Gaimon

Gaimon is a former pirate who 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. Over the next twenty years, he grew a sizable beard and an even larger afro, giving him a curiously shrub-like appearance.

Personality
He is hostile to those who try to hurt the animals or steal the treasure chest he has been guarding for twenty years (ironically, unbeknownst to him until the Straw Hats arrived, the chests were empty). However, once he learns that someone visiting the island is not interested in the animals or the treasure, he becomes very friendly.

Gaimon was originally a greedy pirate. His lust for treasure caused him to be stuck in the empty chest he still lives in. He has since realized his arrogance and ignores wealth as he now protects his island and animals despite having no monetary gain from it.

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 seems to be proficient in using a gun, as he was able to hit Luffy by surprise, in the forest. Gaimon can also pretend to be a bush or his treasure chest in order to hide from his enemies and maintain stealth and surprise. He has managed to be somewhat agile despite being stuck in a chest. However, he has no superhuman abilities and believes that his body cannot survive without being supported by the treasure chest as his body became too adjusted to it.

Past
Gaimon's life changed when he was searching for treasure on the island as part of an unnamed pirate crew. While searching, he fell from a high cliff and directly into an empty treasure chest at the bottom. His crew, considering him a lost cause, left Gaimon stranded on the island.

Over the next twenty years, the treasure chest became a part of his body and could not be removed without killing him. However, he can still use his hands, head, and feet. Because Gaimon shrank to fit the size of the small chest, he could no longer scale the cliff to find the treasure. He managed to befriend the strange animals on the island and developed a close bond with them. To protect his treasure and his "friends", he did not allow any visitors on his island. If any sailors came ashore there, he would hide and tell them to leave in a spooky voice, claiming to be the island guardian ("island god" in the anime). If this failed, he took the more direct route of shooting them with a pistol (which he apparently keeps hidden inside his afro).

Syrup Village Arc
Twenty years after he was first stranded, Monkey D. Luffy and his crew arrived on the island. They survived his deterrent tactics, and after he realized that they were not there to steal from him, they became friends. However, when Luffy finally got to the top of the cliff, Gaimon realized that the treasure chests were empty too and he had been protecting a nonexistent "treasure" for twenty years. He then considered the animals as his treasures and vowed to protect them.

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
In the original Japanese version, Luffy initially calls Gaimon a "boxed son" (箱入り息子), to which he responds with "Yes, my father held me back when I was a boy" and then irritably snaps back to reality. This is a pun off of the archaic term "boxed daughter" (箱入娘), which refers to highly sheltered upper-class girl. As the reference would not be familiar to most Western audiences, each professional English translation adapts it into a different joke:
 * In the Viz manga, the term used is boxer
 * In the FUNimation-dubbed anime, the term used is Jack-in-the-box
 * In the 4Kids anime, the term used is heart of gold

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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