One Piece is considered to be one of the “Big Three” (or “Big Four”, if you count the slightly older Dragon Ball) anime series. On the other hand, Fairy Tail is considered to be one of the best post-“Big Three” anime. This is why we have decided to do a crossover comparison of the shows’ protagonist, one Monkey D. Luffy, from One Piece, and Natsu Dragneel, from Fairy Tail. Who would win in this fight? Find out here!
Although we might agree that Natu’s powers, at their full potential, are greater than Luffy’s, we still think that Luffy would be able to win this one. Why? Luffy is simply more determined, more durable, and more pure-hearted than Natsu, and his enormous fighting experience would certainly help him overcome Natsu in the end.
Our comparison is going to be divided into three sections. The first is going to bring an overview of the two characters, after which we are going to compare their powers, including their signature weapons. Finally, we’re going to bring you a detailed analysis of the two characters to determine which one would win in a direct clash.
Natsu and his powers
Natsu Dragneel is the main male character of the Fairy Tail manga, created by Hiro Mashima in 2006. Nicknamed “The Salamander”, he is one of the four dragon hunters of the Fairy Tail guild, and uses dragon hunter magic in the form of fire. He teams up with Happy, Lucy Heartfilia, Erza Scarlett, Gray Fullbuster, Wendy Marvell, and Carla.
About 400 years before the start of the series, Natsu, being a baby, died, but his brother Zeref kept him in an incubator in order to revive him. After he did, Zeref intended to care for and raise him, but he did not want to in the end, so he ultimately left him in the hands of the fire dragon king.
Igneel (his adoptive father to him) raised him as his own son, teaching him to speak, read, write and use his powerful style of magic, the Dragon Slayer. However, Igneel disappeared on July 7, 777, leaving Natsu alone, until Makarov found him and took him to Fairy Tail.
So far, Natsu has reunited with four other Dragon Slayers: Gajeel Redfox, Wendy Marvell, Sting Eucliffe, and Rogue Cheney (whose dragons also disappeared on the same day and year as Igneel). However, it is revealed that Gajeel, Wendy, Sting, and Rogue had met once a year with Natsu, for 400 years.
Throughout the series, Natsu also finds out that there are three different generations of Dragon Slayer. The first generation, in which they receive the teaching of a dragon, as is the case with Natsu, Gajeel and Wendy. The second is by implanting a tear as in the case of Cobra and Laxus (but they did not receive the teaching from a dragon). And the third is that they have the teaching of a dragon, but they also have the tear of the same Dragon implanted in their body, as is the case with Sting and Rouge.
Natsu joined the guild on an unknown date, but it is known to have been after Erza’s arrival. When he was very little, he found an egg in the forest. He at first thought it was a dragon egg and with Lissana’s help the egg hatched, giving birth to Happy, which Natsu thought was a dragon.
Natsu was the one who gave him the name Happy, because, at the time of hatching, the guild gathered around him, they stopped fighting and rejoiced. The dark magician Zeref meets Natsu, but he does not recognize him (because his memory is not stable and was erased).
The reason why Igneel disappeared was that the dragons decided not to intercede for the humans, for the welfare of their species, however, Igneel was always watching Natsu’s growth from within, he used Natsu’s body as a place to store his spirit.
Monkey D. Luffy and his powers
Monkey D. Luffy, often referred to as the Straw Hat Luffy, is a fictional character and the main protagonist of the Japanese One Piece franchise created by Eiichirō Oda. He is presented as a boy with an elastic body, a faculty he developed after eating a Devil Fruit.
He is the founder and captain of the Straw Hat crew. His lifelong dream is to become the Pirate King by finding the legendary treasure, the One Piece, left behind by the late Pirate King, Gol D. Roger. According to him, the pirate king is the freest man in the world.
After his actions on Totto Land and against Emperor Big Mom, he is currently considered by the world press as the 5th Emperor. He is the son of the leader of the Revolutionary Army, Monkey D. Dragon, as well as the paternal grandson of Navy hero, Monkey D. Garp.
He is also the adoptive brother of the former captain of the 2nd Fleet of Whitebeard’s crew, the late Portgas D. Ace, and the Chief of Staff of the Revolutionary Army, Sabo.
Luffy is known worldwide in the One Piece universe as a troublemaker, such as when he challenges the Grand Corsairs, the Navy, and the Four Emperors, and when he commits actions deemed threatening by the World Government. In addition, in the majority of these fights, he emerged victorious.
He has also gained a reputation for being “reckless” and in some cases “mad”, such as during the incident at Enies Lobby, during his attack on a celestial dragon on the Sabaody archipelago (also known as the incident at Enies Lobby), the Impel Down and his participation in the Battle of Marine Ford.
He is therefore infamous for being the only known pirate who not only deliberately attacked the three most important government facilities, but also managed to escape alive by taking on incredibly powerful opponents there.
The fact that he knowingly struck a celestial dragon and the scope of his inheritance earned Luffy the label of a dangerous future element by the World Government and Chief Admiral Sakazuki. After the events of Totto Land, Luffy’s actions further enhanced his reputation.
Newspapers revealed his fraternal relationship with Sabo, the fleet that unofficially formed under his command, his undercover operation in Big Mom territory where he defeated two of the Sweet Generals, Charlotte Cracker and Charlotte Katakuri, his failed assassination attempt on the Empress, his involuntary destruction of the latter’s castle and alliance with the Germa 66, the Sun Pirates and the Fire Tank crew, before escaping by Totto Land.
Although his actions have been slightly exaggerated by the press, these acts led the World Government to put a bounty on his head totaling 1.5 billion Berrys.
Having a bounty of 300 million Berrys before arriving on the Sabaody Archipelago, Luffy is considered to be part of the Terrible Generation.
Comparing the powers of Natsu and Monkey D. Luffy
Our second section will contain a comparison of the two characters’ powers. It won’t be a direct comparison as much as a listing of their powers abilities, which is going to serve as a basis for our analysis in section three of our article. Now, let us begin.
Natsu is a fire-type Dragon Slayer mage. This type of magic uses the fire created by the user himself as an offensive and support element since, if he ingests it, he becomes more powerful. Despite that, he cannot eat his own fire.
His energy seems to increase the more emotional he becomes, like when he had a fight with the dark wizard Erigor. This made him angry, and Natsu’s power increased as there was more tension in the environment, reaching the point of creating a squall that raised the wind that Erigor created to defend himself.
It is also known that Natsu can eat magic other than fire (but this causes side effects for a while). When he ate the Etherion in the battle against Jellal, he entered the Dragon Force mode, a transformation characteristic of the Dragon Slayer that grants them great power, with which he could easily defeat him, similarly when he fought against Master Zero, where he ingested Jellal’s Flame of Guilt and also when he ate Laxus lightning in the battle against Master Hades, entering the Lightning Flame Dragon mode.
After the 7-year time skip, special training before the Magic Games, and obtaining the Second Origin with the help of Ultear, Natsu is able to enter the Lightning Flame Dragon state of his own free will, without the need to eat lightning bolts. However, he still cannot enter Dragon Force mode voluntarily.
Natsu is rarely able to enter this state, as it is necessary to ingest a large source of magic to gain access to this state, and he has not yet trained to use it voluntarily. However, when activating Dragon Force, his speed and strength are multiplied several times.
The only times he has used it have been when he eats Etherion in the fight against Jellal, and also when he fights Zero and Jellal gives him her flames. Natsu managed to activate his Dragon Force of Fire in the Arc of Tartaros saga against his final enemy before Zeref’s appearance.
Luffy has shown to have incredible superhuman strength and a good capacity for fights. At first glance, his thin appearance makes him seem weak, but that is very deceptive for the enemy’s eyes. Throughout the series, Luffy has shown a strength far superior to humans, even defeating a sea king with one punch.
This is a result of the intense training that his grandfather Monkey D. Garp subjected him to, which consisted of throwing him far in the middle of dangerous jungles, tying him to some balloons to raise him to great heights, ultimately making him one of the most powerful One Piece characters in the series, alongside Zoro and Sanji.
Luffy, despite not being very smart or strategic, he has demonstrated incredible prowess when facing users of Logia-type Devil Fruits
When Luffy was a child, he unknowingly ate a Devil Fruit, which belonged to Shanks’ crew. The fruit was the Gomu Gomu no mi (Gum Gum) and it gave him the elastic properties of gum, but, as a side effect of the fruit, he cannot swim, since the water cancels his energy, paralyzing his body.
In fights, Luffy takes advantage of his elastic properties to stretch one or more of his limbs and make them return by throwing them towards his opponents. This, combined with his outsized strength, makes Luffy a highly powerful character.
Luffy can reach places that no one could reach just by stretching the parts of his body (his arms or his legs or his neck). He can even inflate himself to be able to block enemy attacks (like cannonballs), and is totally immune to bullets and these usually bounce off Luffy’s body and return to the shooter or fly elsewhere.
He is also totally immune to physical blows, thanks to the resistance of his rubber body, although this was contradicted on several occasions throughout the series.
If there is something that can affect him, it is sword or knife cuts, since Luffy’s body is totally flexible, which makes him very vulnerable to cuts.
After the Enies Lobby battle, Luffy developed a technique to eat while sleeping. This technique allows him to eat as if he were awake. However, this “technique” itself, does not seem like a technique in reality, as Luffy seemed to be in a sleepwalking state, so that may be more of an act. sleepwalking that a technique was involved.
In addition, during the encounter with Duval, it was observed that Luffy began to develop a kind of “Spiritual Energy” (Haki), just like the one that Shanks and Sylvers Rayleigh displayed.
Haki is a kind of spiritual energy that every living being possesses, but that only some are capable of awakening this power, very similar to the common senses of people.
Who would win, Natsu or Monkey D. Luffy?
And now, for the most important and interesting section of our article – the analysis. Here, we are going to use what we have found out about these two characters and analyze how all these facts would (or would not) help them in a fight against each other. These two characters are quite different, but it is their differences that make them so interesting. Let us see who it is.
From what we could gather from their powers and abilities in the preceding section, Natsu seems to be way more powerful than Luffy. He is a mage that can use very powerful magic, while Luffy, although he is superpowered, can still “only” stretch his body and pack a powerful punch; okay, he can use the Haki as of recently, but he is not nearly as experienced in it like Natsu is in using magic.
In terms of sheer power, Natsu would be the undisputed winner here, as Luffy doesn’t really have much to counter Natsu’s attacks. He can beat him to a pulp, but before he’d get the opportunity to do so, he’d probably be roasted by Natsu’s fire magic. Still, there is a catch, as Monkey D. Luffy has something Natsu doesn’t – determination.
Namely, Luffy is, as all One Piece fans will know, extremely determined and strong-willed. Out of all the characters I have personally seen, Luffy is probably on top when it comes to beating impossible odds. Impossible in what way? The most literal way possible! This guy has managed to defeat opponents much stronger than himself through sheer willpower, using only his extreme determination. Luffy wants to become the best and he will stop at nothing to do so. If Natsu were his opponent, we are quite certain that Luffy would not submit here either.
This brings us to our ultimate conclusion: Monkey D. Luffy is not as powerful as Natsu, that is quite clear, but his determination, his willpower, and his experience in fighting is why we think that he would be able to defeat Natsu. Luffy doesn’t give up, even if the opponent is significantly stronger. In that aspect, he is probably the most durable character ever and that is why we think that he would ultimately beat Natsu in a fight.
And that’s it for today. We hope you had fun reading this and that we have given you all the information you were looking for. See you next time and don’t forget to follow us!