User:Sjones23/Monkey D. Luffy

Monkey D. Luffy (モンキー・D・ルフィ, Monkī D. Rufi, sometimes addressed as Straw Hat Luffy (麦わらのルフィ, Mugiwara no Rufi)) is a fictional character and the main protagonist of the One Piece franchise created by Eiichiro Oda. He first appears in the manga chapter "Romance Dawn" (Romance Dawn —冒険の夜明け—, Romance Dawn - Bōken no Yoake) first published in Weekly Shōnen Jump magazine on August 4, 1997. He is introduced as a boy who possesses superhuman strength and elasticity after eating a devil fruit. He is the Straw Hat Pirates, a group of pirates he assembles himself as he quests to find the "One Piece" and become the King of the Pirates. As the story unfolds, His primary motivation throughout the series is to reach the goal with all of his comrades, a task he pursues no matter what stands in his way. While he is goofy and reckless, he gets quite serious when anyone is in serious danger, notably his crew, whom he considers his friends.

Luffy has starred in most of the episodes, films and specials of One Piece, as well as many of the spin-off video games. He has also appeared in special events.

Creation and conception

Luffy's abilities comes from Oda's desire for the fighting style to be silly, so that no matter how tense a situation gets, the reader can relax without becoming stressed out. Oda tries to draw Luffy very straightforward about what he wants to be and how he feels.

The Devil Fruit Luffy gained his abilities from was originally called the Gomu no Mi (ゴムの実, lit. fruit of rubber), but after the editor pointed out that a real Gomu no Mi existed, the name was changed to the Gomu Gomu no Mi (ゴムゴムの実, lit. "fruit of rubber rubber", renamed "Gum Gum Fruit" in the English versions)

Appearance

Luffy is usually recognized by his straw hat entrusted by his friend Red-Haired Shanks. When Luffy was first introduced, he has a scar on his left eye as a result of stabbing himself. Before he left his hometown, he received his trademark red vest and blue shorts to his straw hat. Eventually, he adds a strap to his straw hat and adds pockets in his shorts to carry food in.

Character outline

Personality

Luffy is portrayed as a carefree character with great ambitions and a huge appetite. He often thinks with his stomach and eats to the point of becoming comically fat. He is caring and generally good hearted. However, he is not naïve and understands most situations more than he shows. He was inspired to become a pirate by his friend "Red-Haired" Shanks who entrusted him with his strawhat, which he holds as one of his most precious objects. Knowing the dangers ahead, he is willing to risk his life to reach his goal, and protect his crew.

He invites several people, such as Chopper or Brook, onto his crew generally for their personality but also because of his instinctual ability to be able to read people. His main reason has been stated a few times in the story. He needs several key jobs filled in his crew (i.e.: cook, navigator, doctor, musician, shipwright, and so on). Only one member of the crew invited herself on, Nico Robin. She actually has no place on the ship, having no true abilities that Luffy requires. She is just a historian who Luffy accepted. Luffy stated in the beginning of the series that he wants about ten crew members, each with abilities that he feels necessary for his goal. He is rarely concerned with the consequences of his actions, doing what he feels even if it leads to retaliation by a powerful force. However, he is an extremely loyal captain, who has demonstrated at many points throughout the series that he is willing to risk his life for the well-being of his crew.

Abilities

Luffy has achieved many abilities; aside from his extreme strength and elasticity from the Gum-Gum Fruit,, it also gave him the ability to stretch on command to to accelerate parts or the whole of his body for attacking an enemy or simply for propulsion. However, Luffy is unable to swim and when he gets touched by sea-water, he quickly loses his strength.

Luffy later learns Gear Second (ギア２（セカンド）, Gia Sekando), a technique which involves the increase of blood flow from his legs to increase his attack power and overall speed in an instant. He also learns Gear Third (ギア３（サード）, Gia Sādo), which is activated by biting a hole into his thumb and blowing air into his bones.^[1] He is then able to move the air to a limb to attack. However, Luffy temporarily shrinks to a fraction of his normal size after releasing the air for a length that corresponds to the amount of time he was using Gear Third. He is capable of using both techniques simultaneously.

Luffy also learns the the still innate ability to use Haki (覇気, lit. "ambition") to make people or animals in his proximity faint. Additionally, this ability can negate a devil fruit user's power and allow physical contact and damage. He has a very rare variation of Haki, which he shares with Boa Hancock. He first used it on Motobaro without realizing what he did.

Plot overview

Luffy befriends Shanks at the beginning of the series with the intention of becoming a member of a pirate. Due to Luffy inadvertently eating the Gum-Gum Fruit, he trains on his own. During his early adulthood, he leaves his hometown to search for the "One Piece" treasure and to form a pirate crew of his own, called the "Straw Hat Pirates". In the beginning of the series, Luffy meets a swordsman named Roronoa Zoro, the navigator and thief Nami, the cowardly marksman and inventor Usopp, and the first-class chef Sanji. He also encounters and defeats pirates in the East Blue, such as Buggy the Clown, Captain Kuro, Commodore Don Krieg, and Arlong. These actions cause him to be placed on the most wanted list with a bounty of thirty million in the fictional currency named berries. After entering the Grand Line, Luffy accepts an offer to return the princess of Alabasta, Nefertari Vivi, safely into her homeland to stop a rebellion, incited by a member of the Seven Warlords of the Sea, Sir Crocodile. Along the way, Luffy defeats Wapol while in Drum Island and finds a doctor named Tony Tony Chopper. In Alabasta, Luffy defeats Crocodile and the civil war ends, causing the World Government to raise Luffy's bounty to 100 million berries. Following Luffy's battle with Crocodile, he allows Crocodile's former second-in-command Nico Robin to join his crew.

Later on, the crew visits Sky Island, and get drawn into a war between two races and defeats Eneru. He later defeats Foxy the Silver Fox and meets Admiral Aokiji, an encounter that results in his defeat. After Aokiji allows them to escape, the crew travels to Water 7 in an attempt to search for a shipwright. When Robin betrays the crew, she and CP9 frame them for the attempted murder of Iceburg, the island's mayor. After Luffy learns about the threat of Robin being executed at Enies Lobby, the crew, along with Franky, a shipwright, follows her to it. After Luffy's epic battle with Rob Lucci, a member of CP9, Robin rejoins the crew. As a result, the crew members each receive their bounties; Luffy's bounty having been increased to 300 million berries. The crew returns to Water 7 and sacrificing the Going Merry, and get a new ship called Thousand Sunny made by Franky; there, they meet Luffy's grandfather, Vice-Admiral Garp. Soon after, Franky joins the crew as the shipwright.

In the crew's attempt to enter the New World via Fishman Island, they come across a ghost ship inhabited by a living skeleton named Brook. When the crew discovers an island ship, Thriller Bark, the crew, along with Brook, confronts and defeats Gecko Moria, returning Brook's shadow in the process. After releasing the rest of the island's prisoners, Brook accepts Luffy's offer to join his crew. The crew goes to the Sabaody Archipelago in an attempt to coat their ship so that they would be able to proceed to Fishman Island. However, an incident involving the auction of Camie, a mermaid, results in the encounter of Kizaru, another Marine admiral, and Bartholomew Kuma, a Warlord. Kuma defeats them by teleporting each of the crew members to different islands. Luffy lands on Amazon Lily, an island ruled by Boa Hancock, the only female Warlord. Hancock eventually falls in love with Luffy and helps bring him to Impel Down, a prison, to save Portgas D. Ace, his brother, who was imprisoned there after being defeated by Blackbeard.

Luffy breaks into the prison and advances throughout the levels and acquires foes-turned-allies, such as Crocodile and Buggy, as well as new allies, such as Jimbei, a Warlord, and Emporio Ivankov, releasing the prisoners in the process. The warden, Magellan, nearly kills Luffy, but he manages to escape from the prison to follow Ace to Marineford. After arriving in Marineford, Luffy witnesses a war between Marines and Whitebeard's pirate crews. During the chaos, Luffy manages to save Ace, but Ace ultimately sacrifices himself by receiving an attack by Akainu, a Marine admiral, aimed directly at Luffy. Luffy and a severely injured Jimbei are evacuated in Trafalgar Law's submarine. After Luffy and Jimbei are hospitalized, they return to Amazon Lily. Luffy realizes what has happened to Ace and looks back on how he and Ace first met, and later realizes that he has his friends.

Voice actors

In the original Japanese version of the anime, Luffy, at every age, has been voiced by Mayumi Tanaka. In the One Piece: Defeat The Pirate Ganzack! special developed by Production I.G, Luffy would be voiced by Urara Takano. In the numerous English productions of the anime, the voice actors for Luffy have changed as a result of different companies producing the dub.

Luffy had at least four known voice actors. In 4Kids Entertainment's dub, Luffy was voiced by Bella Hudson as an adult in the first 104 episodes (143 in uncut episode numbering) and by Tara Sands as a child in episode 4. In Odex's dub, he was voiced by Chris Powers. In Funimation Entertainment's dub, Luffy has been voiced by Colleen Clinkenbeard in all One Piece media.

Appearances in other media

Luffy has made several appearances outside of the One Piece anime and manga. He is featured in all the One Piece movies, as well as the One Piece original video animation. Along with many Shonen Jump characters, Luffy appears in a Shonen Jump special, where Eneru attacks Tokyo and Odaiba. Luffy appeared in Cross Epoch, a collaboration of Oda and Dragon Ball creator Akira Toriyama, which crossovered both One Piece and Dragon Ball's universes. But even before One Piece had taken its final shape, Luffy had already appeared in Oda's two short stories, entitled Romance Dawn.

Video games

Luffy has appeared in every One Piece licensed electronic game to date. He is also featured in various crossover games. In 2006, he is featured in the Dragon Ball Z/One Piece/Naruto crossover game Battle Stadium D.O.N. In December 2007, Luffy, along with Naruto Uzumaki and Son Goku, would make guest appearances in avatar form in the MMORPG Second Life for a Jump Festa promotion titled Jumpland@Second Life.

In popular culture

Luffy has made cameos and has been mentioned in other TV shows, such as Yakitate!! Japan. It parodies One Piece, Kuroyanagi turns into a "Tenobi Man" as a reaction from trying Azuma's Ja-pan dumpling. To this effect, he dons a straw hat and starts stretching his arms like rubber to great lengths ("tenobi" means "stretching arms"). Luffy's face can be seen on a Weekly Shonen Jump binding in an episode of To Love-Ru. Luffy's Devil Fruit was referenced in the Japanese TV Drama show Trick and in the 50th episode of the Gin Tama anime.

Luffy has also appeared in the popular web comic VG Cats. And in an online RPG called Dragonfable there was an enemy pirate monkey dressed up like Luffy, and was called L.D.MONKEE which is both backwards spelling of and a pun on, Monkey.D.LUFFY.

In 2008, Toei Animation sponsored the Pallavolo Modena Italian volleyball team. To represent their sponsorship, Pietro Rinaldi's and Edoardo Ciabattini's traditional black uniforms were emblazoned with a large image one Luffy on the front. He was featured in cover of the January 2010 issue from the Japanese fashion magazine Men's Non-No, becoming the first manga character to appear in the cover of such magazine. His new clothes were designed by Shinichi "Miter" Mita.

A small homage to Luffy was in the 2009 PSP game 'Half minute hero' Where the description of the usable item 'Straw hat' said it makes the user feel rubbery and want to become a pirate. In the manga Rookies, a girl is shown with a Luffy phone strap on her cell phone during a graduation ceremony.

There is also a reference to Luffy in the online MMORPG, Aika Online. In-game, there is an NPC wearing Luffy's style of clothes called "Monkey C. Lupis III" and even has a title above his head saying "Future King of Pirates".

Reception

Besides being featured in pieces of merchandise based on the One Piece, he has appeared in crossover figurines which show him along with Dragon Ball characters. Luffy has been ranked as the most popular One Piece character in a recent Japanese fan poll. Luffy ranked first in all three Shōnen Jump character popularity polls. FUNimation's Mike McFarland and Christopher Sabat, both stated that they felt that Luffy was more likable than the Dragon Ball character Son Goku. Mayumi Tanaka, Luffy's Japanese voice actor, comically mentioned she feels sorry for making Luffy's voice due the fact she is a mother while Luffy is much younger. When asked about how she does Luffy's voice, Tanaka replies that she "strives for reality" during scenes that the character talks while eating or while touching his nose. In the Society for the Promotion of Japanese Animation Awards from 2008, Luffy was nominated for the category "Best Male Character". However, he lost to Ichigo Kurosaki from Bleach. He was also 22nd in IGN's Top 25 Anime Characters of All Time by writer Chris Mackenzie.

Luffy's character has also been received positively by publications from several media. T.H.E.M. Anime Reviews calls Luffy "likable goofy", and an idealist with an infectious optimism. In a review for the fourth One Piece movie, "Dead End Adventure", The Star Online describes Luffy as "an airhead and brilliant fighter." Rika Takahashi from EX comments that Luffy's character with his stretching powers is what sets One Piece apart from "the old stereotypical adventure manga" and the many other "combat-oriented mangas [sic]", turning the series into "something new and interesting". On the other hand, Anime News Network (ANN) writer Zac Bertschy found Luffy remminiscent to Rurouni Kenshin's character Himura Kenshin due their personalities and attitudes. However, he still noted Luffy to be entertaining. Mania Entertainment's Bryce Coulter noted Luffy's actions to save people to be like the one from "any great shonen hero." Colleen Clinkenbeard, Luffy's English voice actor in the Funimation dub, has been commented to be making a good job in the dub of the series, with Carl Kimlinger from ANN noting there are "enough moments of perfection."