Actually it's not the first time he used 2nd gear. The first time is in the movie one piece mega mecha soldier where he unintentionally goes to gear 2nd
I love how out of all the gears, Gear 2 is probably his most serious. The way he is being quiet but also menacing at the same time isn’t something even gear 5 can never do
If an ordinary human does that, they'll just die in the next few minutes since the body is too solid and cause cardiac arrest. But Luffy's body is elastic so his body can handle increase of blood pressure (and probably clean up his vessels in the process) as his heart and lungs and bones are elastic enough to not cause any hypertensions and any complications.
I just reached this arc and I know about gear 5 because of spoilers and it's amazing to know that when Lucci tells the Star Hats that Zoans get stronger over time and the reveal of Luffy's fruit, makes me realise how strong Luffy is and will get.
Bro, this debut really shows how smart luffy is, he can act dumb, yeah, but he really thought "Hmm.. these guys are fast, so what if i.. juat become fast?? :0" AND DID IT?! Really shows his creativity in action.
A detail I really love is that Mayumi Tanaka doesn't deliver "gia... sekando" in the bombastic way she reads Luffy's gum-gum attacks or how an archetypal shonen hero would scream their power up transformation. Just determination, grit and clarity, reflecting how this isn't a moment of cocky assuredness for Luffy (he's had so much of that ripped away from him this arc) - it's all drama. This is about his friends and how seriously he wants to protect them.
I absolutely love that like other animes, one piece doesn't show the whole ass training and learning process of power ups. They just add it out of nowhere.
