Character Analysis Study - Luffy's Despair in Baron Omatsuri

 Luffy's Despair in "Baron Omatsuri and the Secret Island"

    Monkey D. Luffy is the happy-go-lucky protagonist of the hit series "One Piece". He also stars in the 6th spin-off movie "One Piece: Baron Omatsuri and the Secret Island" in 2005. Compared to all the other spin-off movies and main stories, Luffy and the StrawHat crew are put in a different, darker story than the usual adventures. Despite the non-canon status of the movie story, the entire character arc for Luffy is a direct honoring to past and future events in the canon main story. This added depth to Luffy's character and psyche is achieved to great success thanks to Mamoru Hosoda's direction in acting and writing.

Luffy Bio:

Name: Monkey D. Luffy

Gender: Male

Age: 17

Family: Monkey D. Dragon, Ace, Sabo, the entire StrawHat crew, everyone in his hometown

Cultural background: homeless in the woods or with forest thieves

Intelligence (IQ): Combat Genius, subtly emotionally intelligent, otherwise is usually pretty dumb

Education: None

Occupation: Pirate

Goals, ambition, dreams: To become the next Pirate King and find the One Piece.

Secrets: Luffy doesn't care to share information unless asked or he deems it important to the present. His father is the leader of the Revolution and he has lost a brother before.

Fears/Phobias: being completely hopeless as he loses the people he loves

Sense of humor: goofy, childish, straightforward

Adrenaline moments: For this movie, when he watches all of his friends fight, separate, and almost die.

Physical description: lanky, gummy, straw hat, scar underneath one eye, red vest, blue short pants

Physical disabilities, if any: cannot swim due to devil fruit powers

Character Pose:

This is Luffy with his pirate crew. He is normally this happy and excited to experience new adventures. His power center here is in his chest.

Luffy oftentimes in a fight will be in a calm before the storm kind of state. He is ready to fight his hardest for what he wants. Luffy's face is the most expressive part of his character acting so whenever it is obscured, the audience will know that a very important shift in tone and pace is about to happen. His power center is on the ground by his feet. He is becoming grounded after regaining his composure.

This is Luffy in a rare pose where he is emotionally distressed and somewhat hopeless. He doesn't know what to do and it shows in his emotion. This is uncommon considering Luffy has always won and stomped his enemies. The power center is in his head as he stretches his neck out and looking out in anger. 

Luffy Character Sequence Analysis 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C641Ez3AsPU

Intention

What is the message or emotion you are communicating in the scene?

Luffy has always been overpowered or equal to his adversaries up until this point. This scene brings Luffy down a couple pegs and shows him in a new desperate and hopeless state. Luffy's character becomes more grounded. 

Subtext

First, Chopper isn't a river otter, he's a reindeer. (A topic often use for a joke but Luffy knows its a serious problem for Chopper. Even though Luffy seems happy-go-lucky all the time, he does pay attention and is socially aware around his friends.)

Alone..? (At face value, being alone is always scary. For Luffy, this hits harder because he has watched one of his brothers die. He wants to be Pirate King but the most important thing to him has always been the journey with his friends. There is no point otherwise.)

 

Specificity

Before this scene, Luffy's entire team begins to separate due to core problems turning more serious. Nami, one of his teammates, asks him to help or do anything to get everyone back together, but Luffy doesn't know and just stands there. Then his friends get eaten up by Baron's flower. 

Luffy finally acts because he wants to save his friends, but there is hopelessness expressed in a mental and physical way.

Execution

The aesthetic in this scene has changed to one be horror-inspired and with a dark color palette. Luffy's eyes are obscured once again leaving all the character acting to his body and voice. Once you see his eyes again, they are one of desperation and loss for he just saw his last crew member get eaten up by the flower. 

There is a small arc in Luffy's physical struggle to get to the flower stem. All of his limbs get punctured by arrows. In a final last desperate attempt, he uses his head. The audience thinks his head will also get hit by the arrows, but a tiny surprise happens in the form of Luffy catching it with his mouth. Even then with that final last bit of hope, it gets squashed as he is a bit too late. 

Gesture

Luffy's biggest gesture is how he smiles with his eyes. He is happy when his eyes become crescent moons. When he is desperate and stressed, his eyes are wide open. Thematically, his eyes being open during the climax shows how he must face the inner problems of his crew and himself as their leader in order to even have a chance at keeping his crew.