The Evolution Of Luffy’s Attacks

Since the beginning of his career as a pirate in One Piece, Luffy has always been an incredibly strong fighter. Boasting an incredibly strong Devil Fruit, as well as the creativity to properly use it, Luffy has always had some of the largest and most interesting fight scenes in the series. This is largely thanks to Luffy’s wide variety of unique attacks that he utilizes in every battle, giving the audience a massive treat for each of his fights in One Piece.

These attacks, outside of showing how clever and powerful the Captain of the Straw Hat Pirates is, show an interesting trend throughout One Piece. In many ways, these attacks, and how Luffy uses them and which ones he prioritizes, help give a better understanding of Luffy’s current mindset in battle. From the first Gum-Gum Pistol to the introduction of Gear 5, Luffy’s attacks in One Piece have had an amazing evolution.

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Luffy’s Attacks Were Undisciplined But Creative In The Beginning

These Are Luffy’s Most Natural Attacks

Although it may seem effortless now, early in Luffy’s childhood, soon after he gained the powers of the Nika Devil Fruit, Luffy had almost no control over his abilities. For Luffy, even throwing a simple punch and wrangling his strange new rubber body would take massive amounts of training. However, after being out through a fairly difficult training regime and working to become a pirate with Ace and, for a brief time in comparison, Sabo, Luffy was eventually able to start using his rubber body to enhance his attacks, creating his Gum-Gum abilities.

Before One Piece’s Grand Line, although these attacks seemed fairly straightforward, Luffy also demonstrated a large amount of creativity when it came to his powers. After learning the principles of controlling his rubber body early on, in combat, Luffy showed that he was able to spontaneously create clever solutions to almost any situation using his Devil Fruit. Although his control over his fruit is still in its early stages, in the East Blue Saga, Luffy starts experimenting with attacks, like the Gum-Gum Battle Axe or the Gum-Gum Bell.

Luffy’s Attacks From Enies Lobby Were Emotional And Passionate

He Then Honed This Passion With Rayleigh

• Gear 2 And 3 Represent Luffy’s Passion And Strength
• Gear 4 Combines This With Discipline

Moving on to the Grand Line, the first major evolution to Luffy’s attacks comes during the Enies Lobby Arc in One Piece. Now, Luffy introduces Gear 2 and Gear 3, adding multiple entirely new movesets to Luffy’s repertoire. Firstly, Gear 2 introduces upgraded forms of his iconic attacks, namely attacks like Gum-Gum Jet Pistol or Gum-Gum Jet Gatling. At the same time, Luffy also develops Gear 3, which creates larger and stronger versions of his former attacks. Here, he gains attacks that are meant to finish his opponent quickly, as this technique weakens Luffy afterward. It’s interesting to note that during this period in time, while his attacks are powerful, they often rely on brute strength and passion to overpower his opponent.

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In One Piece’s post time skip, compared to Luffy’s earlier attacks, the Straw Hat Captain develops an arsenal that no longer needs to rely on emotion and raw power, and instead incorporates more technical elements. With Haki-infused attacks and attacks like Gum-Gum Red Hawk, it’s fairly obvious that Luffy’s attacks at this point have grown to be much more disciplined. This culminates in Gear 4, which combines the raw power of Luffy’s Gear 3, with the training that he underwent with Rayleigh, to make an incredibly powerful form. This era of Luffy’s attacks may have the greatest balance of technique and emotion.

Gear 5 Lets Luffy Fight Freely In One Piece

His Attacks Are Once Again Goofy And Creative

Finally, the last major evolution in Luffy’s attacks comes with the reveal of Gear 5 in One Piece. Mainly, these attacks are far more focused on creativity, similar to how Luffy originally fought in combat. Rather than focusing on a disciplined fighting style, Luffy instead does whatever come to mind. Between using lightning as a slingshot, or the earth as a shield, these attacks are as unpredictable as they are creative.

Overall, Luffy’s attacks have evolved, slowly becoming more disciplined and trained, showing the protagonist of One Piece’s growth in the series. However, with Gear 5, although the form was unlocked with hard work and discipline, being able to fight freely means that Luffy instead focuses on fighting like he did originally. In the end, this may be a hint at Luffy’s psychology throughout the series, being someone who was forced to abandon his creative fighting style to become stronger and was eventually allowed to fight freely, letting him become his creative self once again in One Piece.

One Piece

Release Date

October 20, 1999

Network

Fuji TV

Directors

Hiroaki Miyamoto, Konosuke Uda, Junji Shimizu, Satoshi Itō, Munehisa Sakai, Katsumi Tokoro, Yutaka Nakajima, Yoshihiro Ueda, Kenichi Takeshita, Yoko Ikeda, Ryota Nakamura, Hiroyuki Kakudou, Takahiro Imamura, Toshihiro Maeya, Yûji Endô, Nozomu Shishido, Hidehiko Kadota, Sumio Watanabe, Harume Kosaka, Yasuhiro Tanabe, Yukihiko Nakao, Keisuke Onishi, Junichi Fujise, Hiroyuki Satou

• 

  Mayumi Tanaka

  Monkey D. Luffy (voice)

• 

  Kazuya Nakai

  Roronoa Zoro (voice)