I just realized, Luffy from One Piece does not have a Rival?

[Samtemdo8_v1legacy]

As in a Rival equivalent to Vegeta with Goku, Sasuke with Naruto, Kaiba with Yugi, and Gary Oak with Ash Ketchem, Shadow with Sonic the Hedgehog, or heck for a more obscure anime, Miyata to Ippo.

You would think Luffy would have someone that's his equal in his competition to get to the One Piece and become the Pirate King?

Or there is one I either never noticed or it was right in my face the whole time and I never realized?

 

[residentout1]

I thought blackbeard was Luffy Rival.

 

[PsychedelicDiamond]

I'll never get over foreigners calling Ruffy "Luffy" and then pronouncing it like "Loofy". Yes, I know it's pronounced that way in the Japanese version. It still sounds wrong. Don't @ me.

Anyway, I'm not that up to date on my One Pieve, even though it's pretty much the only Shonen anime I find conceptually interesting, but back when I still watched it on a semi regular level it was pretty much the story of a gajillion different characters with a gajillion different goals, not exactly the type of thing to focus on personal feuds that much.

Thinking about it, couldn't you sorta count Buggy the Clown as a rival?

 

[Elfgore]

Yeah I'm agreeing with @residentout1. It's pretty much meant to be Blackbeard.

 

[Gatx]

While a rival is an established part of shonen formula nowadays I don't think it's absolutely essential. Ichigo in Bleach doesn't have one, nor Yuusuke from Yu Yu Hakusho. For as big a part of the series that he has become, Vegeta is a later addition to the series and Dragonball was getting on just fine.

 

[PapaGreg096]

For as big a part of the series that he has become, Vegeta is a later addition to the series and Dragonball was getting on just fine.

Goku had mutltiple of rivals, first it was Krillin, then it was Tien, and then it was Piccolo.

 

[Dreiko_v1legacy]

He had one, Ace. Yeah...

 

[PapaGreg096]

He had one, Ace. Yeah...

How was Ace a rival

 

[Dirty Hipsters]

Isn't literally everyone looking for the treasure his rivals?

 

[Dreiko_v1legacy]

He had one, Ace. Yeah...

How was Ace a rival

How wasn't he? They were constantly competing from a young age and he was always one step ahead of him while aiming for the same goal as him. Classic rival.

 

[BrawlMan]

He had one, Ace. Yeah...

How was Ace a rival

How wasn't he? They were constantly competing from a young age and he was always one step ahead of him while aiming for the same goal as him. Classic rival.

This. Technically, Luffy's had 3 rivals: Buggy (serious, but funny later on), Ace (friendly), and Blackbeard (serious). I haven't see One Piece since 2008, and I know this.

 

[Samtemdo8_v1legacy]

He had one, Ace. Yeah...

How was Ace a rival

How wasn't he? They were constantly competing from a young age and he was always one step ahead of him while aiming for the same goal as him. Classic rival.

This. Technically, Luffy's had 3 rivals: Buggy (serious, but funny later on), Ace (friendly), and Blackbeard (serious). I haven't see One Piece since 2008, and I know this.

Right now they are dragging on a climactic battle between Luffy and the bad guy of the Arc that should have have concluded 5-10 episodes ago.

 

[BrawlMan]

He had one, Ace. Yeah...

How was Ace a rival

How wasn't he? They were constantly competing from a young age and he was always one step ahead of him while aiming for the same goal as him. Classic rival.

This. Technically, Luffy's had 3 rivals: Buggy (serious, but funny later on), Ace (friendly), and Blackbeard (serious). I haven't see One Piece since 2008, and I know this.

Right now they are dragging on a climactic battle between Luffy and the bad guy of the Arc that should have have concluded 5-10 episodes ago.

Shit like that is why I quit One Piece and avoid majority of the shounen genre as a whole. If anyone plans on watching anime, make sure to try for different genres. If you stick with just one genre, you're going to get bored sooner or later. And in today's age, most likely sooner. I just saw Megalobx last week, and it has one of the best recent rivalries in anime.

 

[Dreiko_v1legacy]

I had taken a 10 year hiatus from one piece but then marathoned a good 400 episodes in a month this summer haha. It's really good still, you just have to go in expecting things to take forever. Luffy's newest gear form is absolutely insane and always makes everything hype. I stopped around episode 846 I believe cause that's when I caught up to the latest one and now I'm waiting for the arc to finish until I can marathon it all in a single or double session.

I used to do the one ep per week thing back in like 2003 but ever since Naruto fillers hit and kept going for 2 years straight, I was just done. It's just so much better to watch it all in a row.

He had one, Ace. Yeah...

How was Ace a rival

How wasn't he? They were constantly competing from a young age and he was always one step ahead of him while aiming for the same goal as him. Classic rival.

This. Technically, Luffy's had 3 rivals: Buggy (serious, but funny later on), Ace (friendly), and Blackbeard (serious). I haven't see One Piece since 2008, and I know this.

In more recent eps they do this amazing flashback with them as children (very young children, it kicks off from basically right after Shanks leaves the hat back) and that just solidifies that rival-like relationship. There's another rival but his being is in itself a huge spoiler so I won't speak of him here though.

As for Blackbeard, he's more solidly in the pure antagonist/evil mastermind category now. Though he prolly has a lot more room for development. He always kinda appears like a storm and fucks things up and goes away for 200 episodes as of late.

 

[PapaGreg096]

He had one, Ace. Yeah...

How was Ace a rival

How wasn't he? They were constantly competing from a young age and he was always one step ahead of him while aiming for the same goal as him. Classic rival.

Yeah but that was in the flashbacks, in the main story Ace was pretty much doing his own thing.

He had one, Ace. Yeah...

How was Ace a rival

How wasn't he? They were constantly competing from a young age and he was always one step ahead of him while aiming for the same goal as him. Classic rival.

This. Technically, Luffy's had 3 rivals: Buggy (serious, but funny later on), Ace (friendly), and Blackbeard (serious). I haven't see One Piece since 2008, and I know this.

Right now they are dragging on a climactic battle between Luffy and the bad guy of the Arc that should have have concluded 5-10 episodes ago.

That's what you get for watching the anime adaption.

 

[Dirty Hipsters]

I had taken a 10 year hiatus from one piece but then marathoned a good 400 episodes in a month this summer haha. It's really good still, you just have to go in expecting things to take forever. Luffy's newest gear form is absolutely insane and always makes everything hype. I stopped around episode 846 I believe cause that's when I caught up to the latest one and now I'm waiting for the arc to finish until I can marathon it all in a single or double session.

I used to do the one ep per week thing back in like 2003 but ever since Naruto fillers hit and kept going for 2 years straight, I was just done. It's just so much better to watch it all in a row.

I started watching one piece back in like 2009, marathoned it until impel down, then watched it week to week for several years. I got completely burned out by the Don Quixote arc though and completely dropped the anime. Started watching again the other week from the Zuo arc, and holy shit all I can see now is bad animation. Is this just a bad arc animation wise since it's filler, or does it continue being terrible? Half the scenes feel like a motion comic.

 

[Jute88]

Really? No one remembers Koby? One of the very first characters we were introduced both in manga and anime? Since the end of Enies Lobby arc, they've been building his and Luffy's relationship to be similar to one that Roger and Garp had. There is a power gap between them, but Koby is slowly getting there.

I had taken a 10 year hiatus from one piece but then marathoned a good 400 episodes in a month this summer haha. It's really good still, you just have to go in expecting things to take forever. Luffy's newest gear form is absolutely insane and always makes everything hype. I stopped around episode 846 I believe cause that's when I caught up to the latest one and now I'm waiting for the arc to finish until I can marathon it all in a single or double session.

I used to do the one ep per week thing back in like 2003 but ever since Naruto fillers hit and kept going for 2 years straight, I was just done. It's just so much better to watch it all in a row.

I started watching one piece back in like 2009, marathoned it until impel down, then watched it week to week for several years. I got completely burned out by the Don Quixote arc though and completely dropped the anime. Started watching again the other week from the Zuo arc, and holy shit all I can see now is bad animation. Is this just a bad arc animation wise since it's filler, or does it continue being terrible? Half the scenes feel like a motion comic.

The animation can get good for a few seconds every now and then, usually during a fight scene. And yes, the animation has been awful for a while now, especially when you compare it to older episodes. Which is funny, since the show's budget is bigger than what it was in the beginning.

I much prefer the manga over anime, though One Piece has a great soundtrack.

 

[Dreiko_v1legacy]

Koby's more like the sidekick char who makes the hero look cool by being so pathetic. Also yes nobody remembers him.

I had taken a 10 year hiatus from one piece but then marathoned a good 400 episodes in a month this summer haha. It's really good still, you just have to go in expecting things to take forever. Luffy's newest gear form is absolutely insane and always makes everything hype. I stopped around episode 846 I believe cause that's when I caught up to the latest one and now I'm waiting for the arc to finish until I can marathon it all in a single or double session.

I used to do the one ep per week thing back in like 2003 but ever since Naruto fillers hit and kept going for 2 years straight, I was just done. It's just so much better to watch it all in a row.

I started watching one piece back in like 2009, marathoned it until impel down, then watched it week to week for several years. I got completely burned out by the Don Quixote arc though and completely dropped the anime. Started watching again the other week from the Zuo arc, and holy shit all I can see now is bad animation. Is this just a bad arc animation wise since it's filler, or does it continue being terrible? Half the scenes feel like a motion comic.

I've been watching it since 2002 or something like that. I watched right up the end of the thriller bark arc and then I caught up with the latest ep and I just kinda took the aforementioned decade or so break and just randomly decided one summer day that I didn't need the rest of the month. No regrets!


The animation can be dated in some parts but it always looks charming to me so I never really had an issue with it. I guess it depends on the eye of the beholder. Though to be fair, weekly shonen is not what you go to for good animation, you want OVAs and movies if you wanna see the best stuff.

 

[Natemans]

I always figured its Blackbeard.

 

[Samtemdo8_v1legacy]

I always figured its Blackbeard.

I just had a thought though.


Are they gonna straight up pit Luffy against his own father Monkey D. Dragon straight from Star Wars?

Or Dragon does "care" for his son?