Ever since Luffy first unlocked Gear 5 in One Piece, there’s been an ongoing debate about how, exactly, it’s supposed to work. Every fight with Gear 5 has Luffy doing bizarre things like making objects spawn from nothing or having his eyes pop out of his head, and with every new fight, it’s become increasingly less believable that it’s all just One Piece’s typical brand of comedy.

Gear 5 has been one of the weirdest powers in One Piece from the moment it first appeared, and the exact nature of its abilities might have finally been defined. One Piece creator Eiichiro Oda recently answered 10 questions about some of the characters in the series, and when answering a question about Luffy, One Piece creator Eiichiro Oda seems to have finally confirmed the true nature of Gear 5’s powers. As is often the case with One Piece trivia, Oda kept things notably vague, but regardless, it’s the clearest answer that’s been given about Gear 5’s powers, to date.

One Piece Confirms Luffy’s Gear 5 Is As Bizarre As The Story Makes It Look

The True Power Of Gear 5 Explained

For the first question of Eiichiro Oda’s recent Q&A, Oda was asked about the logic behind Luffy manifesting things from his body in Gear 5 like goggles, paint, and a baseball helmet, which fans have been asking since its debut. Oda’s answer to that was that the clouds on Luffy’s body in Gear 5 were “a gateway to Nika’s fantasy;” a statement like that is blatantly vague, but it does suggest that those moments and others weren’t just visual gags, which means that One Piece finally confirms that Luffy’s Gear 5 fights by weaponizing toon force.

The idea of Gear 5 weaponizing toon force could already be seen not just in its presentation, but from previous comments from Eiichiro Oda, as well. Both the anime and the manga consistently emphasize the cartoonish nature of Gear 5, with the anime adding even more to that through Luffy’s voice acting and the visual presentation, and in Eiichiro Oda and Gosho Aoyama’s interview from 2022, Oda likened Gear 5 to him suddenly drawing Tom & Jerry, as well. Gear 5 has centered around weaponizing toon force since its conception, and these recent comments from Eiichiro Oda only solidify that idea.

Gear 5’s True Power Captures The True Essence Of One Piece’s Story

Even with all of its action and serious story beats, One Piece has always been a goofy adventure story at heart, and because of that, Luffy weaponizing toon force with Gear 5 helps maintain the idea that One Piece will always have a lighthearted bend to it. Eiichiro Oda more or less said that was part of the goal with Gear 5 in the aforementioned interview with Gosho Aoyama, and if Gear 5 continues to showcase those sorts of creative abilities, then it’s sure to continue being one of the best additions to One Piece in recent years.