Monkey D. Luffy
Template:Infobox OPchara/Header Template:Infobox OPchara/Devilfruit Template:Infobox OPchara/Footer Monkey D. Luffy is the protagonist of the anime and manga One Piece. He is the captain of the Straw Hat Pirates (sometimes referred to as the "Luffy Pirates"). Luffy has the highest bounty in the East Blue with 30 million berries (Belli) after his defeat of Arlong, and increased to 100 million after defeating Crocodile.
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.
History
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 that he would be the pirate king.
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 arm. Shortly after, Shanks set sail along with his crew, but before leaving he made Luffy promise that one day he would become a grand pirate and left his straw hat as a parting gift.
Luffy has since worked diligently on keeping that promise and is known famously as "Straw Hat Luffy", or simply "Straw Hat". 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. But 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 "Saw-tooth" Arlong (Captain Kuro is left out from this because the marines believed him to have been killed by Morgan 3 years ago). A 30 million belli reward was placed on his head. This reward eventually becomes 100 million belli (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 Lougetown (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, Sir Crocodile, and Eneru.
Luffy attempts to rush the Gate of Justice, yet he is stopped by Lucci. He is currently fighting him, the strongest member of the CP9, in an attempt to rescue Nico Robin. Luffy has yet to land a clean hit.
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 and punches, reflecting off his body harmlessly. However, he is still very susceptible to sharp objects such as swords and knives. The rubber composition of his body also renders him essentially immune to electricity based attacks, thus making him the natural enemy of a Goro-goro (lightning) Fruit user, such as Eneru. 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).
Gears
Luffy has somehow gained the ability to "shift gears" into different forms during Enies Lobby.
Gear Second: Luffy and his attacks become much stronger and faster and he gains to ability to perform Soru. In appearence, the only changes are that steam emits from his body and his skin becomes shinier. There are many theories explaining how he achieved this, including vulcanization, but an official explanation has yet to be given. He first used this against Blueno.
Gear Third: Though the form itself has yet to be seen, it can be used to launch a powerful attack. As an after effect, however, Luffy turns into a childlike form for several minutes that seems to be unable to perform attacks. He first used this to break through a gate blocking the hallway Spandam and Lucci carried Robin down, which was in the tower Kaku cut diagonally (causing the upper portion to slide downwards).
Crew Relationship
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. True to his nature, he is currently fighting to rescue Robin, though he's trying to escape his opponent to get everyone out of the building.
Trivia
- In Japanese fan polls, he is constantly the most popular character.
- Strangely, all versions of his origin show that he was more mature and serious as a child than he is now.
- 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 and Saiyuki fame for example, which is Eiichiro Oda's favorite manga.
- 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.
- Luffy tries to impersonate his crew with Chopper and Usopp taking the laughs for it. So far he has impersonated Sanji, Chopper (with Nico Robin's help for the horns), Zoro, Usopp (with Nami's "help" for the nose), and even himself (albeit frozen) at one point.
- Luffy is 17 years old. His birthday is May 5th, which is Children's Day in Japan, an allusion to his childish attitude.
- Luffy is 172 cm tall, or 5 foot 7 inches.
- Luffy's older brother is Portgas D. Ace. ("Portgaz D. Trace" in the English anime)
- Luffy likes to eat all sorts of foods (and preferably lots of it), but he is mostly fond of meat,
- In Japan, there is a short movie that features One Piece and Dragonball Z joining forces to take down Eneru who tried to destroy Japan. Both Luffy and Goku team up to put an end to his evil. (See here)
- Luffy is a Taurus.
- He shares the same initial as Gol D. Roger, Portgas D. Ace, Marshall D. Teach (Blackbeard) and Jaguar D. Saul.
- Luffy is a playable character in Jump Superstars.
- He might not be as stupid as he appears, having attemped to use Newton's third law by using the ship's cannon to try and stop the ship.
- In certain conversations were Luffy is being explained something he tends to look as if he understands it but then refers to it as a mystery e.g. Alabasta arc, when he was being told about the dance powder.
