Oda Reveals How He Came Up With Luffy

The protagonist of One Piece, Luffy is one of the most phenomenally written characters in the story. In fact, it wouldn’t be a stretch to say that Luffy is the best-written character in One Piece and the individual who represents the very soul of the series. Luffy has been a favorite among One Piece fans for over two decades. In fact, in every single popularity poll that has been conducted in One Piece, Luffy has always maintained the top spot and he will most likely continue to do that in the future as well. There is a certain special element to Luffy that no other character can replicate and it makes fans wonder as to how Oda even came up with Luffy in the first place.

Related

One Piece: Oda Finally Answers A Major Mystery About Shanks After 6 Years

Shanks’s secret is finally revealed by Oda. Shanks’s family will be an essential plot point in One Piece.

More recently, Inaki Godoy, who plays Luffy in One Piece Live Action, conducted an interview with Oda, the creator of One Piece, and he asked him this very question, and now, fans have a proper answer.

Oda Reveals How He Came Up With Luffy

• Luffy is the ideal child for Oda
• Luffy is what all adults want to be

In the One Piece interview that was recently conducted with Inaki Godoy, Oda explained that Luffy is his ideal child. According to Oda, when people are in their childhood stage, they don’t seem to care about much in life. They are free to do what they want and not think too much about how their actions would be interpreted by other people around them. According to Oda, Luffy is the ideal child. People grow up eventually and get busy with their jobs, and of course, conform to society, among much else. Because of that, they lose a certain sense of freedom as they grow up. Luffy, on the other hand, will always maintain that childlike nature, which means that he has a certain level of freedom that all the people around the world crave. Oda certainly sees that and knows that Luffy is, in a way, the embodiment of freedom who does what he wants regardless of how old he gets. It is this nature, according to Oda, that makes people love Luffy as much as they do and his intention was clearly to create the embodiment of freedom with Luffy.

The idea of freedom is intertwined with Luffy, and that is what makes him so appealing to all fans around the world. Simply put, Oda’s idea with Luffy was to create an individual who doesn’t play by the rules and simply does what he wants because, at the end of the day, he wants to be the most free of all. It is because of this idea that Oda is adamant Luffy needs to maintain this child-like pure heart at all times, because if he suddenly changes in terms of personality as he grows up, then he won’t have the same level of carefree attitude that fans love him for.

Interestingly enough, this is not the first time that Oda has spoken about Luffy being his ideal child. In an interview that was conducted In 2020, Oda called Luffy his ideal child as well. Here’s what he had to say back then:

Luffy is my ideal child. I wish all children could be like him. He may say some inspirational lines from time to time, but I want him to stay a kid forever. There are parts of him that remain a mystery to me, for better or worse. It’d be boring for both the readers and me if I knew everything about him. – Oda

Luffy As The Embodiment Of Freedom

Luffy Represents Freedom In The Purest Form

Looking at Oda’s words, it is no surprise to know that Luffy has the power of the Nika Devil Fruit. Luffy is the embodiment of freedom in One Piece and that has always been clear through his actions. Right from day one, Luffy has not cared about the consequences of his actions, nor has he ever wondered if he should restrain himself just because someone else wants him to stop. Luffy has always been free and he does what he wants, regardless of the price that he has to pay. This was evident right from day one when Luffy saved Koby from Alvida, and as the story went on, he did this against even bigger enemies, such as Crocodile.

Related

One Piece: The Next Ship Of The Straw Hat Pirates, Explained 

The Straw Hat pirates changed their ship once. Could they upgrade their ship once more in One Piece’s final saga?

Luffy values his freedom above all, which is why he also believes that he doesn’t want to conquer anything. He simply wants to be the most free person on the seas, and according to him, pirates are born free. This is why he correlates being Pirate King to being the most free person on the seas. Of course, this doesn’t mean that Luffy does not get to conquer anything. Luffy makes friends all the time and countries serve their allegiance to him. That might not be conquering in a forceful way, but Luffy is still a conqueror at the end of the day.

Luffy Brings Freedom To All

Luffy Has Saved Countless People In The World

Luffy values freedom above all else and this doesn’t just apply to him but to all the people that he loves and cares about as well. For instance, Luffy often fights for the freedom of others. He freed Koby from Alvida at the beginning of the story, and then went home to free Zoro from his fateful execution. He freed Sanji from his mental prison, and eventually freed Nami from enslavement by the Arlong Pirates. He freed Arabasta from the clutches of Sir Crocodile, and Skypiea from Enel’s grip. He freed Robin from the World Government’s tyranny, and the list just goes on and on the more fans dig into it. Luffy and freedom are the two most important elements of One Piece and that will always remain to be the case.

More recently, Luffy even awakened the power of his Devil Fruit and called it Gear 5. This Awakening is Luffy’s freedom form, as he calls it himself. In this form, Luffy can do whatever he wants, however he wants, and he’s only limited by his imagination. As put forward by the Five Elders, his body, and, once awakened, has even stronger physical attributes, and the ability to bring laughter and joy to the faces of people in misery all over the world. He is the embodiment of freedom and is known as the Warrior of Liberation, also known as the Sun God Nika. Luffy’s journey has been incredibly fun for the fans to witness over the course of their last 27 years, and it will most definitely continue to be just as exciting, if not more, as he brings smiles to the people of the world, and liberates them from their chains going forward as well. That is what makes Luffy special, despite being a very simplistic character with a heart of gold.

One Piece is available to read via Viz Media. The series can be read by the fans officially and for free on the Shonen Jump and the Manga Plus apps. The release date for the next chapter of One Piece, One Piece 1135, is set to be January 5, 2024.

Your changes have been saved

Creator

Eiichiro Oda

Number of Episodes

1122

Directors

Kônosuke Uda
, Junji Shimizu
, Munehisa Sakai