As One Piece fans know, Monkey D. Garp is Luffy's grandfather. He's a Marine with a history with Gol D. Roger, and although he's only a vice admiral, he's one of the strongest and most respected members of the Marines. But while he's usually serious and quite loyal to his job, he also sometimes has a funny and very childish side, and one example of this is his dog hat. Why does Garp wear it? Read on to find out.

Monkey D. Garp was seen wearing a dog hat to hide his true identity as Luffy's grandfather. This was originally based on the Romance Dawn 2 story, which is not canon but where Garp's design appeared as that of Luffy's unnamed grandfather. Although the story was later changed, Oda kept Garp's design and, to hide this fact from readers, gave him a dog hat that matched the overall canine motif we saw with Garp. Once Luffy and Garp's relationship is revealed, Garp never uses his signature dog hat again in the story.

The rest of this article will tell you the story of Monkey D. Garp's dog hat, a very special type of hat that we saw in the series and that also had a very specific role in the series. Now, the dog hat may be a thing of the past, but it was an important moment back when the story was still in its early stages, so we think it's important for you to know all the necessary details. Of course, there will be some spoilers in this article, so be careful how you actually approach it.

Monkey D. Garp was given a dog hat to hide the fact that he was Luffy's grandfather.

Former Marine Vice Admiral Monkey D. Garp, also known as Garp the Fist, is currently an instructor in the Marines. He is responsible for training Koby and Helemeppo. He was a prominent figure during the Gol D. Roger era, along with Sengoku and Whitebeard, but he was already considered a hero even before that.

He is the biological father of Monkey D. Dragon, the adoptive grandfather of Portgas D. Ace, and the great-grandfather of Monkey D. Luffy. As his name suggests, he possesses the Will of D, just as he has the initial D in his name. He defeated the Rocks Pirates with the help of Gol D. Roger, earning him the title "Hero of the Navy."

As you can see, Garp is a very important character in the series, but even though his story is generally perceived through Luffy's, he also has some very interesting individual moments that we unfortunately won't cover in this article, but which will be discussed (or have been discussed) in some of our other articles.

This one will focus on Garp's appearance in previous arcs, where he was seen with a distinctive dog hat covering his face. The dog hat fit perfectly with Garp's overall canine motif, but why did he wear it in the first place? As a vice admiral, he doesn't have a color/animal nickname, and "dog" was already taken by Akainu. So why the hat?

The story is tied to the fact that Garp is Luffy's grandfather. Namely, a character called Luffy's grandfather was introduced in an older version of the story, Romance Dawn, Version 2. And even though the story there was completely different (he was a pirate with a straw hat, and he was, in a way, what Shanks is in One Piece), the design was basically the same, as Oda used Garp's current design for the design of Luffy's grandfather in the story of Romance Dawn, Version 2.

He was a bit bulkier and less muscular, but the difference was really minor in that aspect. Of course, Romance Dawn, version 2 was later revised into One Piece, but when Oda designed Luffy's grandfather for One Piece, he decided to keep the original design, even though he completely changed the story.

Now, few people actually read Romance Dawn, Version 2, so Oda still had the element of surprise on his side. So, when he decided to reuse Garp's design for the One Piece manga and retain his relationship with Luffy while completely revamping his story, he had to keep the big reveal a mystery.

One Piece Figure

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Now, those who had read Romance Dawn, Version 2 would immediately recognize Garp as Luffy's grandfather, and word would spread quickly, so Oda was aware that he would lose the element of surprise and that the big reveal—that Marine Vice Admiral Monkey D. Garp is Monkey D. Luffy's biological grandfather—wouldn't actually be that big. So what did he do?

Well, before he was ready to make the big reveal of the series, he decided to hide Garp under a big, goofy dog ​​hat that hid his identity. No proper in-universe explanation was given, but we know he did it because he didn't want readers to connect this Garp to Luffy's grandfather character from Romance Dawn, Version 2, as it would ruin the surprise for One Piece fans. Garp had the dog hat so fans wouldn't recognize him, meaning Oda could surprise them with the big reveal later.

In fact, once it was revealed in the story that Garp is indeed Luffy's grandfather, the Vice Admiral suddenly stopped carrying the strange dog and was never seen with him again, which is proof that our explanation is correct.