Gear 5 has broken the Anime world, twice now. And even though it is already one
of the most iconic transformations in anime history there are still A TON of unanswered
questions and mystery surrounding these incredible powers. So today we are going
to discuss everything we know about Gear 5 and Luffy’s mythical sun god nika Zoan fruit.
Starting with how Luffy actually awakened this legendary power. And wow, let me tell you,
it seems like Luffy unlocked it by straight up dying. Because in episode one thousand,
seventy when Kaido absolutely crushes Luffy, and our straw hat captain is apparently dead. While
this part isn’t exactly clear, Kaido sure seems to think Luffy has died and heads down on a rampage
inside the castle. Even Momonosuke claims that Luffy’s voice is “gone”, and since Momo
has the voice of all things we should be fairly confident that Momo isn’t making things up here,
although there is another explanation for this that we will discuss in just a moment.
Because then we get this legendary smile. And with this, Joy Boy has returned. Which actually
means that Luffy has awakened his devil fruit and unlocked the true powers of his devil fruit. Plus,
conveniently, the Five Elder Stars explain to us that Luffy’s devil fruit is really not
the Gomu Gomu no mi, but it is instead the mythical Zoan Human-Human fruit:
Model Sun God Nika. So before we get into all the crazy changes this will make to
the story later on, let’s explain what these powers appear to allow him to do.
First, the Elder Stars go on to explain that the first ability of this fruit is to turn the user's
body into rubber so that part is consistent with what we thought about Luffy’s fruit all along. But
that is only the beginning because we are then told that when fighting the user is supposedly
only limited by their imagination, which is the most interesting part about Luffy’s new powers.
That’s because Luffy then reaches down into the castle with an ENORMOUS fist and grabs the giant
dragon Kaido like he is a child playing with some little snake toy. And then we truly get
to see these wild powers in action because Luffy puffs up his muscles like a cartoon character,
swings Kaido around like a tornado, and slams him back and forth as if Kaido
was light as a feather. So clearly Luffy has gained an incredible power
boost since he is able to casually beat down Kaido like we have never seen before.
Which brings us to his next broken ability, which is actually something that is normal for
Parameica devil fruit awakenings. Because in this episode we also see Luffy literally grab
the rooftop and bend it up to block Kaido’s blast breath. So what he is doing here is
turning his environment into rubber, which we have seen many times before with awakened
Paramecia devil fruits like Doflamingo’s strings and Katakuri’s mochi. However,
something unique about Luffy’s awakened powers is that he can also seemingly turn other people
into rubber. We see this when later on when he blows up Kaido like a balloon,
stretches through Kaido’s eyeballs and body, plus even more. So his awakening clearly allows
him to turn both the environment and other people into rubber, at least when he is touching them.
But perhaps the most broken of Luffy’s abilities, and the one that most people think of with Gear 5,
is Luffy’s new ability to make his imagination a reality. And this is where this devil fruit
truly becomes one of the most overpowered abilities in the series. Because as we have
already seen in this episode, Luffy can now do things that seem impossible. Such as freely
manipulating his size to become bigger and buffer. We will also see later on that he can apparently
create things out of thin air, like goggles. But that’s just the start because Luffy’s new
powers might also explain one of the biggest mysteries about his powers ever since the time
skip. Because back in fishman island, Luffy first revealed that he somehow had fire powers when he
defeated this Fishman with his Red Hawk attack. Then even against Kaido, he used an even bigger
Red Roc fire attack, which just completely blew my mind in the anime. For years, many people would
theorize that Luffy could use fire because of super hot friction, but now we finally know that
his fire abilities might have just been an early example of Luffy using his awakened abilities.
And that might just be the start of Luffy’s elemental abilities because Gear 5 has even
allowed Luffy to grab lightning and throw it at his opponents, so in the future, he might even
be able to manipulate other elements or devil fruit abilities with his absurd new powers.
However, there are some very important drawbacks and limitations that we simply have to discuss,
including one that might change Luffy forever. But first, even though it is explained that
Luffy is only limited by his imagination, it is definitely not an unlimited power. For example,
he cannot just "imagine" that Kaido is defeated and it will automatically happen. So it isn’t an
instant win condition. Also, the Gear 5 powers seem mostly contained to Luffy’s body or things
that he is touching, so he cannot just snap his fingers and change the world. At least not yet.
Which brings us to the fact that much like Luffy’s earlier Gear transformations, when Luffy uses his
awakened powers it seems to dramatically drain his stamina and possibly even his lifespan. In fact,
we even see him comment that he only has a few minutes to use his powers and also
witness a terrifying transformation into an old man during a break in the fighting.
But all of this is nothing compared to one other potential danger of Luffy’s awakening. Because
remember when we said that Luffy seemed to die before he awakened his powers? Well,
one theory about Luffy’s awakening is that he actually did die, and then the spirit
of his devil fruit somehow took over Luffy’s body. There is some evidence to support this,
such as Luffy’s heartbeat clearly changing and his uncontrollable laughter while using
the form. Even this giant elephant comments that this is the first time they have heard
Luffy's unique sounding heartbeat in 800 years, They even then make it absolutely
clear that Joy Boy has returned. So while this hasn’t been clearly explained even in the manga,
it is possible that by dying Luffy somehow allowed the spirit of Joy Boy to enter his
body and bring Luffy back to life. Which sounds weird, but we have to also consider that devil
fruits seem to have a will of their own, so the spirit of Joy Boy may have been living in this
devil fruit for all these years, just waiting for the right person to awaken the abilities.
Now you may be asking why is this dangerous for Luffy? Well, when we first see this transformation
it is a bit scary to see Luffy laughing uncontrollably like this. It seems that he
literally cannot stop, so we have to at least consider the idea that Luffy's awakening has
let some ancient spirit come in and alter his personality. Which could be why Momo felt that
Luffy's voice disappeared because it is possible that his voice just completely changed once he
unlocked Gear 5. And while this is unlikely, who knows what could happen with these new abilities.
Although one thing that we have been shown throughout the series is that whenever Luffy
unlocks a new ability - such as Gear 2, 3, or 4 - at first Luffy has some serious drawbacks,
like a time limit or turning into chibi Luffy, but eventually he masters the powers and can use
them without much limitations. So maybe the same will happen with Gear 5 in the future, which could
lead to even more new powers in the future, even though this is likely his last major Gear Upgrade.
Now before we get into all of the insane foreshadowing and future importance of
Gear 5 for the story, let’s discuss a brief history of the actual devil fruit. Because we
knew all the way back at the start of the story that Shanks and his crew stole this
legendary devil fruit from a world government ship. So the government had it at some point,
which always made me wonder why they had it in the first place. Thankfully we've recently had
some more context about this from Who’s Who, who was one of the CP9 agents on this ship. And since
this was CP9 with the devil fruit, it makes me believe that they were sent on a specific
mission to retrieve the devil fruit. So it seems like the government had been hunting the fruit,
which was actually confirmed in this episode when the Elder Stars told us that the world
government has been trying and failing to acquire the fruit for Eight. Hundred. Years!
Wow, imagine searching for something for that long, having finally found it,
and then losing it when some pirates steal it from your ship. However, then we have to ask why they
wanted it so badly, but I think we can clearly see the answer to that question in this episode. Not
only is it simply an insane power that apparently hasn’t been awoken ever since the Void Century,
but the government must also be worried about some secret abilities that we don't yet know
about. Could it be possibly related to the One Piece? We'll discuss more about that in a moment,
but the government were so scared of someone unlocking its true powers that they even changed
the fruit’s official name to the Gomu Gomu no mi. But now that Luffy has awakened it,
we are going to see exactly why they have been trying to claim it for all these years.
However, not everyone seems to be thrilled with Luffy’s new powers, especially the reveal that we
had his devil fruit wrong all this time. And while it isn’t the most clearly foreshadowed twist in
One Piece, there are scenes that we can point to that might have hinted at these legendary powers.
Of course, it all begins with the very first image we have of the newly awakened Joy Boy. And if you
are thinking that this image looks familiar that would be because we have seen a very similar pose
multiple times in the story. For example, it shows up twice in both of the bonfire scenes in Skypiea.
So clearly this pose was clearly established way back in the story, and this is even more important
when you consider the context of the Skypiea arc. The entire point of this adventure was to
free the Skypiean people from the false god Enel, and how does Luffy do this? Ultimately he wins
the final clash by breaking up the dark clouds to allow the sun to shine down on the praying
people below. And if that isn’t super important foreshadowing for Luffy being the literal Sun God,
then I don’t know what is. Besides, the concept of the Dawn is a HUGE symbolic device in One Piece,
and Luffy’s victories are often paralleled with the sun literally rising like in Thriller
Bark or a dark period in an island’s history finally ending like in Alabasta and Dressrosa.
Plus, we’ve already mentioned Luffy’s fire powers being possible because of Gear 5, but there have
also been other examples of strange abilities that may have foreshadowed that his powers were more
than simple rubber. For example, Luffy’s attack "Culverin" allows him to bend his rubber multiple
times. Many opponents such as Doflamingo and even Kaido have remarked that simple rubber shouldn’t
be able to do this, but now it was likely because of Luffy’s true awakening all along.
But that’s not the only bit of foreshadowing for this ridiculous power up. In fact, way back during
the Impel Down arc, Luffy is talking to these random prisoners and they even go as far as to say
that he must have been sent here BY DESTINY. Which makes way more sense later on when we get the very
first mention of Sun God Nika in episode 1040 during Jinbe’s fight against Who’s Who. In fact,
this former member of CP9 was once imprisoned in Impel Down and it was during his time in
prison that he learned prisoners sometimes pray to the Sun God Nika who would supposedly free
slaves. This adds some much needed context to the scene with Luffy talking to the prisoners.
Which brings us to the true purpose of Luffy’s awakening. We’ve already discussed that the Sun
God Nika is a legendary figure who freed the slaves. It is very likely that this
figure was also the original Joy Boy from the Void Century since Zunesha told us that Joy
Boy had returned right when Luffy awakened his fruit. And honestly, I don’t really think that
Luffy is literally the old Joy Boy reincarnated. Instead, it is more likely that Luffy has simply
inherited his will and will continue to carry out the task that the old Joy Boy never completed.
So we have to ask, what is that task? Well, it is the very same thing that Luffy has been doing
all throughout the story. Freeing islands and liberating oppressed people. In fact,
the only thing that we know for a fact that the old Joy Boy truly wanted to do
was some promise that he left on the poneglyph on Fishman island. While we don’t know for sure,
we can assume that this promise was to bring the fishmen up to the surface where they could live
in peace. So if Luffy is going to complete the task that was unfinished by the previous Joy Boy,
it will likely involve liberating the world and all of the oppressed
races such as the fishmen, the minks, dwarves, and other races.
And Luffy’s return may have even been left in a prophecy along with the legendary treasure on
Laugh Tale. That’s because when the Roger pirates found the treasure, all they could do was Laugh
at what they found. The former pirate king even states that he wished he could have lived in the
time of Joy Boy, and he also knew that the One Piece treasure somehow couldn’t be used until
twenty years into the future. But now that Luffy has awakened we assume that the prophesized time
has come and Luffy will be able to use whatever the first Joy Boy left behind on Laugh Tale.
Which will ultimately result in a final battle against either the Darkness fruit user,
Blackbeard, or the secret ruler of the world government Imu. Either way,
Luffy’s Gear 5 transformation is completely white,
which is the exact opposite of Blackbeard’s darkness as well as Imu’s black outfit that
we always see them wearing. And we have to assume that because of the awesome powers of
this fruit Luffy will surely come out on top of this final world-changing clash and save
the world. Which is exactly why the Nika fruit made it into my Top 5 Devil fruits in one piece,
and if you want to know which fruits are EVEN MORE overpowered, you can watch this video right here.
Shanks for watching and I’ll see you in the next one.