A common misconception of the nika fruit is that people think that its the strongest fruit in the world. But in fact, its stated that its the most ridiculous fruit, the goofiest fruit. If any other character in the op verse was given this fruit, it wouldn’t be nearly as strong. Bcz its luffy’s childlike whimsicality, his creativity, and his nature for freedom that makes this ability strong. Also another thing that i love about G5 is that its such a joy to read. Its always a surprise and its just pure fun.
I think that the only problem with Gear5 for a lot of people is the fact that no matter what opponents he will face from now on, Luffy cannot lose and will always win "because he has gear5". So, since we've seen with Lucci that Luffy can enter gear5 without any problems or restrictions, a lot of people are afraid that we might not be able to see any more fights where he "struggles" like vs katakuri or kaido before the power-up. I don't think this will happen, but if giving Luffy gear5 would cause such thing to happen against enemies like Blackbeard for example, then yes, i will be disappointed too a little bit regardless of the part "fun to read", because something can be "fun", sure, but if it ruins the narrative then it's a bad concept.
@Lord Zeref It's sad to see people have such little faith in Oda's ability to tell a story like he isn't top ten highest grossing authors in history or something.
@@lordzeref8175 ehh blackbeard is a whole anomaly b/c at the end of the day, Luffy’s DF and gear 5 is still a devil fruit power and blackbeard’s yami yami no mi can nullify all fruits just by touching them. Luffy’s main type of combat is by physical contact with his hands, feet, etc. Luffy can catch blackbeard off guard for sure, but blackbeard is a devil fruit user’s worse enemy. Interesting how the fight would play out but Luffy has to figure a way to take blackbeard out qucikly, or find a way to make sure he doesn’t get touched by blackbeard. Unless Haki can act as a barrier against blackbeard’s devil fruit (but im not so sure).
@Lord Zeref I don't think that will happen either. Even with Gear 5, One on One fully rested Luffy can't beat Kaido. It took Luffy losing twice and even almost dying, as well as Kaido's son with a mystical Zoan, The samurais and Law/Kidd to beat Kaido. Heck Kaido was fighting non stop and they still barely beat him.
@@K.H1914- their is also the fact that Strong haki users like Mihawk,Kaido or Shank’s or any decent haki users that’s half as strong as them can still make Luffy bleed or that sea is still his enemy and sea stone base weapons.
People forget something crucial with this fruit: the broken shit *_only_* kicks in after you awaken it. There’s no retconning of Luffy’s journey (I'm speaking specifically of his journey to grow and become incredible, I recognize the fruit's _nature_ was retconned) because until that point, it really was just the "Gum-Gum Fruit". Just a thing that makes you rubber. Hell, it’s the first DF to have a dual-classification for this reason. Until he gets stricken dead and limit breaks, it’s still the same fruit that made him need _several years_ to learn how to so much as _throw a punch_ again. And as for his strength, we know that’s all him and has nothing to do with his fruit; that was half the point of the Udon internment and seeing that physically he was still immensely strong even with his powers locked off. G5 isn’t a retcon of his journey, it’s his journey’s _reward._
It was cathartic to see Luffy running at top speed carrying and throwing giant stone blocks in Udon in proper seastone cuffs when previously, the mere touch of sea stone would sap all energy out of him.
Yeah people also seem to forget that the Nika fruit dose change the users body to a rubber like state that's just a natural property. Its the freedom to move your body anyway you want and to always bounce back to the state you want to be in.
Like my guy Daniel Green said in his video on G5, if there was ever a character that deserved a power up like this it's Monkey D. Luffy; he really earned it. This is a story where we had a stretch of 4 arcs back-to-back just to showcase how completely out of his league the MC was in comparison to the upper echelon of characters, and then proceeded to go for another 500 chapters with the MC just using skills and abilities he learned via off-screen training & even then once he began to approach the next ceiling (WCI) he struggled greatly to overcome only to get immediately 1-shot in his next big fight and have to train all over again.
I mean, it is broken shit before you awaken it, but awakening it is when you realize how broken it can actually be. Things which didnt fully make sense if it was rubber, vs things that now fully make sense knowing the fruit was actually the Nika fruit. Every single power that didnt make sense logically, is fully making sense if you apply the logic of "Luffy thinks this is what rubber can do". I 100% believe that Luffy will not believe that he has the Nika fruit, and will remain determined that his power is just rubber. BTW, here's the list of things that were either contradicting with rubber, or simply things that would make sense if you have a child's sense of what rubber is:(and not to be like WatchMojo too much, but number 5 IMO is by far the biggest one that never made sense with Luffy being rubber and the logic that he couldnt be damaged by blunt attacks) 1. gear 2 and gear 3(gear 2 technically made sense, but do you really think Luffy was actively making his blood flow faster? Let alone how quickly he learned it.) 2. Water Luffy. You know, the one thing devil fruits are weak to? Somehow Luffy bypassed that weakness by simply thinking it would work. Sure, this one has less merit thanks to Raizo also saving water inside the scroll, but still, perhaps Raizo is limited to what he believes he can store too. 3. Afro Luffy. He was genuinely stronger during that fight than he was. 4. Nightmare Luffy. No one could get more than 10 shadows other than the fruit user himself. Except Luffy, who believed he could take 100. 5. Every single time that a non-haki hit gave Luffy bruises(Nami, mainly, but also Usopp and Sanji). 6. Tankman and Snakeman(bounce man at least made sense) 7. Luffy being able to heal from milk that one time that Brook also did. 8. Luffy being able to generate flames in respect of Ace(friction my ass, if friction was all that was needed, Zoro wouldnt need lessons from Kinemon to cut/create fire).
My favorite part of this whole thing is looking back on all the drawings and depictions of gear 5. They were all super serious/edgy/intense with spikes and full body haki, lion man, dragon man etc. Then out of nowhere: GET READY FOR A SWELL BATTLE! Goda built different for that.
What I love about it is that his fruit is one that allows him to turn his imagination into physical reality, it plays perfectly into *why* he was able to develop his previous gears and why he had been thematically constrained to rubber powers through the whole of the story until now. Luffy was told he ate the Gum Gum fruit, he was under the belief that it was the Gum Gum fruit, therefore it was. He mentally constrained himself to rubber powers so his body was made of rubber. Every gear he developed still made some level of sense to rubber powers, but hinted at his imagination slowly pushing the boundaries of impossibility further and further. Oda is a master world builder and character writer, and the revelation of Luffy’s true fruit is a testament to that.
Hi just as am addition to your comment. Luffys gum gum ability isnt only because he was told he was rubber. But because Nika has natural rubber-like properties. Witch is stated in the manga I think. If we remember back to episode one Luffy ate the fruit without knowing its gum gum nature, but his arm still stretched when he walked away from shanks. I find this beautiful. The Nika fruit embodies your body truely being free and not bound by law. luffy can always bounce back to the state he wants to be in.
Luffy’s ability isn’t to literally turn imagination into reality. All it is, is an expression because his ability to rubberside the environment gives him so much freedom and acts like a cartoon he is limitless with his creativity.
@@felixowen2693 Ok so let me get this straight, the basic abilities of gear 5 is limitless rubber powers and stretching, and rubberizing anything else he wants...which grants him all the freedom limited only by what he wants to do with these specific powers however he still doesn't Warp reality per se like scarlet witch for example right? because the way people explain it really confuses me... Is he basically as limitless as plastic man from DC?
@@madeinheaven9314 his rubber acts a lot more lucid like plastic man from DC or Jake the dog from adventure time yeah. He is not like the scarlet witch, idk why people keep thinking that.
@@felixowen2693 haha its easy to get lost with all the different translations. Not to mention TH-camrs explaining it differently. I agree but why is the fruit classified differently then? With your explanation, it would just be the gum-gum fruit awakening like normal? Why would it be hito-hito no mi? Idk my opinion is super fluid on the topic right now. But I definitely love the reveal.
Luffy's fruit being something other than rubber was a theory I never liked until I saw Gear 5 in action. Now I think it's fantastic and think Gear 5 is one of the coolest transformations in anime.
Well, he still *is* rubber. Always has been and always will be. However, his awakening is rubberhose, the animation style. Think of the Popeye and Betty Boop cartoons for the ridiculous nature of how it works. Awakening is turning your devil fruit's power onto the world and realistically that's what he does. He turns rubberhose and the world around him changes to reflect it. The ground can be pulled up to bounce a fireball back, he can turn into a tornado, when he gets hit he deforms to the shape of kaido's club. It truly is a ridiculous power, and one that fits him perfectly.
@@Playernotfound-404 thank you. I always see people thinking that his ability is ‘imagination’ and not just him turning things to rubber with more lucid and stronger control of it.
@@felixowen2693 but its more than that though Now Luffy is only rubber cause he think he is only rubber if tommorow he think he could manipulate gravity or stop time he could theorically do it Its more like a God Like being limited by Luffy for the sake of the story but with End game One Piece Vilain such as Ym Sama he could surely use his OP power more
@@Kishinoo no. Luffy’s power is rubberhose. He can manipulate things in a cartoonishly rubber way. That’s it. He doesn’t have omnipotent reality bending powers. He won’t manipulate gravity or stop time.
I live that the translation isnt "the strongest" but "the most rediculous" which is such an oda move and a perfect fit for Luffy. I was laughing and playing the loonietoons theme in my head the whole battle after the reveal xD so hilarious and perfect
Also, at no point did it feel out of place! At every point oda reinforces luffys character. Which makes this reveal satisfying. Like the universe of one piece recognizing luffys sillyness and freeloving nature as much as we do
I think Oda will handle the use of Gear 5 very well. Just from the bits of Luffy using Gear 5, we can see that there is still a bit of a limit to its usage. At least till Luffy can manage to master it, that is. Looks like Luffy can't use it willy nilly for how ever long he wants. There seems to be some sort of time limit for now and when he's out of the form, he's completely exhausted from it's usage. To quote one of the best characters ever "The price of freedom sure is steep."
Honestly that doesn’t seem like a big weakness The only time Luffy had a time limit was when he fought Kaido (which cmon, the dude was at his limit *AND* he literally came back from the dead moments before), there wasn’t any hint of a supposed time limit when he fought lucci With Luffy being exhausted after going into gear 5 he’s able to just force himself back into gear 5 as shown in the Kaido fight So there’s really not any draw backs to using gear 5 at this point in time🤷🏻♂️
@@Tyreker From what I can tell, luffy's doesn't really a physical time limit but a mental one. If he uses gear 5 for too long he will lose his mind it seems like based on what was going through luffy's mind as he fought Lucci.
The thing about being another fruit is actually very well foreshadowed during the entire series, his ridiculous healing factor, how some techniques don't make much sense if the fruit was only Rubber and how many guys commented on how his fruit made no sense, Doffy, Katakuri and Kaido all commented that his fruit wasn't making sense at several points.
@@thomasallen9974 Yeah that is wrong. Take Chopper for example, he ate his fruit, a Zoan, and had a permanent change affecting him, increased intelligence, ability to communicate with both humans and animals and altered appearance. He was also able to transform between 3 different forms but he can be in any of those forms without tiring, he doesn't have a base form and gets tired by using the others. What tires him to extreme measures? His Monster Point, which shares a lot of similarities with other Zoan Awakenings. Luffy's fruit works the same as Chopper's. One big change that affects him regardless of transforming or not, rubber body, and his awakening tires him out just like Chopper's. There is nothing anomalous about Luffy's fruit if we consider it a Zoan from the beginning, specially not when the other examples Marco and Kaido, show similar characteristics as well, Marco not having a hybrid form and only using partial transformations and Kaido having a nearly impenetrable skin even without transforming.
It makes so much sense that the fruit isn't a Paramecia. I remember reading an analysis of Paramecia subcategorization, back when the series is WCI arc. It concluded that Luffy's fruit is a bit different from other Paramecia fruits. Turned out it was true. The fruit is a Mythical Zoan after all
So many people believe that red hawk was just Luffy's fist moving fast enough to catch on fire due to friction in the air but that doesn't explain why any of his attacks using it made explosions or even work under water.
Instead the idea that it is Luffy liberating himself from reality to do the impossible, to wield the power of a person he cared so much about without taking that fruit himself.
The fire is probably not related to his devil fruit. Kinemon, Sanji, Rob Lucci, and the invincible Pearl back in East Blue all have fire powers unrelated to devil fruits. Sanji's was initially based on friction but post timeskip he can ignite with willpower alone. As did Kinemon, Lucci, and Pearl. The ability to create fire appears to be a haki adjacent ability people can learn without a devil fruit.
Its not even like luffys training was in vain or anything, he still had to work his ass of to get to his current point. You aren't just gonna eat the nika fruit and immediately become a cartoon character you have to fully understand and work alongside the fruit. The nika form is only usable by someone who has luffys ideals, if akainu ate this fruit he wouldn't be able to awaken and likely wouldn't end up creative enough to match luffys use with the fruit. Its not just about the devil fruit, its about the user too
@Zanfitto wdym with that? do you mean that he never throw a proper punch with basic training behind it? wich he did in the wano prison when training the ryuu haki to beat kaido and you consider that as his first proper punch
@Zanfitto oh, ye, you meant prequel to the ep-1, do you mean that his punch was just squishy because rubber or his arms were floppy when e threw one? I kinda forgot the details of the 3 brothers flashback
This. Under any other person, the nika fruit would have just been the 'gum-gum' fruit. Not many would put in the time or effort to have to relearn how to throw a proper punch, much less one that stretches out and then returns back to normal. Even if they did, there is likely a secondary factor that would lead to it never awakening: they likely wouldn't have luffy's mindset. This man has a goal, but his moral compass and attitude lead him to do what he believes in, right or wrong in the eyes of others. Though he gets shaken up, battered, chewed up and spat out, he always snaps back into shape because he has a goal: freedom for him and his friends to keep doing what they want. This want for freedom and a willingness to fight to free others as well is a main driving point, andci think it is why the nika fruit awakening is only possible for him... it's because his will and drive resonates with the fruit's will. I remember reading somewhere that zoan fruits tend to have a will of their own, and it got me thinking: why would this be mentioned if not important? While reading these comments it hit me: for the awakened zoan users we know of, each one has a will, and that will likely corresponds to the fruit's will itself. For example, Rob Lucci, has the leopard devil fruit and managed an awesome awakening, complete with the smoke sash, and why is this? Of course he is strong and trained with it for three years, but to awaken it so soon? I think it was his drive to hunt and take down Luffy to a perhaps obsessive point that led to its awakening, as his mindset truly became a predator stalking to take down its prey. How does this play into Luffy's awakening though? Well, it's simple: the sun god nika is a warrior of liberation. He stretches and bends himself out of his own freedom, and seeks to free others as well. There were likely others who ATE the fruit before Luffy, but what were they? Pirates, marines maybe. And each of them likely had a mindset that clashed with the fruit's will. A pirate wouldn't want to free others, they would focus on themselves only, and would only help out if it meant something for them. Luffy can do that, but most of the times he has a goal made to beat someone up cause he doesn't like what they were doing. A marine might think of justice and the wellbeing of the people, but they are an authority of a corrupt government that also may enforce laws that restrict others. This would again clash with the nika fruit's will. Hell if luffy was a marine, he likely wouldn't have been able to awaken the fruit but that's another rabbit hole altogether. This does bring up one more question though: why didn't the fruit awaken sooner? And the answer here? It had been over time. Look back to luffy's major fights, and you will see a pattern. With Crocodile, he couldn't hit him due to him being a sand human and could dry out luffy's body. His solution? Use water to make crocodile harden and thus be able to hit him. Then he also used his blood to do so as well, which did work to an extent... even though it shouldn't have, and this was all to free alabasta. In skypedia, he fought a self proclaimed god who shot lightning to oppress others, and it didn't work on him why? His body was made of rubber... except it isn't. It has the properties of it at least, but that doesn't mean his nerves and internals were, and that largs gold ball should have burned and hurt him more, along with being ridiculously hard to move, and yet he did it. All to free the people of the sky islands. In water 7 and enies lobby, Luffy was now working for a goal of not only saving a friend, but freeeing the (at the time presumed) lone survivor of ohara, an island completely destroyed by the marines, and this is the first time he unlocked the gears. We attributed it to using his rubber body in different ways, and he did... but that wasn't enough. I could go on but the list here stands: each time luffy came into a major battle, there were themes of trying to free others, and each time, his body seemed to adapt or stretch to fit the situation or give him qhat he needed to win. Why is this? Because the fruit saw what luffy was doing and slowly began to awaken, letting out just enough of the full power to accomplish those goals, almost like a test. Wano is where the nika fruit fully recognized Luffy as having the same will and beliefs as it, and thus gear 5 was funally unlocked
The downside being the possibility of Luffy losing his mind if he stays in this form for too long is so interesting to me. One of the most glaring things with his awakening is how his behavior changed, his laughed changed, and how his mood shifted so dramatically. Suddenly he was borderline manic despite being at the brink of death a few moments prior. That could lead to either Nika taking over (and people seem to hate) or getting carried away and dealing damage to himself or others without noticing, because he's just _that_ happy. It's a terrifying power indeed, if you look at it from this perspective. It's no wonder Nika was considered a deity.
@@ReiseLukas it was only for that final attack which was prompted by kaido saying that luffy willl never win against him using only his df and not his haki which seemed to snap him out of his stupor and bring him to reality and the seriousness of the fight
@@sujithsudhakaran745 This is why I think even with gear 5 some fights will still have some seriousness with them. The way the fight ended he was more serious than before I think if pushed to a limit it could still happen. I have some faith in oda
it really brings to mind the fact that Luffy's fruit is a *Zoan*, not a paramecia, and before we saw Kaku and Lucci again, do you know what the only Awakened Zoans int he series were? The jailer beasts from Impel Down; i.e. Devil Fruit users that had been fully taken over by their fruits. Luffy is literally in danger of being taken over by Nika every time he uses it and I do not doubt that we will see the consequences of that soon enough
Luffy's fruit quote "Lets you fight in what ever manner you wish". In other words, the reason he is able to do all these batshit insane things is because he BELIEVES its possible. Thats the theme of OP in my opinion. Your only limited by what you think is possible.
The perfect thematic power-up. Also, I've noticed that I'm really excited to see a fight whenever Luffy goes into Gear 5th now. Gear 2nd, 3rd, and 4th are all cool and all, but they're mainly just physical power-ups with comedic elements. Now, I get to wonder what nonsense Oda will write every time Luffy uses this form.
Honestly i did not mind that Oda made this change to Luffy's fruit since just before the reveal Oda did have the Gorosei mention of fruit wipe from any records & also the fact that if you payed really close attention there were hints to it being the Nika Fruit like the first Devil Fruit type mentioned was the Zoan type while it wasn't until the Skypiea Arc that Logia & Paramecia types were mention, & then during Skypiea Luffy was against a man with a Logia claiming to be a God while Luffy a God was thought to be a mere Paramecia
I like to believe that for most people the Gum-Gum Fruit would have stayed as the Gum-Gum Fruit. But because Luffy is Luffy, the fruit is allowed to be broken as hell
Honestly his fruit makes complete sense to me, all along Luffy was a modern rubber hose cartoon within an anime and since his fruit basically is toon force (the ability to alter reality in favor of comedy) he was really only limiting himself because Shanks told him it was the Gum Gum fruit and he accepted that without question.
He stretched before shanks told him. It was stated that Nika had rubber abilities and it’s the reason that the WG called it the gum gum fruit in the first place.
The fact that Nux got through this without even DESCRIBING Joy Boy is boss af. It really isn't an asspull to 1000 chapters in reveal there was more to the fruit; because I never got the implication that he couldn't have just died as the rubber man. I got the implication that he could only transcend death as Joy Boy BECAUSE of the journey he has taken, BECAUSE he has cultivated his haki that much. It suggests that any fruit, or any person given themself to such a journey could in this world become this strong. It's the most ridiculous power, not necessarily the strongest ever, either.
Luffy having Sun God Nika fruit makes sense both from theme and narrative perspective. It made some of the overtly cartoonie stuff make more sense. Like gear 3 where he blows air into his thumb and somehow gains more mass from air to land powerful blows. Or take his ability to regenerate from just eating a meal. Or the red hawk move where his fist is on fire. Why can he do all these things? Well because his true power is turning imagination (at least with his body) into reality. From a theme stand point it makes even more sense. Cause it's both the freest power and the hardest to master. Hence why no one was able to awaken it's true potential for over 800 years. You know it's most likely had a few users since joy boy. Also the God of liberation that brings joy, laughter, and freedom everywhere he goes. Making it all the more special that the freest person in the world with no prejudices would have it. Almost like the fruit picked him to be its wielder considering Luffy's beliefs and personality. Luffy has liberated his crew to entire islands and kingdoms from the shackles of tyranny and oppression. Standing up to both tyrants and the world government. He's always punching up both figuratively and literally. For all these reasons and more it's the best power up in anime and manga.
It’s funny that everyone was trying to figure out how gear third worked back in the day. Now it makes so much sense. It works because luffy thinks that’s how it works. He believed he could inflate himself and move the air through his bones, and therefore he could. It’s actually a fantastic power for someone as ditsy as luffy lol
Keeping in mind that it was kinda confirmed that Luffy was the first one to awaken the fruit after Joyboy, i kinda see it as it was not Luffy who needed the fruit, but it was the FRUIT who needed LUFFY
True, the only way he could even touch Kaido and defeat him when Kaido turned into his Lava form was because of him learning Ryou Haki, so pretty much... what won him the fight wasn't Gear 5th, it was Haki at the end of the day.
And that is good. If anything, One Piece series need characters that have very weak haki, no conquerors haki, no iron will, low physical strength, no master in manipulation or ultra charisma; just mundane people that had to make do with just their Devil Fruit, their only path to power. I dislike how much weight Haki has now.
@@indulgencerofindulgence5970 That's just it though, Haki = Willpower and to master Haki requires training. Idc how good your DF is, if you lack conviction/willpower and don't train you will be fodder for anyone who does/has. You have to actually put the work in if you wanna be the best/beat the best. And by that same token even if you don't eat a DF you can still be strong af just through training & willpower alone and absolutely clown on people who think their DF will carry them to victory. Roger & Whitebeard, the two strongest of the old generation, are the perfect examples of this dynamic. One guy with no DF but ridiculous amount of Haki and strength & one guy with a top tier DF but reinforced by really strong Haki on top of it.
To add to how perfect it is conceptually: Tom and Jerry-style animation is called rubberhose animation. So he will always technically be a rubber man no matter what
Oda sensei made a wise decision to introduce G5 before the latter part of the One Piece story. It feels like a reward for us fans who have been dedicated to the series. While Luffy is already an incredibly awesome character, the introduction of G5 added more depth to his character. This unexpected turn of events added a wholesome and immersive effect to the story's flow. Luffy's power is unparalleled in all aspects, from his goofy and whimsical nature to his most ridiculous antics. His character is truly unique among typical anime protagonists, and what sets him apart is his ability to awaken his true power while smiling and laughing. Oda sensei's creation of Luffy as a character is a testament to his exceptional storytelling skills and attention to detail. He is a character that captures the hearts of fans worldwide and has become an icon of the anime genre. I will refuse passing away until Strawhat's final voyage.
YESSSS I Have been wanting this for so long. You guys havent done a One Piece Podcast episode in so long so I wanted to know your thoughts. Gear 5 is literally one of the coolest transformations I have seen. Great video!
i love luffy's gear 5 so much. im actually really excited to see more things he's able to do in the upcomming fights. Also, he actually is made of rubber. the 5 elders mention it when describing the true nature of the fruit
Seriously, such a perfect power up. It is super overpowered, but only if you know what it is. The stroke of genius is that Luffy took this whole epic journey to gain some semblance of it's true strength. It doesn't make the struggle he went through any heaper. He still needed to go through everything he did to be able to use his true strength. Let us not forget all the times Luffy was defeated (even though he had an OP devil fruit). What's amazing is that he was able to shift his paradigm and use Nika's true powers without even knowing what his fruit is. OP DONE RIGHT!!
Actually, my takeaway from Gear 5th, was a bit more interesting. If Nika is supposed to be a SUN God, that's going to play perfectly into the final clash Luffy has to have with Blackbeard before the series ends. When Ace unleashed his Flame Emperor Attack against Blackbeard on Banaro Island, Blackbeard called it a battle between the sun and the darkness...only it wasn't. Despite being a reasonable facsimile of the sun, Ace remained limited to only the level of output is Devil Fruit power could provide. As such, it was basically just a big ball of fire. This ineviable fight between Luffy and Blackbeard, with Luffy's Devil Fruit Awakening, is going to represent the ACTUAL sun vs. the darkness, which I think will prove to be far more interesting.
It was hinted in wholecake island, when snakeman defied the capability of rubber. Gear 5 being limited by imagination also makes sense as Luffy being told it was a rubber fruit justifies him training with rubber
One of the things I love about Gear 5th is that it is a power up designed to completely destroy the opponent like other power ups seen in other series but what makes Gear 5th stand out is that it destroys the opponent in a different way. A standard power up destroys the opponent physically but the Gear 5th destroys the opponent not only physically but also destroys the opponent's pride by being defeated by a visually ridiculous power up.
it's the luffy luffy fruit, it fits him to a T. the only thing limiting him early on is that he was told he was made of rubber, so that's all he thought he could do
He is rubber. The elder said that the fruit gives the user the properties of rubber but when awaken the limits are exceeded only by the user’s imagination. No in the sense like if Luffy thinks it food would poof in his hand. Basically anything or anyone he touches turns into rubber and he’s able to change his body into any shape like changing into G4 without the waste of haki.
@@justynhill4814 but he did make googles appear out on nowhere while he was fighting lucci, the manifestated from his hair, just pointing that out if you didn't notice, now i don't now if the could remain in the physical world after he created them or disappear after a while
Freaking called it already about 20 years ago, "One Piece is like Tom & Jerry" and "One Piece is like a cartoon!", I said to my bigger brother, his reaction: "hUh, wHeRe?" xD
i think the way devil fruits work also works to empower this. You eat a fruit, no idea what power youre gonna get, you now cant swim and can be weakened heavily through a specific stone so you now HAVE to make this power work and HAVE to make it be to your benefit. "I have rubber power but i mean, i also have these 3 others things so dont really need to develop it" doesnt work as well as "i had to figure out a way to make this rubber body work to my benefit, i increased my bloodflow, increased the elasticity so i can bounce off myself and increase the power of my hits" etc. etc.
The only thing that actually changed about the fruit is the name. Gear 5, Luffy's God form, on a technical level is nothing we didn't expect. He has complete control over his rubber body now, and can make the environment and opponents to temporarily share this rubbery characteristic (aka turn things into rubber). It's basically just a regular paramecia awakening, like the one we've seen from Doflamingo previously, the only difference being the cosmetic changes.
I think the nika fruit is only giving luffy the effects of rubber because THATS ALL HE BELIEVES IT TO BE! He never knew what fruit he ate, he was just told by shanks that he ate the gum gum fruit and thats what he BELIEVES he ate so thats what his powers are. His power is limited by his imagination.
Gear 5 makes Luffy into what he has been in his mind and personality this whole time. A Tex Avery cartoon that doesn’t give a damn about anything but having some fun.
Being made of rubber is a byproduct of the sun god nika fruit. He is still, and has been, made of rubber. He was just unaware of the full potential of his fruit, assuming it to only be rubber. The power of imagination comes out a little on top of his rubber body when he uses gears 3 and 4.
I also got the impression from the few manga chapters I've seen that a lot of his really bizarre feats (like grabbing a lightning bolt) were performed by rubberizing the materials he came into contact with. The lightning bolt became solid rubber, and could therefore be handled by Luffy, who is immune to lightning, but it would electrocute anyone else it touched.
I've seen you around on TH-cam talking to other One Piece TH-camrs but I never checked your personal contents and instant regret, you make awesome videos! Subbed.
An analogy I like to use for luffy’s power up involves guns, since I’m a Texan. If Devil fruits are different types of guns, then what happened to luffy is that someone gave the guy one of the strongest guns around, but because he didn’t know what it was he ran around using it to pistol whip people. And eventually he got really good at it. He was using a gun like a hammer and kicking the shot out people using sniper rifles and rocket launchers. Only when he could go toe to toe with people who’s fruit are comparable to his actual fruit while still using his incorrectly did he, or at least we, realize what it actually was.
I hate to be the “um actually” guy, but the manga states that the fruit still turns the users body into rubber. He’s still a rubber man, but he’s also the Sun God Nika.
I LOVED the reveal FOR GEAR 5. everything about it screams the spirit of OP. And that what matters the most to me. If the ability fits the character. Not to mention all ther refrances to "journey to the west". Luffy has a lot of ability like the monkey king. I always was obsessed with finding them through out my watch ( even bought the Monkey king audio book ). And as we know the monkey king ends up being more like a god. So the reveal Shook me. I will put a tiny list below of the most obvious similarity so everyone gets what I'm saying. -Nika the SUN god>Immortal monkey SUN Wokong -Luff'y can stretch and expand>Wukong's staff can continuously stretch & expand. -Luffy's straw hat>Wukong's Golden head band - There are a lot of cloud stuff in OP but the most direct reference to the Nimbus Cloud is Zuse. -Luffy's outfit is simmiler to Wukong's after time skip. -Divine Peaches> Devil Fruit There Is more, But yall get the point. And I'm sure a lot of people have also noticed this. :)
@@kflow250 we don’t exactly know yet on what this series means by “limitless ability through imagination” but if it was quite literally like that then luffy could just become the strongest characters in fiction XD
It's nice to know Nux is a man of culture lol. I loved the direction Oda took this from the very start, it fits Luffy perfectly in every way. It was sad to see that some people hated it and were saying "wow, what a retcon", "oh great it's just an OP God fruit" and so on.. not even bothering to see how Oda couldn't have done any better than this.. just look at all the G5 fan made stuff before we knew what it was actually going to be.. it was just Luffy covered head to toe in haki and that's about it.. yeah.. that's better right? 🙄.. As much as people over praise Oda I don't feel like I need to add to anything people have already said, but he has had the ending of One Piece mapped out for decades now. I highly doubt he's going to just pull something out of thin air and say "ha ha look, Luffy God now" and have him just walk all over any and every antagonist of the End story.. He has made one of the most in-depth, fleshed out worldbuilding stories of our generation. Only a fool can think that they have a better understanding of his vision..
hm...I didn't think about that. So would his devil fruit be the freedom fruit? Since...it frees him of the laws of physics, human anatomy, and possibly even the human limit once he figured out how to break that? Besides being a slap stick cartoon man. XD I love this power up to be honest.
I don't know why people would even be mad at gear 5 power. What does awakened paramecia does? It affects the environment... Doflamingo and Katakuri.. What does G5 do? Turns things into rubber! TBH honest after Dressrosa i thought that luffy's awakening would be him making his environment a trampoline..now imagine what luffy would do with his creativity. The only unexpected twist is the fruit being a zoan instead of paramecia and having a goofy nature. Also remember that joyboy's story made roger pirate laugh their ass off.. thats foreshadowing the final form of Luffy, who we know is the modern day Joyboy. Also he needed to work his ass off and master his haki in order to take full control of the power and awaken it. He didnt unlock it by almost dying...because he would have unlocked it in marineford or impel down then. G5 is the embodiment of luffy's will for complete freedom. The fruit chose him because of that.
The Nika fruit uses the user's imagination. Which means the reason all that goofy stuff worked is because HE THOUGHT IT WOULD WORK. Lightning didn't work because HE THOUGHT he was rubber. This is hilarious
Luffy is still MADE OF RUBBER. Idk why people keep thinking he’s not. The elders literally say the Nika fruit give the user’s body “all of the properties of rubber”. That’s includes non conductivity The Sun God Nika is made of of rubber still
People thinking the fights can't be serious anymore while I'm over here stressing and pulling my hair out worried about Luffy and his health. This is my favorite transformation in anything, ever.
Its like the fight against Hody,Luffy thought about Ace while punching Hody with a final punch but his fist used the fire from the Flare Flare fruit because Luffy was thinking hard about Ace.It now finally makes sense since his gear 5 was revealed.
Not gonna watch cause of spoilers, but wanted to say; I would love to see an " Overpowered done right" for Rampo from bungou stray dogs, the guy who has no powers is actually the most OP character. You could also imagine a "No one understands Rampo" as he is a fairly complex character.
Hanabi/Firework in Skypiea was the first attack Luffy used that to me defied the reality of what a rubber power is capable of. I remember being so blown away at how Luffy came up with that attack as a kid.
The power up really wasn't even an asspull and doesn't actually retcon anything. There are dozens of instances from even East Blue where Luffy did things that were ridiculous and stupid but "somehow" worked. Remember the afro? Yea you remember the afro. You hated the afro (probably) but guess what perfectly explains that huge power up! Oda planned this all along.
also the fact that luffy has always been durable because of his own will power and also BECAUSE HES A ZOAN and we know Zoans have a fuck ton of endurance.
Not only that, but Oda has always intended and planned the Nikka twist. The breadcrumbs are there. The inanity of Gear 3 and the shit Gear 4 forms can do are already invoking small amounts of Toon logic. For Luffy to awaken the power of Nikka, he gains the full might of Toonforce. And it's still balanced by the stamina drain, and the fact Nikka to some degree is affecting Luffy, causing him to not be as serious and letting shit happen that normally wouldn't, like bystanders getting hurt by the enemy. And to tie into the freedom aspect, Bonnie even asks Luffy "The fuck is up with that form?" And Luffy, not knowing he is a zone just flexs in a Cartoon Style like Popeye and says "Oh, that is the form I take when I am the most free." A very well executed power-up. I love it. Canonically, it's not even the strongest power or fruit in the world. It's the most Ridiculous Power in the World.
@@fantaxzia He said he wasn't sure if Luffy using a big ass punch would be a satisfying end to Kaido and Luffy's fight at the time. Because Luffy didn't have a reliable method of believably using a giant punch to win. The breadcrumbs are there, even before the Nikka twist, people in-universe constantly noted Luffy's devil fruit seemed odd, and people out of universe were speculating that Luffy's fruit wasn't exactly rubber based for a while because of those same hints in the fanbase. No, it was very clearly foreshadowed and planned for a while, and it gave Luffy a believable reason and method to beat Kaido with his main methodology since Enemies Lobby "HERE COMES THE GIANT FIST"
I think Oda handled Luffy's Gear 5 and showing it's true form being the Nika Nika No Mi pretty well and love how truly looney it is but the part that bothered me was the Gorosei ain't no way they didn't know the DFs true ability and such through Luffy's whole journey up to the Kaido fight like is the WG with Gorosei that dumb lol
Well to the Gorosei its the Hito Hito No Mi, how would they have guessed that the Gomu Gomu No Mi is actually the Hito Hito No Mi when there are so many possible Devil Fruits out there
They wouldn't really have a reason to believe that the hyper powerful fruit stolen by shanks was eaten by some random kid. As far as they are aware luffy just is rubber bro
The Gorosei knew Luffy's fruit was the Nika fruit since the moment they heard about him, but they never had an opportunity to capture Luffy. They still tried, they forced Garp to go back and capture Luffy after Water 7, told Kuma to capture him in Thriller Bark and if you remember those are the only points in the entire story of One Piece that they had opportunities to capture Luffy, every other time Luffy was somewhere he should not have been able to be, like the sky or in a territory where the WG had no authority like Big Mom's territory or in Wano. Remember that Luffy's nickname is Strawhat, not Rubberman, so we don't even know at what point the Gorosei knew about Luffy.
it especialy fits now that we know the name of one of the gorosei being saturn, add that to the ancient wepaons being named after planets and you realize theres the exact amount of gorosei, ancient weapons and im-sama to make up the solar system with luffy representing the sun
I guess the reason he was immune to lighting is because as far as he is aware the "joke" from his devil fruit at the time is that he is a rubber man, and so it would be funny and sensible for him to be immune to lightning. If his "gag" had been something else he might have had different properties
The fact that old cartoon animation was called "Rubber House Animation", it really brings this connection of why he has a rubber body despite his fruit being a God type fruit. In fact I wondering if the God Nika/Joy Boy was not actually a god, but rather a cartoon character from a children's book that after time the story and concept got past around that soon people viewed the story as a legend of a god instead of just some cartoon character in a book.
easily the thing i loved most about his powerups was at least for gear 2, i instantly called what he was doing since im the sort of fuckin shut in nerd who watches nerdist, sci show, the discovery channel youtuber and a so many more science channels that literally there end up being entire days where youtube just only reccomends me science vids and i legit ONLY watch those suggested science vids. because of this facination i called that gear 2 was him speeding up his heartrate by using his legs as pumps basically doping himself on his own blood and hell before he stated that it took a serious toll on him, i already figured that would likely be the case cause while his body being rubber COULD TAKE the stress, there is still a reason high blood pressure is ultimatly a serious issue and not something you want in any regard as it starts cuasing a building dmg to your bloodvessels and heart that could cause fatal circulatory and heart issues. beyond that they were just such interesting powerups and hell i also love that the first time we saw red hawk, i instantly was like "ok so unless your telling me he's moving his fas at oblation speeds, there is no way that he is actually able to make fire ACTUALLY happen with just his fruit unless like with him 'infalting his bones and muscles!' oda just decided to take some **creative liberties** with science again..." like the first time i learned it was the sun god fruit i felt SO damn validated that i called that his fruit had to be more than the gum gum fruit.
also if his hand was blown up that big with air IT WOULD do serious dmg like we see because while air is very light, if its not heated enough than the air wont increase his fists boancy and with how big its blown up, that would be A LOT of extra mass. just thing about being hit by a super blown up yoga ball vs being hit by one thats not that blown up and hell the elactisity actually would also help to bounce his opponents HARD AS HELL into any nearby walls or the ground with A LOT of extra force so that part is fine...... THE REAL ISSUE is how in the actual fuck is he blowing air into his fucking BONES and MUSCLES for gears 3 and 4? like i would wager thats what he though he was doing but in reality it was just the beginning hint that he can control his elemnt of rubber like any other paramecia which also is 110% how he does kong organ btw and its just another less obvious example of the same thing with red hawk of forcing the question "ok that IS NOT something rubber should be able to do so his DF has to be something other than the gum gum fruit with it just also happens to make him into rubber like a paramecia..."
I feel like the way Oda presented this power to Luffy kind of turned him into a " Chosen one ". Not the power itself but the obscurity of it's appearance.
Nux, I think you'd be able to pull off a great video on Meta character done right, Bartolomeo. He's essentially a insert of the one piece fandom as a whole. Introduced as a troll, but also a massive straw hat fan, who's devil fruit ability is to be unable to be attacked via impenetrable shield. One thing also worth bringing up, something we've yet to hear further on, is he essentially attacked Shanks (attacked his territory) on behalf of luffy (not knowing they're buddies). Well, Shanks is also kinda representative of an outside the story character, Oda himself. I believe he's stated that he'd either like to be like Shanks, or out of all the characters that's who he's most like. Point being, this is almost like the fandom stepping on the toes of the creator. Now, what's gonna be the result? We don't know yet, but I think it's kinda interesting that even if Oda didn't necessarily mean for Bartolomeo vs Shanks to be some meta battle, the two characters are kinda meant to be more than what you see on screen(or on page), the beef between the two probably doesn't mean anything in the real world (Oda probably doesn't have too much aggravation towards One piece fans), but... you never know with Oda because the dude is either incredibly lucky that his story has many deep layers or he's an actual genius that intentionally (or even just subconsciously) layers deeper meaning into things himself.
Thing is, people were really angry that Luffy's Devil Fruit has god in the name. But in reality it doesn't really make his DF that much special cause it's just giving us more of Luffy. His awakening is just more rubber. Also, it does not take away from his past achievements cause he still has to struggle to get there and for a long time his DF was viewed or ridiculed for being weak. Luffy constantly shown to be limited by his power, but every time he always ended up pushing the boundaries and limits of that power. It's still him doing the heavy lifting at the end of the day.
Yeah I kinda like what Oda did with this as well honestly. He was trying to state that Luffy of course wouldn't have been able to activate the devil fruit's true abilities if he hadn't gone through all of those tough fights in the first place... or if he weren't as driven to better himself now he would never have unlocked it.. And this plays also into the whole thing with him being like this due to him being JoyBoy reincarnated. Aside from that though... Many people believe that Enel (since he's been confirmed to be coming back)... actually has a Zoan devil fruit as well being the deity; 'Rajin' of thunder and lightning..... Not only this, but it means since Luffy's dad, Dragon has storm related powers as well that His devil fruit is the 'Fujin' devil fruit! .. I honestly really like this idea! You have Nika the Sun god, Raijin the God of Lightning, and Fujin the God of wind all in Zoan Devil fruit forms... And of course there wouldn't be a zoan god of the moon because theres been confirmed to be around 8 moons floating in the sky above the one piece world.
Luffy's fruit *spoilers whatever* being unchained from reality and simply being able to do whatever he believes he can do is gotta be the most unexpected and broken power up.
It's still funny when people say "Nothing Luffy did meant anything because of his Devil Fruit". Like dude, he only had the Rubber Powers until Kaido. He was not able to do what he is able to now, because he couldn't. Also, he has no idea what he can actually do.
What pisses me off the most is when people call out a time when the mc is a "chosen one" and everyone develops mass amnesia and forget all the hard work, blood, sweat, and tears it took to get to that point of becoming over powered. (naruto, luffy, deku etc.)
7 months late replying but you're so real for saying that. luffy is the reason why his devil fruit even works, he worked hard to make a seemingly useless df powerful
Once Oda explained that if the Straw Hats were to have real life nationalities, Luffy would be from Brasil. If that doesn't automatically explain everything One Piece to you, you need to Internet more.
Luffy is still rubber because mythical zoans have a form plus a special power from logia or paramecia e.g. Sengoku can turn into Buddha and he has the shockwave power that can be grouped into paramecia. So, he’s a zoan fruit that has the special power from paramecia group.
I can't wait for the Sun god Nika fruit is finally realized as the Cartoon Cartoon Fruit. It explains so much. Lightning can't effect cartoons, and if you move fast enough you set on fire. Even his laughing is just Cartoon Plot Armor, but literally. Sun god Nika is the name the Government gave the fruit, but what would the government know what a cartoon is. The closest thing to a cartoon in the OP world is the Sora of the North Blue comics. Even the final transformation turns him black and white, the most crazy generation of all the cartoons. Cartoon Cartoon Fruit.
The idea of him being powerful through happiness and freedom reminds me of when he laughs as buggy tries to execute him, don't think it fits completely right but it's interesting to think about
The Enel fight still works because his fruit works with his imagination. Luffy believed he was a rubber-man, so his body behaved like so. In a thematic sense it’s still great as well
Man I just found out that you was going to get in depth with the one piece series and man your content is really good so far. Keep it up, I been a One Piece fan since 2003 and I'm so happy with the Way One Piece has been going
What I love about Luffy's fruit is that before knowing it's true power you can still (somewhat explain) all of Luffy's abilities, although there is allways something missing. G2 is doping (but whats with the steam?), G3 is blowing air into his bones making his fist giant and similar to a balloon that is gonna pop any moment - it becomes harder, so more strength (but how does it inflate, why does it not deflate, why is it seemengly heavy?), G4 adds air to his muscles allowing him to compress his limbs and then eject the with greater power (although what's with the bell sound, why does he look so different, why so much smoke again?), Red hawk could just be explained with friction I guess, but Red Roc? Why can Luffy use fire attacks? All of these are kinda minor and could be brushed aside as necessary powerups for the story to progress, you bite the bullet and roll with it, but G5 recontextualises EVERYTHING. Luffy also didn't become OP just because of the fruit. Look at Ceaser Clown he has a very powerful logia, but is a joke. Luffy when he was first fighting Ace as a kid was also a joke. His ability didn't do shit for him. Its an ability with a high skill cealing, but that is difficult to master. Luffy's power also doesn't at all change the fact that he's fought to near death countless times. He is consistently aware that if he wants to protect his friends, he needs to become stronger. That's what forced him to keep evolving and innovate. Also to support how difficult it is to master this fruit, this is the first time in 800 years that G5 was unlocked (at least that's what I assume to be the meaning of Zunisha's words when it says that Joyboy has returned). And for these reasons G5 IS still contained in reality. And the best part of the Nika Nika fruit is how it works for the story thematically. I mean JOYBOY it just says it on the tin. What has Luffy been doing the entire story to all the people he befriends along the way - always bringing freedom to them. From the strawhats, to each civilian of the countries that he saves. What Luffy has unintentionally been doing this whole time is saving the world, while his only real goal is just chasing his dream, not being a hero. Luffy "isn't a hero", because that isn't what he wants to be, yet he has the Nika DF - a god that brings liberation to slaves - a hero. It's saying you can do what heros do just by fighting for the right justice, being a good person. It's redefining who a hero is. It's also silly, because that is what brings joy to people, and bringing joy to the people is how evil is erradicated. It's simplistic, but it drives home the point.
Gear 5 is my favorite transformation. The letting go and even go beyond reality into the universe of bringing the collective unconsciousness into reality in true freedom. People in this world as well sees freedom as simply doing what they want, but true freedom is going beyond just doing what you want and that is to become the conscious mix between the collective unconsciousness, your own shadow (golden and black), your anima/animus and the idea of the Self. The moment all of our complex parts start fusing with each other and coming into consciousness, you pretty much become a rl gag character or the real gear 5. Gear 5 is the truest sense of being you who you truly are in all its glory, its when your soul wanders the earth instead of only the smaller you stuck in your own suffering. You become your own universe.
I think people might be reading only what they want to read (selective reading) since they ignore the fact that Luffy’s body is still made of rubber (not because of the nonexistent gum gum fruit but because of the nika fruit (a made up god in the op universe that is made of rubber)).
Its not strange to assume that the fruit looked for its owner, it went into so many hands and it turned out that a young wanna be pirate from a small village ate it.
to be honest, there is a uniqueness in this, remember all the main characters in the anime when they are at the peak of their powers, the most serious or even sometimes emotionless luffy is still at odds with this and I like it he reminds me of Dante from DMC luffy the trickster who will simply drive opponents out of himself and at the same time luffy himself will rejoice in the battle and smile I like him manic smile during the battle, he literally gets high from the battle
Honestly it makes sense. he's always done things that didn't make sense if it was " just" rubber and he has had effects on others that gradualy change them. the Enel fight in particular is telling. Enel is a man who thinks he is a god while luffy is a God who thinks he is a human. but more than that when Luffy hears Enel's plan to blow up skypiea he asks something like " what do you think a god is?" almost like a bit of Nika was slipping out and being affronted by what was going on. and then there was the prayers going out the same moment that luffy was tearing apart thunder advent with the " become sunny now"
All this time it was basically the "cartoon-cartoon" fruit! Its a fruit that is limited by the user's imagination! That is just wonderfull, if Luffy wasn't who he is the fruit would be useless. Also the fruit is stated to give the "properties" of rubber. So it is resistant to electric powers as well.
At the end of the day, not only did Luffy earn gear 5, it also didn't automatically win him the fight. He still would've lost to Kaido if he hadn't learned Ryuo. His haki training paid off.
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A common misconception of the nika fruit is that people think that its the strongest fruit in the world. But in fact, its stated that its the most ridiculous fruit, the goofiest fruit. If any other character in the op verse was given this fruit, it wouldn’t be nearly as strong. Bcz its luffy’s childlike whimsicality, his creativity, and his nature for freedom that makes this ability strong. Also another thing that i love about G5 is that its such a joy to read. Its always a surprise and its just pure fun.
I think that the only problem with Gear5 for a lot of people is the fact that no matter what opponents he will face from now on, Luffy cannot lose and will always win "because he has gear5". So, since we've seen with Lucci that Luffy can enter gear5 without any problems or restrictions, a lot of people are afraid that we might not be able to see any more fights where he "struggles" like vs katakuri or kaido before the power-up.
I don't think this will happen, but if giving Luffy gear5 would cause such thing to happen against enemies like Blackbeard for example, then yes, i will be disappointed too a little bit regardless of the part "fun to read", because something can be "fun", sure, but if it ruins the narrative then it's a bad concept.
@Lord Zeref It's sad to see people have such little faith in Oda's ability to tell a story like he isn't top ten highest grossing authors in history or something.
@@lordzeref8175 ehh blackbeard is a whole anomaly b/c at the end of the day, Luffy’s DF and gear 5 is still a devil fruit power and blackbeard’s yami yami no mi can nullify all fruits just by touching them. Luffy’s main type of combat is by physical contact with his hands, feet, etc. Luffy can catch blackbeard off guard for sure, but blackbeard is a devil fruit user’s worse enemy. Interesting how the fight would play out but Luffy has to figure a way to take blackbeard out qucikly, or find a way to make sure he doesn’t get touched by blackbeard. Unless Haki can act as a barrier against blackbeard’s devil fruit (but im not so sure).
@Lord Zeref I don't think that will happen either. Even with Gear 5, One on One fully rested Luffy can't beat Kaido. It took Luffy losing twice and even almost dying, as well as Kaido's son with a mystical Zoan, The samurais and Law/Kidd to beat Kaido. Heck Kaido was fighting non stop and they still barely beat him.
@@K.H1914- their is also the fact that Strong haki users like Mihawk,Kaido or Shank’s or any decent haki users that’s half as strong as them can still make Luffy bleed or that sea is still his enemy and sea stone base weapons.
People forget something crucial with this fruit: the broken shit *_only_* kicks in after you awaken it. There’s no retconning of Luffy’s journey (I'm speaking specifically of his journey to grow and become incredible, I recognize the fruit's _nature_ was retconned) because until that point, it really was just the "Gum-Gum Fruit". Just a thing that makes you rubber. Hell, it’s the first DF to have a dual-classification for this reason.
Until he gets stricken dead and limit breaks, it’s still the same fruit that made him need _several years_ to learn how to so much as _throw a punch_ again. And as for his strength, we know that’s all him and has nothing to do with his fruit; that was half the point of the Udon internment and seeing that physically he was still immensely strong even with his powers locked off. G5 isn’t a retcon of his journey, it’s his journey’s _reward._
Indeed!
It was cathartic to see Luffy running at top speed carrying and throwing giant stone blocks in Udon in proper seastone cuffs when previously, the mere touch of sea stone would sap all energy out of him.
Yeah people also seem to forget that the Nika fruit dose change the users body to a rubber like state that's just a natural property. Its the freedom to move your body anyway you want and to always bounce back to the state you want to be in.
Like my guy Daniel Green said in his video on G5, if there was ever a character that deserved a power up like this it's Monkey D. Luffy; he really earned it. This is a story where we had a stretch of 4 arcs back-to-back just to showcase how completely out of his league the MC was in comparison to the upper echelon of characters, and then proceeded to go for another 500 chapters with the MC just using skills and abilities he learned via off-screen training & even then once he began to approach the next ceiling (WCI) he struggled greatly to overcome only to get immediately 1-shot in his next big fight and have to train all over again.
I mean, it is broken shit before you awaken it, but awakening it is when you realize how broken it can actually be. Things which didnt fully make sense if it was rubber, vs things that now fully make sense knowing the fruit was actually the Nika fruit. Every single power that didnt make sense logically, is fully making sense if you apply the logic of "Luffy thinks this is what rubber can do".
I 100% believe that Luffy will not believe that he has the Nika fruit, and will remain determined that his power is just rubber.
BTW, here's the list of things that were either contradicting with rubber, or simply things that would make sense if you have a child's sense of what rubber is:(and not to be like WatchMojo too much, but number 5 IMO is by far the biggest one that never made sense with Luffy being rubber and the logic that he couldnt be damaged by blunt attacks)
1. gear 2 and gear 3(gear 2 technically made sense, but do you really think Luffy was actively making his blood flow faster? Let alone how quickly he learned it.)
2. Water Luffy. You know, the one thing devil fruits are weak to? Somehow Luffy bypassed that weakness by simply thinking it would work. Sure, this one has less merit thanks to Raizo also saving water inside the scroll, but still, perhaps Raizo is limited to what he believes he can store too.
3. Afro Luffy. He was genuinely stronger during that fight than he was.
4. Nightmare Luffy. No one could get more than 10 shadows other than the fruit user himself. Except Luffy, who believed he could take 100.
5. Every single time that a non-haki hit gave Luffy bruises(Nami, mainly, but also Usopp and Sanji).
6. Tankman and Snakeman(bounce man at least made sense)
7. Luffy being able to heal from milk that one time that Brook also did.
8. Luffy being able to generate flames in respect of Ace(friction my ass, if friction was all that was needed, Zoro wouldnt need lessons from Kinemon to cut/create fire).
i absolutly love that luffy's fruit is literally being a cartoon. Fits his goofyness so much.
Also fits his whole vibe of being the freest man in the world
Gomu gomu no.......UFO
Ditto
So he is basically all the fruits all at once ?
@@archshade7891 we don’t know coz we only see him use light fire and rubber it’s possibly but idk
My favorite part of this whole thing is looking back on all the drawings and depictions of gear 5. They were all super serious/edgy/intense with spikes and full body haki, lion man, dragon man etc. Then out of nowhere: GET READY FOR A SWELL BATTLE!
Goda built different for that.
You mean Go D. A?
Go.D.A
Luffy being the GOAT is a great video to drop just before "Nobody understands Zoro"
Zoro got lost on his way to having the video made.
Even Lorotards don't get him
mostly zoro dickriders dont get zoro they only seee him as a guy with cool swords
except them almost everyone understands him
Zoro could not remember the way to the upload button
shanks has like 15 episodes worth of screentime and is still stronger than luffy without a devil fruit
What I love about it is that his fruit is one that allows him to turn his imagination into physical reality, it plays perfectly into *why* he was able to develop his previous gears and why he had been thematically constrained to rubber powers through the whole of the story until now.
Luffy was told he ate the Gum Gum fruit, he was under the belief that it was the Gum Gum fruit, therefore it was. He mentally constrained himself to rubber powers so his body was made of rubber.
Every gear he developed still made some level of sense to rubber powers, but hinted at his imagination slowly pushing the boundaries of impossibility further and further.
Oda is a master world builder and character writer, and the revelation of Luffy’s true fruit is a testament to that.
Hi just as am addition to your comment. Luffys gum gum ability isnt only because he was told he was rubber. But because Nika has natural rubber-like properties. Witch is stated in the manga I think. If we remember back to episode one Luffy ate the fruit without knowing its gum gum nature, but his arm still stretched when he walked away from shanks.
I find this beautiful. The Nika fruit embodies your body truely being free and not bound by law. luffy can always bounce back to the state he wants to be in.
Luffy’s ability isn’t to literally turn imagination into reality. All it is, is an expression because his ability to rubberside the environment gives him so much freedom and acts like a cartoon he is limitless with his creativity.
@@felixowen2693 Ok so let me get this straight, the basic abilities of gear 5 is limitless rubber powers and stretching, and rubberizing anything else he wants...which grants him all the freedom limited only by what he wants to do with these specific powers
however he still doesn't Warp reality per se like scarlet witch for example right?
because the way people explain it really confuses me...
Is he basically as limitless as plastic man from DC?
@@madeinheaven9314 his rubber acts a lot more lucid like plastic man from DC or Jake the dog from adventure time yeah. He is not like the scarlet witch, idk why people keep thinking that.
@@felixowen2693 haha its easy to get lost with all the different translations. Not to mention TH-camrs explaining it differently. I agree but why is the fruit classified differently then? With your explanation, it would just be the gum-gum fruit awakening like normal? Why would it be hito-hito no mi? Idk my opinion is super fluid on the topic right now. But I definitely love the reveal.
Luffy's fruit being something other than rubber was a theory I never liked until I saw Gear 5 in action. Now I think it's fantastic and think Gear 5 is one of the coolest transformations in anime.
Well, he still *is* rubber. Always has been and always will be. However, his awakening is rubberhose, the animation style. Think of the Popeye and Betty Boop cartoons for the ridiculous nature of how it works. Awakening is turning your devil fruit's power onto the world and realistically that's what he does. He turns rubberhose and the world around him changes to reflect it. The ground can be pulled up to bounce a fireball back, he can turn into a tornado, when he gets hit he deforms to the shape of kaido's club. It truly is a ridiculous power, and one that fits him perfectly.
@@Playernotfound-404 thank you. I always see people thinking that his ability is ‘imagination’ and not just him turning things to rubber with more lucid and stronger control of it.
@@felixowen2693 didn't he create glasses
@@felixowen2693 but its more than that though
Now Luffy is only rubber cause he think he is only rubber
if tommorow he think he could manipulate gravity or stop time he could theorically do it
Its more like a God Like being limited by Luffy for the sake of the story but with End game One Piece Vilain such as Ym Sama he could surely use his OP power more
@@Kishinoo no. Luffy’s power is rubberhose. He can manipulate things in a cartoonishly rubber way. That’s it. He doesn’t have omnipotent reality bending powers. He won’t manipulate gravity or stop time.
I live that the translation isnt "the strongest" but "the most rediculous" which is such an oda move and a perfect fit for Luffy. I was laughing and playing the loonietoons theme in my head the whole battle after the reveal xD so hilarious and perfect
Also, at no point did it feel out of place! At every point oda reinforces luffys character. Which makes this reveal satisfying. Like the universe of one piece recognizing luffys sillyness and freeloving nature as much as we do
I think Oda will handle the use of Gear 5 very well. Just from the bits of Luffy using Gear 5, we can see that there is still a bit of a limit to its usage. At least till Luffy can manage to master it, that is. Looks like Luffy can't use it willy nilly for how ever long he wants. There seems to be some sort of time limit for now and when he's out of the form, he's completely exhausted from it's usage. To quote one of the best characters ever "The price of freedom sure is steep."
Honestly that doesn’t seem like a big weakness
The only time Luffy had a time limit was when he fought Kaido (which cmon, the dude was at his limit *AND* he literally came back from the dead moments before), there wasn’t any hint of a supposed time limit when he fought lucci
With Luffy being exhausted after going into gear 5 he’s able to just force himself back into gear 5 as shown in the Kaido fight
So there’s really not any draw backs to using gear 5 at this point in time🤷🏻♂️
@@Tyreker From what I can tell, luffy's doesn't really a physical time limit but a mental one. If he uses gear 5 for too long he will lose his mind it seems like based on what was going through luffy's mind as he fought Lucci.
Zack Fair Recognition, lesss gooooo
The thing about being another fruit is actually very well foreshadowed during the entire series, his ridiculous healing factor, how some techniques don't make much sense if the fruit was only Rubber and how many guys commented on how his fruit made no sense, Doffy, Katakuri and Kaido all commented that his fruit wasn't making sense at several points.
All fruits followed a specific logic. Luffy's doesnt. In fact Gear 5 is the culmination of logic be damned.
@@thomasallen9974 Yeah that is wrong. Take Chopper for example, he ate his fruit, a Zoan, and had a permanent change affecting him, increased intelligence, ability to communicate with both humans and animals and altered appearance. He was also able to transform between 3 different forms but he can be in any of those forms without tiring, he doesn't have a base form and gets tired by using the others. What tires him to extreme measures? His Monster Point, which shares a lot of similarities with other Zoan Awakenings.
Luffy's fruit works the same as Chopper's. One big change that affects him regardless of transforming or not, rubber body, and his awakening tires him out just like Chopper's.
There is nothing anomalous about Luffy's fruit if we consider it a Zoan from the beginning, specially not when the other examples Marco and Kaido, show similar characteristics as well, Marco not having a hybrid form and only using partial transformations and Kaido having a nearly impenetrable skin even without transforming.
It makes so much sense that the fruit isn't a Paramecia. I remember reading an analysis of Paramecia subcategorization, back when the series is WCI arc. It concluded that Luffy's fruit is a bit different from other Paramecia fruits. Turned out it was true. The fruit is a Mythical Zoan after all
@@thomasallen9974 Whiney btch says what?
The power of imagination
So many people believe that red hawk was just Luffy's fist moving fast enough to catch on fire due to friction in the air but that doesn't explain why any of his attacks using it made explosions or even work under water.
Instead the idea that it is Luffy liberating himself from reality to do the impossible, to wield the power of a person he cared so much about without taking that fruit himself.
The fire is probably not related to his devil fruit. Kinemon, Sanji, Rob Lucci, and the invincible Pearl back in East Blue all have fire powers unrelated to devil fruits. Sanji's was initially based on friction but post timeskip he can ignite with willpower alone. As did Kinemon, Lucci, and Pearl.
The ability to create fire appears to be a haki adjacent ability people can learn without a devil fruit.
Sounds like a giant rubber made rainbow mantis
@@WatanukiProductions that’s actually a smart theory
Also with gum gum thor he can randomly generate electricity
Its not even like luffys training was in vain or anything, he still had to work his ass of to get to his current point. You aren't just gonna eat the nika fruit and immediately become a cartoon character you have to fully understand and work alongside the fruit. The nika form is only usable by someone who has luffys ideals, if akainu ate this fruit he wouldn't be able to awaken and likely wouldn't end up creative enough to match luffys use with the fruit.
Its not just about the devil fruit, its about the user too
@Zanfitto wdym with that? do you mean that he never throw a proper punch with basic training behind it? wich he did in the wano prison when training the ryuu haki to beat kaido and you consider that as his first proper punch
@Zanfitto oh, ye, you meant prequel to the ep-1, do you mean that his punch was just squishy because rubber or his arms were floppy when e threw one? I kinda forgot the details of the 3 brothers flashback
@Zanfitto ye, i remember that now
This. Under any other person, the nika fruit would have just been the 'gum-gum' fruit. Not many would put in the time or effort to have to relearn how to throw a proper punch, much less one that stretches out and then returns back to normal. Even if they did, there is likely a secondary factor that would lead to it never awakening: they likely wouldn't have luffy's mindset.
This man has a goal, but his moral compass and attitude lead him to do what he believes in, right or wrong in the eyes of others. Though he gets shaken up, battered, chewed up and spat out, he always snaps back into shape because he has a goal: freedom for him and his friends to keep doing what they want. This want for freedom and a willingness to fight to free others as well is a main driving point, andci think it is why the nika fruit awakening is only possible for him... it's because his will and drive resonates with the fruit's will.
I remember reading somewhere that zoan fruits tend to have a will of their own, and it got me thinking: why would this be mentioned if not important? While reading these comments it hit me: for the awakened zoan users we know of, each one has a will, and that will likely corresponds to the fruit's will itself. For example, Rob Lucci, has the leopard devil fruit and managed an awesome awakening, complete with the smoke sash, and why is this? Of course he is strong and trained with it for three years, but to awaken it so soon? I think it was his drive to hunt and take down Luffy to a perhaps obsessive point that led to its awakening, as his mindset truly became a predator stalking to take down its prey. How does this play into Luffy's awakening though? Well, it's simple: the sun god nika is a warrior of liberation. He stretches and bends himself out of his own freedom, and seeks to free others as well. There were likely others who ATE the fruit before Luffy, but what were they? Pirates, marines maybe. And each of them likely had a mindset that clashed with the fruit's will. A pirate wouldn't want to free others, they would focus on themselves only, and would only help out if it meant something for them. Luffy can do that, but most of the times he has a goal made to beat someone up cause he doesn't like what they were doing. A marine might think of justice and the wellbeing of the people, but they are an authority of a corrupt government that also may enforce laws that restrict others. This would again clash with the nika fruit's will. Hell if luffy was a marine, he likely wouldn't have been able to awaken the fruit but that's another rabbit hole altogether. This does bring up one more question though: why didn't the fruit awaken sooner? And the answer here? It had been over time.
Look back to luffy's major fights, and you will see a pattern. With Crocodile, he couldn't hit him due to him being a sand human and could dry out luffy's body. His solution? Use water to make crocodile harden and thus be able to hit him. Then he also used his blood to do so as well, which did work to an extent... even though it shouldn't have, and this was all to free alabasta. In skypedia, he fought a self proclaimed god who shot lightning to oppress others, and it didn't work on him why? His body was made of rubber... except it isn't. It has the properties of it at least, but that doesn't mean his nerves and internals were, and that largs gold ball should have burned and hurt him more, along with being ridiculously hard to move, and yet he did it. All to free the people of the sky islands. In water 7 and enies lobby, Luffy was now working for a goal of not only saving a friend, but freeeing the (at the time presumed) lone survivor of ohara, an island completely destroyed by the marines, and this is the first time he unlocked the gears. We attributed it to using his rubber body in different ways, and he did... but that wasn't enough. I could go on but the list here stands: each time luffy came into a major battle, there were themes of trying to free others, and each time, his body seemed to adapt or stretch to fit the situation or give him qhat he needed to win. Why is this? Because the fruit saw what luffy was doing and slowly began to awaken, letting out just enough of the full power to accomplish those goals, almost like a test. Wano is where the nika fruit fully recognized Luffy as having the same will and beliefs as it, and thus gear 5 was funally unlocked
The downside being the possibility of Luffy losing his mind if he stays in this form for too long is so interesting to me. One of the most glaring things with his awakening is how his behavior changed, his laughed changed, and how his mood shifted so dramatically. Suddenly he was borderline manic despite being at the brink of death a few moments prior. That could lead to either Nika taking over (and people seem to hate) or getting carried away and dealing damage to himself or others without noticing, because he's just _that_ happy. It's a terrifying power indeed, if you look at it from this perspective. It's no wonder Nika was considered a deity.
Except he only like that when he initially transforms into that form. By the last clash between he and Kaido Luffy was serious again.
@@ReiseLukas it was only for that final attack which was prompted by kaido saying that luffy willl never win against him using only his df and not his haki which seemed to snap him out of his stupor and bring him to reality and the seriousness of the fight
@@sujithsudhakaran745 This is why I think even with gear 5 some fights will still have some seriousness with them. The way the fight ended he was more serious than before I think if pushed to a limit it could still happen. I have some faith in oda
it really brings to mind the fact that Luffy's fruit is a *Zoan*, not a paramecia, and before we saw Kaku and Lucci again, do you know what the only Awakened Zoans int he series were? The jailer beasts from Impel Down; i.e. Devil Fruit users that had been fully taken over by their fruits. Luffy is literally in danger of being taken over by Nika every time he uses it and I do not doubt that we will see the consequences of that soon enough
Luffy's fruit quote "Lets you fight in what ever manner you wish". In other words, the reason he is able to do all these batshit insane things is because he BELIEVES its possible. Thats the theme of OP in my opinion. Your only limited by what you think is possible.
It’s all still within limits of rubber powers.
@@justynhill4814 yes, thank you.
@Felix Owen bro chill I see your comment everywhere we get it bro
@@Sa.D.B0 ? All I said was ‘yes thank you’?
The perfect thematic power-up.
Also, I've noticed that I'm really excited to see a fight whenever Luffy goes into Gear 5th now. Gear 2nd, 3rd, and 4th are all cool and all, but they're mainly just physical power-ups with comedic elements.
Now, I get to wonder what nonsense Oda will write every time Luffy uses this form.
Exactly. I am over 30 years old and that Form fills me with excitement
@@bigtareec It's actually cool to think that 20 years of one Piece and Oda cab still surprise us.
I’m waiting for the OP chapter where Luffy literally breaks the fourth wall and starts messing with the paneling
MY GOODNESS, YES INDEED.
I hope that happens but I also wonder how it would work when translating it to the anime.
I don't thingk it's working like that. Nika fruit is the same as Rubberman Fruit does only in awakening
@@HapPawhere He made goggles out of a lock of his hair.
@@HapPawhereNika is not the same as rubber
Honestly i did not mind that Oda made this change to Luffy's fruit since just before the reveal Oda did have the Gorosei mention of fruit wipe from any records & also the fact that if you payed really close attention there were hints to it being the Nika Fruit like the first Devil Fruit type mentioned was the Zoan type while it wasn't until the Skypiea Arc that Logia & Paramecia types were mention, & then during Skypiea Luffy was against a man with a Logia claiming to be a God while Luffy a God was thought to be a mere Paramecia
I like to believe that for most people the Gum-Gum Fruit would have stayed as the Gum-Gum Fruit. But because Luffy is Luffy, the fruit is allowed to be broken as hell
yeah before luffy nobody can awaken this fruit from void century.
Yea it hasn't awakened in 800 years
that is factually correct
I think the fact that he still thinks he has the rubber fruit is what makes it so great 😂
He is made of rubber tho
@@Chukoki but why is he rubber his fruits a god fruit what does that have to do with rubber.
The gorosei explicitly stated that nika is a warrior of liberation, whose body has the properties of rubber
@@jarontirosh324 again what does being a god have to do with rubber exactly?
@@hawkeyemihawkgettingmoneylord the sun god nika apparently had rubber properties
Honestly his fruit makes complete sense to me, all along Luffy was a modern rubber hose cartoon within an anime and since his fruit basically is toon force (the ability to alter reality in favor of comedy) he was really only limiting himself because Shanks told him it was the Gum Gum fruit and he accepted that without question.
He stretched before shanks told him. It was stated that Nika had rubber abilities and it’s the reason that the WG called it the gum gum fruit in the first place.
Its still a streching fruit. Its just that how use that streching is only limited by your imagination
No wonder his Gear 4th attack, Python, basically had infinitely stretching arm and still had its full power when it reached Mingo.
The fact that Nux got through this without even DESCRIBING Joy Boy is boss af. It really isn't an asspull to 1000 chapters in reveal there was more to the fruit; because I never got the implication that he couldn't have just died as the rubber man. I got the implication that he could only transcend death as Joy Boy BECAUSE of the journey he has taken, BECAUSE he has cultivated his haki that much. It suggests that any fruit, or any person given themself to such a journey could in this world become this strong. It's the most ridiculous power, not necessarily the strongest ever, either.
Luffy having Sun God Nika fruit makes sense both from theme and narrative perspective. It made some of the overtly cartoonie stuff make more sense. Like gear 3 where he blows air into his thumb and somehow gains more mass from air to land powerful blows. Or take his ability to regenerate from just eating a meal. Or the red hawk move where his fist is on fire. Why can he do all these things? Well because his true power is turning imagination (at least with his body) into reality. From a theme stand point it makes even more sense. Cause it's both the freest power and the hardest to master. Hence why no one was able to awaken it's true potential for over 800 years. You know it's most likely had a few users since joy boy. Also the God of liberation that brings joy, laughter, and freedom everywhere he goes. Making it all the more special that the freest person in the world with no prejudices would have it. Almost like the fruit picked him to be its wielder considering Luffy's beliefs and personality. Luffy has liberated his crew to entire islands and kingdoms from the shackles of tyranny and oppression. Standing up to both tyrants and the world government. He's always punching up both figuratively and literally. For all these reasons and more it's the best power up in anime and manga.
It’s funny that everyone was trying to figure out how gear third worked back in the day. Now it makes so much sense.
It works because luffy thinks that’s how it works. He believed he could inflate himself and move the air through his bones, and therefore he could. It’s actually a fantastic power for someone as ditsy as luffy lol
Keeping in mind that it was kinda confirmed that Luffy was the first one to awaken the fruit after Joyboy, i kinda see it as it was not Luffy who needed the fruit, but it was the FRUIT who needed LUFFY
Also right in the Kidao fight it showed he could still be hurt by him so it wasn't just a win, Haki is what matters most
True, the only way he could even touch Kaido and defeat him when Kaido turned into his Lava form was because of him learning Ryou Haki, so pretty much... what won him the fight wasn't Gear 5th, it was Haki at the end of the day.
I do and don't agree cause we can see the Blackbeard Pirates all only focusing on DF and still being one of the top pirates
@@knightbld74 Yes but it won't matter when strong haki users get involved
And that is good. If anything, One Piece series need characters that have very weak haki, no conquerors haki, no iron will, low physical strength, no master in manipulation or ultra charisma; just mundane people that had to make do with just their Devil Fruit, their only path to power. I dislike how much weight Haki has now.
@@indulgencerofindulgence5970 That's just it though, Haki = Willpower and to master Haki requires training. Idc how good your DF is, if you lack conviction/willpower and don't train you will be fodder for anyone who does/has. You have to actually put the work in if you wanna be the best/beat the best. And by that same token even if you don't eat a DF you can still be strong af just through training & willpower alone and absolutely clown on people who think their DF will carry them to victory.
Roger & Whitebeard, the two strongest of the old generation, are the perfect examples of this dynamic. One guy with no DF but ridiculous amount of Haki and strength & one guy with a top tier DF but reinforced by really strong Haki on top of it.
To add to how perfect it is conceptually: Tom and Jerry-style animation is called rubberhose animation. So he will always technically be a rubber man no matter what
Oda sensei made a wise decision to introduce G5 before the latter part of the One Piece story. It feels like a reward for us fans who have been dedicated to the series. While Luffy is already an incredibly awesome character, the introduction of G5 added more depth to his character. This unexpected turn of events added a wholesome and immersive effect to the story's flow.
Luffy's power is unparalleled in all aspects, from his goofy and whimsical nature to his most ridiculous antics. His character is truly unique among typical anime protagonists, and what sets him apart is his ability to awaken his true power while smiling and laughing. Oda sensei's creation of Luffy as a character is a testament to his exceptional storytelling skills and attention to detail. He is a character that captures the hearts of fans worldwide and has become an icon of the anime genre.
I will refuse passing away until Strawhat's final voyage.
YESSSS I Have been wanting this for so long. You guys havent done a One Piece Podcast episode in so long so I wanted to know your thoughts. Gear 5 is literally one of the coolest transformations I have seen. Great video!
@I'll say when it's time dont click
The versatility is limitless making luffy's fights almost always entertaining.
They just did a OP virgin ep last week covering chapters 1059 to 1072
i love luffy's gear 5 so much. im actually really excited to see more things he's able to do in the upcomming fights. Also, he actually is made of rubber. the 5 elders mention it when describing the true nature of the fruit
I can always watch videos from you no matter how bad it gets and that's the power of how Nux casually flexes his powers.
Wut
I really love that nux is returning to his old analysis format, that’s what got me into his videos in the first place!
I've started watching op from the very beginning and the thing I love about Luffy is that he's like a cartoon character in a shonen anime.
Seriously, such a perfect power up. It is super overpowered, but only if you know what it is. The stroke of genius is that Luffy took this whole epic journey to gain some semblance of it's true strength. It doesn't make the struggle he went through any heaper. He still needed to go through everything he did to be able to use his true strength. Let us not forget all the times Luffy was defeated (even though he had an OP devil fruit). What's amazing is that he was able to shift his paradigm and use Nika's true powers without even knowing what his fruit is. OP DONE RIGHT!!
Actually, my takeaway from Gear 5th, was a bit more interesting. If Nika is supposed to be a SUN God, that's going to play perfectly into the final clash Luffy has to have with Blackbeard before the series ends. When Ace unleashed his Flame Emperor Attack against Blackbeard on Banaro Island, Blackbeard called it a battle between the sun and the darkness...only it wasn't. Despite being a reasonable facsimile of the sun, Ace remained limited to only the level of output is Devil Fruit power could provide. As such, it was basically just a big ball of fire. This ineviable fight between Luffy and Blackbeard, with Luffy's Devil Fruit Awakening, is going to represent the ACTUAL sun vs. the darkness, which I think will prove to be far more interesting.
It was hinted in wholecake island, when snakeman defied the capability of rubber. Gear 5 being limited by imagination also makes sense as Luffy being told it was a rubber fruit justifies him training with rubber
One of the things I love about Gear 5th is that it is a power up designed to completely destroy the opponent like other power ups seen in other series but what makes Gear 5th stand out is that it destroys the opponent in a different way. A standard power up destroys the opponent physically but the Gear 5th destroys the opponent not only physically but also destroys the opponent's pride by being defeated by a visually ridiculous power up.
I am personally happy that you're finally tackling this topic Nux
This is actually my favorite power up ever
it's the luffy luffy fruit, it fits him to a T. the only thing limiting him early on is that he was told he was made of rubber, so that's all he thought he could do
He is rubber. The elder said that the fruit gives the user the properties of rubber but when awaken the limits are exceeded only by the user’s imagination. No in the sense like if Luffy thinks it food would poof in his hand. Basically anything or anyone he touches turns into rubber and he’s able to change his body into any shape like changing into G4 without the waste of haki.
@@justynhill4814 but he did make googles appear out on nowhere while he was fighting lucci, the manifestated from his hair, just pointing that out if you didn't notice, now i don't now if the could remain in the physical world after he created them or disappear after a while
Freaking called it already about 20 years ago, "One Piece is like Tom & Jerry" and "One Piece is like a cartoon!", I said to my bigger brother, his reaction: "hUh, wHeRe?" xD
It is but it ain't for kids
i think the way devil fruits work also works to empower this. You eat a fruit, no idea what power youre gonna get, you now cant swim and can be weakened heavily through a specific stone so you now HAVE to make this power work and HAVE to make it be to your benefit. "I have rubber power but i mean, i also have these 3 others things so dont really need to develop it" doesnt work as well as "i had to figure out a way to make this rubber body work to my benefit, i increased my bloodflow, increased the elasticity so i can bounce off myself and increase the power of my hits" etc. etc.
Luffy in Gear 5 is only limited by his imagination, and we know how imaginative he is. Gear 5 fits Luffy's character tremendously.
The only thing that actually changed about the fruit is the name. Gear 5, Luffy's God form, on a technical level is nothing we didn't expect. He has complete control over his rubber body now, and can make the environment and opponents to temporarily share this rubbery characteristic (aka turn things into rubber). It's basically just a regular paramecia awakening, like the one we've seen from Doflamingo previously, the only difference being the cosmetic changes.
Don’t forget when he also made goggles out of his hair it seems
I think the nika fruit is only giving luffy the effects of rubber because THATS ALL HE BELIEVES IT TO BE! He never knew what fruit he ate, he was just told by shanks that he ate the gum gum fruit and thats what he BELIEVES he ate so thats what his powers are. His power is limited by his imagination.
Gear 5 makes Luffy into what he has been in his mind and personality this whole time. A Tex Avery cartoon that doesn’t give a damn about anything but having some fun.
Being made of rubber is a byproduct of the sun god nika fruit. He is still, and has been, made of rubber. He was just unaware of the full potential of his fruit, assuming it to only be rubber. The power of imagination comes out a little on top of his rubber body when he uses gears 3 and 4.
I also got the impression from the few manga chapters I've seen that a lot of his really bizarre feats (like grabbing a lightning bolt) were performed by rubberizing the materials he came into contact with. The lightning bolt became solid rubber, and could therefore be handled by Luffy, who is immune to lightning, but it would electrocute anyone else it touched.
I've seen you around on TH-cam talking to other One Piece TH-camrs but I never checked your personal contents and instant regret, you make awesome videos! Subbed.
An analogy I like to use for luffy’s power up involves guns, since I’m a Texan. If Devil fruits are different types of guns, then what happened to luffy is that someone gave the guy one of the strongest guns around, but because he didn’t know what it was he ran around using it to pistol whip people. And eventually he got really good at it. He was using a gun like a hammer and kicking the shot out people using sniper rifles and rocket launchers. Only when he could go toe to toe with people who’s fruit are comparable to his actual fruit while still using his incorrectly did he, or at least we, realize what it actually was.
I hate to be the “um actually” guy, but the manga states that the fruit still turns the users body into rubber. He’s still a rubber man, but he’s also the Sun God Nika.
Gotta love the first 45 seconds is just my hero academia its too true xD
I LOVED the reveal FOR GEAR 5. everything about it screams the spirit of OP. And that what matters the most to me. If the ability fits the character. Not to mention all ther refrances to "journey to the west". Luffy has a lot of ability like the monkey king. I always was obsessed with finding them through out my watch ( even bought the Monkey king audio book ). And as we know the monkey king ends up being more like a god. So the reveal Shook me. I will put a tiny list below of the most obvious similarity so everyone gets what I'm saying.
-Nika the SUN god>Immortal monkey SUN Wokong
-Luff'y can stretch and expand>Wukong's staff can continuously stretch & expand.
-Luffy's straw hat>Wukong's Golden head band
- There are a lot of cloud stuff in OP but the most direct reference to the Nimbus Cloud is Zuse.
-Luffy's outfit is simmiler to Wukong's after time skip.
-Divine Peaches> Devil Fruit
There Is more, But yall get the point. And I'm sure a lot of people have also noticed this. :)
I love the twist on his fruit its not op and makes perfect sense with how the power ups have worked for him
It is op compared to some other fruits but then again who knows how powerful some other fruits could be
@Matthew H there are much more op devil fruits. The the fruit that can break the planet. Or the fruit that can stop devil fruit powers. Among others.
@@kflow250 we don’t exactly know yet on what this series means by “limitless ability through imagination” but if it was quite literally like that then luffy could just become the strongest characters in fiction XD
@@matthewh4124 every devil fruit are liimited by user's imagination
So, what I’m hearing is that Luffy is basically The Mask, but he doesn’t need a mask to be a living cartoon.
I think everyone is missing Gear 5's greatest joke. Luffy has always been a rubber man: a rubber hose animation man.
Keep in mind, the Gorosei said that nika had a body made of rubner, so he is still made of rubber
luffy went from rubber to rubber hose animation
It's nice to know Nux is a man of culture lol. I loved the direction Oda took this from the very start, it fits Luffy perfectly in every way. It was sad to see that some people hated it and were saying "wow, what a retcon", "oh great it's just an OP God fruit" and so on.. not even bothering to see how Oda couldn't have done any better than this.. just look at all the G5 fan made stuff before we knew what it was actually going to be.. it was just Luffy covered head to toe in haki and that's about it.. yeah.. that's better right? 🙄..
As much as people over praise Oda I don't feel like I need to add to anything people have already said, but he has had the ending of One Piece mapped out for decades now. I highly doubt he's going to just pull something out of thin air and say "ha ha look, Luffy God now" and have him just walk all over any and every antagonist of the End story.. He has made one of the most in-depth, fleshed out worldbuilding stories of our generation. Only a fool can think that they have a better understanding of his vision..
hm...I didn't think about that. So would his devil fruit be the freedom fruit? Since...it frees him of the laws of physics, human anatomy, and possibly even the human limit once he figured out how to break that? Besides being a slap stick cartoon man. XD I love this power up to be honest.
Power of imagination and imagination is just freeing oneself from reality
I don't know why people would even be mad at gear 5 power.
What does awakened paramecia does? It affects the environment... Doflamingo and Katakuri.. What does G5 do?
Turns things into rubber! TBH honest after Dressrosa i thought that luffy's awakening would be him making his environment a trampoline..now imagine what luffy would do with his creativity.
The only unexpected twist is the fruit being a zoan instead of paramecia and having a goofy nature. Also remember that joyboy's story made roger pirate laugh their ass off.. thats foreshadowing the final form of Luffy, who we know is the modern day Joyboy.
Also he needed to work his ass off and master his haki in order to take full control of the power and awaken it. He didnt unlock it by almost dying...because he would have unlocked it in marineford or impel down then.
G5 is the embodiment of luffy's will for complete freedom. The fruit chose him because of that.
The Nika fruit uses the user's imagination. Which means the reason all that goofy stuff worked is because HE THOUGHT IT WOULD WORK. Lightning didn't work because HE THOUGHT he was rubber.
This is hilarious
With in the limits of rubber.
Luffy is still MADE OF RUBBER. Idk why people keep thinking he’s not. The elders literally say the Nika fruit give the user’s body “all of the properties of rubber”. That’s includes non conductivity
The Sun God Nika is made of of rubber still
@@seankobarg7244 dang I must have missed that part
People thinking the fights can't be serious anymore while I'm over here stressing and pulling my hair out worried about Luffy and his health.
This is my favorite transformation in anything, ever.
Bungee gum has the properties of both rubber and gum OwO
Wow, bungee gum has the properties of rubber and gum!
Its like the fight against Hody,Luffy thought about Ace while punching Hody with a final punch but his fist used the fire from the Flare Flare fruit because Luffy was thinking hard about Ace.It now finally makes sense since his gear 5 was revealed.
Not gonna watch cause of spoilers, but wanted to say; I would love to see an " Overpowered done right" for Rampo from bungou stray dogs, the guy who has no powers is actually the most OP character. You could also imagine a "No one understands Rampo" as he is a fairly complex character.
Where r u
@@royalfun1031 in my room, where are you?
Hanabi/Firework in Skypiea was the first attack Luffy used that to me defied the reality of what a rubber power is capable of. I remember being so blown away at how Luffy came up with that attack as a kid.
The power up really wasn't even an asspull and doesn't actually retcon anything. There are dozens of instances from even East Blue where Luffy did things that were ridiculous and stupid but "somehow" worked. Remember the afro? Yea you remember the afro. You hated the afro (probably) but guess what perfectly explains that huge power up! Oda planned this all along.
also the fact that luffy has always been durable because of his own will power and also BECAUSE HES A ZOAN and we know Zoans have a fuck ton of endurance.
Tf Afro
@@Moody.Smiruai Too much for a Paramecia
Always thought others had trash durability cuz of that
Not only that, but Oda has always intended and planned the Nikka twist.
The breadcrumbs are there.
The inanity of Gear 3 and the shit Gear 4 forms can do are already invoking small amounts of Toon logic. For Luffy to awaken the power of Nikka, he gains the full might of Toonforce.
And it's still balanced by the stamina drain, and the fact Nikka to some degree is affecting Luffy, causing him to not be as serious and letting shit happen that normally wouldn't, like bystanders getting hurt by the enemy.
And to tie into the freedom aspect, Bonnie even asks Luffy "The fuck is up with that form?"
And Luffy, not knowing he is a zone just flexs in a Cartoon Style like Popeye and says "Oh, that is the form I take when I am the most free."
A very well executed power-up. I love it.
Canonically, it's not even the strongest power or fruit in the world.
It's the most Ridiculous Power in the World.
@@fantaxzia He said he wasn't sure if Luffy using a big ass punch would be a satisfying end to Kaido and Luffy's fight at the time.
Because Luffy didn't have a reliable method of believably using a giant punch to win.
The breadcrumbs are there, even before the Nikka twist, people in-universe constantly noted Luffy's devil fruit seemed odd, and people out of universe were speculating that Luffy's fruit wasn't exactly rubber based for a while because of those same hints in the fanbase.
No, it was very clearly foreshadowed and planned for a while, and it gave Luffy a believable reason and method to beat Kaido with his main methodology since Enemies Lobby
"HERE COMES THE GIANT FIST"
I think Oda handled Luffy's Gear 5 and showing it's true form being the Nika Nika No Mi pretty well and love how truly looney it is but the part that bothered me was the Gorosei ain't no way they didn't know the DFs true ability and such through Luffy's whole journey up to the Kaido fight like is the WG with Gorosei that dumb lol
Well to the Gorosei its the Hito Hito No Mi, how would they have guessed that the Gomu Gomu No Mi is actually the Hito Hito No Mi when there are so many possible Devil Fruits out there
They wouldn't really have a reason to believe that the hyper powerful fruit stolen by shanks was eaten by some random kid. As far as they are aware luffy just is rubber bro
they werent aware until recently which is why they said it was a legend to even them in 1037. Imu must've known but oda has to explain that.
@@TyandOnGoing Maybe shanks told them about it when he met them in the reverie
The Gorosei knew Luffy's fruit was the Nika fruit since the moment they heard about him, but they never had an opportunity to capture Luffy.
They still tried, they forced Garp to go back and capture Luffy after Water 7, told Kuma to capture him in Thriller Bark and if you remember those are the only points in the entire story of One Piece that they had opportunities to capture Luffy, every other time Luffy was somewhere he should not have been able to be, like the sky or in a territory where the WG had no authority like Big Mom's territory or in Wano.
Remember that Luffy's nickname is Strawhat, not Rubberman, so we don't even know at what point the Gorosei knew about Luffy.
it especialy fits now that we know the name of one of the gorosei being saturn, add that to the ancient wepaons being named after planets and you realize theres the exact amount of gorosei, ancient weapons and im-sama to make up the solar system with luffy representing the sun
I guess the reason he was immune to lighting is because as far as he is aware the "joke" from his devil fruit at the time is that he is a rubber man, and so it would be funny and sensible for him to be immune to lightning. If his "gag" had been something else he might have had different properties
The fact that old cartoon animation was called "Rubber House Animation", it really brings this connection of why he has a rubber body despite his fruit being a God type fruit.
In fact I wondering if the God Nika/Joy Boy was not actually a god, but rather a cartoon character from a children's book that after time the story and concept got past around that soon people viewed the story as a legend of a god instead of just some cartoon character in a book.
That's a dope theory spread that around people might be on board with it.
Me patiently waiting for nobody understands Zoro
easily the thing i loved most about his powerups was at least for gear 2, i instantly called what he was doing since im the sort of fuckin shut in nerd who watches nerdist, sci show, the discovery channel youtuber and a so many more science channels that literally there end up being entire days where youtube just only reccomends me science vids and i legit ONLY watch those suggested science vids. because of this facination i called that gear 2 was him speeding up his heartrate by using his legs as pumps basically doping himself on his own blood and hell before he stated that it took a serious toll on him, i already figured that would likely be the case cause while his body being rubber COULD TAKE the stress, there is still a reason high blood pressure is ultimatly a serious issue and not something you want in any regard as it starts cuasing a building dmg to your bloodvessels and heart that could cause fatal circulatory and heart issues. beyond that they were just such interesting powerups and hell i also love that the first time we saw red hawk, i instantly was like "ok so unless your telling me he's moving his fas at oblation speeds, there is no way that he is actually able to make fire ACTUALLY happen with just his fruit unless like with him 'infalting his bones and muscles!' oda just decided to take some **creative liberties** with science again..." like the first time i learned it was the sun god fruit i felt SO damn validated that i called that his fruit had to be more than the gum gum fruit.
also if his hand was blown up that big with air IT WOULD do serious dmg like we see because while air is very light, if its not heated enough than the air wont increase his fists boancy and with how big its blown up, that would be A LOT of extra mass. just thing about being hit by a super blown up yoga ball vs being hit by one thats not that blown up and hell the elactisity actually would also help to bounce his opponents HARD AS HELL into any nearby walls or the ground with A LOT of extra force so that part is fine...... THE REAL ISSUE is how in the actual fuck is he blowing air into his fucking BONES and MUSCLES for gears 3 and 4? like i would wager thats what he though he was doing but in reality it was just the beginning hint that he can control his elemnt of rubber like any other paramecia which also is 110% how he does kong organ btw and its just another less obvious example of the same thing with red hawk of forcing the question "ok that IS NOT something rubber should be able to do so his DF has to be something other than the gum gum fruit with it just also happens to make him into rubber like a paramecia..."
I feel like the way Oda presented this power to Luffy kind of turned him into a " Chosen one ". Not the power itself but the obscurity of it's appearance.
I dont think eating a fruit because you're hungry means you're a chosen one my guy LMAO
If you take what the elders said literally then in a way he was chosen since the fruit evade capture till luffy
@@JacobFors huh
@@Moody.Smiruai bruh
If u ignore the special fruit stuff and just see it as his awakening it's not
Nux, I think you'd be able to pull off a great video on Meta character done right, Bartolomeo. He's essentially a insert of the one piece fandom as a whole. Introduced as a troll, but also a massive straw hat fan, who's devil fruit ability is to be unable to be attacked via impenetrable shield. One thing also worth bringing up, something we've yet to hear further on, is he essentially attacked Shanks (attacked his territory) on behalf of luffy (not knowing they're buddies). Well, Shanks is also kinda representative of an outside the story character, Oda himself. I believe he's stated that he'd either like to be like Shanks, or out of all the characters that's who he's most like. Point being, this is almost like the fandom stepping on the toes of the creator. Now, what's gonna be the result? We don't know yet, but I think it's kinda interesting that even if Oda didn't necessarily mean for Bartolomeo vs Shanks to be some meta battle, the two characters are kinda meant to be more than what you see on screen(or on page), the beef between the two probably doesn't mean anything in the real world (Oda probably doesn't have too much aggravation towards One piece fans), but... you never know with Oda because the dude is either incredibly lucky that his story has many deep layers or he's an actual genius that intentionally (or even just subconsciously) layers deeper meaning into things himself.
Thing is, people were really angry that Luffy's Devil Fruit has god in the name. But in reality it doesn't really make his DF that much special cause it's just giving us more of Luffy. His awakening is just more rubber. Also, it does not take away from his past achievements cause he still has to struggle to get there and for a long time his DF was viewed or ridiculed for being weak. Luffy constantly shown to be limited by his power, but every time he always ended up pushing the boundaries and limits of that power. It's still him doing the heavy lifting at the end of the day.
I don’t know why anyone would be upset about the fruit having god in the name like bro we got sengoku over here who can turn into buddha
Yeah I kinda like what Oda did with this as well honestly. He was trying to state that Luffy of course wouldn't have been able to activate the devil fruit's true abilities if he hadn't gone through all of those tough fights in the first place... or if he weren't as driven to better himself now he would never have unlocked it.. And this plays also into the whole thing with him being like this due to him being JoyBoy reincarnated.
Aside from that though... Many people believe that Enel (since he's been confirmed to be coming back)... actually has a Zoan devil fruit as well being the deity; 'Rajin' of thunder and lightning..... Not only this, but it means since Luffy's dad, Dragon has storm related powers as well that His devil fruit is the 'Fujin' devil fruit! .. I honestly really like this idea! You have Nika the Sun god, Raijin the God of Lightning, and Fujin the God of wind all in Zoan Devil fruit forms... And of course there wouldn't be a zoan god of the moon because theres been confirmed to be around 8 moons floating in the sky above the one piece world.
Luffy's fruit *spoilers whatever* being unchained from reality and simply being able to do whatever he believes he can do is gotta be the most unexpected and broken power up.
I love it when people say gear 5 is a *stretch* because that’s exactly the point
This bouncing around V-tuber youtube avatar is hella offputting
Luffy do be crushing it with the Looney Tunes meta
It's still funny when people say "Nothing Luffy did meant anything because of his Devil Fruit". Like dude, he only had the Rubber Powers until Kaido. He was not able to do what he is able to now, because he couldn't. Also, he has no idea what he can actually do.
What pisses me off the most is when people call out a time when the mc is a "chosen one" and everyone develops mass amnesia and forget all the hard work, blood, sweat, and tears it took to get to that point of becoming over powered. (naruto, luffy, deku etc.)
7 months late replying but you're so real for saying that. luffy is the reason why his devil fruit even works, he worked hard to make a seemingly useless df powerful
@@ceet-rg3ur he trained one of the most useless df for 9 years until he could 1 shot a sea king
@caison8759 fr and people say he's 'the chosen one' or it was just 'fate' ain't nobody chose him he ate his fate 😭
Love open minded one person
Once Oda explained that if the Straw Hats were to have real life nationalities, Luffy would be from Brasil.
If that doesn't automatically explain everything One Piece to you, you need to Internet more.
Luffy is still rubber because mythical zoans have a form plus a special power from logia or paramecia e.g. Sengoku can turn into Buddha and he has the shockwave power that can be grouped into paramecia. So, he’s a zoan fruit that has the special power from paramecia group.
Probably the most honest take on gear 5 and the one I can mostly relate to on TH-cam
I can't wait for the Sun god Nika fruit is finally realized as the Cartoon Cartoon Fruit. It explains so much. Lightning can't effect cartoons, and if you move fast enough you set on fire. Even his laughing is just Cartoon Plot Armor, but literally. Sun god Nika is the name the Government gave the fruit, but what would the government know what a cartoon is. The closest thing to a cartoon in the OP world is the Sora of the North Blue comics. Even the final transformation turns him black and white, the most crazy generation of all the cartoons. Cartoon Cartoon Fruit.
The idea of him being powerful through happiness and freedom reminds me of when he laughs as buggy tries to execute him, don't think it fits completely right but it's interesting to think about
The Enel fight still works because his fruit works with his imagination. Luffy believed he was a rubber-man, so his body behaved like so. In a thematic sense it’s still great as well
Man I just found out that you was going to get in depth with the one piece series and man your content is really good so far.
Keep it up, I been a One Piece fan since 2003 and I'm so happy with the Way One Piece has been going
What I love about Luffy's fruit is that before knowing it's true power you can still (somewhat explain) all of Luffy's abilities, although there is allways something missing. G2 is doping (but whats with the steam?), G3 is blowing air into his bones making his fist giant and similar to a balloon that is gonna pop any moment - it becomes harder, so more strength (but how does it inflate, why does it not deflate, why is it seemengly heavy?), G4 adds air to his muscles allowing him to compress his limbs and then eject the with greater power (although what's with the bell sound, why does he look so different, why so much smoke again?), Red hawk could just be explained with friction I guess, but Red Roc? Why can Luffy use fire attacks? All of these are kinda minor and could be brushed aside as necessary powerups for the story to progress, you bite the bullet and roll with it, but G5 recontextualises EVERYTHING.
Luffy also didn't become OP just because of the fruit. Look at Ceaser Clown he has a very powerful logia, but is a joke. Luffy when he was first fighting Ace as a kid was also a joke. His ability didn't do shit for him. Its an ability with a high skill cealing, but that is difficult to master. Luffy's power also doesn't at all change the fact that he's fought to near death countless times. He is consistently aware that if he wants to protect his friends, he needs to become stronger. That's what forced him to keep evolving and innovate. Also to support how difficult it is to master this fruit, this is the first time in 800 years that G5 was unlocked (at least that's what I assume to be the meaning of Zunisha's words when it says that Joyboy has returned).
And for these reasons G5 IS still contained in reality.
And the best part of the Nika Nika fruit is how it works for the story thematically. I mean JOYBOY it just says it on the tin. What has Luffy been doing the entire story to all the people he befriends along the way - always bringing freedom to them. From the strawhats, to each civilian of the countries that he saves. What Luffy has unintentionally been doing this whole time is saving the world, while his only real goal is just chasing his dream, not being a hero. Luffy "isn't a hero", because that isn't what he wants to be, yet he has the Nika DF - a god that brings liberation to slaves - a hero. It's saying you can do what heros do just by fighting for the right justice, being a good person. It's redefining who a hero is.
It's also silly, because that is what brings joy to people, and bringing joy to the people is how evil is erradicated. It's simplistic, but it drives home the point.
great analysis, mate.
Gear 5 is my favorite transformation. The letting go and even go beyond reality into the universe of bringing the collective unconsciousness into reality in true freedom. People in this world as well sees freedom as simply doing what they want, but true freedom is going beyond just doing what you want and that is to become the conscious mix between the collective unconsciousness, your own shadow (golden and black), your anima/animus and the idea of the Self. The moment all of our complex parts start fusing with each other and coming into consciousness, you pretty much become a rl gag character or the real gear 5. Gear 5 is the truest sense of being you who you truly are in all its glory, its when your soul wanders the earth instead of only the smaller you stuck in your own suffering. You become your own universe.
I think people might be reading only what they want to read (selective reading) since they ignore the fact that Luffy’s body is still made of rubber (not because of the nonexistent gum gum fruit but because of the nika fruit (a made up god in the op universe that is made of rubber)).
Its not strange to assume that the fruit looked for its owner, it went into so many hands and it turned out that a young wanna be pirate from a small village ate it.
to be honest, there is a uniqueness in this, remember all the main characters in the anime when they are at the peak of their powers, the most serious or even sometimes emotionless luffy is still at odds with this and I like it he reminds me of Dante from DMC luffy the trickster who will simply drive opponents out of himself and at the same time luffy himself will rejoice in the battle and smile I like him manic smile during the battle, he literally gets high from the battle
Honestly it makes sense.
he's always done things that didn't make sense if it was " just" rubber and he has had effects on others that gradualy change them.
the Enel fight in particular is telling. Enel is a man who thinks he is a god while luffy is a God who thinks he is a human. but more than that when Luffy hears Enel's plan to blow up skypiea he asks something like " what do you think a god is?" almost like a bit of Nika was slipping out and being affronted by what was going on. and then there was the prayers going out the same moment that luffy was tearing apart thunder advent with the " become sunny now"
There was so much build up to it with the legends of Sun God Nika and JoyBoy they encountered along the way
All this time it was basically the "cartoon-cartoon" fruit! Its a fruit that is limited by the user's imagination! That is just wonderfull, if Luffy wasn't who he is the fruit would be useless.
Also the fruit is stated to give the "properties" of rubber. So it is resistant to electric powers as well.
At the end of the day, not only did Luffy earn gear 5, it also didn't automatically win him the fight.
He still would've lost to Kaido if he hadn't learned Ryuo. His haki training paid off.
its important to note that nika WAS a rubber man, luffys still made of rubber and he always has been
The foreshadowing from Pegasus in Yu-Gi-Oh was top tier. 👌