One Piece: Oda Saved Hito Hito no Mi Hints for a Long Time!

Chapter 1044 of the One Piece manga series completely changed the reader's view of Luffy's devil fruit. 

For 25 years, fans have believed that Luffy consumed the Gomu Gomu no Mi, a Paramecia devil fruit that turned him into rubber. 

However, that finally changed with what was shown in chapter 1044 yesterday. It turns out that it is not the real name and type of Luffy's devil fruit.

The World Government is deliberately hiding the truth about this devil fruit. 

His own devil fruit turns out to be the Hito Hito no Mi, Model: Nika and belongs to the Zoan type. 

As it turned out, Oda Sensei had actually given clues for a long time that Gomu Gomu was actually a Zoan devil fruit.

Judging from the durability

The Zoan Devil Fruit can change the user's form into an animal, either in a perfect or hybrid form. 

The user will also receive a tremendous increase in strength. 

Crocodile had mentioned this during the Impel Down arc, when he tried to escape from the guards who were Awakened Zoan animals.

The Mythical Zoan was even more powerful in terms of physical strength. 

Throughout the series, Luffy had time to face some tough and strong enemies. 

If Luffy wasn't a Zoan devil fruit user, it seems he might not be able to survive these attacks. There are also some great Luffy moments:

Lost to Kaido several times in raids on Onigashima, but he always managed to get back up.

Able to lift large stones while in Udon prison, even though he was wearing sea stone handcuffs which weakened his strength.

In the Enies Lobby arc, Luffy barely survived some of Rob Lucci's gruesome attacks.

Luffy actually became immune to poison after his body was hit by Magellan's poison attack in Impel Down.

Face off against two Sweet Commanders on Whole Cake Island, where the two battles last for over 11 hours.

Seeing how "terrible" Luffy's physical abilities are, then his strength, endurance, and endless stamina makes us think it makes sense if Luffy's devil fruit is Zoan, and not Paramecia.

Non-Rubber-Related Capabilities

Even though it makes his body elastic like rubber, what happens is that Luffy has various attacks that have nothing to do with rubber's abilities. 

For example, Red Rock. 

It has long been explained that Luffy is able to move very quickly, causing friction (friction) in his body.

That's what then raises fire in his body or is the cause of various fire attacks from Luffy. 

However, another explanation is that this can happen because Luffy is the owner of the Mythical Zoan devil fruit. 

An ordinary Zoan possessor can only transform into an animal form, but a Mythical Zoan is capable of much more powerful powers than that.

There are some real examples of this. 

For example, Kaido is known to be able to use the elements of fire, wind, and lightning in his dragon form. 

Sengoku was able to generate a huge shockwave in his golden Buddha form. 

While Yamato is able to present the element of ice in his wolf form.

This is also in accordance with Luffy's ability to produce fire in his Gear form. 

Luffy is able to do this because the Mythical Zoan user is able to use elemental attacks. 

Judging from this, Luffy seems to be able to match the strength of Ace and Sabo, who ate the Mera Mera devil fruit.

So, in conclusion, if you pay close attention, actually Eiichiro Oda has presented various moments of Luffy's abilities which give clues that Luffy's strength is not Paramecia but Mythical Zoan. 

Oda arguably managed to "hide" this fact for more than 20 years.