Luffy vs. Goku: Who Would Win, the Straw Hat or the Super Saiyan?

Monkey D. Luffy is the protagonist of Eiichiro Oda’s One Piece manga and anime. Son Goku is the protagonist of Akira Toriyama’s Dragon Ball series. They are two of the most popular fictional characters of all time. But who is stronger between the two? Who would win in a fight between Luffy and Goku?

Son Goku is undoubtedly stronger than Luffy, in every aspect. Son Goku is regarded as one of the strongest anime characters ever, whilst Luffy is not even near that level. Luffy is a good fighter and is very persistent, but Goku is stronger, he is a better fighter, and has stronger powers than Luffy, which is why this one was quite easy to compare.

Now that you have the short version of the answer, the rest of the article is going to be divided into three sections, with the first two introducing the characters, their powers, and their abilities. In the end, we’re going to give our final verdict and explanation on why Son Goku would win against Monkey D. Luffy.

Monkey D. Luffy and His Powers

Luffy is a boy whose body has acquired the properties of rubber after inadvertently ingesting Gomu Gomu no Mi; thanks to this, he can perform a wide range of attacks by accumulating energy in his body and exploiting the elasticity of his limbs.

To pursue his dream of finding the legendary One Piece treasure that belonged to Gol D. Roger and become the Pirate King, he sets sail from his village in the East Sea and sets out on a journey across the Grand Line, gathering a crew around him. known as the Straw Hat Pirates, and facing numerous enemies.

Luffy is the son of the revolutionary Monkey D. Dragon and grandson of Vice Admiral of the Navy Monkey D. Garp: born in the village of Foosha, on Dawn Island in the East Sea, as a child he meets Red-Haired Shanks, captain of a band of pirates who were on the island, the Red Hair Pirates.

Luffy has ingested the Gomu Gomu no Mi, a Devil Fruit which has made him a rubber man: this allows him to stretch his body without apparent limits and not to suffer damage from physical attacks, such as punches or bumps, and from bullets; moreover since rubber is a dielectric material, it makes it immune to attacks based on electricity.

When a fan pointed out to Oda that the Gomi Gomi fruit is relatively weak compared to many other powers that have appeared in the manga, he stated that not bearing the idea of ​​an absolutely invincible hero, he chose that power for his protagonist because he is the most ridiculous that had come to mind: the author claims that regardless of how serious the manga may become, Luffy would continue to stretch and deform, allowing him to create ridiculous scenes at any time.

Throughout the story, Luffy develops the power of his fruit through a series of techniques called Gear, which exploit the elasticity of his body to increase physical performance:

• The Gear second allows Luffy to increase his blood circulation using his limbs as pumps: this causes an increase in body temperature and a speeding up of metabolism, making his movements so fast as to be invisible and increasing the power of his attacks. Excessive use of the Second Gear initially causes Luffy to become very physically stressed, preventing him from moving for some time after his effects end.
• Gear Third allows Luffy to increase the size of his body by introducing a large amount of air into his bones; the injected air can be moved freely from one limb to the other. At the first appearance, the Third Gear, at the end of use, shrinks Luffy’s body for a time equal to that of use: this side effect has disappeared after two years of training.
• The Gear fourth uses in combination the ambition of the armor and the elasticity of the Gom Gom fruit, presenting itself in three different variants:
  • the Bondman, which increases the attack power of the pirate by injecting air into the muscles and allowing him to fly ” bouncing “in the air;
  • the Tankman, is mainly a defensive form that allows him to reflect any attack;
  • and the Snakeman, which greatly increases his speed while also allowing him to change the direction of his attacks.
• Being very expensive in terms of energy, the Gear fourth has a very short duration, after which Luffy becomes unable to use the Haki for ten minutes.

While training with Rayleigh, he learns to master all three types of Haki, specializing in controlling the Conqueror’s Haki. He is also one of the few characters able to hear the voices of ancestral animals, such as the kings of the sea and Zunisha.

Son Goku and His Powers

Son Goku begins as a naive child with a monkey tail and disproportionate strength, who, initially only together with Bulma, but later also with his other companions, sets out in search of the magical dragon spheres that allow you to fulfill a wish.

Later he discovers that he belongs to the extraterrestrial and warrior people of the Saiyans and is actually called Kakarotto. Growing up, Goku becomes the strongest warrior on Earth and faces numerous increasingly powerful adversaries who threaten the peace of the planet and the universe.

Being a member of the Saiyan race, from an early age he is able to quickly become much stronger than normal earthlings. As for all the other members of the people, he possesses supernatural powers: the length of his youthful period and of maximum health is longer than that of the terrestrials.

He is able to make the transformation into a giant monkey by means of his tail (on full moon nights) which increases his fighting power ten times; finally, he possesses the ability called Zenkai: when he sustains serious wounds in battle, but manages to survive, following healing he increases power, endurance, speed, alertness and the Ki, which he is able to control, use and perceive in other individuals.

Being a Saiyan he possesses a strength and resistance far superior to those of a human being (as is already highlighted in his first appearance) nevertheless since he was a newborn Goku was classified as a warrior of the lowest level, since he was one of the individuals weaker than his people.

Goku, in the course of the plot, managed to overcome his natural weakness with constant training under the supervision of various masters, among other things since his arrival on Earth he had trained in martial arts at an early age, with the result that he managed to achieve and to overcome Vegeta’s strength, although he was considered the best elite Saiyan of all.

Like any Saiyan, he loses all his energy if someone grabs his tail, but on the occasion of the 22nd Tenkaichi Tournament, he was able to strengthen it by training her by not being deprived of his strength when it is grabbed. Initially, in combat, he uses the magical Nyoi stick, a gift from his grandfather, while to fly he mainly uses the golden cloud (Nuvola Speedy in the Italian edition of the anime), a magical cloud given to him by Master Roshi.

However, after learning the Buoyancy Technique, which he uses for the first time at the end of the fight with Piccolo at the 23rd Tenkaichi Tournament, Goku uses the cloud less frequently. Even the extendable stick will soon become almost useless in clashes and will never be used from the moment Goku becomes an adult.

A good example of the execution of the Kamehameha Wave One of Goku’s main abilities is his exceptional learning ability, in fact over time he has learned a varied number of techniques: training with King Kaioh the Saiyan has learned Kaioh Ken during the period in which Goku passes into the afterlife after the clash with Raditz, and used it for the first time against Nappa, and again from King Kaioh he learned another technique, the Sphere of spiritual energy.

Monkey D. Luffy Vs. Son Goku – Who Would Win?

Now, if you go over the powers and abilities we have described above, you’ll notice that the two characters are very different. While both franchises use superpowers, they’re intrinsically different – Dragon Ball‘s powers fall into the traditional superhero category with science fiction elements, while the powers in One Piece fit the fantasy genre more. This is why it was difficult to compare the powers directly.

In order to give a proper verdict, we have to consider the fact that Goku is by all standards one of the strongest anime characters ever created. He has grown enormously over the years and he has reached an almost god-like level of power. Luffy, on the other hand, is a regular guy when compared to Goku; he has cool powers, and he is a great fighter, but when compared to Goku, his powers are almost insignificant.

Goku beats Luffy in every category. He is a better martial artist than Luffy (well, Luffy sucks at martial arts, actually, he usually just improvises his fights), and he has more powers and stronger powers than Luffy (the Super Saiyan powers he has are much stronger than Luffy’s Haki or Devil Fruit powers), he is faster, he has more experience and he would simply defeat Luffy in ten out of ten fights.

That is why our victor here is completely clear and it is Son Goku. The two are simply on a different level. Simply imagine Batman facing Superman, but without Kryptonite – the Dark Knight would stand no chance against the Man of Steel. The same goes for Luffy – he wouldn’t stand a chance against Son Goku.