Most ridiculous power in the world = silly cartoon power.
Oda has clearly had this in mind since the beginning. “The most ridiculous power in the world” is translated from 世界で最もふざけた能力, but personally, I think the translation fails to capture some nuances. The word Oda uses is ふざけた, which has the meanings of ridiculous, silly, jokingly, merry, playful. For example, In SBS, Oda has said he “picked the most ridiculous ability… he(Luffy) always gives me (Oda) a chance to fool around ” (一番ふざけた能力を選んだのです… いつでもふざけるチャンスをくれま) “. And to fool around, he picked a fruit inspired by rubber hose animation. Our rubber boy literary has the power of rubber cartoon as an anime character. Btw, it’s also probably why some people can’t get over the “art syle” of one piece because it’s basically a fusion of Japanese anime-style art and Western cartoon-style art. Personally, I think Oda is a freaking genius for doing that because it created something truly unique.
Just look at chapter 1, when Luffy eats Gomu Gomu fruit. everyone reacts in a very cartoon-ish way.
I mean, look at this. Luffy literary does the same thing Bugs Bunny in chapter 1
I don’t know about Gear 2nd but look at Gear 3rd and Popeye.
The aftereffect of Gear 3rd is also very carrtoon-ish
Gear 4th and Bugs Muscle Inflation. Bugs Bunny gets bigger by inhaling air, lol. In the same panel, Doflamingo even says, “What kind of joke is this?” in response to Luffy.
This power is truly ridiculous and silly (ふざけた) and I’m so thankful for Oda’s creativity. Water Luffy was peak comedy and Crocodile got so mad he shouts to Luffy “don’t be so ridiculous!!!” (フザケてんじゃねェぞ) ( Japanese phrase here mixes up Katakana and Hiragana to show how pissed off and unhinged Crocodile was. A bit like him shouting “Don’t be so RiDiculOus!!” with crazy spellings.)
Thank you for reading my long post. In conclusion, Luffy being the Sun God “Nika”, aka Joy Boy with Drums-of-Liberation, aka rubber boy with cartoon powers, has been planned and foreshadowed since chapter 1 in both obvious and not so obvious ways. Oda is a genius storyteller and artist and I am absolutely blown away by the multiple layers of meanings and foreshadowings he manages to wave into the story. As I said in the beginning, Oda takes full advantage of the Japanese language and the manga format to imbue multiple layers of meanings and symbolism to enrich his story and the payoff when everything comes together is simply mind-blowing. I am so happy I’m in Oda’s longest-running Joke.
