Monkey D. Luffy

In Foosha Village, little Luffy idolizes Red-Haired Shanks, a pirate captain who uses the village as his base. He secretly eats the Gum-Gum Fruit from the crew's chest and turns to rubber. When a bandit throws Luffy into the sea, a Sea King is about to swallow him, and Shanks saves him at the cost of his left arm. When he leaves, he lends the boy his straw hat, on the promise that Luffy will return it once he's a great pirate.

Ten years later, Luffy sets out. He frees timid Koby from the pirate Alvida, cuts pirate hunter Roronoa Zoro loose at the Marine base in Shells Town and talks him into being his first crewmate. In Orange Town, he helps the thief Nami and beats Buggy the Clown.

With Usopp and the Going Merry picked up in Syrup Village and Sanji recruited at the Baratie restaurant, Luffy goes after Nami, who ran off with the ship. In Cocoyasi Village, he learns she works for the fish-man Arlong, who killed her adoptive mother and forces her to draw maps.

When Nami finally asks for help, Luffy puts the straw hat on her head and heads for Arlong Park. He beats Arlong and wrecks the room where she was forced to draw. Nami joins for real, and Luffy gets his first wanted poster: 30 million berries.

On the Grand Line, the crew picks up Princess Vivi as a passenger and Chopper, a reindeer doctor. In Alabasta, Vivi's kingdom, Luffy runs into his brother Portgas D. Ace and learns that Warlord Crocodile, a hero to the people, is behind the drought and the civil war so he can take over the country.

Luffy loses to Crocodile twice; he's a sand man who dries out everything he touches. The third time, Luffy wets his fists with his own blood and wins. The rain returns to Alabasta. Vivi stays with her people and says goodbye to the ship with her arm raised, and Nico Robin, Crocodile's former partner, asks to join the crew.

In Water 7, the Going Merry is beyond repair, Luffy fights Usopp and his friend leaves the crew. Then Robin vanishes: CP9, the World Government's secret agency, takes her to the judicial island of Enies Lobby.

Luffy storms the island, has the World Government's flag burned and shouts at Robin to say she wants to live. She does. To take on CP9, he invents Gear Second and Gear Third and brings down Rob Lucci. During the escape, the Going Merry itself shows up to rescue the crew, and Luffy says goodbye to the ship by burning it at sea.

On the Sabaody Archipelago, Luffy punches a Celestial Dragon and brings an admiral down on them. Bartholomew Kuma scatters the crew across the world, and Luffy lands on the island of the Amazons, where he wins over Empress Boa Hancock. There he learns Ace is about to be executed and breaks into Impel Down prison, leaving with Jinbe, Ivankov and an army of escapees.

At Marineford, he fights his way to the scaffold in the middle of the war between the Marines and the Whitebeard Pirates and frees his brother. During the escape, Admiral Akainu goes for Luffy, Ace steps in front and dies in his arms. Luffy passes out in shock, and Trafalgar Law carries him off in his submarine.

After two years training Haki with Rayleigh, Luffy reunites the crew and starts toppling giants: Doflamingo with Gear Fourth, Katakuri on Whole Cake. In Wano, he loses to the Emperor Kaido and ends up in Udon prison. He comes back with an army of samurai and storms Kaido's island on the night of the festival.

On the rooftop, he falls again. Then his heart beats in a new rhythm: his fruit awakens and is revealed as that of the sun god Nika. In Gear Fifth, Luffy fights laughing, turns the world into a cartoon and defeats Kaido. Wano is free, and Luffy is recognized as one of the new Emperors of the Sea.

Eiichiro Oda has said he drew on the adventure spirit of Dragon Ball and picked the name Luffy because it sounded right; only later did he learn "luffing" is a sailing term. He chose rubber powers to add comedy to the fights. Mayumi Tanaka has voiced him in Japanese since 1999, and Colleen Clinkenbeard in Funimation's English dub. In Netflix's live-action series, Luffy is played by Mexican actor Iñaki Godoy, who also dubbed himself in Spanish.