Enel


 * The subject of this article is sometimes called "Eneru" or "Ener".

Enel is the main antagonist of the Skypiea Arc. He is the former "god" of Skypiea.

Appearance
Enel is a tall, muscular man who has white/blond hair which was, in ancient South American civilizations, considered godly. His hair is covered by a simple white bandanna, and according to Oda, if Enel was to take off his bandanna, his hair would be in a perm. His nose has many lines running horizontally across it. His ear lobes are extremely long, ending up to his torso. He also holds four large Tomoe drums attached via a large ring to his back, instead of the regular Skypiean/Bilkan wings, which gives him an appearance similar to a Raijin, a similarity made even more prominent when using his "200,000,000 Volt Amaru" transformation.

He is dressed in a very luxurious manner, to emphasize his "godliness": he wears loose, orange pants with a black pattern on them, and around his waist there is a blue, flowing sash, holding up a light-blue veil (it should be noted that during Enel's invasion of Upper Yard his pants had a distinctly different pattern that appeared similar to barbed wire running horizontally across the pant legs). He wears bracelets on both his arms and legs, earrings at the end of his extra-long ears, and two little rings around his bigger toes.

Personality
Enel thinks of himself as an invincible god - quite literally. He believes that he is a divine and immortal being, with the authority to do, take or destroy whatever he pleases and is capable of doing anything. As the result, he appears fearless, childish, arrogant and without a care in the world.

His lifestyle is relaxed and hedonistic, and when not attending to his "godly duties" of smiting the natives of Skypiea (for speaking against him), he spends his time sleeping or eating in his residence, being waited on hand and foot by beautiful women. This attitude carries over to his battles, where he's hardly serious and barely annoyed - instead he's relaxed, and enjoys himself by effortlessly absorbing attacks, and humiliating his opponents. In his fight against Kamakiri, he even went to sleep in the middle of the fight, in order to prove his immortality. Sometimes, against an annoying opponent like Usopp using his "Usopp Spell", rather then shocking them he simply bludgeons them with his staff.

Enel holds no regard for other lives except his own, and has no moral qualms about killing thousands - instead he sees it as his godly duty, and laughs maniacally as he sends Skypiea to its doom. He is, in short, a sociopath and insane, which becomes even more obvious when he sets off for the moon, which he believes to be the home of God (himself).

Before Luffy showed up, his fruit power and mantra ability made his God-complex completely legitimate. Once Luffy began gaining the upper hand in the battle, Enel incapacitated him in order to remove him as a threat, and reclaim his status as "invincible" while stating that there is no need for him to fight Luffy - and from that point he acts somewhat cowardly, trying his best to avoid another confrontation with Luffy. According to Oda, Enel's favorite fruit is apples. Going along with this, when Enel taunts in One Piece Grand Battle! Rush!, he eats an apple.

Many of One Piece's primary villains were given distinct laughs. Enel follows this tradition with a stressed "ya" at the beginning of his laugh (i.e. "Yaaa ha ha ha ha ha!"). This carries over to the English versions.

God's Army
Enel has no actual care for his subordinates but the Priests. He has no problem to kill even his followers. In addition, while predicting the victims of the Survival Game he had no pity for his fallen people.

Priests
The Priests are the four men who serve under Enel. They are his strongest followers and, short of Enel himself, the greatest threat to Straw Hat Pirates during the Skypiea arc. Enel seemed to possess a little care for them. From their side, they seemed to respect their leader. Enel was surprised when he learned that they had been defeated.

God's Enforcers
Other than the priests, Enel has 50 warriors called the Enforcers to fight for him. Yama is the leader, while Hotori and Kotori are lieutenants of the group. Even though they seem to take their leader’s beliefs seriously, Enel doesn’t seem to have the same feelings.

White Berets
The White Berets are similar to the police of the Blue Seas. They enforce the rules of Skypiea under Enel's rule, but in truth they despise him and only obey him for the sake of the Skypiea's citizens; upon realizing his intention of killing everyone in Skypiea, the Berets force turned against him.

Shandians
The Shandians focused primarily on Enel and his priests and after their defeat turned to repairing the damage their war with the Skypieans had caused.

Wiper
The Shandians’ leader, Wiper has deep hate towards Enel. He was even willing to sacrifice his own life in order to defeat him. However he couldn’t make it. After Enel’s defeat he was quite amused and he is no longer distracted from the others. Wiper urged his fellow warriors to fight more vigorously, even if it meant leaving fallen comrades behind. With this, Wiper and the rest headed back to Upper Yard to continue their attack. Unbeknownst to them, they were heading into a completely different Upper Yard from the day before, an Upper Yard where they are all being tested in Enel's Survival Game.

Learning more that Enel has plans to destroy all of Skypiea since in his mind, it defies the laws of nature, Wiper and those with him fought against Enel with all of their might. However, despite their best efforts, Enel's powers proved too much for them. Even with the aid of some Seastone in Wiper's skates and the Reject Dial, Enel simply restarted his own heart after Wiper struck him down. Regardless of the situation, Wiper refused to back down. Despite being shocked by Enel's attacks, Wiper stood up for his ancestors, for his people's plea to return home, and for Noland. However, despite his determination, Wiper was struck down by Enel and was left along with those dealt with by the God in the ruins.

As the beanstalk fell and Luffy headed towards Enel, Wiper stood proudly amidst of the ruins of his ancestors and cheered Luffy on to beat Enel despite the various lightning strikes directed at him and his people's home by the God. Seeing Luffy miraculously negate Enel's Raigou, Wiper cheered on Luffy further to ring the bell. As Wiper and all of Skypiea witnessed the battle in the air with Luffy against Enel, their prayers were answered as Luffy slammed Enel straight into the Golden Bell. Upon the bell being rung, Wiper heard the beautiful song that he so long wanted to ring for Noland.

Gan Fall
Enel has a habit to mock the former God of Skypeia. He showed absolutely no respect for his face or his age. He even paralyzed him with one of his thunder-shocks. Gan Fall also has deep anger for Enel and he considers him a brutal and an inhuman person.

Straw Hat Pirates
On Skypiea, the Straw Hats made enemies out of Enel and his priests for breaking their laws. They managed to stop Enel’s evil plans and caused his defeat.

White Berets
The White Berets were all originally members of the Enforcers in service to Gan Fall. Appearing to betray the Enforcers, they pledged allegiance to Enel. They believed that by remaining on the island and trying to prevent anyone from God's anger, they could protect the citizens. But in the end this plan turned to be a miserable failure. When they discovered Enel planned to destroy all of Skypiea, they turned against him and helped the people from Angel Island get to safety.

Conis
Conis was scared of Enel’s powers. Even though Enel didn’t consider her as a threat, he decided to punish her for talking with El Thor. As Conis and her father continued guiding the Going Merry through Upper Yard, the two were alerted by Su who had spotted an injured Skypiean. The man who was originally part of Enel's Enforcers told them about Enel's plan to destroy all of Skypiea. As he told them this, Enel decided to attack them with El Thor. Conis was fortunately pushed away from the lightning wave by her father. Her father however didn't escape in time. Despite what had happened, Conis decided to warn her people at Angel Island of Enel's plan and left Su to take care of the injured Straw Hats.

As she watched her home be slowly destroyed by Enel's powers, she wondered if there really is a God. Just as Enel delivered a gigantic apocalyptic thunder cloud, Raigou, to completely obliterate all of Skypiea, Conis started praying for a miracle along with the rest of those who lived in Skypiea. And sure enough their prayers were answered.

Conis and the rest of Skypiea witnessed Luffy completely destabilize Enel's attack. They all then witnessed Luffy finally defeat Enel by punching the god straight into the golden bell. As the golden bell was hit, Conis and everybody heard its beautiful sound, the sound that signalized the end of the four hundred year war.

Abilities and Powers
Enel is one of the most powerful villains in the series, although he appeared to be weaker than many characters as powerful as he is due to the fact that Luffy had complete immunity to most of Enel's lightning based attacks, and was even able to strike Enel, thanks to his rubber powers.

Enel has a great knowledge and awareness of objects that many Sky Islanders would usually not have, such as an understanding of what gold is, partly due to studying the ruins of Upper Yard. This awareness allows him to keep these items for himself believing he is truly worthy of them. However, before Luffy, he was unaware of the existence of rubber.

He is also very perceptive and has an amazing deductive ability, quickly seeing through Robin's deception and concluding that the Shandorian Golden Belfry Bell was not at Upper Yard but beyond it. He is also knowledgeable enough to understand the mechanical functions and capabilities of his ship: Maxim, and quickly repaired it once he deduced the origin of the problem. In addition, he has some awareness of the meteorological functions of the sky.

Enel also possesses incredible physical strengthand is usually portrayed as very acrobatic, often doing backflips with one hand, and has an above average endurance, shrugging off most of Luffy's attacks. Enel also stomped Zoro to the ground with his foot, causing the ground to shake as a result. Zoro commented about his strength afterwards in shock and terror.

Weapon
Enel wields a golden staff and is adept at using it, giving powerful hits to his opponents with it. Enel uses the heat from the Goro Goro no Mi he consumed to forge his staff into a trident like weapon.

Mantra
Enel has the ability known as Kenbunshoku Haki, known as "Mantra" in the sky islands. His Haki is further enhanced by his Devil Fruit powers, making him virtually omniscient of the thoughts and actions of Skypiea. Nevertheless, Enel himself admits that Mantra is not perfect.

Devil Fruit
Enel gets his Devil Fruit power from the Logia-classed Goro Goro no Mi. It lets him use a variety of lightning based attacks by striking the drums on his back, which are nearly all named after thunder gods from various cultures. When amplified by his ship, they were shown to easily destroy an island. It also gives him the ability to restart his heart after being killed, as long as he doesn't have any fatal wounds that could bypass his Logia powers, as well as increase his mantra to omnipotent levels. Because of these abilities, the Goro Goro no Mi is one of the few Devil Fruits to be regarded as "invincible".

His current mini-arc suggests he does not need to breathe, and can survive outside of the atmosphere (though the laws of space as we know them may not apply in the One Piece universe). However, his electricity-based powers have no effect on certain substances such as rubber, making Luffy a formidable enemy, as he is immune to Enel's powers. He is also weakened by Seastone, as all Devil Fruit users are.

Past
Eight years before the current story, Enel destroyed his home island of Bilka as a show of his power. Afterwards, Enel and his loyal contingent of followers overthrew the then current ruler of Skypiea, Gan Fall, becoming the island's new ruler. Enel maintained a personality cult over Skypiea, truly taking the mantle of "god" to its more literal sense. Though Skypiea still had a sense of peace and paradise, much like in any classic dystopia, it was a false paradise. If anyone dared speak out against Enel, or challenge his list of commandments, he would shoot a giant column of lightning down from the sky to effectively eliminate the dissenter. Along with this, he forced the enforcers who worked under Gan Fall to build him a massive, flying ship called the "Maxim".

Skypiea Arc
Once the Straw-Hat pirates arrived in Skypiea, and entered Upper Yard, Enel commenced his plan to return all of Skypiea to an "endless world". Enel took advantage of an already brewing war between the Skypieans and a native tribal group called the Shandora. His great battle, which he called the Enel's Survival Game, was meant to pit these two groups, along with the Straw Hat pirates and his own followers in a war to see who was worthy enough to accompany him to his holy land, "Fairy Vearth".

At the start of the fight, Enel predicted that there would only be five survivors at its end (including himself). However, Enel's prediction was miscalculated, as there was one fighter overlooked (due to being inside a giant python): Monkey D. Luffy.

In a grand battle between Monkey D. Luffy and Enel, it is made apparent that Luffy is more than a match for Enel due to rubber's inability to conduct electricity and that Enel's most powerful attacks are all electric based (making most of his power useless), and Enel is momentarily incapacitated as a result. His ego bruised, and frightened he found his natural enemy, Enel manages to get rid of Luffy temporarily by using his powers to heat up a golden Buddha statue, and using the metal to graft a huge golden ball to his right arm as a "reward" for such a valiant struggle, and then knocking him off his flying ship. The heat of the electrified ball burns Luffy, while its tremendous weight rockets him down to the ground. With Luffy out of the way, Enel continues on with his plan to destroy all of Skypiea. Enel unleashes a devastating new technique called Raigou, a massive thundercloud sphere, and destroys one of the Skypiean islands. Setting his sights on Upper Yard, he forms an even larger one.



Along with help from Nami and the rest of his friends, Luffy manages to get back up into the sky to defeat Enel once and for all. Before he does though, Luffy launches himself into the Raigou. Using the golden ball, Luffy creates a new technique: Gomu Gomu no Ougon Botan, in which he twirls the golden ball ferociously without control while having his arm out-stretched, creating an illusion of thousands of golden balls. The tremendous force of this attack wreaks havoc within the Raigou, causing it to explode within mid-air. With the threat of the Raigou neutralized, Luffy winds up his arm with the golden ball attached to it for one final attack on Enel.

In retaliation to his attack being thwarted, Enel uses the full advantage of his powers and transforms into a giant God of thunder. His attack "Amal Enel" shows all of his power and might as he is now pure electricity. This doesn't deter Luffy though who surprisingly manages to kick Enel even in this form (if anything he made himself an easy target).



Enel catches Luffy with his trident though, thinking he won as Luffy will either be burned from the heat of the trident or fall from the sky. Luffy chooses to fall but much to Enel's dismay he manages to grab onto a solid cloud (which Nami is currently on) and slingshot himself back into the air. In perfect position to strike Enel, he winds up his arm as much as possible and stretches it clear across the sky setting up his final attack: the Gomu Gomu no Ougon Rifle.

Enel makes one last vain attempt to guard the strike, but it is clearly too late; Luffy launches his arm forward too fast for Enel to counter or dodge against. Letting out a massive sonic boom as he smashes the spinning gold ball into Enel, sending him flying into the golden bell of Skypiea, signaling the defeat of Enel and freedom for all Shandorans and Skypieans. Though he falls from the sky, Enel has managed to escape in his battered floating ship, Maxim, and heads for his supposed promise land, "Fairy Vearth", which turns out to be the moon.

Enel's Great Space Operations
After journeying in space onboard the Maxim, Enel finally reached the moon in the mini-arc Enel's Great Space Operations. After exploring a crater, he discovers a being of sorts upon which he shocks. The small being, which survives Enel's shock, is First Lieutenant Spacey and apparently he and his comrades were fighting some Space Pirates.

After a brief scene where Spacey mourned for his fallen comrades, Enel becomes a witness to an attack on Spacey by a fox like Space Pirate. The pirate then tries to impale Enel only to be kicked down by him. Enel then witnesses a large explosion on the moon. The sight of "his Vearth" being destroyed angered him. He then went to their location and began "punishing" them. The pirates were no match for his wrath.



After Enel finished punishing the pirates for desecrating his Fairy Vearth, the god was then thanked by the robot, First Lieutenant Spacey, who had awakened, for avenging his and his comrades' professor. Enel however simply replied to the robot by simply shocking him and his companions. Enel then climbed down into the crater created by the Space Pirates and entered a cavern. There inside, Enel found an apparently abandoned city hidden deep under the lunar surface. Seeing these ruins, Enel decided to attack them for the moment. His electrical attack on the ruins however ran through the ruins and into the bodies of several winged spaceys deep within the city. The winged spaceys, once fully charged, thanked Enel for recharging them along with the previous four that came to the moon.

Enel and the four Machine Island spaceys then study some wall paintings of the moon spaceys' past. The Mayan-like mural depicted an ancient civilization with wings that lived on the moon. These people were the ones who created the moon spaceys. The city on the moon was called Bilka, a place with the same name as where Enel came from. The civilization, while technologically advanced, ran out of resources on the moon. For this, they flew to a "blue-colored star" with balloons in order to find more resources. These unfortunately made both the inhabitants and their creations sad as they would miss each other.

After studying the paintings, Enel realized that he had an abundance of land and plenty of followers. With these, Enel established a new empire on the moon with the spaceys as his followers.

Translation and Dub Issues
Enel's name could very well be a nod to ancient Mesopotamian Gods, such as En-lil. Some believe that his name is a pun on the word "energy", and therefore translate it as "Eneru" or "Ener"; in some instances it is written as "Enel", mainly due to the fickleness of romanizing katakana.

Due to the position Enel holds as God and the various religious connotations associated with it, the term is translated and censored on varying levels amongst the various official English adaptations. In the game One Piece: Pirates Carnival (dubbed by 4Kids), Enel's title is censored and changed to Sole Sky Lord of Skypiea. In the TV broadcast version of FUNimation's dub, his title is Eternal Sky King of Skypiea and all the religious connotations associated with the title are changed to royalty connotations (i.e. "Skypiea Priests" to "Sky Knights"). In the uncut version of FUNimation's dub, Enel retains the title of God and the religious connotations are left uncensored. In the Viz adaptation of the manga, his title is left untranslated as Kami, but he is still occasionally referred to as a god.

Cameos and Crossovers
Enel appeared in a Shonen Jump special, where he attacked Tokyo and Odaiba. Goku arrives to fight Enel and Luffy appears to help him. Luffy and Goku make an attack called "Gomu Gomu No Kame Hame Ha" and they defeat Enel.

Merchandise
He's featured in the One Piece Full Color R Gashapon series.

Anime and Manga Influences
His powers and the drums attached to his back match those of the thunder god of Japan, Raijin, so the idea of this character might originate from this god. He even introduces himself with the sentence: "Ware ga kaminari", which can be taken in English either as "I am lightning" or "I am God". Additionally, one of his poses (reclining on his side) and his elongated earlobes are reminiscent of statues of Buddha. His golden staff and a floating cloud he made using a dial seem to be plays on Sun Wukong, the Monkey King of "Xiyouji" ("Journey to the West"), which is also the basis for the Son Goku's of both Dragonball and Saiyuki fame.

According to Oda, his appearance is heavily influenced by the American rapper "Eminem" who also happens to be one of Oda's favorite artists.

Trivia

 * Oda confirmed that if Enel were actually a wanted pirate, he might have a bounty that could possibly be as high as 500,000,000 (which means he could have the highest bounty seen until now).
 * Though he is Bilkan, Enel lacks the Bilkan wings and instead has his ring of drums in the same place they would normally be.
 * Both Enel and the spaceys appear in the game One Piece Unlimited Cruise for Wii.
 * In Unlimited Adventure, when Enel is fought in the story mode the game displays his name as "Enel", but when accessed in the multiplayer mode the game displays his name as "Eneru".
 * Enel is also the name of the main Italian electric company.
 * In the 3rd and 4th Japanese Fan Poll, Enel is ranked the 22nd most popular character, making him the most popular major villain (outside the CP9 members).
 * The symbols seen on Enel's drums are called tomoe and are very common in Japanese heraldry such as family emblems and corporate logos. The tomoe are also present on another One Piece character, Sentomaru.
 * An unconfirmed interesting component of Enel's naming could have its origin in the Hebrew Language and Religion. The many names by which God is known and/or addressed carry the syllable of "El" before them. However, there is also the syllable "En", which expresses a denial or the opposite. Therefore, one can roughly translate Enel's name to "No God", which indicates that Enel is not a god, or in this context not a legitimate god.
 * He was the first Logia user to be officially dead in the series after his heart stopped beating, albeit temporarily. He used his electrical powers to reanimate his heart, causing himself to come back to life.

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