This article includes spoilers for the "One Piece" manga. Reader discretion is advised.

There's no doubt that Gear 5 was one of the most exciting moments in "One Piece" in recent years. First seen in “Chapter 1044” of the manga in March 2022, and visually perfected in “Episode 1071” of the anime in August 2023, the story finally gave Luffy a new level of power to face his enemies.

But the leaks of chapter 1118 of the manga, which will be officially published this weekend, have divided the community and put Gear 5 back in the eye of the trends, albeit for completely opposite reasons. It turns out that Jewelry Bonney, who possesses the Toshi Toshi fruit that allows her to manipulate her age and that of others at will, used the “Distorted Future” ability to access a parallel reality in which she is able to use the abilities of Gear 5.

Eiichiro Oda's explanation for this is that Bonney used her ability to access an alternate reality where she herself is Nika, the warrior deity known as the Sun God or Warrior of Liberation. In reality, Luffy's fruit allows him to become the incarnation of Nika, so what Bonney did is theoretically a "more authentic" version of Luffy's power with Gear 5.

And what is causing so much controversy and discussion? Well, the fact that Bonney achieved Gear 5 in such a simple way, while Luffy had to train for more than a thousand chapters to awaken the power of his fruit. In fact, it was Twitter user “@GeneralChrollo” who led the criticism by commenting: «Jujutsu Kaisen was killed for much less».

And of course, there was no shortage of comments:

• «At least her transformation makes all the sense in the world, both because of Bonnie's mere existence and because of her devil fruit.».
• «Don't compare Binding Votes Kaisen to God Piece, respect the ratings».
• «I'm a big fan of One Piece, but this one doesn't seem so bad to me. One of Bonnie's powers is copying, and this isn't the first time she's used it.».
• «Black Clover too. Let's just hope the compliance layer isn't too difficult.».
• «The current state of Luffy fans is deplorable. They simply defend One Piece because they don't want to feel like idiots for having read over a thousand chapters.».
• «They just heavily bastardized the whole Gear 5 awakening thing».
• «It's impossible for One Piece fans to lose the mantle of conformity. It's been reinforced by thirty years of the same arc over and over again, like grime.».
• «I already understand how consistent Jujutsu Kaisen fans felt when they saw Gojo's "return" panel.».
• «Why do you still cling to this manga? It never caught my attention or seemed good to me.».
• «I don't see any reason to criticize it; it's something that's established based on Bonney's output. There are things that are objectionable, like the lack of deaths (Kinemon's was criminal), Zoro's demotion in terms of character depth, and Vegapunk's poor introduction. Even so, the series is incredible.».
• «Isn't it pretty bad that you can copy an awakened fruit with just your imagination? It could be easily nerfed if you just copied the base fruit, but the fact that you copied it at full power? In the long run, this will even take away Luffy's prominence, and if he joins your team, it will be worse.».
• «If Gear 5 had something special, it's now gone.».
• «What gives me something to think about is that Luffy used Gear 5 about four times during this arc. I thought Oda wouldn't overuse it that much, but I think he was being too idealistic.».
• «I know it's fan service for One Piece fans. But these types of powers can kill a series if not handled carefully, as they can make plots less interesting and end up alienating the character or giving their power absurd rules, rendering it useless from one moment to the next.».
• «I won't deny it, the illustration is incredible. But it kills the whole concept of Nika. There should only be one Nika, but Bonnie can be Nika too. So what's so special about Luffy now?».
• «Even better than Sukuna's Binding Vows, with all the world's conveniences ripped out of his ass in Jujutsu Kaisen».
• «You have just activated a Binding Vote to give your opinion without having reading comprehension».

Source: Twitter