Monkey D. Luffy

Monkey D. Luffy (モンキー・D・ルフィ Monkī Dī Rufi), often addressed as "Straw Hat Luffy" (麦わらのルフィ Mugiwara no Rufi), is a fictional character and the main protagonist of the One Piece franchise created by Eiichiro Oda. He first appears in the manga chapter Romance Dawn (Romance Dawn —冒険の夜明け— Romance Dawn: Bōken no Yoake) first published in Weekly Shōnen Jump magazine on August 4, 1997. He is introduced as a boy who possesses elasticity powers after eating a devil fruit.Luffy is captain of the Straw Hat Pirates, a group of pirates he assembles himself as he quests to find the "One Piece" and become the King of the Pirates. His primary motivation throughout the series is to reach the goal with all of his comrades, a task he pursues no matter what stands in his way. While he is goofy and reckless, he gets quite serious when anyone is in serious danger, notably his crew, whom he considers his friends.
Luffy has starred in most of the episodes, films, and specials of the anime series One Piece, as well as many of the spin-off video games. Outside of the One Piece franchise, Luffy has had an appearance in the crossover manga Cross Epoch. He has also been the subject of other parodies, and has appeared in various special events and in Japanese pop culture.
Appearances



In the beginning of the One Piece series, Luffy is a young man with the powers of rubber. He befriended Shanks with the intention of becoming a pirate, but inadvertently ate the Gum-Gum Fruit. Ten years later, Luffy left his home, a fictional town named Windmill Village, in search of the treasure known as the One Piece and to become King of the Pirates. Living alone, Luffy meets a swordsman and first mate named Roronoa Zoro, the navigator and thief Nami, the cowardly marksman and liar Usopp, and the first-class womanizing chef Sanji. He also encounters and defeats several pirates in the East Blue, such as Buggy the Clown and the evil fishman Arlong. These actions cause him to be placed on the Marines' most wanted list with a bounty of 30 million in the fictional currency named berries. After entering the Grand Line, Luffy accepts an offer to return the princess of Alabasta, Nefertari Vivi, safely into her homeland to stop a rebellion, incited by a member of the Seven Warlords of the Sea and leader of the crime syndicate Baroque Works, Sir Crocodile. Along the way, Luffy finds a reindeer doctor named Tony Tony Chopper in Drum Island. In Alabasta, the crew defeats Crocodile and Baroque Works and the civil war ends. Luffy's bounty increases to 100 million berries. Following his epic battle with Crocodile, Luffy allows Crocodile's former second-in-command and archaeologist Nico Robin to join his crew.

Later on, the crew visits Skypiea. They get drawn into a war between two races, and Luffy defeats the god Eneru. He meets Admiral Aokiji, an encounter that results in his defeat after he learns about Robin's heritage. Luffy continues to face other enemies linked to Robin's heritage, such as Franky, a cyborg who eventually becomes Luffy's shipwright, and the intelligence agency Cipher Pol No. 9, whose actions towards Robin cause Luffy and his crew to follow her to Enies Lobby, the place of her execution. While there, the crew rescues Robin and defeats the CP9, declaring war on the World Government in the process. Robin rejoins the crew and each member receives their bounties; Luffy's bounty increases to 300 million berries. The crew returns to Water 7 and after the Going Merry breaks down, they get their second ship, the Thousand Sunny; there, they meet Luffy's grandfather, Monkey D. Garp. When the crew come across Thriller Bark, they meet a skeletal musician named Brook. While there, they defeat the Warlord Gecko Moria, returning Brook's shadow in the process. After releasing the rest of the island's prisoners, Brook joins Luffy's crew. The crew goes to the Sabaody Archipelago in an attempt to coat their ship, but an incident involving the auction of the mermaid Camie results in the encounter against Admiral Kizaru, and the Warlord Bartholomew Kuma. Kuma has each of the crew members teleported to different islands.

Luffy is sent to Amazon Lily, an island ruled by the Warlord Boa Hancock. Hancock eventually falls in love with Luffy and helps bring him to Impel Down, a prison, to save his brother Portgas D. Ace, who was imprisoned there after being defeated by Blackbeard. Luffy breaks into the prison and acquires foes-turned-allies, such as Crocodile and Buggy, as well as new allies, such as the Warlord Jimbei and Emporio Ivankov, releasing the prisoners in the process. The warden, Magellan, nearly kills Luffy, but he manages to escape from the prison to follow Ace to Marineford. After arriving there, Luffy is drawn into a war between the Marines and Whitebeard's pirate crews. Luffy manages to save Ace, but Ace's love for Luffy causes him to receive a fatal attack from Admiral Akainu. Luffy and Jimbei are evacuated from Marineford. When they return to Amazon Lily, Luffy looks back on his how he first met Ace. Shortly following Shanks' departure, Luffy was adopted by the bandit Curly Dadan. He also befriended Ace and Sabo during this time. Silvers Rayleigh trains Luffy to be his successor and has the crew undergo training regimens. Luffy returns to the Sabaody Archipelago from Rusukaina two years later and reunites with his crew, before sailing to Fishman Island and meeting the island's princess, Shirahoshi; however, they are drawn into a mutiny by the villainous fishmen Vander Decken and Hodi Jones. Luffy easily defeats Vander Decken and regroup with Jinbei at the Sea Forest.
Character outline
Design
Luffy is usually recognized by his straw hat, which was given to him by "Red-Haired" Shanks after being saved from an attack by a Sea King. As a child, he was first introduced wearing a shirt and blue shorts.Throughout One Piece, Luffy is commonly seen wearing a red vest, blue shorts, and sandals.Eventually, he wears a cardigan in place of his vest, and also starts wearing a yellow belt tied in a knot.
Personality
Luffy is portrayed as a carefree character with great ambitions and a huge appetite. He often thinks with his stomach and eats to the point of becoming comically fat. He is caring and generally good hearted. However, he is not naïve and understands most situations more than he shows. Knowing the dangers ahead, he is willing to risk his life to reach his goal to become the King of the Pirates, and protect his crew.

He invites several people, such as Chopper or Brook, onto his crew generally for their personality but also because of his instinctual ability to be able to read people. His main reason has been stated a few times in the story. He needs several key jobs filled in his crew (i.e.: cook, navigator, doctor, musician, shipwright, and so on). Only one member of the crew invited herself on, Nico Robin. She actually has no place on the ship, having no true abilities that Luffy requires. She is just a historian who Luffy accepted. Luffy stated in the beginning of the series that he wants about ten crew members, each with abilities that he feels necessary for his goal. He is rarely concerned with the consequences of his actions, doing what he feels even if it leads to retaliation by a powerful force. However, he is an extremely loyal captain, who has demonstrated at many points throughout the series that he is willing to risk his life for the well-being of his crew.
Abilities



Luffy's elasticity powers are a result from eating the Gum-Gum Fruit, which makes him virtually immune to all blunt force attacks except especially strong attacks and attacks filled with Haki. The fruit also gave him the ability to stretch at will. Combined with the elasticity of his body, he uses that ability to accelerate parts or the whole of his body as if shot by a slingshot to deliver punches, kicks, head butts, body checks, or simply for propulsion. However, Luffy is unable to swim and when he is touched with sea-water, it quickly negates his powers. Luffy also possesses superhuman strength because of the training his grandfather put him through to become a marine.

Luffy's signature move is the Gum-Gum Pistol (ゴムゴムの銃(ピストル) Gomu-gomu no Pisutoru, renamed "Gum-Gum Blast" in 4Kids' dub), a punch technique which he learned during his years of training. Another notable technique is Gear Second (ギア2(セカンド) Gia Sekando, renamed "Gear 2" in Viz Media's manga translation), an attack that increases the user's strength and overall speed for an instant, but also drains endurance; this was developed later in the series, as well as Gear Third (ギア3(サード) Gia Sādo, renamed "Gear 3" in Viz Media's manga translation). The attack is activated by biting a hole into his thumb and blowing air into his bones. He is then able to move the air around his bone structure and strike with his enlarged limbs. He is capable of using both techniques simultaneously. Even further into the series, Luffy demonstrates the still innate ability to use Haki (覇気, lit. "ambition"), which renders people or animals in his proximity unconscious. Additionally, this ability can amplify the force of attacks and negate a devil fruit user's defense, allow physical contact and damage and can read a person's moves. He has a very rare variation of Haki, Conqueror's Haki (覇王色の覇気 Haōshoku no Haki). He first used this attack on Duval's pet Motobaro without realizing what he did.

from: Wikipedia