Buggy

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

Personality
Buggy will often feign intelligence, only to have his true incompotence revealed. Although he is not "stupid" in the traditional sense, he is prone to gross misjudgements 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" or "gaudy"), into almost every sentence he speaks ("Die with flash! You flashy bastard!").

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.

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.

Abilities and Powers
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. 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 seperates, something also seems to act normal; e.g., his feet walking as normal when Buggy sent 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.

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. Outside of knives, he also can be seen using (or threatening to use) his Buggy balls, which are highly explosive canonballs 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 uses cannons. He also was witnessed using a sword in an attempt to cut Luffy's head off at Logue Town.

Buggy and Shanks
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. 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.

Failure of Ambition


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.

Parting Ways
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 first appearance in the series had him terrorizing a town named "Orange Town", taking out random buildings with cannonballs (including his special "Buggy Balls", one of which is capable of taking out entire blocks). Monkey D. Luffy happened to fall into the village when Buggy shot down a passing seabird that was attempting to eat him.

After Nami (who had robbed Buggy of a map of the Grand Line) double-crossed both Luffy and Buggy, he set about trying to kill both of them. During his battle with Luffy, Nami stole and tied up his separate body parts, leaving him with just his head, hands and feet - and leaving him helpless to stop Luffy from beating him.

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 various adventures one of which had him meeting up with Gaimon,. After leaving Gaimon's island, Buggy was attacked by a giant crab - and then saved by a mysterious, beautiful woman who turned out to be Luffy's old foe, Alvida. Learning that Luffy now had a price on his head, Buggy was more than happy to join forces with Alvida.

The two pirates found Buggy's Band, which had fallen into ruin under the command of Richie, Mohji's pet lion. Reunited with his body parts, Buggy pulled his crew out of trouble and resumed hunting after Luffy.

The Logue Town Strike
The second battle between the two crews took place in Loguetown, where Buggy's Band attempted to execute Monkey D. Luffy. Buggy and Alvida's plans were thwarted due in part to the marines, various pirates and rather unlucky weather (which may or may not have been caused by Dragon).

The Hunt Begins
Currently Buggy is sailing the Grand Line with Alvida and his crew and has met up with Portgas D. Ace who has promised to show him the way to Luffy. Buggy has also mentioned that he once met Whitebeard, but the nature of that meeting has not been revealed quite yet.

Somewhere along his way, Ace has decided to ditch Buggy.

Major Battles

 * vs. Whitebeard's crew.
 * vs. Luffy
 * vs. Gaimon
 * Vs. Luffy
 * Vs. Smoker

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 villians in fiction such as the Joker from Batman. This is a contrast to Buggy's more rounded and cartoonic 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 Boggie.

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 mini-arcs involving him trying to find his body parts were 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 dub and the games). 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 habbit of saying "flashy" in every sentance.

Cameos and Crossovers

 * Oddly out of all the characters in the series, Buggy appeared in Cross Epoch alongside the Straw Hats in his chibi form.

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 cannon, 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 380,000 bill.

Related Articles

 * Red-Haired Shanks