#não é nossos lideres asquerosos ou os gringos preconceituosos que devem ditar o nosso valor

[maxwell-grant]

So as a Brazilian, how do you feel about all-around manga superstar (and possible neo-pulp hero?) Monkey D. Luffy being roundabout-Brazilian, per Word of God?

(I've only read the first volume of One Piece so that's where my main understanding of the character is coming from plus some research I did, I'm still a looong way from tackling the rest of the series although this ask definitely reignited my interest. I'm not touching the anime tho)

The two things that mainly stuck out to me about my initial reading of One Piece was the artstyle and characterization. The art style, that gets a lot of memes about for it's wacky character design, actually reminded me much more of Franco-Belgian comics I read growing up like Asterix and Lucky Luke than any other manga I'd read, which might have something to do with it's Lupin III and JoJo influences (I should really talk more about JoJo, it used to be my big obsession before The Shadow). And the characterization because I was very much impressed at just how throughly well-defined Luffy is right from the first chapter, right from the get-go. Zoro, too, but Luffy in particular.

I can't say I'm far enough in One Piece to recommend it in general (although I definitely like what I've read so far), but I'd seriously recommend Chapter 1 to anyone who's interested in storytelling, because I don't think I've ever seen a more effective, to-the-point introduction, explanation and rundown of a long-running manga protagonist than this one, even in manga I otherwise like much better. Oda does not waste any time whatsoever in making sure you get what Luffy's deal is so he can hit the ground running and I can only aspire to be that effective a storyteller in such a succint manner. I've seen a lot of memes about the supposed idea that One Piece fans say "it gets good after Chapter 1200 bro trust me", which is not just untrue and in bad faith, it's also completely wrong because, frankly, it gets good from Chapter 1 and so far it's only been uphill.

I'm not sure what was Oda's thought process behind the decision to stake Luffy as Brazilian and I'd like to know that. I suspect it may have had something to do with Oda's liking of Captain Tsubasa and football, with his high school football background and his anime cameo as a soccer-themed character and all that. I've seen some complaints towards this decision because Luffy looks Japanese, I mean obviously he's a shonen protagonist, but that doesn't take away from it at all, because Brazil has a long, long history of substantial Japanese immigration and cultural exchange with Japan. Brazil is an extremely mixed nation with a lot of cultural input from it's immigrant population, we have the biggest Japanese population outside of Japan itself. Here's a tip: Wanna design an authentic South American character or a character that appeals to those sensibilities and want to avoid crude stereotypes? Look at manga and anime characters for a start and figure out why South Americans love shonen so much.

Hell, look at Luffy's design, I could put together a Luffy cosplay right now just by going through my casual wardrobe, straw hat included. He’s even dressed in red, maybe the most popular color for Brazilian heroes. He's a Goku who looks like he trimmed his hair and dressed up to play football at the beach with his pals and is probably gonna share some funny stories about his scars over barbecue and cachaça.

(Pictured are: Turma da Monica, Principe Oscar, Tico-Tico, Menino Maluquinho, Castélo Ra-Tim-Bum, Yellow Woodpecker Ranch)

It's an interesting aspect of Brazil's pop culture how many if not most of our most popular characters, the characters that you can drop into a conversation casually and everyone will recognize, even people that don't keep up with soap operas and local film and literature or even have a general aversion to consuming Brazilian-made media (which is distressingly common) will still recognize and remember fondly, are characters from kid's media. Not even "all ages" stuff like superheroes, like actual kid's media, things not really made for grown-ups that people vividly remember liking as children.

Stories full of fantasy and unashamedly comedic and centered around optimistic kid protagonists meeting strangers and making friends and saving the day. The grown-ups are useless, school is boring, the authorities suck, why not go out there skateboarding dressed like homemade Napoleon? Why not go hang around some animals with a sassy talking doll at your side? Go beat up bad guys with a stuffed rabbit, anything goes!

Whether this is just the result of a natural affinity for humor and wordplay and fun and a love for games and fantasy, or the escape valve of a nation traumatized and broken at infancy by foreign colonialism and the resulting feelings of shame and belittlement that pervade so much of our culture to this day (we call it "the Mongrel complex" if you wanna look that up) and leads to a desire for freedom above all else, maybe even an attempt to recapture a time without shame and regret and bitter adult complications, it's a very recurring pattern. Maybe this is part of why shonen is such a pop culture juggernaut in Brazil and South America in general.

Whether he intended to or not, I think Oda hit it square on the money in creating a protagonist who would not look at all out of place next to some of Brazil's most popular characters. My first two thoughts to this ask were "Wait, what? When did that happen?" followed by "....Oh my God OF COURSE Luffy's Brazilian, look at him!".

I'm very glad you brought this to my attention, anon.