Monkey D. Luffy (Monkī Dī Rufi?) is a fictional character and leading protagonist in the anime and manga series One Piece by Eiichiro Oda. He is the captain of the Straw Hat Pirates.

The captain of the Straw Hat Pirates, Luffy 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.

Luffy is the son of Monkey D. Dragon, brother to Portgas D. Ace, and the grandson of vice-admiral Monkey D. Garp.

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. Aside from his hat, Luffy’s 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 (also to possibly look more like Shanks who is his idol). 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.

Luffy is the captain of the Straw Hat Pirates and, considering them his best friends, values them over all else. Even though they are all usually annoyed by his immaturity and seeming stupidity, they all respect him for his strength and his qualities as a leader.

At first glance, Luffy does not appear to be very intelligent, as he often sees things in childish manner and can easily be amazed by the simplest things. However, because he views the world in such a straightforward and simple manner, he is frequently the only person who can see what should be done. He likes to poke fun at other’s imperfections and character traits, even though he is rather worse himself.

Luffy seems to have an insatiable 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 hunger in Luffy’s case has to do with having an elastic stomach.

Although Luffy is fairly lighthearted, he has an unstoppable sense of determination, optimism, and courage, and will do anything to stand up for his friends and comrades. Ever since consuming the devil fruit he has not worried about his inability to swim, much like his brother. Many of these traits are common among Ds. The only thing which seems to frighten Luffy is his grandfather; the mere mention of him intimidates Luffy to such an extent that he does not fight back.

Luffy never kills any of the villains, no matter how cold-hearted they may be; instead, he frequently sends them flying, knocks them out, or leaves them beaten into submission (consequently, it is not uncommon for Luffy’s former opponents to come after him for revenge, such as Buggy the Clown and Alvida). Oda explains that it is 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 allowing them to live and see their dreams ruined is 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.

Luffy was trained from a young age by his grandfather Garp. Later Garp left Luffy and Ace in the care of a friend to continue his training.

When Luffy was seven years old, he met a gang of pirates led by a man named Red-Haired Shanks. After befriending them, Luffy decided that he wanted to become a pirate as well. It was at this time that Luffy cut himself under his eye to show he was tough enough to join Shanks’s crew (a scene that was never reproduced in the anime). He swore over Shank’s hat that one day he would be the pirate king.

During his time spent with Shanks, Luffy accidentally ate a Devil Fruit when it was left in an open case. The fruit, called the Gomu Gomu no Mi (Gum Gum Fruit, Rubber Rubber Fruit), turned Luffy into a rubber man capable of stretching, inflating, and bouncing back impact based attacks. Because Luffy did not know the nature of the fruit, Shanks and his crew did not hold the incident against him. They remained friends, but Luffy seemed to grow even more defensive of Shanks’s seemingly meek band of pirates.

As it shows in the back of volume one in One Piece, Luffy originaly got his Devil Fruit from his grandpa, Garp. But then the author changed it to Shanks.

After Luffy stood up to Higuma the Bear, a local mountain bandit that insulted Shanks and his crew, he was beaten, held hostage, and almost killed by a Sea King before Shanks rescued him. However, the incident cost Shanks his left arm. Shortly thereafter, Shanks set sail along with his crew; 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 and other pirates damaged his hat in their fight.

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 the Pirate King. Most people do not take his goal seriously, until they see his incredible strength. While the exact details of his training are unclear, it is known that his grandfather trained Luffy for a time by throwing him into deep valleys, leaving him alone in dangerous forests in the middle of the night, and tying him to balloons over high altitudes, all for the sake of making Luffy stronger.

Even the Marines started to take Luffy more seriously after he defeated the villainous Marine Captain “Axe-Hand” Morgan and several known pirates such as Buggy the Clown, “Pirate Admiral” Don Krieg, and Arlong The Fishman. A 30 million Beli reward was placed on his head after he defeated Arlong. This reward eventually became 100 million Beli 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; this gives Luffy the highest known active bounty, and the third highest bounty known so far.

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 at 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 Buggy the Clown, Wapol, Sir Crocodile, Enel, CP9 and the entire World Government.

While on his voyage, Luffy also found out the identity of his father, Monkey D. Dragon, and that his father is still alive, details that before had been unknown to Luffy.

After wandering around the mansion, Luffy realizes 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.

Luffy winds up locked in a cage in a room with Dr.Hogback, Absalom, Perona, and the Shichibukai Gecko Moria. Though Luffy nearly escapes after eating his cage, Perona prevents this(also causing Luffy to wish being reincarnated as a sea cucumber), and Moria uses the power of the Kage Kage no mi(Shadow Shadow Fruit), to steal Luffy’s shadow. Moria then unlocks Zombie 900, the would-be host to Luffy’s shadow—a giant monster from 500 years ago named Oz. The monster Oz was resurrected not only with Luffy’s shadow but his personality as well.

Luffy was then found with Sanji and Zoro aboard the Thousand Sunny sleeping and was woken by Usopp when he stated seeing a beautiful lady swordsman carrying meat. After being woken up, Luffy then runs over to the kitchen and he grabs a big chunk of cheese which he stuffs his face with and he is informed by Usopp that Absalom wants to marry Nami and that his shadow was placed in the giant Oz. Luffy also learns the weakness of the zombies- Franky then tells Luffy about the question he asked Brook and about the promise that Brook made to Laboon.

Luffy then declares that he will make Brook their new member even if he has to drag Brook onto the ship. He then tells everyone present that they are going to launch a counterattack on Thriller Bark and that they are going to take it down. Luffy decides the plan is to defeat Gecko Moria first. The attack goes well at first, until Perona’s ghost take down Luffy and Sanji temporarily and then Oz smashes the giant stairway. Luffy is pulled to safety by Chopper and Robin.

He recovers from the attack and pushes ahead. He encounters Gecko Moria in Oz’s freezer. He then attempts to attack Gecko Moria but is stopped by Moria’s shadow Doppleman and other various shadowy creatures. Luffy jumps into to Oz’s freezer, hangs on to the rail and attacks from the bottom at Moria, literally “kicking his ass”.

Luffy is the captain and strongest member of the Straw Hat Pirates. He currently holds the highest bounty of any pirate from the East Blue. In his present journey, 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 two Shichibukai.

Many times he has survived severe injuries and massive blood loss. His skills, developed by the hellish training he was subjected to as a child by his grandfather, are backed up by his unstoppable determination, making him nearly impossible to keep down during a fight. However, it also seems possible that he naturally has superhuman strength since all members of his family are incredibly strong, and Luffy himself is never seen training on the ship like Zoro. Luffy is capable of crushing steel with his bare fingers and breaking through thick bedrock with relative ease. His most astonishing feat of strength by far was causing two huge buildings he was stuck in between to collapse by simply pushing them away with his bare hands.

Though seemingly dimwitted, Luffy is quite ingenious when it comes to combat and has shown great adaptability. For example, he figured out how to counter Enel’s Mantra, found out Crocodile’s vulnerability to water, and later learned Soru just from seeing it in action. Luffy 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 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 became 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 punches, and even bullets, reflect off him 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 normal flesh and bone. 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, although he could not swim even before he ate his Devil Fruit anyway.

Due to the fact that Luffy hates missing his meal while asleep (especially after a battle) he developed an ability to eat while sleeping, as well as being able to figure out in less than a second how many meals he has missed if unconscious for a period of time (counting five meals each day). These traits also seem to be common with Luffy’s family, as seen with his brother Portgas D. Ace and his grandfather.

Gears are a recent addition to Luffy’s abilities, and are another example of his rapid progress in utilizing his powers more efficiently. 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 non-canonical, as they happen outside the regular world of One Piece and several of them have even an illogical 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.

After Aokiji defeated him, Luffy decided that he had to become much stronger if he wanted to pursue his dream and protect his friends. The result of his efforts was Gear Second, a technique first seen in Luffy’s fight against Blueno. After discovering the method to using Soru, Luffy assimilated the idea to attain a newer ability, by effectively utilizing his rubber body to boost momentum.

By exerting excessive pressure within his legs to accelerate blood flow, Luffy provides his body with more oxygen and nutrients, gaining a sudden burst in speed and strength; Lucci compares this process similar to taking a stimulant. Luffy’s attacks are likewise enhanced (he frequently adds Jet to their names to distinguish them); even superhuman fighters, like CP9 agents, have difficulty reacting to Luffy’s Gear Second attacks.

While in Gear Second, Luffy’s metabolic rate is so high that his sweat vaporizes, giving it the appearance of steam, and his skin turns slightly pink from the increased blood flow. Since all of Luffy’s organs are rubber, they can expand and allow the blood to move at the increased speed without over stressing any one internal organ and causing it to explode.

Of Luffy’s two gears, this is the most powerful and effective as demonstrated by the brief, yet potent, advantage it gives Luffy in combat, making him an untouchable force while using it. However, Luffy can only use Gear Second for a short period of time, since the accelerated speed at which nutrients are used up depletes his energy stores rapidly, leaving him thoroughly exhausted.

The mechanics behind this enhancement also mean reduced strength and ability after significant use: with nutrient stores running low, having a faster blood flow would be quite pointless, since there are no nutrients to deliver- Luffy can immediately recover by ingesting food to replenish himself, as seen after the fight against Blueno.

During Luffy’s fight with Lucci, a further downside to Gear Second was also revealed; the long-term damage it causes to his body. While Luffy’s rubber form allows him to successfully perform Gear Second without killing him outright, usage exerts excessive pressure on the body causing damage to his internal organs and circulatory system, due to his incapability to fully cope with the forms ability. Lucci notes that his technique shortens his life, but Luffy shrugs it off, stating that winning and saving his friends is worth the sacrifice.

To use Gear Third, Luffy corks his mouth with his thumb, bites into his thumb joint and blows very hard into it, inflating 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 it is all focused on a single limb, it becomes 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, which was demonstrated when Luffy’s inflated body was shot by several marine bullets, which harmlessley bounced off his body.

He was even able to deal heavy damage to Lucci when he used his Tekkai using one Gomu Gomu no Gigant Pistol. 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. When he attacks in this form, he often uses the word Gigant before the attack, describing the giant nature of the attack.

In between his attacks, Luffy brings the air back to his chest and then shifts it into another body part. Because he used Soru in his Gear 2nd form, some fans believe he is using (or has gotten as a side effect something similar to) Tekkai in this form. 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 like, a deflated balloon. 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. Luffy’s clothes seem to shrink along with his body after he exits Gear Third.

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.

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