, also known as is a fictional character and the main protagonist of the manga series One Piece, created by Eiichiro Oda, as well as the central character of the franchise generated from it. Luffy made his debut as a young boy who acquires the physical properties of rubber after accidentally eating one of the Devil Fruits.
Monkey D. Luffy is the captain of the Straw Hat Crew, and has dreamt of becoming a pirate since childhood from the influence of his idol and mentor Red-Haired Shanks. At the age of 17, Luffy sets sail from the East Blue Sea to the Grand Line in search of the legendary treasure One Piece, to succeed Gold Roger as the King of the Pirates. He fights multiple antagonists, and aids and befriends the inhabitants of several islands on his journey. Usually cheerful and carefree, he becomes serious and even aggressive when he fights or if one of his friends is harmed. Luffy has developed a range of attacks around the rubber properties of his body. In his signature attack, the Gum-Gum Pistol, he slingshots punches at opponents from a distance. Luffy also grows stronger over the course of the story by transforming his body through different "Gears"; this is reflected in his bounty, which is used to measure the threat he poses to the World Government, which forbids piracy. Luffy clashes with the three kinds of great powers in One Piece: the World Government's Marines and its allied privateers known as the Seven Warlords of the Sea, and the most influential pirate captains known as the Four Emperors.
Luffy is the son of Revolutionary Army Leader Monkey D. Dragon, the grandson of Marine Vice-Admiral Monkey D. Garp, and sworn brother to Portgas D. Ace and Sabo. During the course of Luffy's journey, he makes many friends and recruits to the Straw Hats the swordsman Roronoa Zoro, navigator Nami, sniper Usopp, chef Sanji, doctor Tony Tony Chopper, archaeologist Nico Robin, shipwright Franky, musician Brook, and helmsman Jimbei. Luffy's rise alters the balance of power between great powers on the Blue Planet. After two years, Luffy puts Fish-Man Island and the Wano Country under his protection, gains a grand fleet of over 5,600 pirates and becomes one of the Four Emperors of the Sea. Luffy is currently one of the three most powerful pirate captains alongside his mentor Shanks and his rival Blackbeard.
Luffy appears in most episodes, films, television specials, and OVAs of the manga's anime adaptations, as well as in several of the franchise's video games. Due to the series' international popularity, Luffy is one of the world's most recognizable manga and anime characters. Beyond the One Piece franchise, the character also appears in various manga, anime series, and collaborative video games. His critical reception has been largely positive, with him placing first in every popularity poll.
Creation and conception Development When Eiichiro Oda created Luffy, he initially strove for a "manliness" similar to that of Akira Toriyama's Dragon Ball series. Oda said that he named his main character "Luffy" because he felt that the name suited him. When he later learned about the sailing term, "luffing", he was delighted by the coincidence. In his prototype one-shot, "Romance Dawn", Oda refined the artistic style and story elements before publishing the final product a year later as the first chapter of One Piece. In the second version of "Romance Dawn", Luffy resembled his design at the beginning of the series.
After the one-shot of One Piece was made, Oda contacted his former mentor, Nobuhiro Watsuki, whom he assisted in making the manga Rurouni Kenshin. Watsuki was pleased with Luffy's characterization and advised Oda to briefly change him for the main series to make it look like Luffy is always acting on his own free will. To please his readers, Oda added rubberization to Luffy for comic effect and tries to make the character straightforward. In retrospect, Watsuki felt characters like Luffy reflect a trend of heroes who do not kill their enemies similar to his character Himura Kenshin.
Portrayals In the original Japanese version of the One Piece anime series and later spin-offs of the franchise, Luffy is voiced by Mayumi Tanaka. Tanaka said jokingly that she regrets providing Luffy's voice because she is a mother in real life and Luffy is much younger. Asked about her voicing, Tanaka said that she "strives for reality" in scenes where Luffy speaks when he is eating or touching his nose. In the OVA Defeat the Pirate Ganzack!, Luffy was voiced by Urara Takano.
In Odex's English-dubbed VCDs produced by Voiceovers Unlimited, Luffy is voiced by Chuck Powers, the director of said English version. In this edition his name is mispronounced as "Luh-fee" (). The character was voiced by Erica Schroeder in 4Kids Entertainment's English-language dubs of the franchise between 2004 and 2006. Following Funimation/Crunchyroll's acquisition of the franchise license in 2007, Colleen Clinkenbeard became the voice of Luffy in all English-language releases.
In the live action adaptation of One Piece, Luffy is portrayed by Mexican actor Iñaki Godoy, while Colton Osorio plays Luffy as a child. Godoy and Tanaka reprised their roles as Luffy in the Latin American Spanish and Japanese dubs of the adaptation respectively.
Description Luffy is usually recognizable by his red-ribboned straw hat, a gift from his idol and mentor "Red-Haired" Shanks. In his early childhood, he wears a white shirt and blue shorts. The character has a scar under his left eye from stabbing himself to demonstrate his courage to Shanks and his crew. He later wears a red vest, denim shorts, and sandals, before replacing his vest with a red, unbuttoned sea captain's coat (revealing the X-shaped scar on his chest he received from Akainu), and a yellow sash tied around his waist. In an interview, Eiichiro Oda said Luffy's real-world nationality analogue is Brazilian.
Personality Luffy is portrayed as a carefree, fun-loving, happy-go-lucky character with great ambition and a huge appetite, often thinking with his stomach and comically gorging himself. Optimistic and generally good-hearted, he is not as dimwitted as many believe him to be, and he often demonstrates more understanding than the other characters expect. Knowing the danger ahead, Luffy is willing to risk his life to become King of the Pirates and protect his crew. A capable and reliable captain, he never puts his crew or himself at risk out of incompetence. During the Loguetown story arc, Smoker (a navy captain at the time) says that Luffy "enjoys playing stupid"; Luffy responds with a mysterious smile. Luffy has a low conventional IQ (estimated around 85) but has an incredibly high "battle IQ" and EQ.
He enlists Chopper and Brook for his crew not just for their personality or appearance, but also because of his instinctive ability to read people. Luffy needs key jobs filled by his crew (cook, navigator, medic, musician, and shipwright, filled by Sanji, Nami, Chopper, Brook, and Franky, respectively). At the beginning of the series, he said that he wanted at least ten crew members with abilities he felt necessary for his goal. Despite his carefree personality, each crew member respects him in their own way. Luffy is rarely concerned about the consequences of his actions, doing what he feels is right at the moment, even if it leads to retaliation by a powerful force. He is an extremely loyal captain, who has demonstrated throughout the series that he is willing to risk his life for the well-being of his crew.
Abilities Devil Fruit Luffy's rubber attributes are a result of him eating a devil fruit called the Human-Human fruit model Nika (the Sun God). This devil fruit was thought to be called the Gum-Gum fruit due to the world government's propaganda.() Granting him a rubber-like body, his powers make him immune to electric attacks and most blunt forces, but he is susceptible to attacks made with sharp objects or weapons (e.g. sword, spear). His rubber devil fruit powers grant him the ability to stretch his body at will.
He uses his elasticity to accelerate part or all of his body to deliver punches, kicks, head butts, and many other varied attacks as seen throughout the series. Like others who have eaten a Devil Fruit, Luffy cannot swim; when he is submerged in water or makes contact with Sea-Prism Stone, he loses his strength and cannot move on his own. In addition to his Devil Fruit powers, he has immense strength, durability, speed, reflexes, agility, endurance, and stamina.
Luffy's signature attack is the , a punch which he learned during years of training. After observing CP9's technique, Luffy develops a technique called , which increases his strength and speed for a short time by using his body as a pump to move blood at a high speed around his body. However, this puts strain on his body due to very high energy consumption and can shorten his lifespan if used too long. , another technique, involves Luffy blowing air into his thumb bone to inflate it and moving the air around his other bones to inflate other body parts. This allows for high-damage attacks but makes him shrink afterward. Luffy can use both techniques simultaneously; after the two year time skip, he gains better control of these techniques and is no longer affected by their drawbacks.
Luffy develops another technique, (similar to Gear 3), inflating his muscles with air to increase the size of his body (except for his legs) and coating his limbs with Armament Haki. In contrast to Gears 2 and 3, Luffy uses compression rather than extension for his attacks, compressing and releasing his limbs to dish out devastating blows. The force released from his kicks is so great that he can use them to fly in a similar fashion to CP9's technique.
Later, it is revealed that the Gum-Gum Fruit's real name is the "Human-Human Fruit, Model: Nika", a Mythical Zoan-type Devil Fruit whose "awakening" grants Luffy's rubber-like body increased strength and freedom, including turning the environment and other living beings into rubber, which is limited only by the user's imagination. It is for this reason that the user is said to become a trickster sun god known as the "embodiment of freedom", able to bring joy to the people around them and making it "the most ridiculous power in the world". In , Luffy's hair and clothes also turn white. The World Government renamed it to erase the fruit's original name from history and reclassified it as a Paramecia in order to conceal its true nature. The fruit was originally a treasure sought by the World Government for over 800 years until it was stolen by Red-haired Shanks. According to the Five Elders, the fruit had not been awakened for centuries prior to Luffy's having done so.
Haki Luffy has the ability to use . This ability has three types: , an armor-like force, which can amplify defense and the force of attacks and negate a Devil Fruit user's defense, allow physical contact and damage; , a sixth sense, which can read a person's moves and detect their presence; and , which can render weak-willed people or animals near him unconscious.
Luffy learns all those types of Haki and uses them with his improved attacks. As a result of his encounter with Magellan, the prison warden of Impel Down who consumed the Poison-Poison fruit, he has also developed an immunity to poison (although it is shown that a strong poison may affect him, albeit very slowly). During his fight against Charlotte Katakuri, Luffy gains an advanced form of Observation Haki (Called Future Sight) to see several seconds into the future.