Summary
- Eiichiro Oda revealed that Luffy's Gear Fifth transformation in One Piece was a deliberate decision to bring back a more playful and cartoonish style to the manga.
- Oda wanted to counter the trend of One Piece becoming too serious and meet the expectations of modern fans by creating a more lighthearted and fun battle style.
- Luffy's Gear Fifth pays homage to the rich history and traditions of manga, with Oda expressing his desire for creative freedom and defying the expectations of shōnen fans.
In a recent interview, Luffy's Gear Fifth transformation. The unusual and cartoonish style of this form has divided the fandom, but Oda explains that there is a very specific reason behind it.
Issue #34 of Weekly Shonen Jump contains an interview with Eiichiro Oda and Detective Conan's Gosho Aoyama (which can be seen below in a translation provided by X Luffy's Gear Fifth was an important development and something that he had been planning for a long time.
The reason is that Oda was actually not happy about One Piece becoming too "serious", especially in of its battles, to meet modern fans' expectations. He wanted to go back to a more playful style, and that's what Gear Fifth is for. Oda even went as far as saying "Think of it as I suddenly drew 'Tom and Jerry'".
Luffy's Most Powerful Form is Literally Breaking One Piece's Reality
The awakened powers of Luffy’s Devil Fruit are beating Kaido, but they are so ridiculous they make this look like a comedy cartoon fight.
Oda Made Gear 5 Silly Because He Wants One Piece To Be Fun
Fans of One Piece were completely astonished when the series revealed that Luffy's iconic powers did not, in fact, derive from the Gomu Gomu no Mi, but from a much more powerful Devil Fruit, the Hito Hito no Mi, Model: Nika. Even more surprising were the abilities displayed by Luffy after awakening his Devil Fruit and entering Gear Fifth, a bizarre set of powers that included the ability to alter his body and surroundings according to his imagination. The result looked like something out of a cartoon, with eyes popping out to signal shock, legs turning into wheels when speeding up, and so on. The formal explanation was that Nika's powers granted its "absolute freedom", but there is actually a lot more behind that.
One Piece Confirms that Luffy's Family Now Has Two Gods
Luffy and his brother Sabo are now both “gods” who embody the fight to liberate the world of One Piece from the tyranny of the World Government.
Luffy's Gear Fifth, then, expresses Oda's creative freedom and his desire to go back to the more comical roots of his manga. The author was aware that some fans could react negatively to Gear Fifth, but he still went for it. Oda also makes a very interesting reference to manga in the past. He says that, when he started working as an assistant, it was normal to have an expressionist style with, for example, light bulbs over characters' heads when they were thinking. However, these expressions that were a symbol of manga were progressively lost. Readers (especially of battle manga) wanted a more serious style and authors adapted to it to meet their expectations, but Oda always hated it.
One Piece's Author Continues To Defy Shōnen Fans' Expectations
Luffy's Gear Fifth, then, is a homage to One Piece's predecessors and to the formulas they created. Eiichiro Oda boldly stated in this interview that he does not want One Piece to become a serious manga, so he decided to make the battles playful again, and created Gear Fifth for that purpose. Just like Nika's powers grant its "absolute freedom", so One Piece's creator expressed his desire for creative freedom with Luffy's Gear Fifth, which is also a homage to manga's rich history and traditions.
Source: @Orojapan1/X
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