LogFAQs > #967376341

I mean Luffy was inspired by Goku FOR the similarities. It's just that the rest of the characters are shaded entirely differently by the series they're in.

Like even in Chapter 2 Luffy says he initially dislikes the character Coby, because he's weak and doesn't fight for his dreams. Goku never says something like this to anyone, he doesn't even have an opinion on having dreams or an ambition. Likewise Goku has a phase where he's shown to be particularly compassionate to fallen enemies, refusing to finish them. Luffy never engages with this rhetoric, as far as we can tell he doesn't give two fucks about the life or death of his enemies.

I guess my bottom line is, if the series themselves are sufficiently different, you can have similar characters in them but they'll feel different because they're being explored in a different way.