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It has been suggested that this article or section be merged into List of One Piece characters#Straw Hat Pirates. () |
| Monkey D. Luffy | |
|---|---|
| One Piece character | |
 Monkey D. Luffy from the anime and manga series One Piece |
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| First appearance | Manga Volume #1-Chapter #1 Anime Episode #1 |
| Created by | Eiichiro Oda |
| Voiced by | Japanese Mayumi Tanaka Urara Takano (OVA) English Bella Hudson (4Kids) Colleen Clinkenbeard (FUNimation) Other Chuck Powers (Singapore, Odex) |
| Profile | |
| Nicknames | "Straw Hat Luffy" "Anchor" (Red Haired Shanks and Don Krieg) "RubberMan" (self) |
| Age | 17 |
| Gender | Male |
| Species | Human |
| Date of birth | May 5th |
| Occupation | Pirate (Straw Hat Pirates, Captain) |
| Known relatives | Monkey D. Garp (Grandfather)
Monkey D. Dragon (Father) Portgas D. Ace (Brother) |
| Bounty | 300,000,000 Beli |
| Devil Fruit | |
| Name | "Gomu Gomu" Fruit (Japanese) Gum Gum Fruit (English) |
| Type | Paramecia |
| Powers | User's body gains the properties of extremely durable, stretchable rubber. This allows the user to stretch their limbs and fold their bodies without pain. Blunt forces are cushioned and mostly ineffective, while sharp edges retain the ability to pierce or slash. User gains total immunity to electricity due to rubber's naturally high resistance. |
Monkey D. Luffy (モンキー・D・ルフィ Monkī Dī Rufi?) is a character and leading protagonist in the anime and manga series One Piece by Eiichiro Oda. He is the captain of the Straw Hat Pirates.
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About Luffy
The captain of the Straw Hat Pirates, he comes from Fuschia Town. Luffy had the highest bounty in East Blue at 30 million Belli after his defeat of Arlong, but the bounty increased to 100 million Belli after he defeated Shichibukai member Sir Crocodile, and again to 300 million Belli (on level with the Shichibukai members) after defeating Rob Lucci of CP9, demolishing Enies Lobby and declaring war on the World Government. Luffy is the son of Monkey D. Dragon, brother to Portgas D. Ace, and the grandson of vice-admiral Monkey D. Garp.
Appearance
His trademark Straw Hat (from which he gets his nickname 'Straw Hat Luffy') was entrusted to him by the legendary pirate captain Red-Haired Shanks. Eiichiro Oda has mentioned that the animal Luffy most resembles is a monkey.[1] According to Oda, Luffy is represented by the color red, and smells like meat. [2]
Personality and relationships
Luffy is the captain of the Straw Hat Pirates and, considering them his best friends, values them over all else. Even though they are all usually annoyed by his immaturity and simple-mindedness, they all respect him for his strength and his qualities as a leader. At first glance, Luffy does not appear to be very intelligent, as he often sees things in childish manner and can easily be amazed by the simplest things. However, because he views the world in such a straightforward and simple manner, he is frequently the only person who can see what should be done. He likes to poke fun at other's imperfections and character traits, even though he is usually no better than those he mocks. He also can be tricked by any kind of disguises, no matter how bad the costume is in keeping the person's identity (like Usopp's costume as Sogeking). 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, someone challenges his beliefs, makes fun of or makes light of being a pirate, or he is fighting a powerful opponent. Luffy seems to have an insatiable appetite, a characteristic that is common to the Japanese archetype of the (at times simple-minded) rogue with a heart of gold; perhaps hunger in Luffy's case has to do with having an elastic stomach. An interesting fact about Luffy is that when he eats meat, his wounds heal almost immediately and he regains all of his energy. Although Luffy is fairly lighthearted, he has an unstoppable sense of determination, optimism, and courage, and will do anything to stand up for his friends and comrades. Ever since consuming the devil fruit he has not worried about his inability to swim, much like his brother. Many of these traits are common among Ds. The only thing which seems to frighten Luffy is his grandfather; the mere mention of him intimidates Luffy to such an extent that he does not fight back.
Luffy never kills any of the villains, no matter how cold-hearted they may be; instead, he frequently sends them flying, knocks them out, or leaves them beaten into submission (consequently, it is not uncommon for Luffy's former opponents to come after him for revenge, such as Buggy the Clown and Alvida). Oda explains that it is 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 allowing them to live and see their dreams ruined is a far more fitting punishment.[3] Luffy's dream is to find the One Piece and become Pirate King. He knows that to achieve his goal, he will have to defeat many strong opponents, including the World Government and his childhood hero Shanks.
History
Luffy was trained from a young age by his grandfather Garp. Later Garp left Luffy and Ace in the care of a friend to continue his training.
Luffy and Shanks
When Luffy was six years old, he met a gang of pirates led by a man named Red-Haired Shanks. After befriending them, Luffy decided that he wanted to become a pirate as well. It was one year later that Luffy cut himself under his eye to show he was tough enough to join Shanks's crew (a scene that was never reproduced in the anime). He swore over Shank's hat that one day he would assemble a crew stronger than the Red-Hair Pirates and become the pirate king.[4]
During his time spent with Shanks, Luffy accidentally ate a Devil Fruit when it was left in an open case. The fruit, called the Gomu Gomu no Mi (ゴムゴムの実, Gum Gum Fruit, Rubber Rubber Fruit), turned Luffy into a rubber man capable of stretching, inflating, and bouncing back impact based attacks. Because Luffy did not know the nature of the fruit, Shanks and his crew did not hold the incident against him. They remained friends, but Luffy seemed to grow 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, he was beaten, held hostage, and almost killed by a Sea King before Shanks rescued him. However, the incident cost Shanks his left arm. Shortly thereafter, Shanks set sail along with his crew; before leaving, he and Luffy promised each other that one day Luffy would surpass Shanks and become the Pirate King. Shanks left Luffy his straw hat as a parting gift, saying:
| “ | "Do me a favor... keep this hat safe for me? This hat means a lot to me. Promise that you'll give it back to me someday... when you become a great pirate" | ” |
Luffy has since worked on upholding that promise, and Shanks' hat is his most prized possession. Luffy became enraged when Buggy and other pirates damaged his hat in their fight.
Straw Hat Luffy
As a child Monkey D. Luffy was inspired to become a pirate by listening to the tales of the buccaneer "Red Haired" Shanks. But his life changed when Luffy accidentally ate the devil fruit of rubber (Gomu Gomu No Mi) and gained the power to stretch like rubber, but at the cost of never being able to swim (although he had never learned to swim before eating it). Years later, still vowing to become the Pirate King, Luffy leaves his hometown. Setting out alone in a tiny rowboat, he started his search of the legendary "One Piece", said to be the greatest treasure of the world, to fulfil his wish of being Pirate King. Luffy has since worked diligently on keeping that promise and is known famously as "Monkey D. Luffy", " Straw Hat Luffy" or simply "Straw Hat". Luffy now aims not only to be a grand pirate, but to become the Pirate King. Most people do not take his goal seriously, until they see his incredible strength. While the exact details of his training are unclear, it is known that his grandfather trained Luffy for a time by throwing him into deep valleys, leaving him alone in dangerous forests in the middle of the night, and tying him to balloons over high altitudes, all for the sake of making Luffy stronger. Even the Marines started to take Luffy more seriously after he defeated the villainous Marine Captain "Axe-Hand" Morgan and several known pirates such as Buggy the Clown, "Pirate Admiral" Don Krieg, and Arlong The Fishman. A 30 million Belli reward was placed on his head after he defeated Arlong. This reward eventually became 100 million Belli after he defeated Sir Crocodile when the World Government deemed him a serious threat for beating one of their Shichibukai. After the events of Enies Lobby he received a bounty of 300 million Belli; this gives Luffy the highest known active bounty, and the fifth highest bounty known so far. 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 at the Baratie, to Commodore Smoker of Loguetown, to Admiral Aokiji and, most recently, with his grandfather Monkey D. Garp. Luffy has passed several islands on his way to and along The Grand Line, including Drum Island, Little Garden, Alabasta, and Skypiea. He has met many new allies, as well as making several enemies, such as Buggy the Clown, Wapol, Sir Crocodile, Enel, CP9 and the entire World Government. While on his voyage, Luffy also found out the identity of his father, Monkey D. Dragon, and that his father is still alive, details that before had been unknown to Luffy (in fact Luffy seemed to be unaware he even had a father) and anything about his mother is still unknown.
Recent chapters
Luffy and crew were captured by the island sized ship, Thriller Bark. Luffy's shadow is taken from him by Shichibukai Gecko Moria, and placed in the special zombie Oz. After coming to his senses, Luffy vows to defeat Gecko Moria and force him to return everyone's shadows to them. He confronts Moria, who utilizes his own shadow to keep Luffy at bay. Luffy captures the shadow doppelganger, believing it to be the real Moria, but it quickly flees back to Moria's side. The Rolling Pirate crew have confronted Luffy, claiming to have information vital to defeating Gecko Moria, and use said information to transform Luffy into a hulking version of himself, called "Nightmare Luffy"(see Other Forms).He then proceeds to confront Moria. Luffy rescues Nami and Usopp right before Oz is about to destroy them, and shocks everyone with his new appearance. Oz attempts to punch Luffy, but Luffy stops Oz's fist with a single hand without budging an inch. Luffy then punches Oz in the face so hard he flies halfway across Thriller Bark before landing upside down. Luffy then follows this up by 'German suplexing' the massive zombie with little effort. He beats Oz around for a while, countering all of his attacks, and is able to strike Moria with an attack. Eventually with almost no time left, Nightmare Luffy performs a Gomu Gomu no Storm attack, barraging both Oz and Moria with a devastating salvo of vicious punches. The attack hits home, and it appears that both Oz and Moria were taken out by the attack. All of the shadows leave Luffy, with him returning to normal form, asleep. Unforutnately Oz was not taken out by Shadow Luffy, since he can feel no pain. Luckily Luffy and the rest of the Straw Hats are still consicous to fight Oz. And they use their combined strength to trap Oz and set his spine vertically so Luffy could use Gear 3 to destroy Oz. Oz is still alive although he cannot move. Moria, then, absorbs 1000 shadows to become 'Nightmare Moria'. Unimpressed with the giant gecko-like monster before him, Luffy readies himself for Gear Second in a contest with time for the sun is rising. Using Gear Second, Luffy heavily hits Moria three times (with a Jet Rocket and 2 Jet Bazookas), but the demon still stands. He traps Luffy in a box of his shadow bats and throws him into the tower. Before Moria could celebrate, Luffy escapes and proceeds to use Gear Third with Gear Second at the cost of damaging his body. Luffy then uses a new attack called Gomu Gomu no Giganto Jet Shell to Moria's stomach. Moria is forced to hold his mouth closed to keep the shadows inside of him, however, Luffy's attack is so powerful that it shoots Moria into a large tower which proceeds to fall on top of his enlarged throat. The weight of the tower forces the shadows out of Moria's body. It seems that the shadows have returned to everyone just in time as the Straw Hats began to fade in the sunlight. However, another shichibukai, Bartholomew Kuma, has come face-to-face with the Straw Hats while Luffy remains unconscious, after receiving an order to eliminate all witnesses of Moria's defeat. Kuma has currently chosen Zoro as his first opponent.
Abilities
Luffy is the captain and is considered the strongest member of the Straw Hat Pirates with a power maybe matched only by Zoro. He currently holds the highest bounty of any pirate from the East Blue. In his present journey, he has defeated extremely powerful foes, such as Sir Crocodile, Enel and Rob Lucci, as noted by his extremely high bounty of 300,000,000 Belli, equal to the amount of the former bounties of at least two Shichibukai.[5] Many times he has survived severe injuries and massive blood loss. His skills, developed by the hellish training he was subjected to as a child by his grandfather, are backed up by his unstoppable determination, making him nearly impossible to keep down during a fight. However, it also seems possible that he naturally has superhuman strength, as Luffy himself is never seen training on the ship like Zoro. Luffy is capable of crushing steel with his bare fingers and breaking through thick bedrock with relative ease. His most astonishing feat of strength by far was causing two huge buildings he was stuck in between to collapse by simply pushing them away with his bare hands. Though seemingly dimwitted, Luffy is quite ingenious when it comes to combat and has shown great adaptability. For example, he figured out how to counter Enel's Mantra, found out Crocodile's vulnerability to water, and later learned Soru (a high speed movement technique) just from seeing it in action. Luffy is constantly developing new attacks to keep up with his foes, the most dramatic development being Gears 2 and 3 because of his loss to Aokiji. Luffy gained stretching powers from eating the Gomu Gomu no Mi, which is one of the rare and legendary Devil Fruits. After consuming the Gomu Gomu no Mi (English: Gum Gum Fruit), Luffy's body became rubber, giving him the ability to stretch every single part of his body[6] to great lengths. 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 virtually immune to recoil from these attacks, and blunt objects such as punches, and even bullets, reflect off him harmlessly. Being rubber, Luffy also resists electricity, which gave him an advantage while fighting Enel. Luffy also seems to be able to store large amounts of liquids in his body (such as water) as seen in his second fight with Crocodile. However, he is still very susceptible to sharp objects such as swords, but still has more resistance than normal flesh and bone. Luffy can also be hurt by physical attacks if they are powered with an emotion, as demonstrated by his grandfather and Nami. However, this fact is not definite; these attacks rarely leave marks on him. Like all Devil Fruit users, Luffy cannot swim. Even in his normal form Luffy has also grown very physically strong in the series, at one point ( In the Water 7 story line) he was seen knocking over 2 large buildings a the same time. Due to the fact that Luffy hates missing meals while asleep (especially after a battle) he developed an ability to eat while sleeping, as well as being able to figure out in less than a second how many meals he has missed if unconscious for a period of time (counting five meals each day). These traits also seem to be common with Luffy's family, as seen with his brother Portgas D. Ace and his grandfather Monkey D Garp.
Gears
Gears are a recent addition to Luffy's abilities, and are another example of his rapid progress in utilizing his powers more efficiently. However, both of his gears have huge downsides in their usages. It was revealed that this form was discovered by Luffy unknowingly in the fight against Ratchet during the adventure on Mecha Island in One Piece Movie 7: The Giant Mechanical Soldier of Karakuri Castle. However, the movies are non-canonical because they take place outside of the regular story line (see trivia for One Piece Movie 3 Chopper's Kingdom on the Island of Strange Animals for details).
Gear Second
After Aokiji defeated him, Luffy decided that he had to become much stronger if he wanted to pursue his dream and protect his friends. The result of his efforts was Gear Second, a technique first seen in Luffy's fight against Blueno. By creating excessive pressure within his legs to kick-start an accelerated blood flow, Luffy provides his body with more oxygen and nutrients, gaining a sudden burst in speed and strength, both mentally and physically; Lucci compares this process similar to taking a stimulant. Gear Second has given Luffy the ability to use "Soru", a technique of rapid movement. It is unsure whether this ability is latent or not. Luffy said he learned it simply from watching CP9 members fast paced movements "kicking the ground ten consecutive times in an instant". Luffy's attacks are likewise enhanced (he frequently adds Jet to their names to distinguish them); even superhuman fighters, like CP9 agents, have difficulty reacting to Luffy's Gear Second attacks.
While in Gear Second, Luffy's metabolic rate is so high that his sweat vaporizes nearly immediately, giving him the appearance of emitting steam, and his skin turns slightly pink from the increased blood flow. Since all of Luffy's organs and blood vessels are rubber, they can expand and allow the blood to move at the increased speed without the danger of rupturing his blood vessels and organs. Because of his abnormally high metabolism, Luffy's body temperature rises seemingly beyond normal, going past 100 000 degrees in gear form as seen in his fight with Don though this could only be non-canonical as the Ice Hunter Arc was just an anime filler. Gear Second is Luffy's preferred gear form as demonstrated by the potent advantage it gives him in combat, enabling him to fight opponents that are initially out of his league. However, Luffy can only use Gear Second for a short period of time since the accelerated speed at which nutrients are used up depletes his energy stores rapidly, leaving him thoroughly exhausted. The mechanics behind this enhancement also mean reduced strength and ability after significant use; with nutrient stores running low, having a faster blood flow would be quite pointless, since there are no nutrients to deliver. Luffy can immediately recover by ingesting food to replenish himself, as seen after the fight against Blueno. In the Thriller Bark Arc, Luffy learned how to utilize both his Gears conjunctionally at the same time. In a last-ditch attempt to defeat a gargantuan Gecko Moria, he combined both his Gears(Second with Third) into one specialized attack Jet Shell. By synchronizing both his Gears, Luffy attains matching speed and strength, adding more impact and assault to his attacks. Though sustaining and using both Gears simultaneously further exerts more strain on his body. During Luffy's fight with Lucci, a further downside to Gear Second was also revealed. Although Luffy's rubber form allows him to successfully perform Gear Second without killing him outright, its usability exerts a tremendous strain on the body, gradually shortening his lifespan. Although Lucci deems the technique as suicidal, Luffy shrugs it off, stating that saving his friends is worth the sacrifice. Although Luffy's initial inexperience with Gear Second led to a serious drawback, the force of this momentous power causing immense damage to his body, gradually shortening his life expectancy over time. With enough usage and acquired training, Luffy assures that his body will eventually grow accustomed to the form overtime and its drawback will assumingly be overcome.
Gear Third
To use Gear Third, Luffy corks his mouth with his thumb, bites into his thumb joint and blows very hard into it, inflating his arm. He is then able to transfer the air through his bones throughout the entire body, requiring the torso to act as an interface for his various limbs. Luffy blows so much air into his body that when it is all focused on a single limb, it becomes the size equivalent to that of a giant's.[7] Used with his already-strong physiology, this apparently gives his arm more mass and a larger area to attack with, but he sacrifices speed for this enhanced strength. The bones are the key difference between this form and his old "Gomu Gomu no Fuusen" move, where his balloon form was soft and squishy like a regular balloon, whereas the inflated bones are hard enough to withstand bullets, which was demonstrated when Luffy's inflated body was shot by several marine bullets, which harmlessly bounced off his body. He was even able to deal heavy damage to Lucci when he used his Tekkai using one Gomu Gomu no Gigant Pistol. The bones being much harder also mean a lot of compression of air takes place when using Gear Third, making Gear Third not just a "for-show" move, as Lucci initially thought, but like equipping Luffy with a giant mace of astounding mass when used in attacks. When he attacks in this form, he often uses the word Gigant before the attack, describing the giant nature of the attack. In between his attacks, Luffy brings the air back to his chest and then shifts it into another body part. To leave the Gear Third form, Luffy exhales heavily, propelling himself backwards.
The usage and deactivation of Gear Third brings about shrinking, which is a negative side-effect. The amount of time Luffy spends in his shrunken form is roughly equivalent to the amount of time spent in Gear Third mode. This shrunken form has shown no ability to stretch at all, and it has been shown that Luffy loses strength when he kept hitting Lucci's face to no effect. Apart from that, Luffy functions normally. To deal with this weakness, Luffy utilizes a "run and hide" strategy to avoid his opponent. Gear Third's effects were first shown when Luffy, who was chasing after Robin and Spandam, had to break down a huge metal door. Actual usage of Gear Third was first shown during Luffy and Lucci's fight at Enies Lobby. Recently, in a fight with Gecko Moria and Oz, it was shown that Luffy can inflate more than one part of his body by inflating both arms to unleash Gomu Gomu No Gigant Bazooka. Later on, Luffy used both Gears at the same time for one last powerful attack on Gecko Moria for Gomu Gomu No Shell. He has been asleep ever since.
Other Forms
In some occasions, it was made necessary for Luffy to either use his Gomu Gomu powers or those of others to drastically alter his appearance. So far, there have been only three notable changes.
Water Luffy
During his second-to-last fight with Crocodile, Luffy underwent a rather ludicrous change to "Water Luffy," although it was arguably not much of a transformation, as it was performed simply by consuming a barrel of water he was using to defeat Crocodile. However, as Crocodile soon proved, Water Luffy was not to be taken lightly. In his new form, Luffy was capable of launching large quantities of water at Crocodile in the form of gigantic bubbles, similar to the fishman Choo. Being stricken by these bubbles, Crocodile had a much more difficult time fighting Water Luffy, making him enraged, and causing him to lose himself in a furor against Luffy.
Afro Luffy
During the battle against Noro Noro Foxy, Luffy wears an afro. The reason behind the afro is that many characters believe that the afro gives a person an might amount of fighting power {Luffy, Sanji, Usopp,Chopper, Foxy, all of the Foxy Pirates, and even Robin believe this}. Coached by Usopp, Luffy took on Foxy and his noro noro beam. Luffy also wore boxing gloves and had a tattoo on his front in a shape of a burning skull.
Nightmare Luffy
After Luffy had been deceived into getting lost in the woods by Moria, the Rolling Pirates came out of the foliage and began explaining a theory they had that would make Luffy capable of engaging Moria in combat. The pirates found out that after zombies had been purified, they could capture the escaping shadow by hand. They could also put the shadow into a crew member, thereby augmenting that member's skills with the shadow's skills. However, the shadow will return to its true owner after 10 minutes. . After explaining, they proceeded to put a total of 100 shadows into Luffy, making him grow enormous in size and giving him a new form, "Nightmare Luffy". Although extremely powerful, the form "Nightmare Luffy" appears to have its drawbacks. After Luffy was injected with all the shadows, there was an apparent change in his personality, as he said he "wanted to fight so bad"-a desire uncharacteristic of Luffy normally. In fact, the lust for combat may have been so much that it affected his mind, as he accidentally charged off in the direction opposite the castle. Although, he does save Nami and Usopp from being killed by Oz.
In Nightmare Luffy form, Luffy is approximately 5 times his regular height, and much more muscular. His clothes are stretched taut, and he bears a sword on his back due to his fresh swordsmanship skills. His eyes have large eerie black bags under him, his hair shoots up as if electrified, and he holds a ferocious expression, in which Luffy truly does look like a monstrous nightmare.
Notes and references
- ^ 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.40 - Chapter 380, Fan question: What colors do you use for each the crew? What do each of the Straw Hat Crew smell like?
- ^ 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.
- ^ Grand Line Times -The level of bounty...
- ^ SBS questions: One Piece Manga - Vol.8 - Chapter 64, Fan question: Can Luffy's lower parts stretch too?
- ^ One Piece manga - Vol.44 - Chapter 421. Luffy explains the Gear 3rd.
See also
- Pirate King
- Straw Hat Pirates
- Red-Haired Shanks
- Romance Dawn
- World Government
- Gold Roger
- The Will of D
- Portgas D. Ace
- Monkey D. Dragon
- Monkey D. Garp
- East Blue
External links
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