is a
fictional character and the
protagonist of the manga
One Piece franchise created by
Eiichiro Oda. He is first introduced in the manga chapter , first published in Japan's
Weekly Shonen Jump magazine on July 19, 1997, as a young boy whose body gains the properties of rubber after he inadvertently eats a supernatural fruit called the Gum-Gum Fruit, one of many Devil Fruits that can be found in the One Piece world.