Monkey D. Luffy

Monkey D. Luffy (モンキー・D・ルフィ) is a pirate and the main protagonist of One Piece. He is the captain of the Straw Hat Pirates, which are sometimes referred to as the "Luffy Pirates". He is currently one of eleven pirates who have been referred to as "The Eleven Supernovas".

Appearance
Luffy is renowned for wearing his trademark Straw Hat (from which he gets his nickname 'Straw Hat Luffy') which was given to him when he was young by the legendary pirate captain Red-Haired Shanks. His outfit somewhat mimics Shanks' own outfit in that he wears short trousers (although his are much shorter then Shanks') and sandals. Luffy also wears a red vest and has a scar underneath his left eye (he got it in Chapter 1, to prove his courage to Shanks and his pirates) and short black hair.

Luffy, for some reason, has the same outfit over most of the series, as opposed to the rest of the crew. Luffy may wear a different outfit to suit the climate of an island (like a winter coat on Drum Island or desert robes in Arabasta), but will switch back to his trademark vest and shorts after the adventures on that island are over. Notably, in Enies Lobby he wears black shorts because they had pockets in which he could carry meat, on the Thriller Bark Island he wears an orange vest and red shorts, and on the Sabaody Archipelago he wears a blue vest. He does, however, no matter where he is, wear his straw hat through absolutely everything though at the start, the hat was prone to getting knocked off his head easily forcing Luffy to either put it aside or have someone hold onto it during battles. Since then he gotten a string strap for it, allowing the hat to hang from his neck during fights.

Eiichiro Oda has mentioned that Luffy mostly resembles a monkey (he sometimes even makes a monkey face). According to Oda, Luffy is represented by the color red, and smells like meat.

As of Thriller Bark, he has been wearing a glass armband that he found in the loot stashed on their ship. During the most recent arc, he gave his armband to Buggy in exchange for information on how to get to Ace (which happened after Buggy discovered that the armband is a treasure map).

 Image:Luffy_in_his_youth.PNG|Luffy in his youth Image:LuffyStart.png|Luffy at the start of the storyline Image:Luffy_Current.png|Luffy as he currently appears in manga Image:LuffyUC.png|Luffy in his One Piece: Unlimited Cruise outfit

Personality
At first glance, Luffy does not appear to be very intelligent; his apparent lack of intelligence is the source of his brave attitude towards life. Luffy can easily be amazed by the simplest things, such as hermit crabs, and can be confused by concepts such as that by digging a hole right next to another he may be unintentionally filling the other hole. He also has no knowledge of medicine, when Nami had a high fever he told her to eat cold food and later tried to make Zoro better (after battling Kuma) by pouring Sake onto him because Zoro likes sake. When attempting to think up a plan to get off of Amazon Lily, while he managed to make some logical sense of where to look, he is seen to strain himself and notes that he is going to feel sick from too much thinking. His simple mind actually saved himself against Hancock's powers because he mistook it for another beam, which brought out a fear of being slowed down though later it is shown he is simply immune to her powers. Because he views the world in a straightforward and simple manner, he occasionally is the only person who can see past events that have taken place and realize the true goal, yet at other times he can fall into the simplest of traps. He is, however, a genius when it comes to fighting, such as when he figured out how to defeat Crocodile's Devil Fruit power, how to use Soru, and developed an effective counter to Enel's "Mantra" ability. He does have a habit of holding a grudge even in dire situations (such as calling Franky a "bastard" in the middle of his fight with Rob Lucci causing Franky to retort "Now's not the time to be mad at me"). When drawing him, Oda has said he tries to make Luffy very straightforward about what he wants to be and how he feels.

As a person with the middle initial D, Luffy shares the common trait of not fearing of death. He will often state that if he reaches his goal, that's fine, but if he dies on the way, that's fine too. He even smiled when he was nearly executed by Buggy the Clown in Loguetown, although he did had a look of shock and surprise in his eyes before this happened when Sanji and Zoro tried to rescue him.

Luffy also has an extreme thirst for adventure, which he has stated is the main reason he wants to become the Pirate King, having the belief that the Pirate King would be the one on the entire ocean with the most freedom for adventuring. This adventurous nature also makes him tend to avoid taking 'the easy way out' at times, such as when he destroyed the Eternal Pose to Arabasta given to him by Robin(Miss All-Sunday at the time), stating that he did not want an enemy to decide his destination. He also has no intention of trying to learn what or where One Piece actually is until he finds it himself, and once stated he would quit being a pirate if his crew tried to find out, not wanting to 'go on a boring adventure'.

We are NOT asking him where the treasure is hidden!!! We're not even asking him whether there IS any treasure or not!! I'm not sure, but... ...everybody set out to sea, risking their lives to search for it!!! If you ask this old man anything about it here and now... Then I'll quit being a pirate! I don't want to go on a boring adventure like that!

-Luffy speaks out on learning what One Piece is from Rayleigh.

Luffy seems to have an unstoppable appetite which is another common "D" trait, as well as a strong belief in dreams. Like other D's so far, he also is a glutton, despite his skinny appearance: he especially loves meat and can eat a fish whole - bones included, because of this, a running gag is Luffy constantly stealing other peoples' food with his rubber arms, causing them to yell at him and sometimes hit him. Another running gag is his habit of being amazed of various abilities of villains often yelling out "AMAZING" with stars in his eyes and around his head. He also constantly insults his opponents by giving them degrading nicknames (such as calling Gecko Moria a "leek" or Enel "earlobes"). Luffy also seems to have a slight obsession when it comes to outfitting himself with full-body armors, and has a knack of wearing himself one whenever he gets the chance, but every armor that he manages to find and outfit himself with usually ends up destroyed either in a battle or by some other comedic scenario.

Luffy never kills any of the villains (no matter how cold-hearted they are); instead, he frequently sends the villain flying, knocking them out or until the point that they are almost near death. Oda explains that it's not a question of morality so much as a matter of punishing the villains for their crimes - he feels that killing the villains lets them off too lightly, whereas he considers letting them live to see their dreams be ruined a far more fitting punishment.

Another dominant trait of Luffy is his humble nature: he doesn't brag about the powerful foes he's defeated in the past, though he's not above about claiming that no one has ever beaten him in the past, - which is not true, having been defeated at several times times, at least once by Ace, twice by Crocodile and once by Aokiji in the past. Despite this, he remains humble despite having done outrageous acts like defeating Shichibukai-level pirates and issuing the order to burn down the World Government Flag back at Enies Lobby. When Franky pointed this out, Luffy only replied that it was nothing to get worked up over, for he and his crew were only there to take back a crew member who was taken from them. Over the series Luffy has become more mature and levelheaded, though he only shows this part of his personality when he and his friends are in dire situations or someone insults him, calling people like him and their beliefs foolish; other than that he still acts the same as he was at the start of the series.

Luffy calls every mixed-appearance creature he finds by whichever creature is its secondary (non-dominant) part. On Gaimon's island, the dog/chicken was referred to as a chicken when it was mostly a dog, the snake/rabbit a rabbit even though it was mostly snake and the pig/lion a lion even though it was mostly pig. This becomes a running gag: later when he meets Bananawani, he calls them bananas with crocodiles attached to them. Also, after seeing Pierre transform, he continued to refer to him as a "horse" instead of a bird. And related to this running gag, when on Longring Longland island, he called every animal by what he thought they resembled rather then the actual species they were.

Luffy is very loyal to his crewmates and other friends, and can lose his temper quickly if they are harmed in anyway. Luffy is willing to do drastic things to avenge and defend those dear to him, even if it means breaking a promise to his friends (such as striking Bellamy down for attacking Montblanc Cricket's crew even though promising Nami he would not pick a fight, and punching Tenryuubito Saint Charloss in the face for shooting Hatchan, despite promising not to defy the World Nobles). Aside from his own loyalty, Luffy also believes that all people should be loyal to their nakama, and if Luffy sees anyone betraying their own comrades, he would stand up for the victims (even if they are enemies). Notable examples of this are Captain Kuro killing his own crew, Don Krieg attacking Gin, and Boa Hancock petrifying her fellow Kuja tribe members. He also shows respect for things that a person is willing to die for, be it a treasure or a secret, to the point of even fighting to protect that which the person would throw their lives away over. Also, as a bit of a running gag, Luffy, when talking about money, tells his crewmates to budget their money, only for them to react in return that it all goes towards to feeding him.

Crew
To find such loyal companions... your son is indeed amazing... Dragon.

-Bartholomew Kuma, commenting on Luffy and his crew Because he is the captain and recruited all the crew mates, Luffy cares tremendously for his crew. As far as captaincy to Luffy is concerned, he sees his other crewmates as equals in contrast to other pirate captains, who mostly sees theirs as subordinate underlings (his crew mostly calls him by name, rather than with an honorific or "Captain"). Much like his idol, Shanks, Luffy is the kind of benevolent pirate captain who doesn't seek to actively harm others unless they give him and his crew (or anyone he cares about) a very good reason to. Though during the Jaya arc he was willing to start a fight with Blackbeard. Luffy also has the rare ability to cheer up just about anyone with his idiotic antics, even pulling a smile every now and then from the serious Zoro and Robin. Usopp and Chopper, as the youngest of the crew, often join him in singing and fooling around. Brook, the newest member, also joins in with the three because of his fun-loving personality. Nami often scolds Luffy's airheaded-ness, but he never gets angry at her, even when she manipulates him. Zoro also sometimes gets impatient with Luffy, but respects him as his captain. Robin is especially grateful to him for taking her in despite the risks it involved as well as for pursuing her all the way to Enies Lobby. He adores Sanji's cooking, especially meat, dropping anything he's doing for a meal and liking it despite Sanji's claim that he puts considerably less effort into his food than for the women's meals.

He likes to make fun of other's imperfections and character traits, such as Zoro's bad sense of direction (though he is rarely better). Luffy also likes to comically imitate his crew members, and sometimes even himself; despite nearly dying from being frozen by Aokiji, he covered himself in flour and hopped while frozen in a pose to imitate the experience.

Friends
Luffy shares a strong relationship with Shanks, the pirate who saved his life ten years ago in his hometown, and looks up to him as his role model of an ideal pirate. Shanks and his crew are the ones Luffy proclaimed he would beat as they were leaving Luffy's hometown. Luffy will often defend his friend when others insult him and was relieved to hear from his grandfather that Shanks and his crew were okay. Part of Luffy's dream is to return the hat Shanks gave him when he becomes a great pirate.

Luffy has since worked diligently on keeping that promise and is known famously as "Monkey D. Luffy", or simply "Straw Hat Luffy". Most people don't take his goal seriously, until they see his absurd strength. Mihawk and Blackbeard are one of the first who truly acknowledged his dream right at the start.

Luffy befriends most of the civilians he meets on his journey, who normally fear him for being a pirate but hold him in admiration by the time he moves on to the next adventure. He is especially quick to befriend people, often calling people whom he has known less then a day his friends and being willing to go as far as necessary for them.

While Coby, the first person Luffy met on his journey, acknowledges that as he is a Marine, they will inevitably have to fight, they consider each other friends, as Luffy helped Coby muster the courage necessary to become a Marine. Luffy is also good friends with Vivi, who was with them all throughout the Arabasta arc, and he even considers her an honorary nakama and Straw Hat crew member. Luffy also made a friendly rival in the whale Laboon. And, after painting the Straw Hat's jolly roger on Laboon's forehead, promised the two will finish their fight with each other the next time they meet.

As of recently, Luffy has also managed to befriend the Shichibukai Boa Hancock despite their previous attempts to kill him for seeing the marks on their backs, which were the marks of the Tenryuubito, proof that they were once slaves to them, and they would have died rather than show that mark to anyone. During a fight with her sisters, when the mark was about to be revealed, Luffy served in preventing everyone present from viewing it as a form of respect to his opponents, claiming that their secrets have nothing to do with their fight. This sparked up past memories in her, and revoking her decision to eliminate him. Upon further testing his selflessness, she reveals her past to him, and Luffy forgives her, showing that he only hates the Tenryuubito who did both of them wrong, earning her friendship and (without his knowledge) her love. He also has a very friendly relationship with the entire population of Amazon Lily, as it seems every single Kuja practically worships him, as they have never seen a man before, and for the fact that he is a friend of the empress. They even went as far as selling "touches and pokes" of Luffy for 20 gold pieces each. Most of them affectionately refers to him as "Luffy-sama".

Enemies
Even the Marines started to take him more seriously after he defeated the villainous Marine Captain "Axe-Hand" Morgan and several known pirates such as Captain Buggy the Clown, "Pirate Admiral" Don Krieg, and Arlong The Fish-man. A 30,000,000 bounty was placed on his head after he had beaten Arlong and the Marines were cautious about Arlong's defeat because it had brought to questioned the worth of their units. This reward eventually becomes 100,000,000 after he defeated Sir Crocodile, when the World Government deemed him a serious threat for beating one of their Shichibukai. After the invasion of Enies Lobby, where they declare war on the world government itself, the government raised the bounties of the entire crew; Luffy's was raised to 300,000,000.

His personality has left an imprint on a few of his rivals, with both Trafalgar Law and Eustass Kid being left with respect for him after he boasted he will be the one to find One Piece. They departed on good terms and all three agreed to met up again in the New World. Other rivals among the Eleven Supernovas are not so happy with Luffy, with Bonney claiming that she will finish them off herself if she ever meets them in the New World, upset with Luffy causing trouble for her and the others by forcing Kizaru to arrive.

During his voyage, Luffy has had a few meetings with the Marines, from the not too serious looking return of Ironfist Fullbody (whom Luffy met first by the Baratie) and Commodore Smoker of Loguetown, to Admiral Aokiji. While some are easy to defeat, Luffy has been unable to defeat Smoker or Aokiji due to their powerful Logia abilities, and has resorted to running away from Smoker when he encounters him.

Luffy has passed several islands on his way to and along The Grand Line, including Drum Island, Little Garden, Arabasta, and Skypiea. He has met many new allies, as well as making several powerful enemies, such as Sir Crocodile, Eneru, Rob Lucci, and Gecko Moria, often inadvertently becoming an obstacle to their schemes, befriending one of their enemies, or being targeted by them, and then proceeding to fight against and defeat them. Some of Luffy's enemies, such as Alvida and Buggy the Clown seek revenge on him for defeating them.

After being completely defeated in the Sabaody Archipelago and failing to save a single crewmate from Bartholomew Kuma's teleportation ability, Luffy has sworn to defeat him, Sentoumaru and Admiral Kizaru.

Monkey D. Garp
Though the two of them get along fine, Luffy is utterly terrified of his grandfather Garp. This is due to the extreme training he was put through in his younger years in his bid to make Luffy a Marine, as well as Garp's tendency to punch Luffy to discipline him. Garp has high expectations for Luffy, but to Garp's dismay, Luffy does not share his grandfather's ideas on his future. . However, Garp respects Luffy as a great person, even if he is a pirate; when Sengoku is talking with Garp and Kuma, Garp says that Luffy isn't the type of person that brags about defeating someone of Moria's caliber, arguing that Bartholomew Kuma did not need to kill Luffy to keep Moria's defeat a secret.

Monkey D. Dragon
Luffy has only just recently discovered that Dragon the Revolutionary is his father, so the two have yet to talk to each other. In fact, their only meeting is where Dragon rescues Luffy from being captured by Smoker, and the only thing Luffy talks to him is when he asks "who's there?" while being pinned headfirst into the ground by Smoker. It is unclear whether he cares for his son's life, however Dragon saved Luffy in Loguetown and seems to expect great things from him, much like his grandfather. However, unlike Garp, Dragon seems content with letting him find his own place in the world, although he believes they will meet someday.

Portgas D. Ace
Ace and Luffy are close to each other. They grew up together back in their hometown and from time to time fought, with Ace always winning even after Luffy acquired his powers. Luffy displayed no grudge against Ace for always winning, but instead boasted that he could win now. In the one-off supplement Grand Line Times, the question of their different surnames was initially raised and the idea put forth that Ace and Luffy may be stepbrothers. Later it is revealed the different surnames was due to Ace simply choosing to use the name of his mother Portgas over Dragon's name.

Other
Though neither his mother nor his grandmother have been shown, in the Grand Line Times a "?" was left in the place of both Dragon and Garp's wives. Though Oda may not decide to ever state who the women in Luffy's family are this leaves the spot open to suggest they may be mentioned later. It is unknown how they may be related, but anyone carrying the Will of D may also be related to Luffy, such as Jaguar D. Saul and Marshall D. Teach.

Abilities and Powers
One of the top three fighters of Straw Hats, Monkey D. Luffy has extraordinarily inhuman strength, enough to break through stone and shatter steel with his bare hands, and can move at superhuman speeds, eventually catching up to even the speed of weaker CP9 agents without the use of his Gears. Luffy's sheer physical strength and dexterity is a result of his grandfather's unorthodox training methods and he claimed he had a punch as powerful as a pistol even at seven years of age. However, it should be also noted that all of the known members of Luffy's family have superhuman strength. Luffy's greatest feat of strength is seen when he is trapped between two enormous buildings and escapes by pushing them away. He is also capable of amazing feats of agility and possesses great endurance and reflexes to match his strength and speed. In fact, on more than one occassion, Luffy was able to anticipate and counter attacks that would normally be beyond his field of vision due to his sharp reflexes. His strength is only exceeded by his enormous willpower, as demonstrated on several occasions throughout the series, most noted of all in the Thriller Bark Arc when he manages to take in 100 shadows without passing out.

Unlike Zoro or Sanji, Luffy's fighting style is freestyle and improvised; it follows no particular code of honor, and so if necessary he will attack women or animals, hit below the belt, attack even if enemies have their backs turned on him or are otherwise unprepared or unsuspecting, use enemies as human shields or even bite his opponents. While fighting, Luffy can also think on the spot, and come up with creative counterattacks against his enemies. He also appears to be intelligent enough to at least understand fundamental concepts, such as rubber being a natural insulator, which might be why he did not bother ducking out of the way of Eneru's lightning attacks as it would have been pointless to do so since he is immune to such attacks. He also is heavily influenced by any form of hypnotism and doesn't have the sense to turn away, such as Jango's hypnotism powers or Miss Goldenweek's Colours trap. Regardless, while easily noticeable as the least strategic member of his own crew, due to his tendency as the type to simply just barge in head-first into battle (often without a battle plan whatsoever). Luffy is a highly adaptive combatant; constantly coming up with ways to keep ahead of his foes, either by taking advantage of his own strength and Devil Fruit powers or utilizing the opponent's own strengths (along with their weaknesses) against them. This causes even warriors long considered unbeatable to have trouble keeping up.

Luffy has also begun to awaken "Haki" ability similar to one used by his hero Shanks. He has a variety of Haki called "Haoushoku", a style of Haki possessed in one in a million people and is said to be the "the king's disposition", This power first manifested itself when Luffy scared and made Motobaro, Duval's bison steed, faint.

Luffy also has the mysterious and uncanny ability to, while completely asleep, eat as if he were awake, even able to know when more food has been placed on the table. This is probably purely based on muscle memory since all Luffy does best is fighting and eating. Another running gag in the series is about Luffy is his inability to draw. In the start of the Arlong arc, imagining how a mermaid would be Luffy drew a fish with tentacle-like paws and an anthropomorphic fish with arms, legs and hair. Before the Straw Hats arrived at Water Seven, Luffy drew a childish picture of what he wanted the future shipwright to look like. This inability also extends to Jolly Rogers: the first Jolly Roger of the Straw Hat Pirates was a bad drawing designed by Luffy himself (he later used a similarly bad drawn version of his Jolly Roger as a promise marker on the face of Laboon) while also drawing a bad version of Foxy's flag after taking it from him in the Davy Back Fight arc. He also possess extraordinary jaw strength, as seen in the Buggy arc in the manga, where he had almost chewed through the metal bars of the cage Buggy put him in. He also managed to give Rob Lucci a small bite wound. He was also given incredibly dangerous training from his grandfather(being thrown into a bottomless ravine etc...) when he was a kid which supposedly led to his amazing ability to pull through anything.

Devil Fruit


Luffy has gained extraordinary stretching powers from eating the Gomu Gomu no Mi (lit. Rubber Rubber Fruit, Gum Gum Fruit in the English dub), which is one of the rare and legendary Devil Fruits. After consuming the Gomu Gomu no Mi, Luffy's body becomes like rubber, giving him the ability to stretch long distances. Having trained hard for ten years, Luffy is able to supplement his stretching powers with immense strength, agility, and creativity in combat. His fighting style is largely improvised, and heavily reliant on his Devil Fruit. It should be noted, Luffy can't automatically stretch his limbs (like superheroes with stretching powers, i.e: Mr. Fantastic or Plastic Man) since his body acts more like a rubber band, thus has to throw some force into it in order for his limbs to stretch out.

Luffy uses his stretching power in ingenious ways. He is able to use the malleable stretchiness of his limbs to gain tremendous velocity and hit enemies with devastating impact. His rubber body is also extremly durable and virtually immune to blunt objects such as bullets (in One Piece, bullets are still round pellets), punches and electricity, either reflecting off his body harmlessly or being absorbed into him. It's even become a running gag that people find out the hard way Luffy is made of rubber when they shoot at him, only to have the bullets bounce right back. However, he is still normally susceptible to sharp objects such as swords and knives. He can not only use his ability to increase the range and strength of his attacks, but he can also use it to restrain and even control foes like puppets.

Like all Devil Fruit users, Luffy cannot swim (although he couldn't swim before he ate the Devil Fruit). Even though blunt objects do little damage to him, sharp blades or points can harm him and blunt attacks can also hurt Luffy if enough force is put into it, as well as nonphysical attacks like flames, explosions, freezing and dehydration.

Early One Piece
 Image:RD1Luff.png|Luffy from Romance Dawn V.1 Image:RD2Luff.png|Luffy from Romance Dawn V.2 Image:RD3Luff.png|Luffy from Romance Dawn When drawing One Piece, Eiichiro Oda was heavily influenced by the manga Dragon Ball, and had the series in mind when designing his characters. Oda has said that when he was creating Luffy, he was thinking about "manliness", because Dragon Ball had already done all the things that a child could possibly be happy about. .

Luffy was first featured as the main protagonist in the first pilot of One Piece Romance Dawn V.1 in the Shonen Jump specials showcasting upcoming artists, about a year and a half before One Piece began. He would remain as the main protagonist in the second release of Romance Dawn, Romance Dawn V.2 (featured in Weekly Shonen Jump magazine itself) and the final version Romance Dawn V.3.

Luffy's character changed throughout all three versions of Romance Dawn. Starting from Romance Dawn version 1, Luffy was much smarter than his final incarnation and while he had the power of the Devil Fruit he did not seem to have any named attacks. He claimed to be a candidate for pirate and a Peace Maine type of pirate. His background story was near enough identical to the final story released with Romance Dawn version 3, with a number of note worthy differences. The major difference being that Higuma the Bear was absent from the story in this version. Another minor difference was that Shanks' arm was bitten off by a shark instead of a Sea King. In Romance Dawn V.1 there was also a panel that featured a Luffy as captain of his own crew. This is the only time a older version of Luffy has been drawn by Oda in regards to One Piece storyline.

Version 2 of Romance Dawn feature a Luffy closer to the final version then Romance Dawn version 1. He now had a named attack (though it featured a different naming scheme to the final version) and lacked the intelligence he displayed in Romance Dawn version 1, however, it is arguable that he was less intelligent than his final design overall. His story, though still featured him eating the Devil Fruit, did not feature Shanks and instead Luffy got both his hat and the Devil fruit he ate from his grandfather. Luffy remained a Peace Maine type of pirate in this version and was still promoting himself as a candidate for a pirate while seeking to join up with a crew.

In both versions, Luffy was missing the scar under his left eye. Apart from this the only difference in Luffy's overall appearance was the adaptation to suit the drawing style of each Romance Dawn. The most note worthy change from each version was of Young Luffy, whose head and body shape, though remained roughly the same, was different enough to notice.

Anime and Manga Differences
In the anime, Luffy's past did not include the scene where he stabbed himself under the eye to prove to Shanks he was a man. The anime also skipped over all the scenes before Shanks gave Luffy juice, these scenes showed Shanks making fun of Luffy for being a child as well as some of the interaction between Shanks, Luffy and the rest of Shanks' crew. also in the manga luffy couldn't swim, even before he ate the devil fruit, which was why shanks called him anchor, hence the shirt luffy wore.

Translation and Dub Issues
In the 4Kids dub, Funimation dub, and Viz English manga, the most common alteration seen to Luffy is the reference to his devil fruit, the Gomu Gomu no Mi, as the "Gum Gum fruit". The correct term would be the "Rubber Rubber Fruit", which has not been used outside the Odex version of the series (For example, Gomu Gomu no Fuusen is translated as "Rubber Balloon").

Other alterations in the 4Kids dub are mainly directed around the renaming of most of his attacks, most away from references to guns (such as the Gomu Gomu no Pistol, which becomes Gum Gum Blast), but not traditional weapons (Gomu Gomu no/Gum Gum Axe). Other than attacks, Luffy is constantly the center of attention for the removal of blood in battles against foes. All of these are common censorship edits made for American TV. With the recent changeover of the dubbing company, Funimation took a more relaxed approach to editing, and retained the firearm references, as well as a gratuitous level of blood shown. By episode 177, the anime appears to be fully uncut.

In the book The Anime Encyclopedia - A guide to Japanese animation since 1917(2001), there was a short article about One Piece. In it there were 3 mistakes concerning Luffy; his age was written as 16, his name was spelt Rufy and he was written to have saved Shanks' life instead of the other way round.

Crossovers

 * Luffy appeared in an Shonen Jump special, where Enel attacks Tokyo and Odaiba. Goku arrives to fight Enel and Luffy appears to help him. Luffy and Goku make an attack called "Gomu Gomu No Kamehameha" and they destroy Enel.
 * Luffy and other characters also appeared in Cross Epoch with Dragon Ball characters.
 * Luffy has appeared in the games Jump Super Stars and Jump Ultimate Stars for the DS. He also appeared in Battle Stadium D.O.N on the GameCube and PlayStation 2.

Cultural References

 * In Inuyasha, episode 126 Luffy makes a cameo appearences with the cloth changed
 * Luffy's Devil Fruit the Gomu Gomu no Mi was referenced in the Japanese TV Drama show Trick.
 * Luffy had a small mention in the PS2 game Ape Escape 3, where it is revealed that Pink Monkey is angry over Luffy's popularity, and seems to believe he is a real monkey.
 * In Yakitate!! Japan, episode 56, there is a parody of One Piece where Kuroyanagi turns into a "Tenobi Man" as a reaction from trying Azuma's Japanese-Style Ja-pan dumpling. To this effect, he dons a straw hat and starts stretching his arms like rubber to unbelievable lengths like Monkey D. Luffy.
 * In a fake movie preview during an episode of Gintama, Isao Kondo (playing a lookalike of Crocodile) is seen charging towards heroine Tae Shimura. Tae defeats him with a "Gomu Gomu" move. Similar enemies and attacks are also performed connected to Dragon Ball and Bleach in the same film.
 * In To Love-Ru, Ren Elsie Jewelria is reading a copy of Weekly Shonen Jump where Luffy's head can be seen as the picture on the binding.
 * In one chapter of the manga Eyeshield 21, a Luffy-like character was seen.
 * In a online RPG called Dragonfable there was an enemy pirate monkey dressesed up like Luffy, and was called L.D.MONKEE which is backwords for Monkey.D.LUFFY.

Merchandise


As the main protagonist, Luffy has been the choice character in many forms of merchandise and is arguably only out produced by Chopper. He has been featured in the series of models Portrait of Pirates. He was released in the One Piece DX Figure - Swim Suit Style set which included him and Nami. When the Wii game One Piece: Unlimited Adventure was released Luffy was one of the crew produced as a figure in the One Piece Locations Trading Figures series. He has also appeared as a plushie in a number of sets such as the One Piece Fishing Plushies pair.

He has featured in One Piece Gashapon sets on numerous occasions and he also featured in the 5 piece One Piece VS Figure Gashapon set. Another Gashapon set he featured in was the One Piece Full Color R Gashapon, of what he was featured twice. He was issued alongside Shanks and Lord of the Coast in a One Piece Block Figures set featuring the Straw Hats and their past mentors/loved ones. He has featured in trading figure sets such as One-Piece Motion Figure box and the One Piece Styling Figures.

Luffy has also featured on many Keychains/cellphone Straps sets including the One Piece Desert Kingdom Mascot Keychain/Cellphone Strap collection, alongside his brother Ace. He is part of the One Piece Sky Island Mascot Keychain collection. Another set he featured in was the One Piece Monkey Island Mascot Keychain/Cellphone strap series. In the Keychain pairing, he was released alongside Nami, however in the Cellphone strap series he was released alongside Shoujou.

Songs

 * Wanted!
 * We Are HERE!
 * Every-One Peace!
 * Holy Holiday (with Zoro)
 * Akuma no Mi (Luffy, Zoro, Nami, Usopp and Sanji)
 * Hi! Ho! Ready Go! (Luffy, Zoro, Nami, Usopp and Sanji)
 * Family (with other crew members)
 * We Are! (with other crew members)
 * Utae! Jingle Bell (with other crew members)
 * You Are the One (with other crew members)
 * Jungle Fever (with other crew members)
 * Respect! (Luffy, Zoro and Sanji)
 * Doctor Tony Tony Chopper (as backup to Chopper)
 * A Thousand Dreamers (With other crew members)

Trivia

 * Luffy is described as being like the fourth son of a family.
 * Due to the nature of the One Piece timeline against the real world timeline, Luffy does not age, remaining 17 no matter what the year is in real life.
 * Monkey D. Luffy is the second character that carries the initial D., however he is the first D. to be named in the story.
 * Except for the Gears, Luffy's Forms (up to now) have all been him messing around hoping something will work, and just doing goofy stuff, but they have saved him each time.
 * Luffy's favourite food is meat.
 * Oda has claimed that at the time of naming Luffy, he did so because he felt the name "Luffy" was right for his main character. Later Oda found out there is a Maritime term called a "Luff" and has insisted this is pure coincidence but one he was delighted by.
 * In the Dragon Ball and One Piece crossover Cross Epoch after Luffy falls from a cliff Goku orders the Kinto'un to save Luffy from the fall and then he rides the Kinto'un until they arrive in the tea party. Riding the Kinto'un, in the universe of Dragon Ball, means that Luffy is pure of heart.
 * One of Oda's more mature SBS questions asked if Luffy's lower regions could stretch, to which Oda replied that they could. They actually do stretch (though it is never actually shown) in chapter 514.
 * When Luffy activate his Gear 2nd, in the original manga Luffy skin doesn't turn red, the anime made it turn red to show the difference. In the game One Piece Unlimited Adventure when Luffy activates Gear 2nd his skin stays the same colour but glows brighter.
 * Luffy during the Jaya arc displayed a fascination for Hecules and Atlas beetles to the point where he became distracted from everything else. Both species are highly prised in Japan and are used for fighting.
 * Luffy has a tendency to suck his lips in and cock his head to the side when an attack or technique fails to affect him, such as Enel's various electrical attacks or Boa Hancock's Mero Mero Merrow.

Related Articles

 * Pirate King
 * Straw Hat Pirates
 * Shanks
 * Nico Robin
 * Monkey D. Dragon
 * Monkey D. Garp
 * Portgas D. Ace
 * Will of the D.