One Piece: Devil Fruits and SMILE explained (Eiichiro Oda explains some difference in SBS volume 95)

In the latest volume of SBS, Oda answered a question regarding the taste of SMILE compared to the real devil fruits. The inquirer noticed that the people in Okobore town who were forced to eat the defective SMILE said that they were delicious. Oda then confirmed that while the actual devil fruits taste gross, SMILE would taste like a normal fruit.

This gave me an idea to review devil fruits and SMILE. Devil fruits were introduced in the very first chapter of the manga where Luffy consumed the gomo-gomo no mi out of frustration. In later chapters, we found out that devil fruits are rare in most parts of the One Piece world. Their origin remains a mystery, however, it is said that the secret to their power is hidden in the grandline.

Devil fruits, a short explanation

Devil fruits are mystical fruits said to be the fruits of the sea devil. Each fruit is said to be possessed by a devil’s spirit which grants its ability and powers to whoever consumes it. This is the main reason they are called devil fruits.

However, there is a downside for whoever eats a devil fruit. Legends suggest that the sea devil gets mad at those who consume his fruits, taking their ability to swim permanently. This is the greatest weakness of those who possess devil fruit powers.

Types of Devil Fruits

Those who consume devil fruits gain certain powers and abilities depending on the type of fruit they consume. Devil fruits can be classified into three types – Logia, Paramecia, and Zoan. Among these three, logia are the rarest to find. However, there are mythical-type zoan devil fruits that are said to be rarer than logia, like Marco’s phoenix model zoan devil fruit.

Logia

Logia type Devil fruits are elemental in nature. Those who consume this type of fruits not only possess the power of the element but can also turn their bodies into that same element. A good example is Ace’s mera-mera no mi which allows him to turn his whole body into fire.

Paramecia

This is the most common devil fruit there is. Unlike logia, which is element-specific, and zoan, which is animal-specific, paramecia type of devil fruit can take many forms. There are types of fruit that can also turn their bodies into the type of ability they have, like Luffy’s gomo-gomo no mi, or Katakuri’s mochi-mochi no mi.

Other paramecia-type devil fruits can grant the user superhuman abilities and powers, like controlling metals, taking souls, immortality, and many others. Although many people would say that logia are the strongest type of devil fruit, there are exceptional paramecia-type devil fruits that are stronger. A great example would be Whitebeard’s gura-gura no mi, which according to Sengoku, has the power to destroy the world.

Zoan

Zoan-type devil fruit is perhaps the most different among the three types of devil fruits. This fruit basically allows the user to turn into an animal acquiring every trait of whichever animal it turns the user into. Zoan’s animal scope also includes humans.

In fact, there are even rare zoan-type human models that are mythical, like Sengoku’s Great Buddha model zoan devil fruit. Aside from turning into an animal form, zoan devil fruit users can also transform into a human-beast hybrid. Chopper is a little different though as he managed to transform into seven forms using medical advances.

Other than humans or even other animals consuming zoan-type devil fruits, the marines’ scientist Dr. Vegapunk, also figured out a way to fuse these fruits with inanimate objects. Such is the case of Spandam’s sword Funkfreed, which absorbed the zuo-zuo no mi.

SMILE devil fruit

SMILE are artificial devil fruits created by Caesar Clown. Ironically, one of the key ingredients in creating these artificial devil fruits is a chemical called SAD. Donquixote Doflamingo, with the help of the genius Caesar, is behind the large scale manufacturing of SMILE. His main benefactor is the emperor Kaido, who use these fruits to form an army of devil fruit users.

One of the defining factors of SMILE is that they are all zoan-type devil fruit. This is probably because the creation SMILE is somehow similar to the natural cycle of a devil fruit. When a devil fruit user dies, the devil’s spirit residing in the user’s body possesses a nearby fruit turning it into a new devil fruit.

Since the process needs sacrifice, animals are the ones they can use to create a substantial amount of SMILE devil fruits.

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Image credits:Viz Media/ Funimation/ Onepiece.fandom

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