All Forms of Luffy in One Piece Explained – Hey guys!. In this post, I’ll be discussing All Forms of Luffy in One Piece Explained. In anime, it’s common for your characters to have different forms and transformations, and each one of them helps them to get stronger and face the problems that appear, especially if that problem is an enemy!
In One Piece, of course, this is no different! In addition to giving powers to their users, many Devil Fruits also allow complete transformations in the character’s appearance, especially if it is the Zoan type. And Luffy is one of those cases, having transformations since the time when his fruit was still considered a paramecia.
If that wasn’t enough, the character is always disguising himself in the story to keep his identity a secret, guaranteeing some pretty crazy versions of the pirate! And that’s exactly what we’re going to talk about today: All forms and versions of Luffy already shown in One Piece! So, let’s get started.
Base Form Luffy
Even though Luffy ate a Devil Fruit, his appearance did not change in any way, and he continued to look like an ordinary human, which is his base form. Luffy ate a Zoan Mythical Devil Fruit, the Hito Hito no Mi: Model Nika, which allows him to transform into an incarnation of the legendary “Sun God” Nika and gain his powers.
After eating this fruit, his body basically acquired rubber properties, and he gained powers related to elasticity, being able to stretch at will and gaining great flexibility.
Being made of rubber, Luffy can take physical impacts without suffering any damage, and is even able to bounce some types of attacks back at his opponents, such as cannonballs. However, he is not immune to any type of attack, as he can be injured by slashing weapons such as swords and knives. And in addition, he can also be affected by attacks with elements of nature and Haki.
Most of his moves, in his base form, consist of stretching his body to increase the range of his movements and twisting his limbs and rubber body to make them bounce. Besides, of course, him using his weaponry Haki to further strengthen his attacks.
Afro Luffy
Although not a transformation of the character, Afro Luffy was a form assumed by the Straw Hat during the Davy Back Fight arc, where he entered a pirate competition against Foxy’s crew, the Silver Fox. As the basic rule of combat between captains is that both have to wear gloves, Luffy wears boxing gloves and fights like a boxer, using only punches during combat.
The afro hair that comes with Luffy’s look is a wig found on Foxy’s ship by Usopp, who tells Luffy that the afro hair will make him stronger, because “afro hair makes a champion”. As this was the only time this look was shown to compete between two pirate gangs, it was also the only time this look was adopted by Luffy.
But who knows, maybe in the future another edition of Davy Back Fight will appear and we’ll have another appearance by Afro Luffy, huh? lol
Lucy
Just like Afro Luffy, this form of the character is just a version of Luffy in costume that happened in the Dressrosa arc. He dressed like that because he wanted to participate in the Colosseum competition, but needed to hide his identity from Doflamingo, so the character dressed like a gladiator to avoid being recognized.
For this, Luffy donned a golden helmet and a red cape, in addition to putting on a fake gray beard and sunglasses to hide his face. So that his rubber body wouldn’t expose him, Luffy also didn’t stretch or increase his body size during combat, only using Haki during competition. And despite all that effort, Luffy continued to wear his straw hat throughout the competition.
Also during the Dressrosa arc, Lucy’s identity was passed from Luffy to Sabo, who won the tournament in place of the Straw Hats. After that, neither character dressed as a gladiator again.
Luffytaro
Luffytaro is another form assumed by Luffy to hide his true identity that was shown during the Wano Arc. This name is a mix between the character’s name and the Japanese honorific “taro”, which in the past was often used to identify firstborns, but is currently used to mean “boy”.
In this version of the straw hat, he is dressed as a samurai, wearing a red kimono and a katana that he found at Tenguyama’s house when he first arrived in the country. The Straw Hat even uses this sword to fight, but not in the same way as a swordsman: he just holds the sword by the hilt while punching his enemies normally, which makes Zoro mad every time he sees Luffy do that.
A version similar to this is also shown in some One Piece fillers, where the character goes by the name of Detective Luffy and solves cases in Feudal Japan. And although the appearance of the two is similar, this version is not directly related to Luffytaro.
Nightmare Luffy
This form of Luffy was achieved in the Thriller Bark arc, using Gecko Moria’s ability to remove people’s shadows and place them on other bodies. The inhabitants of the island, who had already been victims of this ability by the shichibukai, placed their 100 shadows inside Luffy so that his power would increase and he could defeat Gecko Moria and the giant zombie Oars.
With that, Luffy gained a bluish color, dark appearance and began to behave differently, becoming quieter and more direct. His skills remained the same, but became many times stronger thanks to the power of the 100 shadows of the inhabitants of Thriller Bark, which meant that he could face and defeat the gigantic Oars without any difficulty.
But this form only lasted for 10 minutes, as afterward the shadows returned to their original bodies. Also, as it depended on Gecko Moria’s power for Luffy to achieve this transformation, he no longer appeared after the Thriller Bark arc.
Gear Second
This was Luffy’s first transformation during the story, where he took advantage of his body’s rubbery properties to improve his physical attributes. To do this, he would press his leg against the ground to pump his blood and increase the speed of its circulation through the body.
With that, Luffy also increased the distribution of oxygen and nutrients throughout his body, making him gain more power and especially speed. The trademarks of this form were the pink color that Luffy gained and the steam that came out of his body, in addition to the blows fired from a distance, which he called Jet. His first anime appearance was in the Enies Lobby arc, against CP9 Blueno.
Despite this, the first time this form appears happens in movie 7, the Mechas of Karakuri Castle, where the villain presses Luffy against the ground and pumps his blood by accident, putting the character in this form. After the time-skip, Luffy proceeded to combine this form with the weapon’s Haki to ignite his fist during the attack, creating the move Gomu Gomu no Red Hawk.
Since the presentation of this move, the Gear Second forms used by Luffy after the Dressrosa arc have been covered by Armament Haki to increase their offensive potential and, from time to time, give blows with arms or legs on fire, typical from the Red Hawk.
Gear Third
The first time Luffy used this form was in the Enies Lobby arc, during the fight against Rob Lucci. The pirate came up with this idea along with Gear Second, but unlike the previous one, this one was not intended to increase his speed, but his strength.
By biting his thumb, Luffy blows air into his body and inflates his bones like a balloon, causing specific parts of his body to grow to gigantic sizes, and with that he gains a huge increase in his attack power. Despite this gain in strength, the first few times it was used, this form had the disadvantage of making Luffy weaker later on, causing him to be unable to move and stay the size of a child for some time.
Post-Gear Third
As mentioned, this form is achieved by Luffy after using Gear Third for some time and running out of energy because of it, being a consequence of his physical exhaustion. In this form, he reduces his size to that of a child and is unable to move for a few minutes.
After the two years of training with Rayleigh, Luffy stopped suffering from this exhaustion and started using Gear Third without becoming the size of a child after its use.
Gear Fourth: Bounceman
The first form of Gear Fourth to appear in One Piece was Bounceman, also in the Dressrosa arc. This form was developed by Luffy during his two years of training with Rayleigh on Rukusaina Island, when the pirate had to face the giant animals that lived there. For this, Luffy thought of this form that increased both his strength and speed, granting him greater mobility and impact during combat.
Despite this, his body inflated with air makes him bounce and bounce around like a ball, hence the name of his shape, bounce, which means bounce in English. In Gear Fourth, Luffy bites his arm and blows air into his body similar to what he does in Gear Third.
The difference is that in this form, instead of increasing the size of his bones, Luffy blows air into his muscles, and then coats them with Armament Haki to increase his stamina and strength.
Furthermore, Luffy becomes able to compress his legs and arms into his body to fire them as if they were gunshots, thereby increasing the force of the blow and allowing him to propel his body in mid-air as if he were flying. Although Luffy has presented other techniques and forms since the Dressrosa saga, this has been the main transformation used by the pirate in his fights.
Gear Fourth: Tankman
The second Gear Fourth transformation that Luffy introduced was Tankman, which he used when he faced the villainous Cracker in the Whole Cake Island arc. This was also the only appearance of this form in One Piece, achieved after Luffy’s body became swollen from eating the cookies created by the villain.
Because it is a Gear Fourth as well, it has the same principles as Bounceman, with Luffy filling his muscles with air to increase his size and offensive potential. But, unlike the previous one, instead of getting muscular by filling his body with air, like Bounceman, Luffy increased the size of his belly, following the proportions his body had reached after eating.
Furthermore, instead of covering the upper part of his body with Armament Haki, Luffy covered his belly with it, showing that the intention of this form is really to be puffed up to withstand blows rather than having any gains in strength. In this way, he starts to bounce blows the same way he does when he is in his balloon form, but with greater resistance because he is coated in haki.
Gear Fourth: Snakeman
This transformation of Luffy was also achieved during the Whole Cake Island arc, when the Straw Hat faced the feared Charlotte Katakuri. Unlike previous forms, Snakeman Luffy does not increase the size of his musculature, but the length of his body, growing taller by increasing the size of his limbs.
With that, his blows have a greater range, which is why Luffy only covers his arms and legs with his Armament Haki. That way, Luffy gains speed in his blows and manages to change the direction of his attacks abruptly in the middle of the path, which he calls Python. These abilities make this form perfect for fighting opponents who are fast or tend to dodge a lot.
Despite this, Snakeman is Gear Fourth’s lowest resistance form, which causes Luffy to take more damage during fights than with Bounceman and Tankman.
Gear Fifth: Nika
This Gear form is the awakened version of Luffy’s Devil Fruit, the Hito Hito no Mi: Nika Model, being a representation of the One Piece Sun God. In this form, Luffy’s appearance also changes, getting his hair and also his clothes in white, and with smoke coming out of his body, in addition to spending all the time laughing.
With the nature of Mythic Zoan in this form, Luffy’s already rubbery body undergoes an upgrade, where he gains strength, versatility, and durability that far surpasses the attributes he would receive in his previous forms. Getting to the point where he was able to make his body and even the things around him comic and cartoonish.
And this power seems to be able to affect not only objects and inanimate things, but also organic material, like Kaido’s own body… or even intangible matter, like lightning that Luffy was able to handle. But despite the strength this form provides, it also consumes a lot of energy from its user, leaving Luffy looking visibly aged and drained after using it for a while.
So far, this transformation has only been shown during the fight against Kaidou, in the Wano arc, but it has proven to be the strongest form of the character so far, being so feared that it caused the world government to hide this fruit from history.
Luffy – King of the Pirates
With all the evolution that Luffy has had so far, he can certainly be considered one of the most powerful characters in the One Piece universe, even more so when you consider the fact that he is only 19 years old today and still has a lot to evolve.
On his next journeys, he will certainly find ways to further perfect the use of the 3 types of Haki and also to be able to use Gear 5 skills to their fullest potential and with minimal side effects. With his new arsenal of skills provided by the awakening of his fruit, Luffy is said to have the ability to literally do whatever he wants, being limited only by his creativity.
So, it’s not so hard to imagine that our beloved protagonist is closer than ever to becoming the great Pirate King. And when that happens, his appearance will probably be that of a pirate with an extremely powerful aura worthy of the title of King, and his look I believe will be very similar to that of the legendary Gol D. Roger, since in his youth, Roger he was incredibly similar to the Luffy of today.
And when that happens, Luffy’s reward, occupying such an important position in the pirate world, I guess it’s going to be around a whopping 6 billion berries at the minimum… which is almost 500 million more than the former King of Pirates, and 3 billion more than what Luffy currently has as a bounty in the manga.
Conclusion
Maybe more stuff will appear until the end of One Piece. So, guys, how do you think Luffy will be when he becomes the great Pirate King? Also tell us which of these versions of the Straw Hat do you like best: is it one of the Gears or maybe some version of him in disguise?
That is it from today’s post on All Forms of Luffy in One Piece Explained. If you do not agree with the points in the post and have some of your own opinions, share them with us in the comments section down below. Keep visiting Animesoulking for more information about Anime and Manga.
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