One Piece creator Oda cites 'Tom & Jerry' as inspiration for Gear 5 Luffy

Luffy’s Gear Fifth reveal has been a turning point in the One Piece narrative. Not only is the protagonist able to close out his encounter with Kaido using this new ability, but the Gear itself is also very unique in style and design, setting itself apart from the ones that precede it.

Unlike his previous power-ups, Luffy's Gear Fifth has had a rather cartoonish touch to it, which many in the community have pointed out. The stylistic shift is very noticeable with the new ability, and the mangaka, Eiichiro Oda, even addressed it in a recent interview with Detective Conan author Gosho Aoyama.

Explaining his approach, Oda said:

"When thinking about its concept, you can think of it as if it suddenly became ‘Tom & Jerry’."

Oda stated that when thinking about the very concept of the Gear, he wanted to make it playful, which is why it became something akin to the likes of cartoons such as “Tom and Jerry”.

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Oda opens up about Tom and Jerry and how it inspired Luffy’s Gear Fifth in One Piece

Unlike the cartoons where both the characters provide humor to the show, Oda had a much harder time balancing the new theme and the difference in attitude between the incredibly serious Kaido and the light-hearted Luffy.

When talking about some of his inspirations for Luffy’s Gear Fifth in the interview, Oda stated that:

“When I tried to draw it for the first time, it was pretty difficult. The world of ‘Tom & Jerry’ works because of both characters, so I struggled a lot looking at the difference in attitude between Luffy, who was making pranks in the middle of the battle, and his serious opponent. But in the end, I feel like I actually pulled it off.”

He also described how and why he implemented his inspirations directly into the fights.

“I drew this because I really want to have fun, and I think that it’s okay if people don’t like it. I just want to play around with my battles… Since I was an assistant, I have felt that silly expressions that were so characteristic in manga have been gradually lost. Putting a light bulb in a character’s head when they come up with some idea, or making the character’s legs go in circles when they’re running, for example.”

The One Piece mangaka purposely tried to make the encounter between Luffy and Kaido as humorous as possible. He wanted to play around with the battle quite a bit, so he put different elements like humor and intensity in it. He also wanted to try putting in cartoon-like physics and expressions and implementing them in the battles.

He does not want the series to become serious like some of the other shonens out there, which is why the final encounter between the two took on a rather cartoonish theme.

With One Piece entering its final saga, fans are quite excited to see the direction in which Oda takes the narrative. Will he be able to uniquely represent his magnum opus and set it apart from the other shonen series in the future? Fans will have to follow the series till the end to find out.