Monkey D. Luffy is the protagonist of the manga and anime One Piece. He is an incredibly powerful character who wishes to become the new Pirate King by finding Gol D. Roger's One Piece treasure. The source of his powers is the Gomu Gomu no Mi, or Gum-Gum Devil Fruit, which has recently been revealed to be a much more powerful Divine Devil Fruit known as Hito Hito no Mi, Model: Nika. These new powers allowed Luffy to use his Gear 5 powers in the manga, but anime fans will have to wait a little longer to see Gear 5 animated. This article will reveal when Luffy's Gear 5 will be animated in One Piece.

Technically, Gear 5 was already animated in the One Piece: Red movie, but due to issues with the movie's canon status, no one considers it a serious thing. As for the anime, we can confirm that Luffy's Gear 5 debuted in the main story on August 6, 2023, when the 1071st episode, titled "Luffy's Peak Reached! Gear 5," premiered and finally introduced anime fans to Luffy's Gear 5.

The rest of this article will focus on Luffy's Gear 5, his new set of skills and abilities recently introduced in the manga. We'll explain everything surrounding Luffy's Gear 5 debut in the anime series, helping you understand why it was one of the most important moments in the series and why we generally think it deserves a lot of attention. Of course, this article will focus on the events seen in the most recent episode of the anime, which also means that this article will contain some spoilers, so please be careful how you approach it.

What is Luffy's Gear 5?

Gear Fifth is the name of a fighting technique of Monkey D. Luffy that first appeared during the Onigashima War. It is the awakened form of his Gear Fruit. Luffy is covered in Armament Haki and Royal Haki when he activates Gear Fifth. The awakening of Gomu Gomu no Mi, whose real name is Hito Hito no Mi Model: Nika, grants the user's rubbery body greater strength and freedom, limited only by the user's imagination.

For this reason, it is said that the consumer becomes "the embodiment of freedom," capable of bringing joy to the people around him, making him "the most ridiculous power in the world."

The most notable physical characteristic of the awakened form is Luffy's complete bleaching (becoming entirely white), the conversion of his hair and eyebrows to a lighter shade and a flaming form, as well as granting anime-like effects not only to the user but also to his opponent, an example being the googly eye effects.

This allows him to use both Gear 3's limb swelling and Gear 4's muscle swelling, but without physically pumping air into his body, while still allowing him to elasticize and stretch the terrain around him. When Luffy first used it against Kaidou, he was able to enlarge his arm to an enormous size so he could grab Kaidou's transformed body and pull him out of the skull dome.

Despite Kaidou's massive size, Luffy could swing him from side to side thanks to his enlarged limbs. As demonstrated when Luffy lifted a portion of the ceiling and used it to deflect Kaidou's Boro Breath back at him, Luffy's rubbery nature can extend to the environment. Even though the Boro Breath attack was intense enough to destroy a castle, it is interesting to note that the altered ground, while elastic, did not burn or melt.

Since Luffy could expand Kaidou's inner body and even his eyes, it is also possible to alter the elastic qualities of living beings. At this point, Zunesha refers to Luffy's heartbeat as having the melodious cadence of "release drums." Gear 5 uses the fruit's awakening as the basis for the technique, which consumes enormous energy and stamina. Kaidou has claimed that he could commit suicide if he uses it too frequently.

The techniques Luffy has demonstrated in his Gear Fifth form are:

• Gum-Gum Balloon: A larger version of the original Gum-Gum Balloon. First used in Kaido's stomach, which also caused the emperor's body to grow and expand. Gum-Gum Escape Rocket: From inside Kaido's body, Luffy can put his arms through Kaido's eyes and grab his nose before using a Gum-Gum Rocket to escape Kaido's body.
• Giant Gum-Gum: Luffy propels himself into the clouds with his breath, becoming much larger. His body rivals Kaido's dragon form in every way. Gum-Gum Jump Rope: In "Giant" mode, Luffy uses Kaido's dragon-shaped body to jump rope like a child.

When will Luffy's Gear 5 be animated?

Luffy's Gear 5 debuted in One Piece manga chapter 1044. The chapter was titled "Liberation Warrior," a reference to the Sun God Nika from the story, and was released on March 28, 2022; it is now part of volume 103 of the manga. We originally wrote this article a few weeks before the premiere of episode 1071, so at the time of writing, we had only anticipated this major event, but now we can actually confirm that it happened. Let's take a look at how the story developed.

Now, the debut of the Gear 5 anime is a major event, and every One Piece fan knew that the episode was going to be one of the biggest. There are two main reasons for this. First, the wait for this episode, for the debut of the Gear 5 anime, lasted about a year and a half, so it makes sense that fans really wanted to see one of the biggest moments in Luffy's life as a pirate and one of the most important moments in the series. And the latter is, of course, the second reason. Knowing that Luffy activated Gear 5 was important for several reasons.

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First, it gave Luffy another bonus, proving that he is definitely on the right track to becoming the most powerful character in the series and someone worthy of becoming the next Pirate King and successor to Gol D. Roger. Second, it was a pivotal moment in the Wano Country arc and the culmination of one of the best and longest sagas in the series; at the time, Big Mom had already been defeated, and from that perspective, only Kaidou remained, and with Gear 5, Luffy was finally on the right track to defeat him. This brings us to the third segment of this reason – Luffy's rivalry with Kaidou. Gear 5 finally allowed Luffy, after so many losses, to gain enough power to make Kaidou look weak, which was a great moment for fans since justice had finally been served here.

So, now that we've explained the significance of this moment, we can actually confirm that Gear 5 premiered in episode 1071, which was titled "Luffy's Peak Reached! Gear 5." The episode premiered on August 6, 2023, in Japan and worldwide in subtitled format, and finally brought Gear 5 to the anime. Its appearance was announced in episode 1070, and finally, Gear 5 made its full debut in episode 1071.

And yes, we know you'd say that Gear 5 was already animated in the One Piece: Red movie, which is technically true, but it was such a brief scene that most people forgot about it. Also, there's the fact that the canon status of the movie is questionable, as is usually the case with One Piece movies, which is why no one really considers it the first Gear 5 movie, although facts from the movies were later confirmed to be canon, especially those related to Shanks and Uta's past and their families.