Koby

Koby the Hero[11] is a Marine Captain[3] who trained together with Helmeppo under Vice Admiral Garp's supervision. He is currently a member of the Marine Special Forces unit SWORD.[12]

He was formerly an involuntary pirate ship caretaker for the Alvida Pirates until he was liberated by Luffy, being the first person Luffy befriended on his travels. He reunited with Luffy during the Post-Enies Lobby Arc, after becoming a fully-fledged Marine soldier. During the time skip, Koby earned fame as a hero for his actions through the Rocky Port Incident.[13] After a failed attempt to arrest Boa Hancock, he was a prisoner of the Blackbeard Pirates[14] until he escaped with the help of Perona, his colleagues at SWORD, and his mentor, Monkey D. Garp.[15]

Due to his status as a hero, the Cross Guild has assigned Koby a 5-star bounty, worth Beli 500,000,000.[10]

He is Luffy's ally during the Romance Dawn Arc. He and Helmeppo are the central characters from the Diary of Koby-Meppo Cover Page Serial and supporting antagonists of the Post-Enies Lobby Arc. Koby is also a brief antagonist in the Marineford In his first appearance, Koby was a small, timid, chubby boy with kobi pink hair and round-frame glasses.[1]

Due to the passage of time and Garp's training, Koby has grown thinner and taller, standing close to Luffy in height. He has also gained a cross-shaped scar above his right eye, presumably earned under Garp's heavy-handed tutelage. His hair has grown longer and shaggier since his growth spurt, but it has retained its kobi pink color.

Koby wears a standard-issue Marine jacket, pants, and neckerchief as well as a brightly patterned bandanna tied across his forehead. Koby's glasses are still present, but he has adopted the habit of wearing them pushed up on his forehead, occasionally using them for reading.

After the time skips, Koby has grown even taller, reaching Garp's shoulders. He now wears a scarf, a senior officer's Marine coat with the word "justice" on it, a merit on his jacket, and a new bandanna. The scar on his forehead also has grown wider. Koby was first introduced as the Alvida Pirates' hapless ship caretaker who lived in fear of both the ship's crew and captain. Two years of forced servitude had robbed him of all hope of escaping as well as his dream of becoming a Marine, leaving him with few goals other than avoiding being bludgeoned to death by Alvida's iron mace. Luffy was less than impressed with Koby's cowardice, describing him as "pretty stupid and useless...and kinda wimpy too". However, Luffy's boundless optimism and single-minded pursuit of his dream rekindled a similar conviction in the downtrodden ship caretaker, allowing him to defy his captors, even under the threat of a brutal death by Alvida's mace.[1]As the pair continued in their travels, Koby remained timid and cautious, often relying on Luffy to perform dangerous tasks and becoming alarmed by his companion's reckless behavior.

He was also shown to be perceptive, noting that it was "strange" for the citizens of Shells Town to be afraid of a Marine Captain and telling Luffy that he had "a bad feeling about this." Koby's naïve belief in the blanket integrity of the Marines was dashed when he witnessed the actions of Axe-Hand Morgan and his son, but it only strengthened his resolve to become, in his words, "a real Marine."[16]Under Garp's instruction, Koby's timidity has been replaced with confidence, although he remains polite, self-effacing, and apologetic if he feels he has done something overly ambitious (such as publicly stating his goal to become a Marine admiral). He continues to be an emotional, compassionate person who can easily be driven to tears for a variety of reasons, which led to Zoro jocularly calling him a "crybaby" during their reunion at Water 7.[17]

Koby does not act with the reckless bravery that many characters in the series exhibit, but rather on moral compunction. He has put his life on the line at least twice for the sake of what he feels is right, most notably at the Summit War of Marineford where he brought fighting to a standstill by facing down Admiral Akainu and bought the precious seconds needed for Luffy to escape [18]Koby has an immense amount of determination. In the early days of his training as a Marine when he was still weak, he would train relentlessly non-stop by punching battleships which could only be done by powerful Marines such as Garp and Kuzan due to acknowledging his lack of fighting talent. Despite his already exhaustive training session with Garp, he continued to train daily despite his hands bleeding from the injuries.

For all he has done and is capable of doing, Koby is rather humble, as he denied Kyros' claim of him being a hero during the Rocky Port Incident and did not claim credit for stopping a torpedo that was aimed at the Dressrosa and Prodence Kingdom ships. [19] He felt ashamed for thinking Marines had come to rescue him and considered it thinking that the world revolved around him when trying to escape from Hachinosu and was shocked when he discovered they had come for him.[15]