There are many stories about different types of relationships in One Piece, and this article will be one of those stories, as we will talk about two popular characters from the series and explain the very nature of their relationship. The characters in question will be Monkey D. Luffy, the protagonist of the series, and Koby, the young boy he saved from Alvida and who later becomes a Marine. In this article, you will find out if Luffy and Koby are friends.

Although they are on opposite sides of the law, Luffy and Koby can be considered friends. Luffy actually directly helped Koby join the Marines, even though Luffy had always wanted to become a pirate, so he was aware that Koby would eventually become his enemy; despite this, Luffy still considers Koby his friend, and Koby does the same. Namely, Koby is very grateful to Luffy because he saved him from the tyrannical Alvida, motivated him, and gave him the courage to join the Marines, something Koby was afraid to do himself. This is why Koby respects Luffy, and the two can be considered friends.

The rest of this article will explore Monkey D. Luffy's relationship with Koby, focusing in particular on the nature of their relationship and whether they are friends in the series or not, which is also the main question of this article. If you are not fully aware of the events of One Piece, this article may contain significant spoilers, but we must clarify that no new information will be presented here, as we will focus on old and well-known facts about the two of them.

Luffy and Koby are friends even though they are on opposite sides of the law.

To of course give you a good answer to the question of the nature of Koby and Luffy's relationship, we must first tell you their shared history, of course.

When Luffy sets sail for the Grand Line, his ship sinks and he is forced to lock himself in a barrel to survive as he has lost his ability to swim due to the capture of the Gomu Gomu no Mi. The Alvida Pirates eventually retrieve the barrel, and one night, Luffy opens it to scare Koby, a young boy who was cleaning the storage room. While Koby tries to stop him, Luffy shows up and steals Alvida's meals.

Koby is afraid that Luffy will cause them trouble and decides to help him escape the ship, but Alvida catches them and they both end up in trouble. However, Luffy, using his Gomu Gomu no Mi abilities, manages to defeat Alvida, scaring his crew members so much that they refuse to fight him. He then takes advantage of the situation and leaves with Koby.

During this meeting, Koby informed Luffy that he hated pirates (due to the horrible experience he had while serving on Alvida's ship) and wanted to become a Marine so he could help people; when Luffy told him he was a pirate, Koby didn't believe him because Luffy was so nice to him.

In fact, Luffy wasn't just kind to him, he even encouraged him to join the Marines, even though the Marines were the pirates' enemies and hated each other. Luffy appreciated other people's dreams, and when he was certain that Koby's dream was genuine, he encouraged him to do so, which greatly influenced Koby; so much so, in fact, that he actually enrolled in the Marine Academy.

Because Koby had been traveling with Luffy for a while, he was suspected of having an affair with Luffy, which would have been a problem for the young Marine boy. Although Luffy considered him a friend, seeing Koby's conflicting loyalties (as the boy was torn between wanting to become a Marine and his friendship with Luffy), Luffy even punched him in front of witnesses, declaring that he was not his friend.

This was, of course, just a ruse so that the other Marines could see that Koby was loyal to them and not in cahoots with Luffy. Thus, Luffy risked their friendship for Koby, showing how much he valued and respected him. And the rest is history.

So, what about their relationship? What can we say about it? As we've already established, Koby was one of the first people Luffy met during his journey. With the latter, he also traveled a short distance at sea, temporarily acting as a navigator after the pirate helped him escape from Alvida. The two later reunited in Water 7 and were both very happy to see each other again.

Despite his admiration and friendship with Luffy, Koby is nevertheless well aware of his role and position, so much so that he states, albeit in a friendly manner, that in the New World, he would have no problem capturing both Luffy and his crew. During the War for Supremacy, Koby chooses to fight Luffy as a marine but is easily defeated by the pirate. After the time skip, Koby continues to admire his friend's strength while secretly remaining happy to learn of his exploits.

And that's pretty much the point, really. Luffy and Koby are friends, which can't be denied, but they're on opposite sides of the law, which puts a little strain on their relationship, but nothing major, to be honest. They respect each other immensely and are friends no matter what's happened to them, because they share a bond that transcends their loyalties.

Does Koby like Luffy?

Now that we've explained everything, we can also answer an additional question we've come across online: Does Koby like Luffy? We actually think this question is a result of the changes made to Koby's character in the live-action series, where Koby was portrayed as somewhat feminine in appearance, insecure, and shy, so people thought his behavior toward Luffy might be a sign that he has romantic feelings for him.

But in the original series, Koby was just a scared boy and wasn't really feminine. He was scared of Alvida, he was scared of Luffy, he was scared of pirates, he was scared of Marines... he was basically scared of everyone, so that was his general personality trait.

Once he began to trust Luffy, their relationship changed considerably, and when they met much later, they greeted each other like old friends. So no, Koby doesn't like Luffy, and there's no romance between them in the series, despite the implications of the live-action series.