[One Piece] Oda Nearly Gave Luffy the Chop-Chop Fruit? Why Fans Think Buggy Almost Became the Real Protagonist
Blackbeard Pirates
Monkey D. Luffy & Buggy (2018/06/16): What If Luffy Wasn’t Rubber—but Split Apart Instead?
What if One Piece’s entire combat logic hinged on separation, not elasticity? Fans revisit Oda’s old dilemma—Gum-Gum or Chop-Chop—and spiral into mechanics, power balance, and narrative fallout. This thread isn’t nostalgia. It’s a stress test of the series’ core design.
Rubber vs. Chop: Immediate Power and Visual Logic
1: Anonymous Pirate. 2018/06/16 This is basically a Buggy main character thread at this point…
One Piece Fan: In recent One Piece, incredibly powerful characters have been appearing one after another—some so strong that even Luffy can’t beat them. In most manga or anime, the hero is usually written as someone who never really loses once they come into their own. So why did you make Luffy a rubber man with such a silly, seemingly weak ability?
Oda (Author): Haha, yeah, that’s true. There are plenty of cool, stylish powers out there, and it would’ve been easy to go with something like that. But the answer is simple: I deliberately gave him a power that looks ridiculous. If the main character were just straightforwardly strong and cool, I don’t think readers would’ve stayed with him for this long. No matter how serious things get, Luffy can stretch or puff up and always give you a chance to joke around. That’s the kind of scenes I wanted to draw.
3: Anonymous Pirate. 2018/06/16 Chop-Chop could’ve been fun too honestly.
7: Anonymous Pirate. 2018/06/16 If his power was Chop-Chop, how the hell would Gear Second even work?
66: Anonymous Pirate. 2018/06/16 >>7 He’d just quantumize and teleport lol.
10: Anonymous Pirate. 2018/06/16 Chop-Chop is just a discount Logia, right?
Can “Chop-Chop Luffy” Even Have Gears?
31: Anonymous Pirate. 2018/06/16 >>10 Chop-Chop doesn’t take damage from Haki slashes either though.
29: Anonymous Pirate. 2018/06/16 Chop-Chop is cool for an enemy, but as a protagonist it has no flair.
71: Anonymous Pirate. 2018/06/16 Since Luffy eats a ton, Baku-Baku would’ve been better. You could use allies’ abilities and it’s crazy versatile.
83: Anonymous Pirate. 2018/06/16 Chop-Chop Pistol → shoot the index finger Chop-Chop Bazooka → shoot the fists Chop-Chop Cannon → both fists Chop-Chop Spear → fly the legs and stab with steel-toe boots Chop-Chop Axe → flying heel drop Honestly seems workable?
Haki, Slashes, and the Buggy Problem
88: Anonymous Pirate. 2018/06/16 If Luffy had Chop-Chop, the story would’ve ended at Skypiea.
90: Anonymous Pirate. 2018/06/16 It still doesn’t sit right that Buggy ignores Haki slashes. Luffy takes Haki punches just fine.
100: Anonymous Pirate. 2018/06/16 >>90 Just split before you get cut.
115: Anonymous Pirate. 2018/06/16 >>90 Haki doesn’t nullify abilities. If Blackbeard grabs him with Yami-Yami and cuts him, he dies.
262: Anonymous Pirate. 2018/06/16 Mihawk probably wasn’t even using Haki. He wasn’t serious about killing Luffy or Buggy.
287: Anonymous Pirate. 2018/06/16 >>262 You don’t hunt rabbits with full force.
Narrative Flash vs. Protagonist Viability
110: Anonymous Pirate. 2018/06/16 Lewd.
217: Anonymous Pirate. 2018/06/16 Quantum Chop-Chop would be broken but visually boring. Way too strong—instant Fugo exit.
232: Anonymous Pirate. 2018/06/16 If Chop-Chop awakened it’d be pure cheat mode. Oda probably wouldn’t awaken it. Gum-Gum’s awakening won’t be much different from Mochi anyway.
258: Anonymous Pirate. 2018/06/16 Koala is basically the lewd-lewd fruit in human form.
272: Anonymous Pirate. 2018/06/16 >>258 That’s a weird fetish.
Koala: “I kept grinning nonstop after seeing Luffy’s article in the newspaper, so my face basically froze, Chief of Staff (Sabo).” Emporio Ivankov: “Are you crazy?!”
306: Anonymous Pirate. 2018/06/16
Luffy: “Gear Fourth — Boundman!!”
If this is how it ends, that’s just sad.
👉 Why Japan Argues This Was Never a Coin Flip
Elasticity Isn’t About Power—It’s About Readability. Japanese readers keep circling back to one thing: visual grammar. Rubber instantly communicates impact, recoil, stretch, and limit. Chop-Chop devolves into abstraction fast—teleports, pre-splits, quantum dodges. That breaks the panel-to-panel clarity One Piece lives on.
👉 What This Debate Reveals About One Piece’s Design Philosophy
The Protagonist Must Look Vulnerable. Buggy’s invulnerability works because he’s comic relief. Luffy needs to bleed, strain, and misjudge. Chop-Chop removes consequence unless artificially constrained. This thread isn’t about “which fruit is stronger”—it’s about why Oda chose a power that fails loudly instead of one that never should.
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