Gaimon

Gaimon is a former pirate who currently lives as a hermit on the Island of Rare Animals.

Appearance
Gaimon possesses a notably pear-shaped face, green hair, and a pronounced uni-brow. In his youth, he appeared to be a relatively scrawny man of average height.

Shortly after landing on the Island of Rare Animals, most of his body was irreversibly compressed into a treasure chest, leaving only his head, hands, and feet free (and one of his teeth dislodged). Over the next twenty years, he grew a sizable beard and an even larger afro, giving him a curiously shrub-like appearance.

Personality
As a young man, Gaimon was a stereotypically greedy pirate, caring about little more than plunder. This greed slowly eroded (though never completely erased) by his decades of solitude on the Island of Rare Animals, causing him to prize peace and companionship more than any material wealth.

In any case, Gaimon is highly protective of anything he deems treasure, and as a result, tends to be hostile to any strangers he meets. However, once his trust has been earned, he can prove to be remarkably friendly and helpful, especially to fellow castaways.

Rare Animals
Gaimon treats the rare animals as treasures of the island, and defends them from possible invaders. He has great affection for them and they are family to him, so he does not want to leave the island and abandon them.

Straw Hat Pirates
Although he tried to attack the Straw Hat Pirates at first, he ends up making friends with them after telling them about his past, and they tried to help him get the treasure chests he had been wishing for. However, with the chests empty, Luffy asked him to join his crew, but Gaimon declined the invitation to stay with the animals.

Buggy


He is good friends with Buggy despite battling him when the pirate first crashed onto the island. Ironically, neither of them knows the other's relationship with Luffy.

Sarfunkel
Gaimon seems to have an affectionate relationship with Sarfunkel, the barrel woman, since she appears feeding him.

Abilities and Powers
Gaimon demonstrated no combat abilities in his youth, but appeared to be an above-average climber. Notably, he was able to scale the Island of Rare Animals' steepest cliff barehanded (a feat that Nami later deemed impossible).

After the accident that compressed his body, Gaimon adapted the best he could, and is able to perform most day-to-day tasks with his hands and feet (though he can no longer manage full-body movements such as climbing). According to him, the bulk of his body has atrophied so much that it cannot survive without the chest, leaving him severely disadvantaged against those he cannot intimidate or otherwise deceive.

Weapons
Gaimon carries at least one pistol at all times, having somehow maintained powder and shot for it despite being stranded for decades from any civilization. He is a marksman of at least some proficiency, preferring to shoot enemies from behind.

Past
Gaimon was once part of an unnamed pirate crew totaling some two hundred men, seeking fortune on the high seas. In time, they followed reports of buried treasure to the Island of Rare Animals, searching diligently for weeks but failing to find anything more than a single empty chest. While his captain and crewmates deemed the island a lost cause and prepared to raise anchor, Gaimon turned his attention to the island's highest, steepest cliff, which the crew had frequently gathered under but never climbed.

Upon making the climb, Gaimon was delighted to find five treasure chests atop the cliff. As he turned to call his crew, however, he lost his grip and fell directly into the empty chest his captain had left below. The impact knocked him unconscious for several hours; by the time he woke, his crew had sailed off without him. Worse, his body was trapped inside the chest, leaving him in a permanently hunched position that could manage few movements beyond scuttling and crawling.

Though he could no longer reach the clifftop treasure, Gaimon refused to give up. Over the following years, he adapted to his new condition and positioned himself as the island's "guardian" (番人), driving off any newcomers through a combination of stealth, theatrics, and gunplay. Simultaneously, he befriended the many bizarre animals that populated the island - a common target of poachers - and came to treasure them as well.

Syrup Village Arc
Twenty years after he was stranded, Gaimon finally encountered a group he could not drive off: the Straw Hat Pirates, whose captain Monkey D. Luffy effortlessly survived his pistol. Staggered by this, Gaimon tried to flee, only to trip and expose himself to the bemused Straw Hats. Soon after, he was won over by Luffy's cheerful nature, and for the first time in his life explained his story.

Luffy volunteered to recover the clifftop treasure for him, only to confirm Gaimon's worst fears: all five chests were empty, and Gaimon had spent decades protecting a nonexistent treasure. Though heartbroken by this revelation, Gaimon quickly rallied, resolving to spend the rest of his days protecting all the rare animals he had come to think of as his true treasure.

Buggy's Crew Adventure Chronicles
Chibi Buggy eventually met and befriended Gaimon after getting sent flying to the Island of Rare Animals.

From the Decks of the World


Gaimon was seen again still living on the island of strange animals. Gaimon was seen acquainted with a new inhabitant, Sarfunkel, a woman who is coincidentally trapped in a barrel. They were seen living happily together.

Anime and Manga Differences
The introduction to Gaimon is different in the anime and manga. In the manga, they have not recruited Usopp and attained the Going Merry yet, and only Luffy and Nami met Gaimon while Zoro slept on the boat the entire time. In the anime, Usopp had already joined and they had the Going Merry, so all four of the Straw Hats met Gaimon (though Zoro spent time sleeping on the island and as a result, met him later than the others).

He first appeared in the manga between the Orange Town Arc and the Syrup Village Arc, while in the anime he appeared in between the Syrup Village Arc and the Baratie Arc.

Translation and Dub Issues
Upon meeting Gaimon, Luffy initially calls him a "boxed son" (箱入り息子), prompting Gaimon to muse over his "coddled" childhood; this joke is based off the term "boxed daughter" (箱入娘), a somewhat archaic description of girls over-sheltered by their families. As the term has little cultural significance outside Japan, each professional English translation adapts it into a different joke:
 * The Viz manga uses the term boxer.
 * The 4Kids anime, uses the term heart of gold (with Gaimon at first thankful for the "compliment").
 * The FUNimation-dubbed anime uses the term Jack-in-the-box (with Gaimon sarcastically claiming his name "just happens to be Jack").

Playable Appearances

 * One Piece: Unlimited Cruise
 * One Piece Treasure Cruise

Enemy Appearances

 * One Piece: Treasure Wars
 * Treasure Wars 2 Welcome to Buggyland
 * Aim! The King of Berry

Support Appearances

 * One Piece: Gear Spirit
 * One Piece: Gigant Battle
 * One Piece: Gigant Battle! 2 New World

Non-Playable Appearances

 * One Piece: Become the Pirate King!
 * One Piece: Grand Battle!
 * Birth of Luffy's Dream Pirate Crew!
 * One Piece: Grand Battle! 2
 * One Piece: Grand Battle! 3
 * One Piece: Grand Battle! Rush!
 * One Piece (Game Boy Advance)
 * Dragon Dream!
 * One Piece: Pirates Carnival

Trivia

 * Eiichiro Oda stated that Gaimon was his favorite character in an interview from One Piece Color Walk 1 (published in 2001).
 * His pairing with Sarfunkel is a possible spoonerism of the singing group Simon and Garfunkel.
 * Gaimon's favorite food is the melons that can be harvested on the Island of Rare Animals.

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