Luffy's Devil Fruit Is The Mythical Zoan Fruit Model Monkey King Sun Wukong.
That might sound crazy, but One Piece is actually heavily inspired by the story of Momotaro,
the journey to the west and, as author Eiichrio Oda stated himself by Akira Toriyama's Dragon
Ball, who's main character is called Son Goku, which is literally the Japanese name for Sun
Wukong.
And as I will show you, Monkey D. Luffy's character and journey to become pirate king
clearly parallels that of the infamous Monkey King, who rebelled against the gods before
finding enlightenment.
What's up, my name is Manu and I'm not gonna lie, I've been looking for an excuse to make
this video for a long time.
I absolutely love any type of mythology, which makes sense because it's basically the granddaddy
of all modern fiction, ancient anime if you like.
And no other epic has been as influential for the unparalleled rise of Shounen Anime
throughout the world, as the so-called 'Journey to the West', a novel published during the
Ming Dynasty in 16th century China, that tells the story of the Monk Xuanzang and the Monkey
King Sun Wukong and their adventure to retrieve the sacred Buddhist scripts.
Not only was I surprised to find out that Sun Wukong is actually the archetype Shounen
protagonist, quite literally, as I will show you in a second, but more importantly, that
together with the story of Momotaro, it serves as one of the major inspirations for One Piece
and its protagonist Monkey D. Luffy.
And now with recent events in the story, it seems that there is way more to luffy and
his powers than we originally though.
As you know, I've been talking about Luffy and his abilities quite a bit recently, speculating
about his awakening, the true nature of the gomu gomu no mi and the secret behind devil
fruits overall.
But when I started combining my research on devil fruits and One Piece's ties to mythology,
nothing yet has had me as excited as the idea that Sun Wukong might be a much more literal
part of Luffy's character than I originally thought.
Because as I will show you, Luffy's devil fruit might very well be the mythical zoan
fruit of Sun Wukong himself.
So, who exactly is Sun Wukong?
Sun Wukong's name literally translates as the “monkey awakened by the emptiness”
and is meant to represent his spiritual journey from an ignorant, short-tempered monkey to
a benevolent, enlightened being.
Even though he technically isn't the main protagonist of the journey to the west, he
might as well be.
Not only is he the most famous character of the story, but the entire first part deals
with his origin story.
The second part then introduces the Monk and sets up the quest.
Part three details the adventures and journey to acquire the sacred scrolls and the last
chapter quickly describes the parties return home, where both the monk and Sun Wukong reach
the status of a buddha.
Despite being over 500 years old, the story is filled with a mixture of humour, epic action
sequences and an odyssey of self-realisation and achievements,...
... as far as I can tell at least, I don't.
actually.
speak Chinese.
And this popular format has since become the blueprint for story arcs within many of Shonen
Jump’s most popular titles.
Sun Wukong's story follows the exact same arc that Jojo author Hirohiko Araki describes
in his book 'Manga in theory and practice' that has been nothing short of a treasure
trove for my videos by the way.
So I encourage you to try and pay attention to how much of luffy you can recognise in
this next bit.
Being born from a stone, similar to how Momotaro was born from a Peach, Sun Wukong trains with
the other monkeys on his island before setting out into the world, seeking new powers, learning
to be a leader, and even ascending to heaven itself, where he eats the forbidden fruit
of immortality, actually.
While very kind, he is also extremely careless, eager to get stronger and fight and basically
just have a good time.
Feeling like nothing can possibly stop him, he causes havoc with the gods, who cant seem
to stop him until the Buddha himself steps in, who seals him under a rock.
To grow as a person, he is then sent on his journey with the Monk and two other demon
comrades, which is grouped into a number of arcs, very similar to what we know from shounen
anime.
The monkey king goes through a lot of change throughout, acquiring new and stronger abilities,
fighting the forces of heaven and being utterly defeated, finding loyal companions, and ultimately
achieving greatness.
His godly powers include superhuman strength, speed and the ability to transform into 72
different forms.
He also wields a magic pole that can be stretched and shrunken and magical cloud he can ride
through the heavens.
And even when facing seemingly unbeatable opponents, Sun Wukong always displays a certain
playfulness, enjoying fighting against worthy opponents and quickly becomes known throughout
the demon world.
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Now, If you're anything like me, you already know why I say that this story was the blueprint
for modern Shounen anime.
This character trope can be found in 9 out of 10 shounen stories.
The most obvious being of course Dragon Ball and Son Goku, who literally is the anime version
of Sun Wukong, at least until Dragon Ball then starts going down a completely different
route later on.
While Goku is known for his naivete and childish nature, Goku also has a more serious and over-confident
side as well, a trait shared by Sun Wukong.
Goku’s eternal rival, Vegeta, can also be seen as a more ruthless version of the demon
companion Zhu Bajie, who is powerful but falls behind the main hero in terms of strength
and transformations.
Naruto, is not a demon monkey, but a demon fox child.
His major redemption came with his victory over Pain, a villain who is the literal embodiment
of Buddha’s Paths of Reincarnation.
Just like Sun Wukong, Naruto is able to create clones of himself and even shape-shift into
other living beings, like his infamous sexy jutsu.
His own “path to Buddhahood” cis also reflected in his powers, first gaining access
to his sage mode, then literally taming his inner demon, before finally acquiring the
Six Paths Sage Mode that gives Naruto an ungodly amount of power.
Which now finally brings me to One Piece and Luffy and why his devil fruit might be Sun
Wukong himself.
By the way, if you enjoy this sort of content and don't want to miss any of my weekly videos,
it would mean the world to me if you considered subscribing to my channel and becoming part
of the crew.
So I know you probably already recognised a lot of Luffy in what I've been telling you
about Sun Wukong, but let's go through all the parallels we have in case you missed something.
The first very obvious connection we have is of course Luffy's name.
He is Monkey D. Luffy who wants to become the KING of pirates.
Monkey King right there.
Also Oda confirmed that Luffy would be a monkey if he was an animal.
Personality wise, Luffy perfectly fits the kind, powerful, but often reckless and impulsive
nature of the monkey king.
Only that instead of a world of demons, Luffy lives in a world of pirates.
Luffy's journey in the very first chapter begins in the east blue making his way towards
the west end of the grand line - which I found such a sneaky detail honestly.
In the very same chapter, Luffy eats his devil fruit, just like sun wukong who ate the forbidden
fruit from the heavenly garden, that gives him the ability to stretch and shrink, just
like Sun Wukongs staff.
All of that just in chapter one.
From there Luffy sets out to find the one piece, that contains the true history of the
world, the sacred knowledge, just like the sacred scrolls.
He finds loyal companions that accompany him on his journey.
Just like the two demons from the journey to the west, Luffy finds the ruthless Pirate
Hunter Zoro, who has the theme of the buddhist demon ashura and rivals Luffy's own strength,
though always being slightly behind him.
As well as Sanji, who with his theme of the devil, dibble, represents the second food
loving demon companion, that by the way also has a thing for women.
He also meets Nami, who not only wields a size chaining staff, but also has acquired
Zeus, a cloud she can ride on.
I personally think Oda really wanted to bring these elements into the story, without making
it too obvious by giving them to luffy.
Though we actually see Luffy using a staff as a kid.
Similarly to Sun Wukong, in the first half of the story we see Luffy seemingly invincible
beating every opponent he faces, no matter how strong, using his indestructible body
and will and his ability to transform his body in crazy ways, as he beocomes more and
more infamous in the world of pirates, just as the monkey king did in the world of demons.
And just like sun wukong, Luffy seems to befriend everyone around them, even though he previously
might have fought against them.
The monkey king also gets help and favours from many of the characters he previously
went against.
The monkey king also has a weakness to smoke, which seems to be represented by a character
literally called Smoker, a marine with smoke abilities, who keeps interfering with him
throughout the story.
Luffy takes this all as a joyful game, where he wins no matter what, always becoming stronger
and playfully conquering the grand line.
He defeats the first God with Enel, who tries to destroy him with lightning, just like the
gods tried and failed to destroy sun wukong with lightning.
Then on Enies Lobby, Luffy declares war on the celestial dragons, heaven itself, even
punching Charlos on Sabaody.
In the journey to the west, the heavens represent Taoism.
But since the author is a big advocator for Buddhism, the Buddha is the true heavenly
force here.
Similarly, the celestial dragons are not the right gods for the one piece world, but someone
like Luffy, who is on his way to enlightenment, has to be the one to bring true piece to the
world.
First however, just like Sun Wukong, Luffy needs his moment of reckoning, as he is humbled
by the Buddha himself.
This of course happens during Marineford, Luffy's lowest point and biggest moment of
change, as I have discussed in past Luffy videos.
Luffy has to learn that his carelessness & recklessness has risked the life of his crew on Sabaody
and has cost the life of his brother during the war.
And lust like Sun Wukong, he is literally crushed under the hand of the Buddha []. Then
Akainu tries to burn him to ashes, like the gods tried with Sun Yukon after using lighting,
but they fail again.
And just like the monkey king, who was buried under a mountain for a time to grow and contemplate,
Luffy puts his straw hat on this rock, to train and grow for two years.
It is from here, that Luffy becomes more thoughtful, gets a more serious outlook on the world and
starts to develop significantly as a leader.
Luffy picks up his journey again, now equipped with a variety of new forms, that not only
have a very buddhist feel to them, but that also have attacks inspired by animal names,
reflecting Sun Wukongs abilities to transform into different animals and change his size.
Kong Gong?
huH!!
One thing that had been missing about Luffy is the theme of a deity or god, that Sun Wukon
represents.
However even that has changed during Wano, where Luffy has now been linked to the sun
god as well as the the wisdom king by Hyogoro with Oda hinting at Luffy being a reincarnation
or having inherited the will of the previous god.
And Luffy's journey will end with reaching laugh tale and finding the one piece, which
will enlighten him about the true nature of the world.
This will signify his rise to becoming a Buddha and becoming the true god, that can strike
down the false celestial dragons.
And on top of this all there a lot more themes from the journey to the west sprinkled throughout
the story.
The existence of three-eyed people, that have the ability of true sight.
Sun Wukong defeating and sort of befriending a dragon.
Let's see if that happens with Kaido.
And much more.
Now all of this has been much more analysis than theory.
And I really hope you found this as fascinating as I have.
But now with all that being said, despite the pirate king Monkey d Luffy being clearly
inspired by the Monkey king, why should his devil fruit actually be the literal mythical
model Sun Wukong?
And thank you to Winvill for sending me the idea for this and who also drew the concept
for the thumbnail himself.
What crazy talent.
Okay so we've already seen that Oda connected Luffy to Sun Wukong in the very first chapter
through the GOmu Gomu no mi.
Eating a forbidden fruit that gives you powers, Bla Bla.
That would also explain why Luffy's fruit might still give him a rubber body.
With Oda basically giving Son Wukong's stretching staff and shapeshifting abilities a twist
and uniting it in one power.
Luffy is the staff if you like.
And we even see him using his fruit to fly though the sky like a cloud.
So there.
Now the basis of this theory that I was sent is actually not The journey to the west at
all, but Momotaro.
But I think everything we have talked about already gives this theory way more credibility
now.
So as we have discussed in countless videos now, Momotaro is the inspiration for Wano.
You have Momotaro, Momo, who has to take down an One, Kaido.
And he needs the help of three companions to do so.
A pheasant, a dog and a monkey.
The reveal that really made this theory possible is that of Yamato's mythical dog devil fruit.
Because now we have the mythical zoan Devil fruit user Kaido, the one, momo with the same
mythical fruit, Yamato with a mythical Zoan, and that leaves us with the pheasant and the
monkey.
Now conveniently, we do have a mythical blue bird on Wano with Marco.
So, who could the monkey possibly be.
Hmmm.
You see what I'm getting at here?
Luffy is clearly the monkey in the Momotaro story and all characters inspired by it have
eaten a mythical zoan devil fruit, except Luffy, who has eaten something Oda calls a
'special paramecia' that not only looks like a buddist deity, but also gives Luffy the
ability to transform his body in any way imaginable, plus fire powers.
And we now know that shanks went out of his way to steal this fruit from the government.
Plus, with Sengoku's buddha from the journey to the west, we have another mythical zoan
fruit in the mix.
Oh also, admittedly only in the anime, we got this sketch from vegapunks lab, showing
what happens when you merge, what clearly is luffy's devil fruit with a rocket.
And as we know, objects only seem to be able to consume zoan fruits.
And so if the true awakening of Luffy's fruit is actually the Monkey God Sun Wukong himself
with all his crazy powers, that would not only connect him to Joy Boy, who might have
been its previous user, but also make Luffy the literal embodiment of the deity that can
bring down the false gods.
Of course there also other possible reasons why the GOmu GOmu no mi might be special,
so I strongly recommend you check out this video on why shanks stole it from the government
next.