Underdogs are staples of the shonen anime genre, since the protagonists tend to be young and untested, meaning they have everything to prove as they grow up and get stronger. Such stories are about growth and overcoming incredible challenges, which includes the members of the original shonen “big three.” The underdog narrative is especially resonant with the heroes of Naruto and One Piece, who had the odds stacked against them when they launched their respective adventures.
By now, both Naruto Uzumaki and Monkey D. Luffy have come an incredibly long way during their adventures to become true shonen powerhouses who seemingly had it all. Naruto saved the world and became Hokage, while Luffy has the iconic power of Gear 5 and is the centerpiece of the Straw Hat Grand Fleet. While all that is gratifying to see, fans won’t ever forget these two heroes’ humble beginnings, when they had nothing but grit and a dream. With a variety of factors considered, shonen fans can compare these protagonists and see who’s more of an underdog who beat the odds.
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Naruto Uzumaki is the Underdog Who Overcame Loneliness and Fear
He Wouldn’t Let Anyone Treat Him Like a Monster Any Longer
Naruto Uzumaki’s underdog story began with a burden that was not his own fault. On the night of his birth, Naruto’s parents sealed Kurama the nine-tailed fox into his body at the cost of their own lives, saving the Hidden Leaf Village from Obito Uchiha’s wrath while cursing their son with a lifetime of woe. Growing up, Naruto was widely feared and mistreated by the entire village for reasons he couldn’t understand, which only added to his troubles as an orphan. The Third Hokage did the bare minimum to support Naruto in an ordinary apartment, and Iruka Umino trained him with tough but fair methods. Aside from that, Naruto was on his own, and the pain of loneless shrouded his heart in darkness. Fortunately, Naruto never internalized that darkness the way his Hidden Sand Village counterpart, Gaara, did.
In his youth, Naruto was also an underdog because he struggled to perform most jutsu and was only average with taijutsu and weapons, while the talented Sasuke Uchiha outstripped him in every regard. Naruto wasn’t as far behind as Rock Lee, but he was still behind the curve, and he failed the exit exam not once, but three times. Fortunately, Naruto turned all that around by learning to use the Shadow Clone jutsu to save himself from Mizuki and graduate from the academy after all. From there, Naruto slowly but surely strengthened himself as a ninja, competing with his shonen-style rival Sasuke Uchiha to push himself and become a worthwhile shinobi.
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Naruto made steady progress, but he had to work hard for all of it and had no particular inner talent to draw upon, unless one counts Kurama’s vast chakra. For a time, Sasuke remained in the lead until Naruto finally overtook him with the Rasengan. From that point onward, Naruto became much stronger and even won the respect and adoration of his village, meaning he was ahead of the rest of the Konoha 11 and was only an underdog in relation to powerful villains like the Six Paths of Pain and Sasuke himself.
Naruto was on the back foot while fighting Pain despite his use of Sage Mode, and he nearly got captured until he turned it all around to score an upset victory. Naruto also had a tough time eclipsing Sasuke’s vast collection of powers, such as his enhanced Chidori and his use of the Mangekyo Sharingan eyes, with Naruto merely breaking even with Sasuke in their final fight. Naruto the underdog caught up to his rival turned enemy, but surpassing him remained an elusive goal.
Monkey D. Luffy is the Underdog Who Invented His Own Fighting Style
He Started With a Rowboat and No Crew
Despite being the son of Monkey D. Dragon, the famous revolutionary, Monkey D. Luffy had humble and obscure origins in the Goa Kingdom, where no one would expect to find the son of Dragon. Luffy hardly even met his family, with his mother being absent and his father being busy with his own work, and even Luffy’s paternal grandfather Garp wasn’t often around for him. Instead, Luffy grew up under the care of Curly Dadan, alongside his foster brother Ace and soon, his adoptive brother Sabo as well. Luffy was the youngest of that trio of brothers and was treated accordingly, with Ace protecting Luffy, yet treating him like a fool or a burden. Then, Luffy ate the Gum-Gum Fruit and had his life changed forever, though those new powers didn’t pay off very much at first.
By age 17, after years of training with his rubbery powers, Luffy finally set sail to pursue his dream and become the king of pirates, though he had nothing but his rowboat and his Gum-Gum Fruit powers to his name. Luffy slowly built up his crew from there, recruiting Roronoa Zoro the pirate hunter as a fellow fighter before recruiting Nami the cat burglar to be his navigator, while also getting a slightly larger boat to make room. From there, Luffy’s scrappy underdog crew was strengthened in leaps and bounds, with Luffy getting the Merry Go at Syrup Village and adding Usopp and Sanji to the crew by the time the Straw Hats were ready to visit the Grand Line.
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The crew continued to expand, and the Merry Go was replaced with the bigger and better Thousand Sunny, and the crew expanded to ten members by the time the Elbaph story arc began in recent manga chapters. Along the way, Luffy was aware of his underdog status, since he compared poorly to powerhouse fighters with more advanced Devil Fruits, weapons, and tactics, and plenty of pirate crews outnumbered the Straw Hats many times over. Luffy nearly died at the hands of Sir Crocodile on Alabasta, and the members of CP9 trounced him until Luffy had a rematch with his new Gear combat system to even the odds against Rob Lucci.
Luffy also failed to save Ace at Marineford, and only with newer Gears did Luffy narrowly defeat the likes of Donquixote Doflamingo, Charlotte Katakuri, and Kaido in the New World. Even now, there are foes whom Luffy can’t easily defeat with Gear 5, such as the Five Elders, the living weapons of the World Government. That keeps the tension high as Luffy’s adventures continue and the inevitable showdowns against the World Government and Admiral Blackbeard loom.
Naruto Uzumaki vs Monkey D. Luffy — Who’s the Bigger Underdog?
True Underdogs Work For Everything They Have
Since Naruto and Luffy are both shonen action heroes who both took many cues from the original Dragon Ball, they are similar as heroes and underdogs, which makes them easy to compare. They both built up new powers and moves while gaining new allies and establishing their reputations as respectable fighters, but a few key factors set them apart. Those factors make it clear that Monkey D. Luffy is the true underdog between the two of them.
Luffy may not have been hated like Naruto was, and he had a found family to call his own, but he also didn’t have a fearsome half-other power to call upon, nor was he a child of destiny. Naruto Uzumaki’s otherwise excellent underdog narrative was sabotaged somewhat by those two factors, since Naruto’s greatest curse — Kurama — was also a massive weapon waiting to be wielded. Naruto was a jinchuriki, giving him peerless power that mentors like Jiraiya taught him to draw upon. That was the sole reason Naruto scored his upset victory over Neji Hyuga in the Chunin Exam’s finals, and it was the only reason Naruto could take on the likes of Pain and Kaguya Otsutsuki and survive.
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Naruto did work hard to train with Kurama’s power, but just having it was enough to make him less relatable as an underdog. The same is true for Naruto being the descendent of Asura and therefore the “chosen one,” with Sasuke as his counterpart via Indra’s own bloodline. It could be argued that Luffy was also gifted an immense power when he ate the Gum-Gum Fruit, but it wasn’t nearly as strong as Kurama’s chakra, and Luffy didn’t even have any mentors to show him how to use it. As a true underdog, Luffy was self-taught, including his invention of Gears 2-4, a combat system that Luffy’s world had never seen before. That was more rewarding to watch than seeing Naruto merely seize Kurama’s own chakra to use in battle, because Luffy earned his progress in every way, not just some ways.
Luffy also trained with Haki under Silvers Rayleigh to boost his power, and he often learned more on the fly, such as practicing Color of Observation Haki to keep pace with Charlotte Katakuri’s own during their duel. The only strike against Luffy’s underdog status is the shonen awakening of Gear 5, making Luffy the new Joy Boy with the symbolic power of Nika, the sun god of liberation. That was an extra side of the Gum-Gum Fruit that Luffy didn’t know about or work hard to get — it was dumped into his lap during his time of need.
Still, at least Luffy didn’t inherit anything about his Devil Fruit. He had to eat it first, and train with its powers on his own, and he was no child of destiny until he made himself one by accident. Luffy may not be a 100% underdog hero compared to shonen characters with zero supernatural powers, but Luffy still has Naruto beat in his “zero to hero” narrative all the same.
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Naruto
Naruto Uzumaki, a mischievous adolescent ninja, struggles as he searches for recognition and dreams of becoming the Hokage, the village’s leader and strongest ninja.
- Release Date
- September 10, 2002
- Cast
- Junko Takeuchi , Maile Flanagan , Kate Higgins
- Seasons
- 1
- Creator
- Masashi Kishimoto
- Production Company
- Pierrot, Staralis Film Company
- Number of Episodes
- 220
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One Piece
Follows the adventures of Monkey D. Luffy and his pirate crew in order to find the greatest treasure ever left by the legendary Pirate, Gold Roger. The famous mystery treasure named “One Piece”.
- Release Date
- October 20, 1999
- Cast
- Mayumi Tanaka , Kazuya Nakai , Akemi Okamura , Kappei Yamaguchi , Hiroaki Hirata , Ikue Ôtani , Yuriko Yamaguchi , Kazuki Yao , Chō
- Main Genre
- Action
- Seasons
- 20
- Creator
- Production Company
- Number of Episodes
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