Warning: The article might contain a few spoilers from One Piece manga.
After years of speculation and a lot of anticipation, Monkey D Luffy finally got his devil fruit awakening in the form of gear 5 in the One Piece manga, but not yet in the anime. The power is unlike any of his previous forms, yet it is the actualization of all the freedom that Luffy portrays.
Gear 5, has made Luffy overpowered in terms of combat; this could be seen in his fight against Kaido, and much more recently Rob Lucci.
What exactly is Gear 5?
Gear 5 is the awakening of Luffy’s fruit, the Hito Hito no Mi: model Nika, formerly known as the Gomu Gomu no mi. It provides the user with the ability to freely manipulate themselves, and their surrounding, by causing stuff to turn into rubber.
It is different from all the previous gears, where Luffy always had some sort of limitation, for example after using gear fourth, Luffy becomes unable to use Haki for a short amount of time. There seems to be no such effect, in using gear 5, however, if Luffy’s body wears out, he ages drastically, and turns into an old man. Although, he can over come this, by forcing his heart to beat faster.
How strong is Gear 5?
It is surely one of the strongest awakenings that we have seen in One piece. During the battle with Kaido on the roof of Onigashima, Luffy mastered both conqueror’s, and armament haki, splitting the sky with his attacks.
After awakening, Luffy takes Kaido in his dragon form by surprise with his newfound powers. Luffy can manipulate the environment as per his own needs; in fact, he does that by changing the shape of the surface of the ground and turning it into rubber in order to deflect Kaido’s bolo breath.
Towards the climax of the fight, we see Luffy turning into a giant and grabbing lightning by his hands to smite Kaido. Perhaps the best thing about this power-up is that Luffy seems to be aware of his devil fruit awakening.
Towards the climax, we see Luffy’s body go to the point of fatigue, but he can easily revert to his transformation by forcing his heart to beat faster.
Drawbacks
Gear 5 provides Luffy with a lot of power, and at first glance there seem to be no real drawbacks as the power seems to be infinite.
However, as per Kaido, the fruit places a lot of stress on the Luffy’s body much similar to gear 2 before timeskip. It places a strain on the person’s heart, and can shorten the life span as well. This becomes more apparent when Luffy turns old as soon as gear 5 wears out. However, like all previous transformations, it is likely that his body will get used to it, making him stronger.
The lore behind Gear 5
Luffy’s devil fruit, was not exactly a Paramecia fruit, but instead it was a Zoan fruit, that allowed him to turn into the sun god Nika, also known as the warrior of liberation. The world government and the five elders have been after the fruit for a long amount of time, but the fruit has always evaded them, almost as if it has a will of its own.
The fruit was stolen by Shanks, from the world government, and was accidently eaten by Luffy at the start of the anime, and manga. Eiichiro Oda, has always been known for his parallels, and foreshadowing; during the Skypea arc, we learned about an ancient civilization, and a certain kingdom on the ponyeglyphs. Fans realized that the images, shown at that time, are vastly similar to Nika’s drawing in the manga.
And how it connects to the story
It is stated by Luffy, that the man who is most free will be the pirate king. Him getting this new form, which is specifically about freedom, as we reach the end game has to be something special.
The show explains that Roger was too early, in Laughtale, because Joy boy had not awakened yet, and in One piece gear 5, Zunesha, and Momunuske confirm that Luffy turns into Joyboy.
How can Gear 5 impact the ongoing arc?
The current arc going on in the manga is the egg head island arc, where the secret weapons, and Vegapunk have finally been revealed. This is a mini arc, with lore drops, like we saw in Zou.
This arc also featured a long-anticipated rematch between Luffy and Rob Lucci, and through the fight, we get to realize just how strong gear 5 actually is. Luffy manages to easily defeat, Lucci while bending reality for his attacks. This can be seen by him conjuring up glasses out of nowhere and a hysterical attempt to eat Lucci in his awakened form.
In the previous chapter, it was stated that kizaru was coming to Egghead in order to capture Vega Punk and the straw hat pirates. Potentially, Luffy gear 5, could be the wild card in this confrontation.
Gear 5 in the upcoming arc
The next arc has not been confirmed but, there can be two possible outcomes, the manga could either take the way of the Law vs Blackbeard fight, else as per fans it is more likely it will go ahead towards the Elbaf arc.
Gear 5, has been shown to give Luffy the ability to turn into a giant; this specific ability of gear 5 can be crucial in this arc because Elbaf is said to be the home of giants.
Moreover, as it is now confirmed that Luffy is Joyboy, it will play a huge role in getting the final road Ponyeglyph because it is likely that the giants will know a lot more about the lore of gear 5.
Luffy vs Blackbeard
Ever since it was revealed that Blackbeard, was the key factor in the execution of Ace, and the death of Whitebeard, he has been hyped up by fans as the final villain.
Blackbeard has two devil fruit abilities, including the darkness fruit as it holds the power to nullify all other fruits. This will be an interesting matchup with Luffy gear 5, as the latter is as powerful as the imagination of the user.
It has also been established, that there was an ancient civilization on the moon, and now with the advent of gear 5, portraying Luffy as the sun god. Moreover, Teach’s Darkness devil fruit, is extremely similar to Luffy’s Sun god fruit. At the same time, the personalities of both Luffy, and Teach are shown to be parallels to each other as well, as shown in Logue town. Another similar thing is, the fight between Ace, and Teach as well, where Teach said ” the sun vs the darkness, what will win?” It’s almost as if Oda, has been hinting this rivalry, and building up this fight from the start of the series, specially with Teach’s recent attacks on the revolutionary army, and Law’s crew.
Gear 5 vs Akainu
Akainu is the fleet admiral, and is hailed as the strongest marine in One piece. After the time skip, fans have always wondered if Luffy can defeat an admiral, this question became more relevant after gear fourth was revealed.
The fight between Akainu, and Luffy seems to be far away, but there is something in the works as we saw, that Sabo was attacked by the world government, moreover, with Vivi missing, and the revolutionary army mobilizing to save them both it could very well lead to a situation where Luffy fight’s the admirals again to save Sabo, except this time with gear 5 up his belt, it would be a fair matchup.
Even if the entire situation may not happen, Luffy being a Yonkou, is going to gather more attention from the marines, leading to a possible confrontation between the two, as Luffy attempts avenge Ace.
Although, this time the fight will definitely play out differently, in the show even Ace was unable to block Sakazuki’s magma punch, but right now Luffy was able to easily defend himself against Kaido’s bolo breath, that was strong enough to incinerate an entire mountain. He was able to do this with gear 5, by turning the ground into rubber, and using it as a shield; making it possible he could do the same with Akainu’s attacks; causing them to fight on an equal footing.
Conclusion
Gear 5 is a new transformation, and is unlike anything we have ever seen before, as it literally turns Luffy into a god. It is likely that this power will grow as the series progresses, it will be interesting to see, how Luffy takes care of stronger enemies. enemies.
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