Almost 22 years have passed since One Piece made its first appearance in the anime world. It was first aired on October 20, 1999. Time has passed efficiently, so you must be wondering how old Luffy is.
Don’t worry, we have your back.
Let’s dive in but first, let’s get detailed information on his age since the start of his voyage. Luffy has always been a stupid child but has also left marks on the world. Let’s see at what age he did those.
How old was Luffy when he ate the Devil Fruit?
When the kid Luffy first showed up in the series, we saw him at Foosha Village with an Emperor of the sea, Red-Haired Shanks.
Luffy was so fascinated with Shanks and his pirate group that he wanted to be a pirate just like them. When he told about this to the Red-Haired Pirates. They laughed at him and made fun of him. But Luffy was serious.
To show the crew how serious and determined Luffy was to become a pirate he made a scar under his eye with a knife, he still has a scar on his left eye.
A group of Bandits showed up at Partys Bar and dishonored Shanks and his crew. The kid Luffy didn’t like that and went to take revenge to avenge Red Haired Pirates’ honor. But it didn’t go as he had planned.
Later out of frustration and hunger the kid Luffy ate the Gomu Gomu no Mi Devil Fruit because he mistook it for a ‘normal’ fruit. The fruit took his ability to swim and he had to face consequences.
The bandits abducted Luffy and threw him into the sea. He had already lost his ability to swim so, he started to drown but the captain of the Red-Haired Pirates arrived to save him. But during that moment, a Sea Monster showed up and was about to eat Luffy.
Shanks saved the kid from the Sea Monster, but he sacrificed his left arm during that process.
Then, the Emperor of the sea gave him his legendary Straw Hat, which he received from the Pirate King, Gol D. Roger.
Luffy eats a devil fruit, Shanks loses an arm, and then receives the legendary Straw Hat from the captain of Red-Haired Pirates, all of this happened when Luffy was only 7 years old.
How old was Luffy when he started his journey?
At the age of seven, Luffy promised Shanks that he would become a pirate and not just an ordinary pirate, King of the Pirates.
After 10 years old, at the age of 17 Luffy finally took the first step toward his dream. He left the Foosha Village and went to the sea and started his voyage.
But it didn’t take any time for something wrong to happen. Just after some, his boat started to leak so, to escape from there he locked himself in a barrel and went to the sea, hoping someone would take him.
He was lucky. Alvida pirate crew picked up the barrel and when they tried to look what was in there, Luffy blasted his way out using his iconic ‘Gomu Gomu no.’ He attacked Alvida’s crew, and that’s where he met Coby.
Luffy realized that he would be pretty weak if he was on his own, so he started to search for members of his crew. He wanted at least the 10 strongest members on his crew who would acknowledge him as a captain.
The first member that Luffy met was Zoro. When Luffy met the Pirate Hunter for the first time he was tied up by the marines. The captain of Straw Hats promised to save him but only on one condition. He had to join his group and acknowledge him as a captain.
The two of them started the journey together to fulfill their dreams.
How old was Luffy when he got his First Bounty?
Let’s travel back to the time when Nami betrayed Luffy’s trust and robbed all of his treasure and went to Cocoyashi Village, East Blue.
The Straw Hat pirates went to Cocoyashi Village to get Nami back to the crew. But when they reached there they found that the navigator of Straw Hat pirates was actually in trouble. She was in a debt to Arlong, who was taking control of the island at that moment.
Arlong requested a huge amount for the villager’s freedom. Poor Nami started a different lifestyle, she started to rob different pirates and places to redeem them for villagers’ freedom.
Nami successfully collected all the money that Arlong had requested and when she asked him to leave the island, he laughed and told her that he was faking all the time. She lost hope and was on the verge of giving up, but Luffy promised to save her village.
Luffy fought with Arlong and his crew. The Straw Hat pirates remained victorious against the infamous pirate crew and convinced Nami to acknowledge him as a captain and join the crew.
Before Cocoyashi Village, Luffy defeated another few infamous pirates such as; Buggy and Don Krieg.
After such famous victories against these dangerous pirates, it caught the attention of the marines. The marines looked at the young pirate as a threat to the world.
At the age of 17, Luffy got his first bounty of 30,000,000 Berries. This was a huge achievement for the young captain of Straw Hats. When he received the first bounty, he recruited four members of his crew; Zoro, Nami, Usopp, and Sanji.
How old was Luffy before Timeskip?
Before getting straight to a conclusion, it’s necessary to know what happened just before Time Skip, so let’s get the details.
Let’s roll back to episode 385, where Luffy was at the Sabaody Archipelago, the paradise island closer to the Red Line.
The Straw Hats pirates were moving forward for their next journey to the New World. Everything was exciting, Luffy had never lost a battle since the start of his voyage, but things went differently on Paradise Island.
Many infamous pirates such as; The Heart Pirates, led by Trafalgar Law, Bonney Pirates led by Jewelry Bonney, Kid Pirates led by Eustass Kid, and more arrived at Sabaody Archipelago for their next tough voyage.
While they were on the island, a bunch of burglars appeared and kidnapped Camie (friend of Luffy). The burglars sold her to a live slave auction where a Celestial Dragon, Peterman brought her.
(Celestial Dragons are one of the most powerful World Leaders)
To save her Luffy went to the auction, while the auction was going live, Peterman shot Hachi, a friend of Camie and Straw Hats. The captain of Straw Hats couldn’t handle that and went nuts.
Nobody can even raise their voice against the Celestial Dragons, but Monkey D. Luffy punched the shit out of him. The whole auction got startled and that’s where he met Silvers Rayleigh aka the Dark King.
Rayleigh was pretending to be the slave at the auction to steal money from his new owner.
Luffy’s punch caused a great ruckus in Sabody. Peterman, the Celestial Dragon was one of the World Nobles, so a huge army of marines arrived to arrest the pirates.
The army of Marines was not a big problem for the infamous pirates but when Admiral Kizaru and an army of Kuma created by Dr. Vrgapunk appeared, nothing went normal for the pirates.
They were a lot stronger than the Straw Hats had ever imagined. The Straw Hats started to lose their ground only a few minutes after Kizaru and an army of Kuma arrived on the battlefield. Just when they were losing hope, the ‘real’ Bartholomew Kuma appeared.
The Straw Hat went hopeless. They knew how powerful they were and just about then Kizaru flashingly came to give a final death blow kick to Zoro, but the Dark King came to save the Pirate Hunter.
Then Bartholomew whispered something into Rayeligh’s ear and erased the whole Straw Hat pirates by blowing them into different islands using his Nikyu Nikyu no Mi Devil Fruit power.
This was the main event that made Luffy realize how weak he was and after Ace died in the Paramount War, the captain of Straw Hats promised himself to be stronger for his crew and his late brother.
This was the main event that triggered the Timeskip. Before the Timeskip, Luffy was only 17 years old.
How old was Luffy’s post Timeskip?
The main thing that triggered the Timeskip was when Luffy realized he needs to be stronger after Sabody and Paramount War Arc.
In the Paramount War, he lost his beloved brother Ace in his arms. The Fire Fist sacrificed himself to save Luffy from the Marine Admiral Akainu.
Ace’s death caused mental trauma to Luffy, he couldn’t believe that he failed to save his brother. He blamed his weakness and went into depression. But after a few days, he picked himself up and swore to be strong for his crew and his late brother.
When Kuma blew him up, he landed at Amazon Lily, an empire full of women. After the Paramount War, the Straw Hat pirate came back to the Amazon Lily and started to train there. He didn’t train on his own though,
The Vice-Captain of Roger Pirates, Silvers Rayleigh trained him.
But Luffy had promised to meet with his crew after 3 days when they got erased by Kuma. To let them know, the captain of Straw Hats and Dark King went to the Marineford. The next thing that the Strawhat did was, exceptional.
Luffy inserted a tattoo on his arm “3D2Y” and gave a pose of paying respect to the dead ones, to the newspaper publishers. This picture got into the news. Every Straw Hat members read the newspaper and understood the secret meaning of their captain.
After the secret message, each member of the Straw Hats started training on their respective island. Throughout the training, every Straw Hat pirate enhanced their abilities and started to get stronger each day.
During his training, Luffy learned Haki with the help of Rayleigh. The Dark King described Haki and its powerful ability to the Strawhat. He even learned how to use Gear 4 with him.
Luffy completed his training with the Dark King and reunited with his crew member at the Sabody Archipelago.
The Straw Hats pirates reunited after 2 years of their training.
The Timeskip lasted for almost two years and after that period, the captain of Straw Hat pirates was now 19 years old.
How old is Luffy currently?
You must be thinking that Luffy is now in his currently mid-20s because almost 11 years have passed since the Timeskip happened.
What if we tell you that he’s still 19 years old?
The Straw Hats made their reunion in episode 517 ‘The Beginning of The New Chapter! The Straw Hats Reunited! It was aired on October 1, 2011, but in the world of pirates, not a single year has passed.
In One Piece, the world of pirates, the time doesn’t pass as it does in our world. Time flows at a much slower pace in the world of pirates. Oda once said in an interview; “even though the story was very long it is a single narrative and temporal continuity.”
This explains why Luffy hasn’t aged since the post Timeskip. The story continues in a single narrative and it doesn’t need to follow the original timeline.
Currently, in anime, the Straw Hats are having an epic battle with the two emperors of the sea, Kaidou and Big Mom. After the Cake Island arc, Luffy is considered the fifth emperor of the sea.
He achieved all these titles just at the age of 19.
Oda might never out-age Luffy, and there is a possibility that after 50 years, the captain of Straw Hats could be in his mid-20s. We might age, but the characters of One Piece will remain the same.
