Monkey D. Luffy
Template:Infobox OPchara/Header Template:Infobox OPchara/Devilfruit Template:Infobox OPchara/Footer Monkey D. Luffy is the main character of the anime and manga One Piece. He is the captain of the Straw Hat Pirates (sometimes referred to as the "Luffy Pirates"). Luffy had the highest bounty in East Blue with 30 million beli after his defeat of Arlong but the bounty increased when he defeated the shichibukai member Crocodile to 100 million beli.
Luffy doesn't immediately appear to be very intelligent, but occasionally is the only one to see exactly what needs to be done. He has clashed with other eaters of Devil Fruit many times; he also has good friends who have eaten the Fruit that are not in his crew, such as Dalton, and Mr. 2 Bon Clay.
Personality and Relationships
Luffy is fairly lightheaded and funny character, but with a strong sense of determination and commitment and will do anything and stand up to anybody for his friends and comrades. Luffy is simple minded and can easily be amazed by the simplest things. He likes to make fun of other people's imperfections and character traits, although he is rarely better. Luffy seems to have an unstoppable appetite, even exhausting three cooks in a row (This characteristic is common to the Japanese archetype of the (at times simple-minded) young male hero/adventurer with a heart of gold, as in the case of Son Goku of Dragon Ball fame for example, which is Eiichiro Oda's favorite manga.) His favorite food is meat, and lots of it.
Being the captain, and thus the person who chooses the team, Luffy is on good terms with everyone on the ship. Luffy also has the rare ability to cheer up just about anyone with his antics, even pulling a smile from the serious Zoro and Robin. Usopp and Chopper, as the youngest of the crew, often join him in singing and fooling around. Nami often scolds Luffy's airheadedness, but he never gets angry at her, even when she manipulates him. He adores Sanji's cooking, especially meat, and drops anything he's doing for a meal. He is willing to do anything for his friends. Luffy also likes to imitate his crew members, and sometimes even himself.
In confrontation of groups of enemies, Luffy will normally pick the strongest fighter, who normally is the leader, too, and won't give up until he defeats him, even if it takes him several tries. Sometimes he even shows direct admiration of the abilities of an enemy, until he finds a way to outweigh his opponents strength. To the same degree, he will be angered if he witnesses indifference of a captain for the fate of his crew.
Luffy never kills any of the villains (no matter how cold hearted they are), he mostly sends the villain flying, knocking them out or until the point that they are almost near death, which results in some of the villains coming after him, such as Buggy the Clown. Oda explains that it's not a question of morality so much as a matter of punishing the villains for their crimes - he feels that killing the villains lets them off too lightly, whereas he considers letting them live to see their dreams be ruined a far more fitting punishment.[1]
Luffy's goal is to find the One Piece and become pirate king. He knows that to achieve his goal, he will have to defeat a lot of strong opponents, including the World Government. He is not frightened by this, but anticipates the fight.
History
Luffy and Shanks
When Luffy was young he met a band of pirates led by a kindly pirate named Red-Haired Shanks. Luffy befriended that band of pirates and from that moment on wanted to become a pirate as well. He swore over the hat of the captain of his pirate friends, Shanks, that he would be the pirate king.[2]
During his time spent with Shanks, Luffy ate a Devil Fruit (Cursèd Fruit in the English dub) known as the Gomu Gomu Fruit (Gomu = Rubber, renamed the "Gum Gum Fruit" in the English Version), and unwittingly turned himself into a rubber man capable of stretching, inflating, or bouncing back impact based attacks. Because Luffy didn't know the nature of the fruit, they remained friends, but after that Luffy seemed to be even more defensive of Shanks's seemingly meek band of pirates.
After Luffy stood up to Higuma the Bear, a local mountain bandit that insulted Shanks and his crew, Luffy got caught up in a hostage situation and was later rescued by Shanks. However the incident cost Shanks his left arm. Shortly after, Shanks set sail along with his crew, but before leaving he and Luffy promised each other that one day Luffy would surpass Shanks and become the Pirate King and then Shanks left Luffy his straw hat as a parting gift.
Straw Hat Luffy
Luffy has since worked diligently on keeping that promise and is known famously as "Monkey D Luffy", or simply "Straw Hat Luffy". Luffy now aims not only to be a grand pirate, but to become King of the Pirates. Most people don't take his goal seriously, until they see his absurd strength; although we never surely know how he got to be so strong or how he trained in the ten years of his training.
Even the Marines started to take him more seriously after he defeated the villainous Marine Captain "Axe-Hand" Morgan and several known pirates such as Captain Buggy the Clown, "Pirate Admiral" Don Krieg, and Arlong The Merman (Captain Kuro is left out from this because the marines believed him to have been killed by Morgan 3 years ago). A 30 million beli reward was placed on his head after he had beaten Arlong. This reward eventually becomes 100 million beli (berrie in the English version) after he defeated Sir Crocodile when the World Government deemed him a serious threat for beating one of their Shichibukai.
During his voyage, Luffy has had a few meetings with the Marines, from the not-too serious looking return of Ironfist Fullbody (whom Luffy met first by the Baratie) and Captain Smoker (Captain Chaser in the English anime) of Loguetown (Roguetown in the English dub), to Admiral Aokiji.
Luffy has passed several islands on his way to and along The Grand Line, including Drum Island, Alabasta, and Skypiea. He has met many new allies, as well as making several enemies, such as Wapol, Crocodile, and Enel.
Recent Chapters
Luffy has activated Gear 2 and manages to hold off Lucci long enough for Franky to get past safely and rescue Robin. With Gear 2 active, Lucci seemed to be outpowered, since he can't even hit Luffy once. Lucci then uses Rankyaku to destroy the room where they're fighting and flood it, which is also meant to kill everyone else in the tunnel. Lucci tries to escape, and once the two get to a safer location, Luffy's Gear 2 has begun to wear off, allowing Lucci to turn the tables, so that he is making all the hits. Luffy then activates Gear 3 and apparently defeats him.
Abilities and powers
Luffy has gained extraordinary stretching powers from eating a legendary treasure called the Gomu-Gomu Fruit (Gum-Gum Fruit in the English version). If a person eats one of the Devil Fruits, he gains powers beyond the norm but becomes unable to swim. After consuming the Gomu-Gomu fruit, Luffy's body becomes like rubber, giving him the ability to stretch long distances. Having trained hard for ten years, Luffy is able to supplement his stretching powers with immense strength, agility, and creativity in combat. His strength is probably not an effect of the Gomu-Gomu Fruit, as he does not display unusual strength in his battle with Higuma the Bear.
Luffy uses his stretching power in ingenious ways. He is able to use the malleable stretchiness of his limbs to gain tremendous velocity and hit enemies with devastating impact. His rubber body is also virtually immune to blunt objects such as bullets, punches and electricity (which gave him an advantage while fighting Eneru) reflecting off his body harmlessly. However, he is still very susceptible to sharp objects such as swords and knives. He can not only use his ability to increase the range and strength of his attacks, but he can also use it to restrain and even control foes like puppets.
Some of his more common attacks are the Gomu Gomu no Pistol/Gum Gum Blast (a stretching punch) and Gomu Gomu Bazooka/Gum Gum Double Barrel (Luffy sends his arms back a long distance and snaps them back for a powerful hit). Also, in the manga, they use the japanese names, only with Gum Gum (Gum Gum Pistol, Gum Gum Gatling Gun, etc.)
Forms
Afro Luffy: In the fight with Foxy the Silver Fox, Usopp said Luffy will gain strength with an afro. Luffy gets an afro believing Usopp in the battle along with a temporary tattoo on his chest along with saying things such as "Hell yeah".
Mizu Luffy (Water Luffy): In the fight with Sir Crocodile, the leader of Baroque Works, Luffy used a barrel filled with water, in order to wetten Crocodile and make him vulnerable by disabling to use his sand-morphing ability. Luffy later swallows the entire barrel of water, becoming Mizu Luffy and able to use water-supported attacks.
Gears
Gears refer to the shifting of car gears; as the driver shifts to higher gears on a car, the cylinders in the engine pump faster, thus burning more gasoline and allowing the wheels to rotate faster. In Luffys case, he doesn't have an engine with cylinders, so he uses his legs as pumps, and he does not pump gasoline, but rather air, that then forces pressure on his heart to pump blood at a much faster rate; Lucci compares the process to taking a stimulant.
Gear Second
First seen in Luffy's fight against Blueno, he pumps air through his legs, incresing his blood pressure which makes him faster and stronger. This mode also gives a new set attacks which are generally the same as his old ones but now are so fast that even a skilled assassin would have a hard time actually seeing them. In this form smoke seems to come out of him and his skin turns slightly pink.
Gear Third
First seen in Luffy's fight against Lucchi (However he used it first against a huge door that was in his way, it is not acutally seen, though.) Luffy bites a bit of skin off and blows air in through there, but in stead of inflating his skin, he actually inflates the bones in wherever he's blowing and increases the mass of it so much that it look like a giant's arm, leg or an other body part and therefore probably has the strength of giant if not more so. After he finishes his attack, he turns into a childlike form of himself for a few moments before turning back to normal.
Luffy's Relatives
Luffy's relatives are still shrouded in mystery. Luffy meets his other older brother, Portgas D. Ace, in Alabasta. Ace, a.k.a. "Fire Fist" Ace, has eaten the Mera Mera (Fire Fire, "Flare Flare" in the English dub) Fruit and thus can manipulate fire at will. After Luffy and his crew land on Long Island, Admiral Aokiji relates meeting Luffy's grandfather. Though no details about him were given, it was the only time Luffy has ever appeared genuinely afraid. In the original version planned, Luffy's grandfather was the one shown giving Luffy his straw hat. It is speculated by fans that Luffy's grandfather is either Gol D. Roger or Jaguar D. Saul, although Saul is a giant. There is also evidence that Luffy's middle initial "D." is a key element in uncovering the identity of his relatives. He might also be related to Marshall D. Teach (Blackbeard).
Trivia
- In Japanese fan polls, Luffy always triumphs as the most popular character; the victory is generally a landslide. In a recent 4Kids character poll, he is the fifth most popular character.
- Strangely, all versions of his origin show that he was more mature and serious as a child than he is now. The only times Luffy acts mature or serious is when his friends are in danger or he is fighting a powerful opponent.
- Even before eating the Gomu Gomu Fruit, Luffy could not swim and was affectionately nicknamed "Anchor" by Shanks' crew.
- In the manga it is explained that the scar on Luffy's left eye was self-inflicted when, as a child, he cut himself with a knife to prove his courage to Shanks. It is the very first thing Luffy does in the manga. In the anime, the scene was omitted (even in the original Japanese version) for fear that children might try to imitate Luffy's stunt. Thus, the scar's origin is never explained in the anime.
- According to Oda, Luffy most resembles a monkey.[3]
- He might not be as stupid as he appears, having attempted to use Newton's third law by using the ship's cannon to try and stop the ship. Moreover, during the Roguetown Arc, Smoker comments that Luffy "enjoys playing stupid", to which Luffy responds with nothing more than a mysterious smile. He often sees the solutions to problems before everyone else sees them.
- One of Oda's more mature SBS questions asked if Luffy's lower regions were also made of rubber. Oda replied 'yes' since as a rubber man every part of Luffy's body was made of rubber.[4]
References
- ^ SBS questions: One Piece Manga - Vol.4 - Chapter 30, Fan question: Why doesn't Luffy kill his enemies?
- ^ One Piece - Episode 04 and One Piece manga - Vol.1 - Chapter 1. Shanks and Luffy's history
- ^ SBS questions: One Piece Manga - Vol.20 - Chapter 177, Fan question: What animals represent each of the 5 crew members, Luffy, Zoro, Sanji, Nami and Ussop?
- ^ SBS questions: One Piece Manga - Vol.8 - Chapter 64, Fan question: Can Luffy's lower parts stretch too?
See also
- King of the Pirates
- Straw Hat Pirates
- Red-Haired Shanks
- Romance Dawn
- World Government
- Gold Roger
- The Will of D
- Portgas D. Ace
- East Blue
External links
- Ikou! The Luffy Fanlisting
- Words in the wind, a Shanks and Luffy fan listing
- Challenge Life, a Monkey D. Luffy and Portugas D. Ace fanlisting
