While each member of the Straw Hat crew is a joy to see, Luffy seems to outshine them all. Luffy is the face and wonder of the series, he has become one of the most popular and recognizable anime characters in history. if he was a failure as character to carry the series forward, the entirety of One Piece would have failed from the start. On the contrary Luffy is a joyous character, while occasionally very dim witted and sometimes irritating to his crew, he is still courageous and gleefully optimistic, with nothing really seeming to bother him.
Unlike most characters in the series, who's reasons or goals seem to come from personal or financial gain, Luffy’s aim as a pirate comes from his desire to seek adventure, to be the most free man on the sea, to travel to the unknown and see what’s there. this kind of humbleness and determination, is the main reason people choose to follow him. Throughout the series, you’ll see Luffy does tremendously outrageous things, but the reasons why he does them make him even more astonishing, During Luffy’s final battle with villain crocodile, which is probably Luffy’s first real challenge in the series, he confesses that the only reason he fought against Crocodile was because, his friend Vivi did, and Luffy didn’t want her to die or fight alone. The ramifications and situation of their fight, as well as crocodiles goals were so much bigger than realized, but Luffy’s reason for fighting which was so simple, because he wants to help his friend, which to him gives him all the reason in the world to put his life on the line. That is incredibly admirable, to think about, as it makes us question and wonder of why we do the things we do, when Luffy can do something so huge and amazing all for the sake of one of his friends.
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| Luffy fighting Crocodile |
| Another reason I believe Luffy to be such a success for the series, is his similarity to Dragonball Z main protagonist, Son Goku. Before One Piece, the biggest icon of the manga industry was Akira Toriyama’s work Dragonball, and later his sequel series, Dragonball Z. Both Luffy and Goku share many similarities, with their gluttonous appetites, their simple minded care free attitudes, and their connections to apes and monkeys. Another similarity would probably be both their innocent appearances, When Goku was introduced, he had the look of a young sweet looking 12 year old boy, who we see lifting a car over his head. Dragonball evolved by having Goku training to be stronger, beating nearly every challenge that came his way. |
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| Son Goku |
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| They Both Really Like to Eat. |
When looking at Luffy, he doesn’t appear to be a man who will someday be the greatest pirate of them all, ruling over the rest of them. This sense of innocence but determination from both characters became a classic trope among shonen Jump manga, as it gave a sense of confidence and relevance to some readers who may feel a sense of underestimation and struggle, which made Luffy an icon to admire to, you know as a fictional cartoony rubber man . Eiichiro Oda claimed that one of his biggest inspirations was, Toriyama’s Dragonball series, so creating a character similar to Goku only gave his series a greater sense of appeal.
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| Luffy, dressed as Goku, drawn by Eiichiro Oda |
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