Enel (One Piece)

Template:Infobox OPchara/Header Template:Infobox OPchara/Devilfruit Template:Infobox OPchara/Footer Eneru (Often romanized as Ener or Enel) is a villain from the fictional One Piece manga and anime series.

History

Six years before he took over Skypiea, Enel destroyed his home island Blica as a show of his power. Afterwards, Enel and his loyal contingent of followers overthrew the then current ruler of Skypiea, Gan Fall, becoming the island's new ruler. Enel maintained a personality cult over Skypiea truly taking the mantle of "god" to its more literal sense. Though Skypiea still had a sense of peace and paradise, much like any classic dystopia it was a false paradise. If anyone dared speak out against Enel, or challenge his list of commandments, he would shoot a giant column of lightning down from the sky to effectively eliminate the dissenter. Along with this, he forced the priests who worked under Gan Fall to build him a massive, flying ship called the "Maxim".

Once the Straw-Hat pirates arrived in Skypiea, Eneru commenced his plan to return all of Skypiea to an "endless world". Eneru took advantage of an already brewing war between the Skypieans and a native tribal group called the Shandora. His great battle, which he called the "Survival Game", was meant to pit these two groups, along with the Straw-Hat pirates and his own followers in a war to see who was worthy enough to accompany him to his holy land, "Fairy Vearth". At the start of the fight, Eneru made a prediction that there would only be five survivors at its end (including himself). However, Eneru's prediction was miscalculated as there was one fighter overlooked (due to being inside a giant python): Monkey D. Luffy.

In a grand battle between the protagonist, Monkey D. Luffy (who ate the "Gomu Gomu" Devil Fruit giving him a rubber body that can stretch at will) and Eneru, it is made apparent that they are an even match due to rubber's inability to conduct electricity. Eneru manages to get rid of Luffy temporarily by grafting a huge golden ball to his right arm as well as knocking him off his flying ship. The heat of the electrified ball burns Luffy while its tremendous weight rockets him down to the ground. With Luffy out of the way, Eneru continues on with his plan to destroy all of Skypiea. Eneru unleashes a devastating new technique called the Raigo, a massive thundercloud sphere, and destroys one of the Skypiean islands. Setting his sights on Upper Yard, he forms an even larger one.

Along with help from Nami and the rest of his friends, Luffy manages to get back up into the sky to defeat Eneru once and for all. Before he does though, Luffy launches himself into the Raigo. Using the golden ball, Luffy creates a new technique (the Gomu Gomu no Golden Peony) in which he twirls the golden ball ferociously without control while having his arm out-stretched, creating an illusion of thousands of golden balls. The tremendous force of this attack wreaks havoc within the Raigo, causing it to explode within mid-air. With the threat of the Raigo neutralized, Luffy winds up his arm with the golden ball attached to it for one final attack on Eneru.

In retaliation to his attack being thwarted, Eneru uses the full advantage of his powers and transforms into a giant God of thunder. His attack "Amal Eneru" shows all of his power and might as he is now pure electricity. This doesn't deter Luffy though, he winds up his arm as much as possible and stretches it clear across the sky setting up his final attack, the "Gomu Gomu no Golden Rifle".

Eneru makes one last vain attempt to guard the strike, but it is clearly too late. Luffy launches his arm forward, letting out a massive sonic boom, smashing the spinning gold ball into Eneru, sending him flying into the golden bell of Skypiea, which signals the defeat of Eneru and freedom for all Shandorans and Skypieans. Though he falls from the sky, Eneru has managed to escape in his battered floating ship, Maxim, and heads for his supposed promise land, "Fairy Vearth", which turns out to be the moon. It's unknown whether he will encounter Luffy again.

His name could very well be a nod to ancient Mesopotamian Gods, such as En-lil. Some believe that his name is a pun on the word "energy" and therefore translate it as "Eneru" or "Ener", or even in some instances into "Enel", mainly due to the fickleness of translating Katakana. Also, his powers and the drums attached to his back match those of the storm god of Japan, Raijin, so the idea of this character might originate from this god. Additionally, one of his poses (reclining on his side) and his elongated earlobes are reminiscent of statues of Buddha. His golden staff and a floating cloud he made using a Dial seem to be plays on Son Goku, the Monkey King of Journey to the West.

Trivia

• In a recent SBS, Oda confirmed that if Eneru were actually a wanted pirate, he would have a bounty of no less than 500,000,000 berries.
• His design is based off of rapper Eminem, of whom Oda is a fan.
• At a Fuji Summer Fest in Japan, Enel was the main enemy featured in a special short movie crossover that saw Luffy and Goku of DragonBall teaming up to stop him from destroying Tokyo. (See here)
• Symbols on drum resemble tomoe, taken from the Japanese thunder god, Raijin.
• In a recent Japanese Fan Poll, Eneru is currently ranked the 22nd most popular character, making him the most popular One Piece "Major Villain" (outside the CP9 members).
• Though it is debatable whether it is intentional or not, Enel is the name of an Italian electric energy society, and could be the source of his name.
• According to Oda, Eneru's favourite fruit is apples.
• Enel was in the Japanese version of One Piece Grand Battle!, however he was one of 4 characters that was cut from the English version of the game, as the story line wasn't at the Skypeia Arc yet, but appeared in One Piece Grand Adventure.
• Many of One Piece's primary villains were given distinct laughs. Eneru follows this tradition with a stressed "ya" at the beginning of his laugh (i.e. "Yaaa ha ha ha ha ha!"). This carries over to the English dub.