‘Pff, You’re watching One Piece?
My god.’
‘Yeah, Why, what’s wrong with One Piece?’
‘Are you serious?
Luffy is like the most boring main character ever.’
‘I mean, he’s basically just so simple and stupid.
I personally think Asta is a way better main character.’
Uh, or Deku he is nice.
Or what about - ’
Hello there, boys and girls, today I have a special video for you guys, and no it’s
not because we just hit 100K on the channel, - ‘WHAT?!’
- there will be - another video for that occasion.
No today, we’re gonna once and for all show all these other Naruto boys all those Deku
weebs , all those Asta nerds , why Luffy is objectively the best Shouenen hero there is.
And with objective I of course mean because I say so with dramatic music in the background.
Now usually you come across 2 types of criticism from people who have watched One Piece for
less than 10 seconds, when it comes to Luffy: Luffy sucks as a main character OR Luffy sucks
as a person.
And so of curse, we’ll proof them wrong on both these points.
In this video I’ll show you why Luffy is the best shounen protagonist from a storytelling
perspective and then get into his character and what in my opinion makes it better than
the rest in a part II.
Let’s go.
Okay so first of all, let’s start by looking at the premise of one piece.
According to John Truby the premise of the entire story boiled down to one sentence.
It should contain some sort of starting point, a sense of the Main Character and some sense
of the sending.
Hm.
So all we have to do is boil down roughly 1000 chapters of story into - one - sentence.
I’m gonna spare you 30 minutes of me trying to phrase this properly.
You’re welcome.
The premise of One Piece I would say is this: A strong-willed and pure young man sets out
to find a crew and become the king of pirates in order to find freedom in a world ruled
by injustice and violence.
Yeah I think that works.
Now on the most fundamental level the premise is the most important part of a story.
What you write about is way more impactful than how you write it.
And what makes a good premise good is not only an interesting setting and idea, but
especially a main character that goes hand in hand with the plot.
And this is what Eichiro Oda did with One Piece.
Luffy makes the story better and the story makes Luffy better.
They organically enhance each other.
Let me explain.
As any good story, One Piece has an underlying message that the author wants to convey.
Now One Piece has many leading themes: Friendship, Love, Justice, Adventure, Dreams.
It’s a long list that I have discussed in detail in my Iconic Scene Analysis series.
But what is there main, the BIG and Overarching theme of one piece?
Exactly.
Oda has integrated all these other ideals and values in the fundamental message of One
piece: Why freedom is so valuable and why you should fight for it.
The freedom to do what you want.
The freedom to go where you want to go.
The freedom to be unharmed and hurt by others.
But most importantly.
The freedom to be yourself.
It’s absolutely clear that Luffy’s main desire and drive is to reach that absolute
level of freedom.
That may seem profound, but it’s exactly this seamlessness, that makes the story work
so well, because the theme of freedom is woven into every single part of the plot, very single
part of the world and each and every character in the story.
You don’t think about it, because it’s everywhere, the entire story is taking place
under this premise.
And we’re like fish in the water.
Compare this to Naruto.
For the longest time the story makes us believe that this is a story about how kindness and
courage will lead you to friendship love and acknowledgment.
But suddenly Naruto is the child of prophecy, which basically completely undermined this
message, which is exactly why people were so unhappy with its ending.
While Naruto was the strongest Ninja in the end, was he really the one that represented
the theme of the story best?
With Luffy Oda chose the most interesting and relevant character when it comes to exploring
freedom.
Luffy is the story.
Literally.
Also, I think now would be a good time to subscribe to the chann-.
‘One moment there.
But what about all those weird looking villains One Piece has.
They’re do not badass.’
But not only Luffy embodies this central moral argument.
All of the villains and antagonists he faces along the way, as diverse they might look
and as different their ambitions may be, ALL of them, without any exception, stand opposed
to the ideal of freedom in some way or form.
Villains like Crocodile and Doflamingo, who control and manipulate entire countries.
Villains like Caesar who capture children to experiment on or Magellan who literally
runs a prison.
Villains like the Tenryuubito who literally enslave people and treat them as objects.
And even villains like Katakuri, who is unfree to be himself and suppressed by the high expectations
of his family.
Consistency in the the main values and ideals that are clashing in the story is such a fundamental
aspect of storytelling, but really hard to do.
And yet, neither the antagonists, not Luffy ever do anything that feels out of character
and strives away from these ideals.
This consistency represents Luffy in such a clear and tangible way, that it makes him
a very 3-dimensional and authentic character.
But even in his function as a main protagonist, Luffy differs from the trope of the Shounen
hero.
Typically, we have a main character that starts somewhere at the bottom, giving us the typical
coming-of-age type of story arc, where the protagonist is the outsider or underdog and
uses their talent or unique powers to work their way to the top.
Goku wants to be the strongest, Asta wants attention and Naruto want acceptance.
Luffy however doesn’t want to become pirate king for any of these reasons.
He simply wants to be free and happy.
And so I would argue that the Pirate King is quite different from the Hokages and Wizard
Kings out there, as they bind the heroes fulfilment to external forces.
It’s a goal that doesn’t require him to become the strongest with crazy hidden powers,
but simply strong ENOUGH with he support of his crew.
On the other hand we have the trope of the over-powered main character that already is
strong, but has to grow on a human level and figure out a more internal struggle.
Examples here are characters like Saitama, Gon or Souma.
Now, while Luffy is definitely way more advanced with his powers at the start of the story
than Naruto or Deku, he is also far away from being as over-powered as this type of character.
Instead he is introduced with a considerate amount of strength that then however is quickly
tested by stronger and stronger opponents and open up a lot of room for growth.
What makes Luffy so different from other heroes then is mainly his arc in the story.
Luffy doesn’t have to grow up and proof himself to others.
Compared to the Sasukes and Bakugos out there, he is deeply respected by his crew and those
around him.
Luffy actually starts the story not as the underdog, but as the captain, recruiting people
to his cause.
In other words, his character arc not that from boy to man, but from man to a leader.
Luffy’s underlying arc to achieve his goal is to become a better leader and captain.
Given the length of the story, this development is quite slow, which makes moments like on
Sabaody or at Marineford even more impactful to the reader.
Loosing his brother, Luffy doesn’t suddenly unlocks his dark gear 6 devil awakening, but
breaks down in shock and trauma, as a real person would.
Now don’t get me wrong, I don’t think either approach is better than the other.
What matters is that this unique arc is completely aligned with the premise of the story.
That’s why it works so much smoother than many other popular shows.
I would say that simply form a story structure, the setup and premise for his character puts
him way over other shounen heroes.
I mean look at this.
This is just a completely different.
This IS the story.
This guy unites everything that One Piece is about.
In other words, the best Shounen protagonist out there.
‘Okay listen.
He may be okay from a storytelling perspective.
But let’s be honest: Luffy is just so dumb and naive.
How can you- ’
Funny you should mention that.
Cause we’ll be discussing Luffy’s personality in part II.
WAIT!
You were about to watch something else, weren’t you?
Gotcha!
Well I suggest you watch this video here next.