compared to the final character designs, but thats not whats going on here. For Loki and Kaido, those shilouettes were both presented hundreds of chapters before their debut, and they were people imagining what the characters looked like. For Imu, his (their?) debut was physical. They were shadowed, but that was their actual real body. Second, look at Imu's shilouette body even from the chapter this design dropped.
The shoulders aren't NEARLY broad enough. And look at that wrist! It's skinny! There's no way in hell this could physically be the same built guy we see only panels later. And obviously, Oda knew what the design was going to be at this point.
Second! We know that Imu already has at least some control over his appearance. When he fights Loki, he grows to the size of a giant. He seems to be able to summon and disappear his massive wings at will. And when he first arrives at Elbaf, he seems to undergo some kind of painful physical transformation.
Not to mention when he seems to turn into this giant, horrifying thing when facing down Sabo???
It seems to go a bit beyond a normal Zoan transformation. Maybe he just has more control, like Luffy or Chopper. Not neccesarilly full-on shape shifting, but certainly enough to change his appearance to a degree.
Third, hey Imu, we know what you look like so why are you still a shillouette in this flashback?
You could argue its just because the original Joy Boy is a shillouette too, but notice that Imu's shillouette isn't his demon pretty boy one. Its his veiled persona. Almost like that's a "true form" that he would've used in a casual conversation like this seemed to be. And notably, a true form that the author still wants to keep hidden.
Fourth. The design is too cool. This ones less of a concrete point, but I still think its important. He looks like goddamned Sephiroth. Handsome, scary, way-over the top outfit, not a single "quirky" or "joke" element in his design. Its not very One Piece like. And that all makes sense if you imagine that this appearance is one Imu designed for himself. Its his ultra-edgy unbeatable self-insert OC.
And that makes it interesting in parallel with Nika, doesn't it? Nika is a clown, his power comes from laughter, while Imu's appearance begs you to take him uber-seriously. There's something really pathetic about a scrawny guy who hides in his room and stabs photos of people he doesn't like trying desperately to present himself as shadow the hedgehog. Its fascinating, and it makes me really interested where hes gonna end up as a villain.
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