Monkey D. Luffy often addressed as "Straw Hat Luffy" 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 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
Oda partially based Luffy on Son Goku, the main protagonist of the Dragon Ball series created by Akira Toriyama.To make the readers relax without being stressed out, Oda added elasticity powers to Luffy for a comical effect.
Oda tries to draw Luffy very straightforward about what he wants to be and how he feels
The devil fruit Luffy gained his abilities from was originally called the Gomu no Mi but after the editor pointed out that a real rubber fruit existed, the name was changed to the Gomu Gomu no Mi renamed "Gum Gum Fruit" in the English adaptations
Luffy's elasticity powers are a result from eating the Gum-Gum Fruit, which makes him virtually immune to all blunt force attacks except 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, headbutts, body checks, or simply for propulsion.
But like everyone who consumed a Devil Fruit, Luffy is unable to swim and when drenched in sea-water or in contact with an artifact blessed by the sea quickly loses his strength. He also has great physical strength as he was able to knock over 2 large apartment buildings at the same time (Water 7 arc).
Luffy develops two techniques to improve on his rubber abilities. The first of these is Gear Second. He uses his legs as a pump to increase his blood vessels, causing it to increase his attack power and overall speed instantly. However, the technique drains his stamina and if overused makes him temporarily unable to move afterward, as well as shortening his life span. The second is Gear Third, which 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 limbs comparable in size to those of giants. The side effect to using Gear Third is that Luffy temporarily shrinks to a fraction of his normal size after releasing the air for a length that corresponds to the amount of time he was using Gear Third. He is capable of using both techniques simultaneously.
Further into the series, Luffy demonstrates the still innate ability to use Haki to make people or animals in his proximity faint. Additionally, this ability can negate a devil fruit users power and allow physical contact and damage.He has a very rare variation of Haki, "King Ambition". He first used it on Motobaro without realizing what he did.