Monkey D. Luffy

Monkey D. Luffy (モンキー・D・ルフィ, Monkī D. Rufi) is the main character of the anime and manga One Piece.

About Luffy

Template:Spoiler He is the captain of the Straw Hat Pirates (occasionally referred to as the "Luffy Pirates") and comes from Fuschia Town. Luffy had the highest bounty in the East Blue with 30 million Beli after his defeat of Arlong, but the bounty increased to 100 million Beli when he defeated one of the Shichibukai (Seven Warlords of the Sea) member Sir Crocodile, and again to 300,000,000 after Enies Lobby and his entanglement with CP9 member Rob Lucci.

He has clashed with other Devil Fruit users many times; he has also made many good friends who have eaten the Fruit but are not part of his crew, such as Dalton, and Mr. 2 Bon Clay. His favorite food is any kind of meat. it seems he tries to avoid alcohol, since he's underage.

In Japanese fan polls, Luffy is always the most popular character. However, in a recent 4Kids character poll, he was named the 2nd most popular character.

Appearance

Luffy is renowned for wearing his trademark Straw Hat (in which he gets his nickname 'Straw Hat Luffy' from) which was given to him when he was young by the legendary pirate captain Red-Haired Shanks. His outfit includes short trousers and sandals,and a red vest. Luffy has a scar underneath his left eye, which he caused in order prove he is mature and is not afraid of pain, and short black hair.

Luffy has the same outfit over most of the series, as opposed to Nami, Robin, Sanji, or even Zoro. Luffy may wear a different outfit to suit the climate of an island (like Drum Island or Alabasta), but will switch back to his trademark vest and shorts after the adventures on that island are over. However, he changed into black shorts instead of blue during the Enies Lobby arc though he only did this because the shorts have pockets and he could use them to carry food.

Oda Eiichiro has mentioned that Luffy mostly resembles a monkey (he sometimes even makes a monkey face). Also according to Oda, he uses the color red to represent Luffy; and Luffy smells like meat.

Personality and Relationships

At first glance, Luffy does not appear to be very intelligent. 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. Like a child, he sees the world in a childish manner.

Although Luffy is fairly lightheaded 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. Luffy is simple-minded and can easily be amazed by the simplest things. He likes to make fun of other's imperfections and character traits, despite the fact that he is usually worse than them. Luffy seems to have an unstoppable appetite probably due to his devil fruit powers(he can eat alot because rubber expands and his stomach will also expand so that lots of food can be stored there), a characteristic that is common to the Japanese archetype of the (at times simple-minded) young male hero/adventurer with a heart of gold. He also seems to have little to no fear, only truly fearing his grandfather to the point that he does not fight back and is intimidated at the mere mention of his grandfather. 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. An example of this is because when they are sailing he can usually be found on the stem of the Going Merry, he calls this his "special seat" and is usually hanging off of it without minding the danger of falling overboard. Much of these traits are common among Ds.

Luffy is the captain of the Straw Hat Pirates and is best friends with all of them and values them over all else. 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. All the members of the Straw Hat Pirates have complete faith and trust in Luffy, even if they often scold him for doing something thoughtless.

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. He is not frightened by this, but anticipates the fight.

Family

Luffy's family has been through the series shrouded in mystery. His father is Monkey D. Dragon, the infamous revolutionary, who left Luffy and Ace to be raised by their grandfather. Luffy was oblivious about Dragon despite his fame, and states he didn't know he had a father. He has an older brother, Portgas D. Ace, also a powerful pirate, and they are quite close. Luffy's grandfather is the famed marine Vice-Admiral Monkey D. Garp, who raised both Luffy and Ace. Luffy is intimidated by his grandfather, which might due to Garp's unorthodox training methods during Luffy's childhood. Even though Garp, being a Marine, is opposed to Luffy being a pirate and frequently beats him, they maintain good relations, as Garp refused to arrest Luffy. Other family members, including Luffy's mother, are unknown. Very few people know of Luffy's overall family background, which is a good thing considering awareness of such matter could cause just about anyone to panic

History

Luffy was raised by his grandfather and along with his brother, and apparently never even heard of his father. When Garp was gone, Makino and the town's mayor watched them.

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. 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 ate a Devil Fruit (Cursèd Fruit in the English dub) known as 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, 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, and 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, saying:

"Then I'll give you my precious hat, in hope that someday you will return it to me as a great pirate!"

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 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 (Captain Kuro is left out from this because their confrontation was never publicized, and the marines believed Kuro 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 belly 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) to Captain Smoker of Loguetown, to Admiral Aokiji.

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, Eneru and most recently, CP9 and the World Government.

Recent Chapters

Luffy still threatens Franky that he will not get his speedo back until he joins the crew. Franky than poses naked and he says "I'm still a man naked". Meanwhile, Sanji comes running with Zoro to tell that Vice-Admiral Garp has sailed on the opposite shore, in attack position. Luffy then throws Franky's speedo back and tells him to sail with them. Franky then says he does want to see his dream ship. Franky then agrees, and they sail.

As of chapter 438, Luffy is trying to battle his grandfather with his new ship. At this moment Usopp tries to rejoin the crew, however Zoro had already adviced Luffy not to do so until Usopp apologized. Zoro proclaims he must join under their terms not his own since there is now bad terms between him and the crew for him to rejoin, to which Luffy eventually agrees with saying that they all have goals to accomplish as pirates and that they don't have time to waste them on a stupid kid(Usopp). During the struggle between Garp and the Straw Hats, Usopp finally admits he wants to rejoin and that he will never question orders again, with that note, Luffy tearfully accepts him back into the crew. After taking Usopp back Franky reveals the Thousand Sunny's (the name of their new ship) special ability the Coup De Bust. Using three colas the ship is launched into the air escaping Garp. After they escape Luffy and the others celebrate the return of Robin and Usopp and their new crew member Franky. He then stated that they were headed to Fishman Island.

Abilities

Luffy is the captain and the strongest member of the crew as shown in his powers and abilities, his extremely high bounty and all of the powerful enemies he has defeated, such as Captain Kuro, Don Krieg, Arlong, Wapol, Crocodile, Bellamy, Eneru, Foxy the Silver Fox, Blueno and Rob Lucci. He possesses tremendous inhuman physical strength. He has made unbelievable feats of pure strength, such as defeating Sir Crocodile by punching him through a thick ceiling of pure bedrock and by doing so caused a huge earthquake with his bare fists. He also was able to break through a thick reinforced steel door while trying to get to Robin by entering Gear 3. He defeated Enel who had the Goro Goro Fruit which was called invincible among all Devil Fruits . He also defeated Rob Lucci, who was the strongest member of the CP9 ever as well as the CP9 itself and was marked a serious threat by the World Government with a huge new bounty of 300,000,000 Belly. This gives him a bounty on par with the Shichibukai. His endurance is also superhuman, much like Zoro's, several times he has survived many severe injuries and massive blood loss in fights. He was also injected with deadly scorpion venom by Crocodile's hook but was still able to stand and fight when the poison should have killed him, he also took being hit with the strongest Roukushiki technique (Rokuougan) 3 times without dying. All of this is greatly backed up by his unstoppable determination and the fact that he never gives up making him nearly impossible to keep down during a fight. Also it should be noted that Luffy has only been truly defeated once by Admiral Aokji as every other time an opponent has defeated him in battle he has always come back and beaten them. Superhuman strength also seems to be common with his family, as shown by his grandfather, though this also could have been honed through the hellish training he was also subjected to.

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 extremely long distances, as seen when he defeated Wapol, in which he streched out his arms several hundred meters. Every single part of his body can stretch. 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 likely not an effect of the Gomu Gomu no Mi, as he does not display unusual strength in his battle with Higuma the Bear as a child. The fruit most likely only gives him the ability to stretch, although it's worth mentioning that his Gears (which augment his strength considerably) are entirly based on the fact that he is made of rubber.

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 -it's even become a running gag that people find out the hard way Luffy is made of rubber when they shoot at him, only to have the bullets bounce right back. Being rubber, Luffy also deflects electricity, which gave him an advantage while fighting Eneru. 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.

Like all Devil Fruit users, Luffy cannot swim.

Some of his more common attacks are the Gomu Gomu no Pistol (a stretching punch) and Gomu Gomu no Bazooka (Luffy sends his arms back a long distance and snaps them back for a powerful hit).

While he seems dimwitted, he is quite ingenious when it comes to combat; he isn't the best tactician, as he prefers straightforward attacks, but has shown to be capable of adapting into different combat situations. For example, he figured out how to counter Eneru's Mantra, and learned Soru, one of the Rokushiki techniques, by seeing it in action. He is constantly developing new attacks to keep up with his foes, the most dramatic development being Gears 2 and 3.

Also, due to the fact that he hates missing his meal while he falls asleep, especially after a battle, he had 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

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 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 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.

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 golden ball attached to him by Eneru. This golden ball was used to destroy the Raigo and eventually Eneru. Both were destroyed after the attacks were performed.

Gears

Gears are a recent development in Luffy's ability in combat, and are another note of his rapid progress in controling his powers. However both of his gears have huge downsides when deactivated and thus Luffy has yet to perfect them and find a way to get past these weaknesses.

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 kickstarting 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 a new set of attacks which are generally the same as his old ones but are stronger and are now are so fast that even a skilled assassin would have a hard time actually seeing them. In this form his metabolism rate is so high that his sweat vapourises 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 until his stores are replenished. 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 losing their speedy edge. However, after gear second wears off, Luffy can recover quickly through replenishing of his nutrient storage by eating meat.

Also, while not considered canon, in the 7th movie of the series which takes place before the Water 7 arc, Luffy briefly and unknowingly activated Gear 2 during his fight against Ratchet, the antagonist of the film, showing this to be the move's origin of sorts.

Gear Third

File:Gear 3rd.png

Luffy after entering Gear Third

First seen in Luffy's fight against Lucci, 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 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.

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. A currently used strategy would be to run and hide from an opponent for the duration of the shrinkage.

• Luffy in shrunken form
  Luffy in shrunken form
• Shrinking duration explained
  Shrinking duration explained

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
• Dragon
• Garp
• East Blue