Monkey D. Luffy

Monkey D. Luffy (モンキー･D･ルフィ, Monkī D. Rufi), also known as Straw Hat, is a pirate and the main protagonist of the manga and anime series One Piece written by Eiichirō Oda.

Character description
He is the son of the Revolutionary Army's commander, Monkey D. Dragon, the grandson of the famed Marine, Monkey D. Garp, and the adopted brother of the late "Fire Fist" Portgas D. Ace and the revolutionary Sabo. His lifelong dream is to become the Pirate King by finding the legendary treasure left behind by the previous Pirate King, Gol D. Roger. As a child, he accidentally ate the Gomu Gomu no Mi, causing him to become a rubber boy.

In Super Smash Flash 2
Luffy was confirmed to be a playable character during the Day 4 livestream at Super Smash Con 2016. He was revealed due to the numerous fan requests over the years. His sprites are custom made and based on his appearance in the second part of One Piece. His moveset consists mainly of Gomu Gomu no Mi techniques such as Gomu Gomu no Rocket or the Gomu Gomu no Fūsen. Luffy is the only one of the 4 manga and anime characters whose sprite wasn't based on their appearance in Jump Ultimate Stars. His design is based on One Piece: Gigant Battle 2. Before this confirmation, Luffy was also subject of jokes and hoaxes by part of the G community

Assist Trophy rumor
On October 17, 2010, SSF2 Developer Geno posted a fake screenshot of Luffy using his Gomu Gomu no Baku Baku  (ゴムゴムのバク バク) against Ness, leading fans to assume that he would appear as an Assist Trophy in the Super Smash Flash 2 Demo 0.7 (which he did not appear in.) The screenshot, while fake, actually used coded data to feature rendered sprites of Luffy in-game.

Controversy
During the livestream of Apex 2014, many fans disputed in chat about Luffy being in the game. Many also argued that there were other characters they would pick over him. Another user posted a fake image they had found on the wiki, which caused many others to believe he was "leaked". The slots were revealed to be and. It would ultimately be revealed that the developers had no plans to add Luffy or any other anime character into SSF2's roster, citing the backlash already present from Ichigo, Naruto, and Goku's presence as playable characters.