Following the anime debut of Luffy’s Gear Fifth, the debate involving Dragon Ball’s Son Goku has been brought to life once again. They are two of the strongest anime characters of all time but did Luffy’s Gear Five surpass Goku’s Ultra Instinct?
Fans of both series have taken their opinions online, and there’s no stopping the long-running debate on who’s stronger between the aspiring Pirate King, Emperor Monkey D. Luffy, and the strongest Saiyan, Son Goku!
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How Strong Is Luffy’s Gear Five?
The vast majority of the One Piece community believes that Gear Five is Luffy’s peak form, not because it is the strongest to date but because it perfectly embodies Luffy’s outgoing and joyous personality.
But on a more technical note, Luffy’s Gear Five is brought upon by the awakening of his Gum-Gum Devil Fruit.
As it turns out, Luffy’s devil fruit is an extraordinary one, as it is a mythical Zoan kind that allows him to manifest the abilities and attributes of the legendary Sun God, Nika.
After experiencing defeat at the hands of Kaido, Luffy finally awakened his devil fruit, and his heart beat like the Drums of Liberation that Zunesia once heard from the former Joy Boy.
As a result, this pushed Luffy’s rubber abilities to yet another level!
It took everyone by surprise as we saw Luffy do cartoonishly absurd feats, resembling Looney Tunes’ Bugs Bunny’s Toon Force.
He was able to warp reality, including his physical environment, by transferring his rubbery nature to objects of all kinds! If he was wild before, Gear Five even made Luffy wilder, giving Kaidou the most difficult time.
What’s more, Luffy was also able to combine Gear Third’s limb inflation with Gear Fourth’s muscle inflation, even without inflating his body. Thus, Luffy became more elastic!
But there’s still a downside to Gear Five, and that is the time Luffy spent in his awakened state.
In a nutshell, Luffy can’t maintain his state for a very long time. Therefore, Luffy has to eliminate his opponents as fast as possible before his time runs out.
And we all know by now that Luffy always collapses after he exhausts his gears!
How Strong Is Goku’s Ultra Instinct?
To put it simply, Goku’s Ultra Instinct is formidable. Perhaps Goku is already the embodiment of the word "Formidable" after long years of training, accomplishing planetary and universe-level feats, and yet still growing more powerful at this point in time while training his latest transformation.
Following Goku’s desperate attempt to win against Jiren in the Tournament of Power arc, he awakened Ultra Instinct but has long had trouble mastering it due to his emotions.
For Goku to master Ultra Instinct, he has to fully repress his emotions and, at the same time, have a calm and tranquil heart.
The Ultra Instinct is a divine technique used by the Angels that allows Goku to separate his consciousness from his body, resulting in his ability to move and fight independently of thoughts and emotions.
It almost feels like Goku’s body parts can think for themselves!
Moreover, Goku in Ultra Instinct form has no time to waste thinking or dodging attacks thrown his way.
But like Gear Five, Goku’s Ultra Instinct also has its drawbacks, which relate to the time spent using the form as well as the proper training of the user.
Luffy’s Gear Five vs. Goku’s Ultra Instinct
Unfortunately, no matter how strong Luffy’s Gear Five is now, he still can’t surpass Goku’s Ultra Instinct due to obvious reasons.
Think of the power scaling as well as the multipliers in both One Piece and Dragon Ball and make a comparison.
You will easily feel overwhelmed seeing the numbers on Dragon Ball, which will make you think that Luffy’s Gear Five can be easily beaten by any of Goku’s previous Saiyan forms other than Ultra Instinct.
This is supported by one of the most popular arguments among Dragon Ball fans, claiming that Goku can easily destroy planets and achieve universe-level feats, but Luffy is still struggling against Kaidou even after he awakened his devil fruit.
This is evident in the manga, where Luffy is shown incredibly battered after taking hits from Kaidou, even though he was already in his Gear Five form.
On the contrary, fans of Luffy’s Gear Five form say that Luffy has the power to alter reality, which will be troublesome for Goku if Luffy truly believes that he can defeat Goku at full power.
It will be a matter of who exhausts their transformations first, and the winner will be hailed.
But even without their transformations, let’s admit that Goku can still beat Luffy in their base form.
So, what do you think?
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