Buggy

Buggy the Clown (道化のバギー, Dōke no Bagī) is a fictional character of the manga and anime One Piece.

Appearance
The big, red nose on his face is, in fact, his real nose; this is a fact he is very touchy about, going so far as to destroy an entire town when a couple of kids made fun of his nose. Occasionally, he will mishear what others say as an insult about him or his nose, possibly due to paranoia.

In his first appearance he had crossbones going down his face forming an X; he also had two blue lines near both of his eyes, red lipstick and his jolly roger (with a clown nose) on his hat. However, in later episodes after the Loguetown arc his look changes, and he now has two green dots on both sides of his head and four big green dots on the rim of his hat, which still has the jolly roger on it. He also has green eyeliner and green lipstick, with a curvy line going down both sides of his face.

While in the confines of Impel Down, it is revealed that Buggy has long hair tied in a ponytail.

Personality
Buggy will often feign intelligence, only to have his true incompetence revealed. Although he is not "stupid" in the traditional sense, he is prone to gross misjudgments that cost him; usually this is due to his overconfidence. In the original Japanese version of One Piece, he inserts hade ni (派手に, "flashy"), into almost every sentence he speaks ("Die with flash! You flashy bastard!").

He has a number of running gags in the series, including his habit of not noticing who he is speaking to until moments after greeting him (for example, when Ace appeared on his ship, Buggy first greets him politely. Then, when he realises he is on his ship, he blurts out "Who the hell are you?"). He also has what some might consider "dumb luck"; no matter what happens to him he is lucky enough to survive somehow (including being struck by lightning at Loguetown).

Buggy is one of the few villains to become reformed after facing Luffy, though only slightly. Before his loss he was willing to use his crew as human shields, while afterwards he shows a lot more care about their well being. He also begins to accept people's kindness, though he can still be cruel to anyone who isn't a member of his crew or is aiding him in his goals. He also is fun loving and displays a huge fondness for parties, admiring those who are equally fun loving (strangely, he shares this trait with Shanks).

He also has a strong love of treasure. Unfortunately (for him) his obsession with treasure led to him leaving himself open in his first encounter with Luffy to attack Nami who was stealing them and was arguably the sole reason for his loss. Buggy fails to understand how anything but gold, silver or jewels can be considered "treasure"; an opinion which apparently hasn't changed in over 22 years even though so far it has led to constant failure.

His primary goal right now is revenge against Luffy, for defeating him, and Shanks, for ruining his dreams during his youth. His dream is to become Pirate King and own all the treasures in the world.

Devil Fruit
Buggy accidentally consumed the Bara Bara no Mi, a Devil Fruit which allows him to separate his body parts and control them independent of each other, but robbed him of the ability to swim, which, according to Shanks (back when the two were still cabin boys at Roger's ship) was excellent at. The abilities gained from this fruit also make Buggy immune to slashing, cutting and cleaving attack; any such attack just separates him into his component parts.

In addition, most of his body is capable of flying through the air, with enough force to send a man flying through a wall - with the crucial exception of his feet. Even though the parts are separate, Buggy can still feel what the part feels; e.g. when Luffy attacked Buggy, he separated his torso from his waist, only to find that Luffy was aiming for the crotch (needless to say, this left him with a rather painful result). No matter how much of his body he separates, something also seems to act normal; e.g., his feet walking as normal while Buggy sends the rest of his body flying. Though Buggy is a strong fighter and his Devil Fruit power makes him almost invincible, he was constantly leaving himself open in the latter half of his match for Luffy due to distractions, resulting in many careless mistakes. A weakness of his fruit is that if a component part is restrained, he can't use the component part, shown by Nami when she restrained a part of his body in their first fight with him.

The major flaw of his devil fruit's ability is his feet. Should his feet not remain on the ground firmly, he cannot separate the components of his body. Therefore, he cannot split his body in airborne.

Weapons
Buggy seems to favor the use of knives. He tends to hold one single knife at a time or three between the fingers of his hands. Buggy seems to carry an impressive amount of these types of weapons on his person at all times; some of which he prefers to keep hidden under his gloves, or in his shoes. Outside of knives, he also can be seen using (or threatening to use) his Buggy Balls, which are highly explosive cannonballs carrying his Jolly Roger on them and which are fired from a cannon. The Buggy Balls are able to clear entire streets of all buildings. In fact, he is one of the few pirates who actively uses cannons. He also was seen using a sword in a (failed) attempt to cut Luffy's head off at Logue Town. Currently, he is wielding a giant axe taken from one of the Blue Gorillas in Impel Down.

The Apprentice Pirates
Buggy holds a bitter grudge against Red-Haired Shanks over the matter of his Devil Fruit curse. In their youth, both men were pirates aboard the same ship, the Oro Jackson which belonged to Gold Roger and his crew the Jolly Roger Pirates. When they were not fighting, the pair constantly argued over everything imaginable (in the flashback in the manga and the anime alike, they argue over whether the North or South Pole is colder). Despite the difference between them, both pirates stayed together for some strange reason while they were on board the ship. This led Whitebeard to to notice and even remember seeing a "big nose" with Shanks during their battles with Gold Roger.



During a raid on an enemy ship, Buggy found a treasure map marking the location of a valuable underwater treasure; during the same raid, the crew retrieved a Devil Fruit: Bara Bara no Mi (バラバラの実 Chop Chop Fruit). Told of the fruit's value, Buggy switched the real fruit with a fake, and then ate the fake in front of the crew so he could sell the fruit, as it was worth a good amount of money.

But, while privately gloating with both the map and the fruit in his possession, Buggy was surprised by Shanks; he hid the fruit in his mouth, and before he could remove it, Shanks surprised him again and he swallowed it - forever losing the ability to swim, and thus also losing his chance to get the treasure underwater.

Twenty-six years before the storyline, Roger was found to have a disease that was incurable. For the next three years, Roger explored the Grand Line until he ultimately disbanded it in secret a year before his death. One by one the crew disappeared.

The last time Shanks and Buggy saw each other was in Logue Town. They had been there the day of the captain's death and parted ways that same day. Shanks offered Buggy a place on the crew he was going to form, but Buggy refused. For the next ten years, he would struggle to kick start his plans he made on the day he ate his Devil Fruit.

Threat of Orange Town
Buggy's later founded the Buggy Pirates, who used powerful Buggy Balls, which are cannonballs with the power to take out an entire block. His first mate was Mohji the animal tamer, who used his pet lion Richie to fight, and his second mate was Cabaji the acrobat, who was a swordsman who also used deadly acrobatic tricks to fight. Buggy became a wealthy pirate with a 15,000,000 bounty, 10,000,000 worth of treasure, and a big, decorative ship called Big Top.

Seeking a way into the Grand Line so she could steal from richer pirates, Nami stole the map from Buggy while he was terrorizing Orange Town.

Angry that his pirates had failed to get the map back from Nami, Buggy started destroying random buildings in Orange Town with cannonballs and Buggy Balls. Monkey D. Luffy happened to fall into the village when Buggy shot down a passing seabird that was attempting to eat Luffy. Luffy rescued Nami from members of Buggy's crew, so Nami got him to get tied up and took him to Buggy's hideout on top of the town bar. Nami then said that Luffy was her boss, and that she had double-crossed him after another fight. She then returned the map to Buggy, and asked to join his crew, planning to steal the map again along with Buggy's treasure. Happy that he had his map back, Buggy accepted Nami into the crew and threw a party.

During the party, Buggy put Luffy in a cage near a cannon and told Nami to kill him by firing the Buggy Ball. However, Nami refused, so Buggy told his men to kill her. Roronoa Zoro then appeared and beat up Buggy's crewmembers. Wanting to boost his bounty, Buggy decided to kill Zoro. Zoro easily cut up Buggy, but Buggy was unharmed due to his Bara Bara no Mi powers. He then defeated Zoro by stabbing him in the side. Zoro then turned around Buggy's cannon, while Nami lit the fuse, firing a Buggy Ball at Buggy's crew while the Luffy, Zoro, and Nami escaped.

Buggy survived by using two of his crewmembers as shields, and sent his first mate Mohji to kill Luffy. However, Mohji came back defeated, and passed out before he could warn Buggy of Luffy's Gomu Gomu no Mi powers. Luffy then challenged Buggy, who fired a Buggy ball at him, only to have it bounced back at the bar by his Gomu Gomu no Balloon. Buggy then sent Cabaji to kill Luffy, but Zoro ended up battling and defeating Cabaji. Buggy then began to battle Luffy.

During the battle, Buggy managed to nick the straw hat Luffy had gotten from Shanks. After Luffy told him that it was Shanks' hat, Buggy managed to make stab the hat in the middle, enraging Luffy. Buggy then told Luffy about how he and Shanks were apprentice pirates on the same ship. Buggy then used his Bara Bara no Festival to avoid Luffy's attacks. However, Buggy saw Nami stealing his treasure so his head and hands flew after her, attempting to kill her.

While Buggy was chasing after Nami, Luffy saw that Buggy's feet could not fly, so he attacked Buggy's feet, saying that he and Buggy were still fighting. Buggy then put his his body back together, but found out that Nami had tied up most of his separate body parts, leaving him with just his head, hands and feet. Luffy then sent him flying with Gomu Gomu no Bazooka.

Chibi Buggy's Adventure
After losing his battle with Luffy, Buggy was separated from his body parts for a long period of time. He found himself on a deserted island, where he tried to kill a giant baby bird to eat it. However, he was eaten by the bird's huge parent, but spat out Buggy to the Island of Rare Animals because he tasted bad. There, Buggy dueled with Gaimon, but later befriended him. After leaving Gaimon's island, Buggy was attacked by a giant crab who also destroyed his Super Flashy Raft - and then saved by a mysterious, beautiful woman who turned out to be Luffy's old foe, Alvida. Learning that Alvida was looking for Luffy, the two teamed up to find Buggy's crew and then find Luffy.

The two pirates later found Mohji and Cabaji all beaten and bruised. Buggy's crew had thought that the Gomu Gomu no Bazooka had killed Buggy, so they held a funeral for him, and held onto his spare parts as a memento. Mohji and Cabaji later dueled to become the captain, but were defeated by a sleepwalking Richie. Richie was then crowned captain of the "Richie Pirates," who had left Mohji and Cabaji behind to explore the island. The four later saw the Richie Pirates being boiled in a giant pot by a cannibalistic group known as the Kumate Tribe. Reunited with his body parts, Buggy, Alivida, Mohji, and Cabaji defeated the tribe and Buggy was reunited with his crew. The pirate crew then went hunting for Luffy.

The Hunt Begins
Buggy later found Luffy at Loguetown, where he was greeted by "Oh, it's just you, Buggy." Enraged, Buggy had Cabaji trap Luffy on Gold Roger's execution stand. Meanwhile Mohji was sent to burn the Going Merry just in case Luffy escaped, but failed when it started to rain. Buggy stated that he was going to stage an execution, which made Luffy excited until Buggy told him he was going to execute Luffy. Zoro and Sanji attempted to rescue Luffy, but Luffy simply smiled and said that he was going to die and that they were too late. However, at that moment a bolt of lightning hit the execution stand, destroying Buggy's plot. Luffy then escaped unharmed due to his rubber body. Buggy then pursued Luffy with his Bara Bara no Buggy, but was caught by Captain Smoker's Moku Moku no Mi powers. Buggy's crew were then captured in seastone nets as Smoker left to pursue Luffy. Buggy's crew was later freed due to the high winds of the storm knocking away the nets. Buggy decided to follow Luffy to the Grand Line.

Buggy was later seen on a skull-shaped island in the Grand Line, searching for Captain John's legendary treasure. However, he had mistaken the island for another, and was put to work by the digger of the island. He later heard news of Luffy's bounty increasing to 100,000,000, but was not worried, saying that after he took out Luffy his bounty would increase even more.

He later found Portgas D. Ace sleeping on his ship, and refused to attack him, remembering that Whitebeard prizes his nakama. Ace later heard Buggy mention that he knew Whitebeard and Luffy, and promised to show him the way to Luffy. Buggy agreed to let Ace on his ship, thinking that Ace is one of Luffy's old enemies as well. Ace later ditched Buggy for unknown reasons.

Current Events
He most recently appeared on the newspaper that Vice Admiral Momonga gave to the Kuja Pirates. He was later confirmed to be arrested by Marines in the midst of his treasure search and sent to Impel Down. Although his crew was forced to abandon him there after their replacement captain Alvida spoke to them, he was last heard to have escaped confinement (most likely because the prison staff were not aware of his Devil Fruit powers and thus neglected to employ seastone restrainers on him) somewhere in the prison at the same time Luffy arrives at the prison with Shichibukai Boa Hancock. Luffy encounters him on the first level of Impel Down, using his Bara Bara abilities to survive being chopped by the prison guards and declaring a truce with Luffy while in the confines. Buggy tried to defeat the Blue Glory but failed as his attacks proof useless against the guards. In a nick of time, Luffy defeated all of the guards which shocked Buggy himself. He also remarked Luffy's ability comparing to the last time he met him. Buggy initially wanted to escape himself but Luffy told him that battleships were already standing by for the up-coming war between Whitebeard and the Marine. Knowing that he would be captured once again should he escaped, he decided to stay for a while. It was then he spotted Luffy's arm band which was given by Nami. Realizing it was actually Captain John's treasure that he was looking for, he decided to make a deal with Luffy. He would guide him to Level 4 but in return, Luffy had to give him the arm band. Without hesitation, Luffy agreed and even decided to give him the treasure in advance for helping him. Feeling guilty, Buggy was reluctant of accepting the gift but still decide to take it. He planned to run away after grabbing the gift but crashed into the Goalers room and flew out towards the Level One, Crimson Hell. He then brought Luffy towards the entrance of Level 2 inside the Crimson Hell. Luffy immediately jumped into the pit hole but Buggy decided not to and instead, run away. His plans failed once again when a Blue Glory managed to catch up and his body accidentally tripped into the hole.

Once at Level 2 with Luffy, they came face-to-face with a creature known also the Gaoler Basilisk, a snake with a chicken head that eats whoever it can find on that level. Luffy manages to beat it though, and destroy the Monitor Room on that level. The prisoners on the level were amazed, and asked if they could set them friend. Buggy did so, hoping the escaped prisoners would cause a riot, in which he can use to sneak away and escape, but Luffy pulled him away trying to get them to continue onward, but Buggy admitted to him that he doesn't know how to get to Level 4 and that he lied to him about helping him get there. He was even going to reveal his plan of sneaking away during the riot, but then he realized that all the prisoners went back into their cages, leaving Buggy with an angry Luffy.

Major Battles

 * Jolly Roger Pirates vs. Whitebeard Pirates (several offscreen)
 * Buggy vs. Roronoa Zoro
 * Buggy vs. Luffy and Nami
 * Buggy vs. Gaimon
 * Buggy, Alvida, Mohji, Cabaji vs. Kumate Tribe
 * Buggy vs. Luffy
 * Buggy Pirates vs. Smoker
 * Buggy and Luffy vs. 5 Blue Gorillas

Early One Piece


Buggy was originally going to be called "Boogie". The creator of One Piece, Eiichirō Oda, saw a movie and saw that the name "Boogie" was taken. Oda quickly thought up the new name so he changed it to "Buggy". "Boogie" was drawn in a harder, more realistic style, making him look more like a traditional 'scary horror clown' not too different from other clown-like villains in fiction such as the Joker from Batman. This is a contrast to Buggy's more rounded and cartoonish face in the final version. Buggy's red nose was also made bigger and more of an important feature on his face in comparison to Boogie.

Anime and Manga differences
In the anime, it was shown that Buggy stole a map of the Grand Line from Captain Morgan's naval base.

Translation and Dub Issues
A few edits were made to scenes involving Buggy and his crew in the 4Kids dub. Firstly during his fight with Luffy, he received a blow to the crotch area from Luffy which was altered into a kick to the shin. Other edits included general bloody edits. The two episode mini-arc involving him trying to find his body parts was also cut from final production.

His voice was also given a echo due to the power of his Devil Fruit (which is absent in the Japanese version). Evidence of this came from the his voice suddenly echoing during his flashback with Shanks after he ate his Devil Fruit. Another note is the removal of Buggy's habit of saying "flashy" in every sentence. Although he doesn't say it every sentence in the Funimation dub, he does show a fondness for the word. In the English manga, he says "flashy" sometimes, but uses other words as well. (e.g. "gaudy, "magnificently")

Cameos and Crossovers

 * Oddly out of all the characters in the series, Buggy appeared in Cross Epoch alongside the Straw Hats paired with Pilaf (Dragon Ball).

Merchandise
He has featured in the trading figure set One-Piece Motion Figure box alongside Chopper. He has featured in One Piece Gashapon sets. A One Piece DX Buggy Plushie was also released for him.

Trivia

 * Buggy is mostly drawn with his mouth open, causing one fan to ask Oda to draw him with his mouth shut.
 * In a recent Japanese Fan Poll, Buggy the Clown in currently ranked the 30th most popular character in One Piece.
 * One of Oda's more mature SBS questions asked if Buggy's lower regions were also able to split and fly off. Oda replied 'yes' as every part of Buggy's body could fly off.
 * In an interview for Shonen Jump Oda once stated Buggy was his favourite villain.
 * Though not considered canon, a scene of Ace ditching Buggy can be seen at the end of Ace's ending for the game One Piece: Grand Battle 3. After entering a bar and feasting of food, Ace (currently asleep) wakes up and realizes he has forgotten something and runs out of the bar - leaving Buggy with the [[Image:Bsymbol.gif]]380,000 bill.

Related Articles

 * Red-Haired Shanks
 * Buggy the Clown arc
 * Whitebeard