Monkey D. Luffy

Monkey D. Luffy (モンキー・D・ルフィ, Monkī Dī Rufi) is a fictional character and leading protagonist in the anime and manga series One Piece by Eichiro Oda.

About Luffy

Template:Spoiler The captain of the Straw Hat Pirates, he comes from Fuschia Town. He 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 and declaring war on the World Government.

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. His customary outfit is a red vest, blue trousers, and sandals. Luffy has a scar on his left cheek, beneath his eye, which he gave himself as a child to prove that he was mature and unafraid of pain. He has short black hair and black eyes.

Unlike the other main characters, Luffy wears the same outfit for most of the series. As he travels, he may change into clothing that is appropriate for the climate (as in the Drum Island or Alabasta story arcs). During the Enies Lobby arc, he wore a pair of black shorts, because they had pockets he could use to carry food.

Eiichiro Oda has mentioned that the animal Luffy most resembles is a monkey. According to Oda, Luffy is represented by the color red, and smells like meat.

Personality and relationships

Luffy is the captain of the Straw Hat Pirates and is best friends with all of them and values them over all else. At first glance, Luffy does not appear to be very intelligent, often seeing things in childish manner and can easily be amazed by the simplest things. However, because he views the world in a straightfoward and simple manner, he is occasionally the only person who can see past the events and see what should be done. He likes to make fun of other's imperfections and character traits, though he is rarely better. They are all usually annoyed by his immaturity and stupidity but they all respect him for his qualities as a natural-born leader and his strength.

Luffy seems to have an unstoppable appetite, a characteristic that is common to the Japanese archetype of the (at times simple-minded) young male hero/adventurer with a heart of gold; perhaps the hunger more so in Luffy's case due to having an elastic stomach.

Although Luffy is fairly lighthearted and a funny character, he has an unstoppable sense of determination, optimism and commitment and will do anything to stand up for his friends and comrades. Along with that, he has great courage to back it up as well as unbelievable strength. Ever since consuming the devil fruit he was shown to be not worried about his inability to swim, much like his brother. Much of these traits are common among Ds. His only display of true fear is towards his grandfather, to the point that he does not fight back and is intimidated at the mere mention of him.

Luffy never kills any of the villains, no matter how cold-hearted they are; instead, he frequently sends the villain flying, knocking them out or until the point that they are almost near death, which results in some of the villains searching for revenge, such as Buggy the Clown and Alvida. 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.

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 hands of a friend to continue his training.

Luffy and Shanks

When Luffy was young he met a gang 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. Luffy cut himself under his eye to show that he was tough enough to join Shanks's crew, a scene that was never reproduced in the anime. He swore over the hat of the captain of his pirate friends, Shanks, that he would be the pirate king.

During his time spent with Shanks, Luffy accidentally ate a Devil Fruit because Shanks left it in an open case in the bar they were in. The fruit is called the Gomu Gomu no Mi (ゴムゴムの実, Gum Gum Fruit, Rubber Rubber Fruit), and unwittingly turned himself into a rubber man capable of stretching, inflating, and 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 beaten up and held hostage and almost killed by a Sea King and was later rescued by Shanks. However, the incident cost Shanks his left arm. Shortly thereafter, 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. Shanks left Luffy his straw hat as a parting gift, saying:

"Some day, return it to me - as a great pirate. It's a promise, Luffy."

Luffy has since worked on upholding that promise, and Shanks' hat is his most prized possession. Luffy became enraged when Buggy damaged his hat in their fight.

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 Pirate King. Most people don't take his goal seriously, until they see his absurd strength. While the exact detail of his training is unknown, it is known that his grandfather had trained him for an unknown amount of time, by throwing him into deep valleys, left alone in dangerous forests in the middle of the night, and tied to balloons over high altitudes, all for the sake of making Luffy stronger.

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 Fishman A 30 million Beli reward was placed on his head after he had beaten Arlong. This reward eventually becomes 100 million belly 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 Beli, giving him the highest known bounty that is still active, and third highest known so far (one is known to be higher but its amount is as of yet unknown).

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) to Captain 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 Wapol, Sir Crocodile, Enel , CP9 and the whole World Government and has recently stated that he will batle Moria to retrieve his friends and the stolen shadow of Brook.

Recent chapters

Luffy and his crew have made it to the famous "Florian Triangle". A ghost ship then appears behind the Thousand Sunny and it appears to be ten times larger. Luffy then climbs up to the ghost ship with Nami and Sanji and sees a talking skeleton calling himself Brook the Gentleman Skeleton. Luffy asks Brook to join his crew, and Brook accepts, much to the shock of Nami and Sanji. But later, Brook refused his offer of becoming part of his crew since his body can't withstand sunlight due to lack of a shadow. Brook departs as the roaming island named Thriller Bark appears luring Luffy, absolutely excited by the prospect of another adventure, to decide to enter the island.

He, along with Zoro, Robin, Sanji, and Franky, are now on the island, where they met the same Cerberus that attacked Nami, Chopper, and Usopp. Luffy at first wanted to see if Cerberus was edible, freaking the creature out. He then decided to "tame" the dog by beating it into submission. He and his crewmates then met a zombie unicorn and tree, who tried to attack them but were easily defeated by Luffy and Franky. Luffy then tried to ask the zombies if they would join his crew, but were stopped by the aggravated Zoro and Sanji. Luffy recently fell victim to a horde of 'negative' ghosts, which temporarily robbed him of his natural exuberance, and causing him to pray for reincarnation as a clam. Fortunately, the effects were temporary.

Later he and his group were attacked by the same zombies that ambushed Usopp, Nami and Chopper. When simply pushing the zombies back into the ground failed, a new group technique, the '600,000,000 Beri Jackpot' defeated them instantly. Most recently, an old man (and zombie-lookalike) has asked Luffy for his help in reclaiming his shadow from the same Shichibukai who took Brook's: Gecko Moria.

After wandering around the mansion, Luffy realises that Sanji is missing and later Zoro. Luffy puts on a nearby suit of armor and ends up fighting several of the general zombies. Afterwards, he ends up getting captured in a large coffin and is being transported by chain to an unknown location.

Abilities

Luffy is the captain as well as the strongest member of the Straw Hats. He currently holds the highest bounty of any pirate from the East Blue. In his journey so far 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 Beli, reaching the amount of the former bounty of at least one Shichibukai.

He possesses tremendous, inhuman physical strength and endurance. Many times he has survived many severe injuries and massive blood loss in fights. His skills are greatly backed up by his unstoppable determination, making him nearly impossible to keep down during a fight. His skills were founded by the hellish training he was subjected to as a child by his grandfather. However, it also seems that he naturally has superhuman strength since all members of his family possess it and since he is never seen training on the ship like Zoro.

While seemingly dimwitted, he is quite ingenious when it comes to combat; he has shown to be capable of adapting into different combat situations. For example, he figured out how to counter Enel's Mantra, and learned Soru, one of the Rokushiki techniques, by seeing it in action, and found out Crocodile's vulnerability to water. He 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 has 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, Luffy's body becomes rubber, giving him the ability to stretch every single part of his body 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 bullets and punches reflect off his body harmlessly. Being rubber, Luffy also resists electricity, which gave him an advantage while fighting Enel. However, he is still very susceptible to sharp objects such as swords, but still has more resistance than flesh and bones. Luffy can also be hurt by physical attacks if they are powered with an emotion as demonstrated by his grandfather and Nami. Like all Devil Fruit users, Luffy cannot swim, though he could not swim even before he ate his Devil Fruit anyway.

Also, due to the fact that he hates missing his meal while asleep (especially after a battle) he developed an ability to eat while sleeping. This trait also seems to be common with Luffy's family, as seen with his brother and his grandfather.

Forms

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 weaken Crocodile and make him vulnerable by preventing him from using his sand-morphing ability. Luffy later swallows the entire barrel of water, becoming Mizu Luffy and able to use water-supported attacks.

Afro Luffy

In the fight with Foxy the Silver Fox, Usopp said that Luffy will gain strength with an afro. Believing Usopp, Luffy gets an afro in the battle along with a temporary tattoo on his chest and saying things such as "Hell yeah!".

Arm attachments

Twice so far, Luffy has had objects stuck to his arm. A wax cylinder when facing Mr. 3 which he used as a hammer and a massive golden ball attached to him by Enel. Luffy manages to remove the wax cylinder after using it to break Mr.3 wax barrier and successfully attacks him while the golden ball was used to destroy the Raigou and finish off Enel and manage to remove it after using Gum Gum Rifle Peony.

Gears

Gears are a recent development in Luffy's ability in combat, and are another example of his rapid progress in controlling his powers. However, both of his gears have huge downsides in their usages. It was revealed that this form was discovered by Luffy accidentally in the fight against Ratchet during the adventure on Mecha Island in One Piece Movie 7: The Giant Mechanical Soldier of Karakuri Castle, yet because the movies are not considered canon,as they happen outside the regular world of One Piece and several of them have even an ilogical happening in comparison with the regular series (see trivia for One Piece Movie 3 Chopper's Kingdom on the Island of Strange Animals for details), this information is also considered non-canonical.

Gear Second

File:GearSecond.JPG

Luffy after entering Gear Second

First seen in Luffy's fight against Blueno. He pumps his blood rapidly with his legs kick starting the process, increasing his blood flow, thus providing more oxygen and nutrients to various parts of his body which makes him faster and stronger; Lucci compares the process to taking a stimulant. In Luffy's case, all of his organs are rubber, so they can expand and allow the blood to move at the increased speed without stressing any one internal organ and causing it to explode. This mode's enhancements to Luffy's physiology gives him the ability to use his old attacks much stronger and faster, to the extent that even skilled superhuman fighters like CP9 agents are unable to react in time. In this form his metabolism rate is so high that his sweat vaporizes rapidly giving rise to a steaming appearance, and his skin turns slightly pink from the increased blood flow.

However, such a powerful ability is not without its disadvantages. Currently Luffy can only use Gear Second for a short period of time, because the accelerated speed at which nutrients are used up depletes his stores rapidly, leaving him exhausted. The mechanics behind this enhancement also mean reduced strength and ability after significant amounts of usage (with nutrient stores running low, having a faster blood flow would be quite pointless since there are no nutrients to deliver), as pointed out by Lucci when Luffy's attacks started to slow. A weakened user can immediately recover by ingestion of food and replenishing of his nutrient stores, as seen when Luffy eats meat to recover after using his Gear Second form against Blueno.

During his fight with Rob Lucci a further down side to Gear Second was also revealed, this being the long term damage it causes to his body. While his rubber form allows him to successfully perform Gear Second without killing himself it does cause degradation of his internal organs and circulatory system due to the increased pressure. However when it is pointed out to Luffy by Lucci that this is shortening his life he shrugs it off saying it is worth it to win and save his friends. However Luffy said that his body is not able to keep up with the increase yet, hence this may mean that he will eventually grow accustomed to it and not be affected by the weaknesses.

Gear Third

File:Luffy gear3.jpg

Luffy after entering Gear Third

To use Gear Third Luffy corks his mouth with his thumb, bites into his thumb joint and blows very hard into it, which inflates 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 they're all focused on a single limb, they become the size equivalent to that of a giant's.

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. 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. 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.

File:Shrinkenluffy.jpg

Luffy in his shrunken form

The usage and deactivation of Gear Third brings about shrinking, which is a negative side-effect like a deflated ballon. 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 but apart from that Luffy functions normally. A currently used strategy is to run and hide from an opponent for the duration of the shrinkage.

Gear Third's effects were first shown when Luffy, who was chasing after Robin and Spandam, had to break down a huge metal door, whilst the actual usage itself was first shown during Luffy and Lucci's fight at Enies Lobby.

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

• One Piece Encyclopedia - Monkey D. Luffy