One Piece: Luffy's most surreal transformations, ranked

Monkey D. Luffy has won countless battles in One Piece, overcoming the odds stacked against him to defeat more experienced opponents with his resolve and tenacity. Since he was a child, Luffy based his fighting style on the Paramecia-class Gom-Gom Fruit. It enables him to stretch, bounce, and inflate any part of his body as if it were made of rubber.

As the story progressed, Luffy learned to increase his speed and strength through transformations called Gears. He also learned to use all three types of Haki and combine them with his forms. Eventually, Luffy’s Devil Fruit was revealed to be the Mythical Zoan Human-Human Fruit Model: Nika, which granted him a new transformation called Gear 5.

In this form, Luffy can fight following his imagination, thanks to the unreal, cartoonish powers of “Sun God” Nika. Gear 5 epitomizes Luffy’s goofiness, but the young pirate’s fights were filled with hilarious moments long before this form was introduced. More than once, Luffy used his Devil Fruit abilities in the most unorthodox ways, creating surreal transformations that One Piece fans can look back on with amusement.

Luffy's most absurd transformations in One Piece, listed in chronological order

5) Shark Teeth Luffy

Shark Teeth Luffy as seen in One Piece (Image via Toei Animation)

Luffy relies primarily on his determination and raw power but he is a very creative fighter. His ability to develop his Devil Fruit powers into unique transformations like the Gears is proof of his fighting abilities. Especially at the beginning of the One Piece story, Luffy often came up with unusual ways to get the upper hand over his enemies. This included using their own weapons against them, just like a real pirate would do.

During the battle with Arlong, Luffy stole the Fish-Man’s formidable teeth to use them on him. After dodging Arlong’s attack, Luffy kicked him in the face, sending his saw-shark teeth flying out. Arlong immediately regenerated the injury, growing a new set of teeth, but Luffy picked up the set that he had just forced him to spit out and placed it into his own mouth.

The mockery enraged Arlong, who then attacked Luffy. However, Luffy retaliated by biting the Fish-Man's shoulder with his teeth. While Luffy couldn’t help but laugh at the thought of his extremely unorthodox move, he didn’t consider that his jaws lacked the power of a Fish-Man’s. As such, he failed to do any real damage to Arlong.

The effort even backfired as Arlong bit Luffy again, this time sinking his teeth into his right arm. As the fight went on, Luffy still managed to defeat Arlong, but the fact remains that this was one of the worst ideas that the young pirate ever had. The idea was ludicrous, but its results were rather poor.

4) Water Luffy

Water Luffy as seen in One Piece (Image via Toei Animation)

The memorable Arabasta Saga saw Luffy confronting Crocodile, one of the Seven Warlords. Crocodile had the powers of the Sand-Sand Fruit, meaning that Luffy, who at the time was unable to use Haki, couldn’t hope to even touch his real body, let alone damage it.

No matter how hard he tried, Luffy simply couldn’t hurt Crocodile, who used his Logia powers to turn his body into intangible sand. Bored of playing around with Luffy, Crocodile ruthlessly impaled the young pirate, leaving him for dead. As the Warlord left, Luffy managed to get back on his feet thanks to his own willpower and the unexpected help of Miss All Sunday.

Realizing that sand might be weak against water, Luffy challenged Crocodile to a rematch, this time bringing a huge barrel of water to counter the latter’s sand. Luffy then drank all of the water. With his body swollen to the point where water was slowly leaking out of him, Luffy’s appearance was laughable.

While it would probably be useless against in any other situation, this tactic allowed Luffy to finally land some hits on Crocodile. However, it also angered the Warlord, who used his Logia powers to completely dehydrate Luffy’s body. Luffy only survived as some water bubbles randomly fell upon him, rejuvenating him.

3) Afro Luffy

Afro Luffy as seen in One Piece (Image via Toei Animation)

After leaving Skypiea, the Straw Hats arrived in Long Ring Long Land, where the Foxy Pirates challenged them to a traditional pirate game, the Davy Back Fight. As the final event of the game consisted of a duel between the two captains of the crews involved in the contest, Luffy and Foxy began to fight each other.

Usopp persuaded Luffy to wear a huge afro wig, claiming that it would dramatically increase his fighting skills. As per Usopp’s exact words, the afro would awaken Luffy’s latent potential, making him nothing short of invincible. Funnily enough, Luffy believed Usopp and thus donned the afro with total confidence in its supposed mystic powers.

The arena chosen for the duel was Foxy’s ship, which the latter had rigged with traps and weapons specifically arranged to give him an advantage. Despite his opponent’s many tricks, however, “Afro Luffy” managed to win the fight.

Considering the outcome of the match, perhaps it’s not wrong to think that the afro does indeed enhance the abilities of those who wear it. After all, as stated in the series:

"One simply does not question the afro."

2) Nightmare Luffy

Nightmare Luffy as seen in One Piece (Image via Toei Animation)

During the Thriller Bark Arc, Luffy underwent a unique transformation to fight Gecko Moria and the zombie of Oars. Upon seizing a hundred shadows that Moria had previously stolen from their owners, the Rolling Pirates infused them into Luffy. A normal person would only be able to handle a few shadows, but Luffy managed to absorb a hundred shadows in his body.

The shadows altered Luffy’s physique, making it bigger and bulkier, as well as his body, which turned blue. His voice also changed, becoming more serious. For about ten minutes, Luffy became “Nightmare Luffy." This momentary transformation gave him an insane boost of speed and raw power, enhancing both his movements and his rubber-based techniques.

With his newfound strength, Luffy outclassed Oars, blocking the zombie’s attacks with one single hand. As one of the shadows he was infused with belonged to a powerful swordsman, Luffy was able to wound Oars with a quick and precise slash. He then hit both the zombie and Moria with a barrage of punches, smashing them to the ground.

Moments later, however, the shadows left Luffy’s body, causing the transformation and its boost to vanish. Without any doubt, this form was the strongest Luffy had ever been in One Piece before the two-year timeskip. As long as it lasted, it made Luffy powerful enough to annihilate Oars—a zombie that required the entire crew to be beaten—and Moria, a Warlord—albeit one of the least impressive—all by himself.

1) Wax Armor Luffy

Wax Armor Luffy as seen in One Piece (Image via Toei Animation)

After infiltrating Impel Down to rescue his brother Ace, Luffy was forced to deal with the prison’s Chief Warden, Magellan, an individual that not even the likes of Crocodile, Jinbe, and Emporio Ivankov could compete with. Powerless in front of Magellan’s Venom-Venom Fruit, Luffy suffered a tremendous defeat against the former. He only survived thanks to Ivankov’s special treatment.

Magellan attacked Luffy and the others when they tried to escape Impel Down. However, Galdino's Wax-Wax Fruit unexpectedly stopped his Hydra technique. Having realized that, despite the big gap in power between them, Galdino’s wax could block Magellan’s poison, Luffy asked Galdino to coat his limbs with wax so he could fight the Chief Warden without getting poisoned upon contact.

With the wax armor, Luffy could fight Magellan without coming into contact with his lethal poison. He struck the Chief Warden with a move named Gom-Gom Champion Rifle, pushing him back. However, Magellan used a special type of poison, that not even wax could stop, cornering Luffy and the others.

Thankfully, Luffy used his Gigant Stamp to push Galdino’s Candle Wall towards Magellan. Ivankov then performed his Death Wink move to propel everyone out into the sea before Magellan could counterattack. All in all, the wax armor turned out to be a quite useful ruse. Luffy also seemed to particularly like the armor's looks, to the point where he cried in sheer amazement when Galdino first created it.