Monkey D. Luffy

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About

Monkey D. Luffy, also known as Straw Hat Luffy or simply by his first name Luffy, is the main character of the Japanese anime and manga series One Piece, created by mangaka Eiichiro Oda in 1997. Luffy is the founder and captain of the infamous Straw Hat Pirates crew, traveling the seas seeking the ultimate treasure, the One Piece. Since he's part of the "big three," he is commonly considered one of the most popular anime characters, along with Son Goku and Naruto. Online, the character has inspired the creation of various memes referencing reactions, quotes, outfits and transformations, as well as numerous fan art depictions.

Origin

Monkey D. Luffy^[1] debuted in the one-shot manga series titled Romance Dawn (ロマンスドーン Romansu Dōn), published on August 4th, 1996, in Shōnen Jump's^[2] summer special (shown below, left). The character made its official debut on July 22nd, 1997, when the creator Eiichiro Oda started writing One Piece^[3] for Weekly Shōnen Jump magazine (shown below, right).

Oda revealed in a July 2001 interview^[4] that Luffy's design is inspired by a "manliness" similar to that of Akira Toriyama's Dragon Ball series.^[3] Oda said that he named his main character "Luffy" because he felt that the name suited him. Later on, the author learned about the sailing term "luffing" and was delighted by the coincidence.

Spread

Since the One Piece anime debut on October 20th, 1999, fans of the main character have grown exponentially, as this June 2023 article^[5] by Screen Rant titled "Top 10 most popular anime characters of all time" shows that Luffy occupies 7th place. Online, the character's charisma and likeability made him the subject of many memes and meme formats.

Luffy's "Baka" Song

Luffy's "Baka" Song refers to a clip of Monkey D. Luffy singing the "Baka" song in episode 169 of the One Piece anime. The scene received a 10-hour videos meme parodies on YouTube. For example, YouTube^[6] user MugiwaraVEVO posted on April 22nd, 2013 a Portuguese subtitled version of the scene (shown below, left) garnering 807,000 views and 38,000 likes in a decade. On October 15th, 2018, YouTube^[7] user @anemonimetv1048 uploaded a 1-hour version of the scene (shown below, right), which garnered 75,000 views and 2,400 likes in four years.

Spoiler
Luffy's Defeat In Wano Arc

Spoiler

Fans of the manga celebrated the main character's defeat against the villain Kaido in episode 1068 of the One Piece anime that aired on July 16th, 2023. The build-up for the anime's next episode to understand Luffy's fate inspired a series of ironic memes on social media. For example, on the same day the episode aired, Twitter^[8] user @JohnnySpittin posted a collage of images of Luffy being defeated by Kaido in four different moments (shown below), which garnered 24,200 likes and 1,800 retweets in a day.

On July 15th, 2023, Twitter^[9] user @kirigawa_krw posted a video showing how some fans reacted to Luffy's defeat in episode 1068. The video (shown below) garnered 95,000 views and 3,700 likes in two days.

*O protagonista literalmente morreFandom de One Piece:#ONEPIECE1069 pic.twitter.com/PAhfY5B1vu

— Kirigawa (@kirigawa_krw) July 16, 2023

Fan Art

Luffy has countless fan art uploaded on the internet inspired by his reactions and scenes in the manga/anime. For instance, on May 29th, 2022, DeviantArt^[10] user @Rafipratt posted a fan drawing of Monkey D. Luffy (shown below, left), which garnered 2,000 views and 13 favorites in three months. On September 18th, 2020, DeviantArt^[11] user posted a fan art of the Luffy vs. Lucci fight (shown below, right), which garnered 16,000 views and 464 favorites in three years.