Luffy's rubber power turned out to be a disguised sun god
For years readers of One Piece believed Monkey D. Luffy had eaten a humble Gum-Gum Fruit that made his body stretch like rubber. The story later revealed that name was government propaganda: the fruit was really a mythical power tied to a trickster sun god called Nika, hidden for 800 years.
Eiichiro Oda created Luffy as the hero of his manga One Piece, first testing him in a one-shot called Romance Dawn. He wanted some of the rugged manliness of Akira Toriyama's Dragon Ball, chose the name simply because it fit, and was later pleased to learn that luffing is a sailing term. His former mentor Nobuhiro Watsuki, creator of Rurouni Kenshin, advised tweaks so Luffy would always seem to act on his own free will, and saw him as part of a wave of heroes who refuse to kill their enemies.
Inspired as a boy by the pirate Red-Haired Shanks, who gave him his trademark straw hat, Luffy sets out at 17 from the East Blue toward the Grand Line, chasing the treasure called One Piece and the title King of the Pirates. He recruits a crew by instinct, filling roles such as navigator, cook, doctor and shipwright, and clashes with the Marines, the government-backed Warlords and the four most powerful pirate captains, the Emperors. Oda has said Luffy's real-world national analogue would be Brazilian.
His rubber body shrugs off electricity and blunt blows but not blades, and like every Devil Fruit user he cannot swim. Signature moves grow from that premise: the Gum-Gum Pistol slings punches from afar, Gear 2 pumps blood faster for speed at a cost to his body, and Gear 3 inflates his bones. When the fruit awakens in Gear 5, his hair and clothes turn white and he can make his surroundings rubbery too.
In the Japanese anime Mayumi Tanaka voices him, joking that as a real-life mother she regrets playing someone so young. Colleen Clinkenbeard has voiced him in English since 2007, and Mexican actor Iñaki Godoy plays him in the live-action series. He has placed first in every popularity poll and is among the most recognisable anime characters anywhere.
Source: Monkey D. Luffy
