My Hero Academia’s Deku just stole One Piece’s Luffy trademark move, as the young hero debuts One for All’s final power: switching gears!
The protagonist of My Hero Academia, Izuku Midoriya (Deku), just stole one of the signature moves of One Piece‘s own Luffy. The Straw Hat Captain uses the word “Gear” to describe his progressive power-ups, and Deku just showed that the last power of his One for All quirk, Transmission, works in a similar way and has the exact same name.
Until now, Luffy has shown four different “Gears” in One Piece, from Second to Fifth. Each one uses the characteristics of Luffy’s elastic body, granted by the Gomu Gomu no Mi Devil Fruit, in a different way to gain increased power, speed, or resilience in battle. Gear Fifth is different from the others because it is based on the awakening of Luffy’s Devil Fruit, and the revelation that it is completely different from what readers were led to believe. Regardless, every Gear represents a progression, a new level of strength that Luffy unlocks in order to protect his friends and achieve his dream of becoming the Pirate King.
In My Hero Academia, Deku possesses a quirk, or superpower, called One for All, which gathers and improves different powers. One for All can be transferred between people, so every “Successor” inherits the powers of the previous users, but Midoriya is the only one who is able to access all of them. One of these powers, the Second User’s quirk, was still a mystery until now, but Deku finally revealed it during his fierce battle against Shigaraki/All for One. The quirk is called Transmission, and it allows the user to change the speed at which objects and people accelerate through space. In chapter #368 of My Hero Academia, Deku hits Shigaraki with Transmission’s Ultimate Move, called Gear Shift: Overdrive. By hitting his enemy three times, Midoriya enters three different “Gears”, progressively increasing the speed of his target.
Deku Can Switch Gears Just Like Luffy
Seeing Deku call his progressive punches “Second Gear”, “Third Gear”, and “Top Gear”, the majority of manga fans must have immediately thought of Luffy and his trademark power-ups. This could be an homage paid by My Hero Academia‘s author, Kohei Horikoshi, to his revered senpai Eiichiro Oda. However, the similarities end at the name. While Deku’s “Gears” are all part of the same move, Luffy’s are completely different from each other. Gear Second uses the legs as pumps to make the blood run faster and dope the body; Gear Third inflates air in the bones to make Luffy’s limbs giant; Gear Fourth still uses air but inflates the muscles instead, making them rock-hard with the help of Haki; Gear Fifth completely transforms Luffy and gives him cartoon-like abilities.
Deku’s Gear Shift: Overdrive attack looks impressive, and it managed to catch All for One by surprise, but it does not require creativity, which is instead the principle behind Luffy’s Gears. However, Deku still has to reveal the full power of Transmission, which has mutated after being incorporated in One for All, so the next chapter of My Hero Academia could show something completely new that could rival even Luffy‘s craziest power-ups.
