LuUta

LuUta is the het ship between Monkey D. Luffy and Uta from the One Piece fandom.

Childhood
Luffy and Uta have met each other in their childhood, when Luffy was 6 and Uta 8, due to Shanks arriving in Foosha village and making it his main operation base. While at the start Luffy and Uta didn't hit off in the best of ways, with her finding him annoying and him being irritated by her mocking of him, the two eventually warmed up to each other, thanks to their constant challenges to prove who was stronger and basically spending their entire time together. At some point, shortly after meeting, Uta revealed to Luffy of being the Red-Haired crew's musician and sang for him. Luffy admitted her ability, even if his singing wasn't appreciated back by her. Her singing however, kept inspiring him to sing more, and also thanks to Shank's explanations about the importance of a musician in a crew, Luffy grew very passionate about music.

In Oda's notes and the approved anime episodes on their childhood, it's seen how they often bickering but defined as two who "get along very well". Uta often cheats on their competitions, mocks Luffy for being two years younger and tries to act bossy, lamenting that he is often overhyped, but eventually always lets him convince her easily to tag along and join on his games and crazy adventures, showing she is secretly as invested as him. Sometimes, when not too bothered by just relaxing and listening to Uta's discourses about imagining adventures only in the head, Luffy would lay down with her on the grass and listen to her singing, until falling asleep (as shown in Oda's notes)

They bonded over their challenges, between chicken races, knives throwing, arm wrestling, meddling with mountain bandits etc... They also explore Foosha's many different places, mostly shown by Luffy, who wanted to help his friend find the perfect "stage" she was searching for her fantasies as singer. When bringing her to one of his favorites, an old windmill, they admitted about the other being interesting after all. Their friendship strengthened up to the point of them sharing their dreams and ideals to each other, with Uta explaining to Luffy her concept of New Era, and inspiring him to find his own goal with becoming King of Pirates. The two of them vow to create a New Genesis together, encouraging and supporting each other. They take their wish very seriously, as proved by Luffy showing her a drawing he made as logo for their New Era, it being Shank's straw hat. Uta initially doesn't recognise it, as it's very badly drawn and even comments on that, but Luffy is still very happy to gift it to her. She eventually really makes it the symbol of their New Genesis, proving that while she found Luffy's art terrible, she still cherish his efforts, gift and frienship.

Shanks and his crew would often leave Foosha with Uta in order to go on adventures and Luffy would always wait for them and search for Uta to tell him all about them, even being willing to listen to her bragging. He would often also get lonely during those period of time without the Red-Haired crew, waiting close to his and Uta's favorite spot on the promontory, hoping to see the ship reaching closer from the sea. Uta's time in Foosha with Luffy is more or less of one year, with her last trip happening when they are respectively 9 and 7. Eventually, when Shanks came back to Foosha without Uta, Luffy right away in tears, suspected of something having happened to her. Shanks tried to reassure Luffy, but the kid wouldn't believe Shanks, knowing Uta wouldn't leave the crew on her own since she loved them so much and crying even more. Luffy and Shanks, both heartbroken for being separated by Uta, stopped talking to each other for a while (mostly due to Luffy sulking and being pissed at Shanks for not telling him about her whereabouts). Uta's absence hit Luffy very hard, making him seek for her and imagining her popping by out of nowhere, even knowing she wouldn't be back. After a very bad encounter with mountain bandits and him getting injured by then, and then saved by Beckmen, Luffy expressed his wish to get stronger, related to his promise to Uta and her now absence in his life.

Eventually he started again talking with Shanks and decided to not ask questions about what happened to Uta, however not forgetting their promise and her influence.

Manga
As of now, given the recent introduction of Uta, there has not been any interaction between her and Luffy. However, since Uta has made an appearance as a silhouette in Shanks' memories in Chapter 1055, proving her canonicity in the One Piece world, the possibility of another appearance and further interactions with Luffy can't be ruled out.

One Piece Red
After their arrival in Elegia and Uta being possessed by the demon king Tot Musica, Shanks decided to leave her with Gordon on the island, asking him to raise her to be the best singer ever. During the next 9 years, Uta falls into depression, often remembering her days with the crew and Luffy, singing "Where the wind blows" and missing her friends. When she finds a special prototype of Vegapunk's transponder snails and starts connecting with her fans, she starts again working on her dream of singer and uses Luffy's drawing as logo for the New Genesis.

Upon discovering the truth about Elegia's accident and being pressured by the expectations of her fans seeing her as a saviour, Uta starts planning to sacrifice herself and trap everyone in the Uta World, so to keep them safe from war, hunger and sufference, planning a concert to do so and maybe catch Shanks' attention to have him present and be able to apologize and thank him. To do this, she starts also eating the Wakeshrooms to keep her power working until death, without knowing it would make her lose control over her emotions. Due to some of Luffy's crew being fans of the mysterious but beloved diva Uta, the Straw Hats go to Elegia, to listen to the concert. During Uta's exhibition and reveal, Luffy instantly recognises her and after the first song being over he rushes in front of her to check. He quickly confirms that it's indeed Uta and tries to have her recognising him, which she manages after the initial short confusion of finding the guy in front of her. Once sure that it's Luffy, Uta cries tears of happiness and screams his name, launching herself between his arms as they hug each other very tenderly, while laughing for the joy. The hug shocks the crew, including Sanji, who snarks for the jealously and wonders how Luffy could beat him (novel).

After explaining how they know each other, the two are interrupted by some pirates, including Big Mom's crew, trying to kidnap Uta. Luffy right away tries to defend and his crew joins in helping, but she stops them, saying that while she appreciates their efforts she doesn't want anyone fighting over her. When a sword is pointed at her neck, Luffy screams her name in worry, rushing to save her, but she manages to defend herself, using her powers to fight the pirates and capturing them. Luffy is shown to be greatly and positively surprised by her strength, admiring how much she improved. After the fight is over, Luffy is once again dragged away from her by his crew, who wants to let her continue the concert. Sometime between a song and another, Uta drops in with Luffy's crew to check if they're enjoying the food and the fun. Uta asks Luffy about where is Shanks, recognising his hat, but he replies he doesn't know. She then challenges him as old times, but he says she wouldn't be able to beat him, pissing her off as she provokes him about having a 183 winning streak against him. He says it's his streak, to which Robin comments that they have very divergent views. Nami asks which kind of games they used to play, with Uta listing some and then dragging Luffy to play the chicken eating race once again. During their challenge, Luffy is visibly in advantage, close to winning, but Uta uses her fruit to create a drink and distract him enough to win instead. He doesn't appreciate it, accusing her of cheating and asking for a rematch, making her mock him: "As always, you are a sore loser!".

She and Luffy explain better about their childhood as a flashback of them challenging each other at the chicken race as kids is shown. Luffy also asks what happened and why she left the Red-Haired crew, remembering him asking Shanks about it too when he came back without her. Uta avoids telling the truth, saying she chose to become a professional singer instead. When discovering that Luffy became a pirate, she asks him to stop doing it and stay there with her, to which Luffy says that will go back to the Sunny to take a nap. Without paying much attention to her laments, he grins and says that he was very happy to meet again and that he is also glad she is happily following her dreams and doing well. However, Uta starts losing control over her emotions and refuses letting his crew go. Their attempts to escape are foiled as she easily captures all of them. Luffy refuses to battle with her, not wanting to seriously fight with his friend, but eventually gets captured too, as he angrily demands her to let his friends go. He is rescued by Barto and Law.

Uta tries more than once to find Luffy and get him back, more and more under the effects of the mooshrooms. Luffy meets Gordon and learns about Uta's past (Albeit, not paying much attention) and plans, being filled in more by Koby. Learning about the high chances of her dying, Luffy gets frantic and more determined to stop her and prevent it happening, both to avoid everyone staying trapped in the Dream World and both to save her. He goes once more to meet her, attempting to stop her, but while she is more than willing to use her powers to attack him, completely out of her mind due to the shroom's effects, Luffy is unable to land a single hit on her, refusing to hurt her and still firm on not fighting her directly. He is captured and the two ends up in an argument, where she almost destroys the fake straw hat she stole from him and she reveals about Shanks abandoning her. Seeing that Luffy refuses to believe Shanks would do such thing without reasons and keeps resisting, in the real world Uta decides to resort to extreme ways. She caresses his face, moving a bit his wet bangs for the rain as he sleeps and then takes a knife to kill him, but is stopped in time by Shanks. The arrival of the Marines and their willingness to shoot to Uta's fans however, and the effects of the shrooms, make Uta evoke Tot Musica. Luffy tries multiple times to reach Uta and help her to snap out of those effects, while also freeing herself from Tot Musica, getting up everytime that she attacked and hit him. Gordon saves Luffy by getting in the way of one of the attacks and reveals the truth about Uta's past and her being controlled by Tot Musica and the reasons of Shanks abandoning her. Luffy sees it as a positive thing, not caring about what could be seen as child Uta's sin and jumping right away towards her happily, his hand reaching out to her. She seems to be wanting to take it, but eventually hits him again, revealing she knew the truth but that she couldn't back down anymore when she found out, with the guilt and the responsability towards her fans pressuring her. She is wavering thought, and Luffy finally breaks through her when noticing the logo on her sleeve, the same one he gifted her back when they were kids as logo for their New Genesis. He stops her fists calmly with his hand and reminds her that she should know that's not their New Era, and finally Uta starts crying, sobbing his name desperately as if asking for help. Tot Musica separates the two, taking over and absorbing Uta's body, once again sending Luffy away. After being treated by Chopper, even still injured, Luffy prepares to fight alongside Shanks to free Uta, reassuring Gordon he would save her, knowing well that she didn't mean bad and that she was hurting all along. As he fights memories of his childhood with Uta reach his mind, giving him more strength and motivation to defeat Tot Musica, while Shanks has his own share of memories to grab onto as well.

With Tot Musica finally defeated, Uta is safe from its control, but decides to refuse the medicine for the shroom's effects, feeling tired of the pain the world inflicted her and choosing to stay awake to sing and free everyone before the Marines hurt more people, since Tot Musica trapped everyone's souls in the Uta World and sleeping wouldn't let them out anymore. Taking responsability for her actions, Uta sings "The world's continuation" (the lyrics indicating she is singing for Luffy) and meets him again is a private area of the Dream World. She greets him, asking why he didn't want to hit her, and he lies about his fists being like pistols, to which she understands it's not the complete truth and starts mocking him once again. She quickly drops her smile however as she looks at his face (not visible for the viewer) and asks him with a somber voice when he got taller than her. He sits, in a defeated way and refuses to look her in the face, visibly depressed. She materializes the Straw Hat, fixed, and places it upon his head, leaning in close as he shares a tear. She reminds him that the hat is important to her too and says she is sure that one day he will be a man who will be the worthiest to wear it, as their conversation comes to an end and his soul goes back to his sleeping body.

Uta is besides him with Shanks, in the real world, asking to her father to confirm if he is safely back. After the Admirals attack to take Uta and Shanks scares them away, she is brough back to her father's ship as they depart.

Luffy wakes up on the Sunny and right away wonders where Uta is, and Zoro points Shanks' ship. From afar, he sees Shanks and his crew grouped around what seems to be a coffin. He look away, eyes hidden for a moment, and then looks ahead, a determined frown on his face.

Then, sometime later, he is seen on Sunny's head as he recalls something Uta said to him, the audio being silent. He cheers up and screams about becoming King of Pirates.

One Piece Gakuen
In the spin-off with school setting, chapter 29A and 29B, Uta suddenly joins Luffy's class, apparently knowing already which class he would be into, giving the assumption she specifically asked to join that one. As they meet, they right away race into a tender embrace, under the shocked and mortified look of Hancock, panicked by Uta and Luffy's intimacy. When asked what Luffy is to Uta, the girl replies "a childhood friend", explaining about their challenges in the past and Hancock panics, having read in some novels and mangas that childhood friends very often become romantic couples. Since that moment, Hancock started feeling resentment towards Uta, despite the new arrival being kind and friendly with her. In Boa's view, Uta is her rival for Luffy's love.

In the second part of Uta's introduction chapter, Uta is playing football (soccer) with the rest of the class and initially shows difficulties playing with them like a team, often stealing the ball to her own teammates and going solo. Some classmates discuss about it, saying that after she moved she must have felt very alone and didn't have occasions to socialize. Luffy tries to get her to understand teammworks and after she scores a goal with Hancock, she recognises how fun it's to collaborate. Luffy asks her if she finds school fun with a huge smile, which leaves her in awe for a moment, before she grins back and confirms she does.

Fanon
While this ship isn't very popular overseas, in Japan its popularity skyrocketed in very short time. It's very well known and supported, to the point of it's surprising popularity being commented on by various Japanese users on Twitter. The ship became popular since the very start, at the reveal of Uta and Luffy being childhood friends and since the release of the movie the contributions of fanarts and fanfiction raised in numbers, to the point of surpassing other well known and older ships on Pixiv in a very short span of time (around 6 months), such as LuNami, ZoLu, LuHan etc...

On Pixiv it currently has 4.358 contribution and the Twitter tag is regularly contributed to. It also had already two zine volumes dedicated to the ship released in Japan.

Currently, in Japanese fandom, it's the most popular ship among Luffy's het ships, and the second most popular ship in general for Luffy after LawLu. it's also in the top 10 of the most supported ships in One Piece.

It's speculated by fans that Oda's assistants and editorial crew are aware of the Japanese fans' appreciation for the ship, as the two were often featured together in illustration even when it wasn't exactly mandatory or for making Uta the rival for Luffy's love in Hancock's eyes in the spin-off "One Piece Gakuen.

Overseas however the popularity of the ship is very low, mostly due to Uta's status being unknown in the manga and the movie and her lack of screentime aside the movie. Uta herself as a character is highly disliked, for being canon to the story and being added only recently in Luffy's past. Many people in the western fandom, opposite to Japanese fans, view her as a sort of sister for Luffy, often making comparisons with Ace and Sabo and adding her to the group of siblings. However, it seems that after the digital release of the movie, the popularity of the ship is rising also outside Japan, as a lot of users commented that if Uta was confirmed alive or if there was any possibility of romance for Luffy in One Piece, they would support Luuta, seeing her as the most compatible.

The main reason this ship is liked is their status of Childhood Friends, a very appreciated theme for many ships.

Also their personalities being both so different but at the same time similar. Uta is more centered on willingly dedicating her life to others, being their hope, while Luffy does so without really planning it. Uta is more interested in relaxing in her fantasy world, while Luffy gets easily bored and wants to have fun. Uta used to have a very diva-like attitude, despising getting dirty, while Luffy wouldn't care. However, they would both still be willing to listen to each other talking about their likes and dislikes, trying to be genuinely interested and letting the other drag them into it, with Luffy sometimes listening to Uta's songs while on the grass or showing her places to find a good stage to create new fantasies with and her listening to him talking about his future adventures and following him into his sheninegans. Both are very competitive, like food, music, get exicted and curious over the most common and small things, and are very hopeful towards the future, beside being also lovers of the pirates life and hard workers.

Both would get into trouble and get very competitive with each other, sometimes bickering but instead of letting it growing them apart, making it grow them closer. Also, despite not being very keen on the other's bragging, they both would listen the other while talking. Just like Luffy would be patient and enjoy Uta's tales, despite being jealous of her traveling with Shanks, she would listen to his optimistic and sometimes crazy talks. Despite it all, they both have different roles they want to obtain in future, they aim to the same goal of creating a New Genesis, one they can share (from how they talked about it and even made an unique logo for both of their versions) and support each other in it. Uta was the person who inspired Luffy's dream about becoming King of Pirates and also the end of his dream, his concept of New Era, so she played very fundamental roles in his life just as he did for her.

This playful yet very supportive relationship they have and their chemistry, made fans think they would fit well in a romantic relationship as much as in a platonic one. Uta being firm enough to keep an eye on Luffy but also being easily conditioned by him seems to fit very well with his personality and tendencies. Also her being a part of Luffy's past and being a possible explanation to many of his current attitudes is seeing as an important element, implying she didn't just influence his dream but also his personality and attitude towards others.

Other reasons for the ship being so popular are Uta's antagonistic role in the movie, making their angsty relationship more interesting and adding the drama of them reaching for the same goal but in very different and opposite ways to their affectionate relationship. During the whole movie Luffy can be seen acting very differently than usual; controlling his temper, refusing to yell and defend his dream when she asked him to stop being a pirate, refusing to fight or hit her (something he easily did with other female characters when he thought they deserved it), being so gentle with his hugs or even slightly lying about his feelings. All these elements are things Luffy usually doesn't do, so it was seen by many fans as a special attitude he pulled only for her, showing he has an exclusive space in his heart for Uta.

Fandom

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Trivia

 * It was confirmed in an interview by the anime cast that Luffy refusing to hit or fight Uta was a choice made on purpose and on which there was a mandatory instruction. (It's implied that it was very important that Luffy wouldn't want to fight her, both because he sensed her turmoil and also because of their bond.) Luffy never really had issues hitting his friends, even if not to hurt them (ex. Vivi, or eventually, even if against his wishes, fighting against Usopp). However he refused to lay even a single hit on Uta.
 * It was revealed in a post-concert comment for the Red&White event, that during their childhood Luffy used to try to eat his tangerines and oranges as a whole, with the peel even, and to avoid it Uta started feeding them to him one by one. While it's not assured that the info is canon, as it comes from a movie related event, it's still possible that of it being instead canon as Luffy and Uta's childhood together is.
 * In the special volume "4/4: Uta", it was confirmed that Uta's favorite kind of person is the exact description of Luffy, with it being someone childish, but whom you could place your trust unconditionately if needed.
 * Uta's character and the canonicity of the movie has been further explained by Oda and how it influenced Luffy's character.More luuta cover.JPG
 * While the director, Oda's booklet for the movie's projecting and the novel version of the movie confirm Uta's death in the movie, when asked again to Oda after a while in the movie commentary, he insisted that her death, even in the movieverse, isn't confirmed and her status just unknown. As the movie isn't canon, it wouldn't influence the manga, but seeing the insistence on defining her as "unknown" could give the idea that Oda changed his mind.
 * Luffy's character in the manga was influenced by Uta's presence:
 * Luffy's passion for music and his insistence over finding a musician for the crew were caused by her and their friendship. This was confirmed by Oda himself in an interview.
 * In Chronicles of Uta and then as shown in the anime episodes, it's implied that it was only after talking to Uta that Luffy started thinking about his dream and what to do with it, as it's his own view of New Genesis. So she was a very important part in his deciding about it. It's unknown if he actually decided and told her before they separated, but since in the manga Luffy mentions he told only his crew, Ace, Sabo and Shanks, it's easy to presume that he didn't tell her in time.
 * The anime's approved episodes about Luffy and Uta past, show Luffy being frustrated over not being strong enough and desiring to do better, after being beaten by the bandits and the realization of Uta not coming back kicking in. This is a similar thing to what happened when he learnt about Sabo's death, wishing to be stronger to not let anyone more he cared about die. While Uta wasn't yet created at the time, it could now add more to Luffy's frustration about the situation, with Sabo being the second person he lost and couldn't protect, then adding Ace as third. This is more an assumption thought.
 * It's heavily implied by the episodes dialogues and Oda's notes, that Luffy and Uta are each other's first friend. As still by assumption, losing her would add more background to Luffy's insistence over befriending Ace, since he already lost his only friend.
 * While it's a fanon ship without real romantic hints between them in official, Uta is recognised as Hancock's rival for Luffy's love in the spin-off Gakuen, even if Uta herself is most likely not aware of it.
 * Uta and Luffy were paired up multiple times in official illustrations, both from Oda and not.
 * A promotional image for a mobile game featuring Uta and Luffy together in their Red attires.
 * A cover illustration on a magazine for the movie Red was released, where Uta and Luffy are back to back, in movie's outfits, in a very serene and almost heavingly background
 * Some merchandising for the movie was released by the UT company, producer of shirt and clothes designs. Luffy and Uta were featured together side by side for it.
 * A cover of WSJ made by Oda featured Uta singing, with Luffy and Ado's avatar alongside her. This illustration was used as a cover to a special booklet with concept arts for the movie, released only in Japan. In the cover however Ado's avatar is not present and there are only Uta and Luffy together. Luffy has his common manga clothes.
 * Another cover of WSJ was released, with Uta and Luffy still back to back, dressed in the movie's outfits and pointing excitedly their fingers to the air.
 * For an illustration of WSJ characters singing each with a microphone, Oda decided to draw not just Luffy but also Uta, with them being in the very front side by side. Official gadgets of the two were made and released.
 * For a color spread to celebrate the Red & White event live, a series of live concerts with an holographic Uta singing her songs, Oda drew the entire Straw-Hats crew dressed in red and white clothes and Uta among them in the center. She is standing above Luffy, laying her hand on his head.
 * Another illustration by Oda unrelated to the movie features Luffy wearing clothes of the same color scheme of Uta's hair, with a pirate logo that has the same exact three color stripes of her hoodie, in the same exact order. It was then discovered that of that art was made a poster, released on WSJ and that the back of it had an anime Uta illustration.
 * Similarly, another Ut design for Uta shows her with a shirt featuring Luffy.
 * For a booklet of the movie, Oda drew a Luffy's sketch where he is seen with his movie clothes but he is also wearing Uta's jacket. It's the first and only time some other character is seen with her personal jacket (not being even merchandise for her fans)
 * Another illustration of Luffy and Uta chatting with their school uniforms was made, before her presence in Gakuen was decided.
 * Two illustration of Luffy and Uta together were released alongside the DVD box for One Piece Red. Both illustrations are printed. The first features Luffy vs Uta controlled by Tot Musica, even if they're not facing each other and Luffy seems to be holding back just like in the movie. The second features Luffy and Uta each doing something they love (Eating and singing respectively). The second was used to produce another couple of standees.
 * Some merchandising of Luffy and Uta together was produced, with some acrylic stands featured only them. While most are sold together but as single pieces, one released has the two of them in the same acrylic stand, featured as kids. The illustrations used were from Oda's sketches about them.
 * A keychain of Luffy and Uta as kids running side by side happily was released. Later on a second series of keychains was released to promote the launch of the home video version of One Piece Film: Red, and both Luffy and Uta are featured in their kids versions along with the past versions of the Red Hair Pirates and two present day versions of Uta.
 * The re-run of the movie Red in theatres was sponsorized mainly with Oda's illustration (previously made as Shonen Jump cover) of Luffy and Uta cheering together with fingers up in the air. This image was used to produce posters and merchandising. Among those: A new acrylic with also their name stylized together and an official volume cover identical to the manga official series covers, but containing the scripts of the movie.
 * In the One Piece Trading Card Game, one of the most recent starter decks revolves around Luffy, with most of the characters featured being either people from his childhood (Makino, Higuma and Garp) or characters Luffy befriended in his journey (Vivi, Shirahoshi and Mr. 2). Like all other starter decks, this one comes with two foil SR cards, and the ones contained in this deck are Uta and Shanks. Uta's artwork depicts her during her childhood singing gleefully, with Luffy and Shanks observing her in the background. In the Paramount War expansion set a group of cards depicts the Straw Hat Pirates and Trafalgar Law in their battle outfits from Film Red with a film reel in the background including stills from the movie, and Luffy's card features a still of him and Uta having an eating contest as kids (an interesting detail is that none of the others includes Uta in any of their stills). As far as the competitive game goes, the Uta card featured in the Romance Dawn expansion set is a frequently used card in decks led by Luffy in both his red and red-green versions.
 * During the cinematic release of One Piece Film: Red a promo deck of One Piece TCG cards was gifted to the spectators for a brief period. This deck features Uta as the Leader card with Luffy as one of the Character cards. Uta's effect empowers cards without effects, Luffy being one of them. In October 2023 a new starter deck was released for the One Piece TCG, featuring Uta as the leader and Luffy (in his OP-02 version) as one of the deck's cards. Around the same time another Uta leader, this time red-purple, was announced for the game's sixth expansion, in which a new version of Luffy (this time based on his appearance in Strong World) is going to be released as well. A second pack of promotional cards was released with the re-run of the movie in fall 2023, including 7 event cards based on Uta's songs and a single character card featuring Luffy in his Gear 5 form during the movie's climax.
 * In an official comic strip for the game OP: Bounty Rush, Uta jumps in to help Luffy, defeating Prime Garp and Roger. She then mocks Luffy making it a competition and saying she just won it, of course instigating him.