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 a bit naive, a little bit stupid and can easily be amazed by the simplest things such as a windmill on a hat. 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'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.
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. 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 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, Sir Crocodile, and Eneru.
Recent Chapters
Currently Luffy and the Straw Hats have invaded the government island Enies Lobby to rescue their crewmate, Nico Robin, who had willingly given herself up to the government for their safety (though the deal for this turned out to be a lie). After battling his way through thousands of marine and agents not to mention defeating the CP9 member Blueno, Luffy and his crew catch up. Luffy declared war on the World Governement and the Straw Hats crashed into the Tower of Justice where Robin is being held. While his crewmates battle the remaining CP9 to attain the key to her seastone cuffs. Luffy is sent ahead to retrieve Robin and manages to catch up with her captors, but he is currently being held back by CP9's strongest member, Lucci, as Spandam continues forward with Robin captive.
Luffy is still currently fighting Lucci, however Franky has now arrived. Despite being on bad terms with the cyborg earlier in the story arc, Luffy asks him to go on ahead and rescue Robin while he deals with Lucci. Luffy has activated Gear 2 and manages to hold off Lucci long enough for Franky to breach the gate separating them and Robin.
With Gear 2 activate, Lucci seemed to be outpowered, since he can't even hit Luffy once. So he uses Rankyaku to destroy the room where they're fighting and flood it.
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.)
Enemies defeated
Luffy never kills any of the villains he encounters (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 expains 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.
- Alvida
- Helmeppo
- Mohji
- Buggy the Clown
- Captain Kuro
- Don Krieg
- Momoo
- Arlong
- Mr. 3
- Wapol
- Sir Crocodile
- Bellamy the Hyena
- Eneru
- Foxy the Silver Fox
- Blueno
From One Piece Filler
People that defeated Luffy
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. However, 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.
- Luffy is a playable character in Jump Superstars.
- 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 Loguetown 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.
See also
Other Appearances
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)