So, with One Piece’s Wano Arc still continuing after passing a thousand chapters, it seemed like an apt time to talk about some of the more complex elements of it. Wano, like Whole Cake Island and Dressrosa, is a pretty chaotic arc, but that’s pretty typical for the Straw Hats. The place is obviously themed after ancient Japan, which is similar to a lot of other anime settings or even video games like Ghost of Tsushima.
Still, while all this chaos is going on, some of the more minute details, such as the mechanics of the SMILE and how this artificial Devil Fruit even works, sort of falls through the cracks. So it’s time to take a closer look at how they work.
10 The First Artificial Fruit Was Made By Vegapunk
Dr. Vegapunk is by far the most intelligent man in the Grand Line. He discovered how to feed Devil Fruits to inanimate objects, how to create and modify Seastone, and he even discovered the Lineage Factor and what that meant for humanity. Basically, he’s the Renaissance Man of the One Piece world, but you might have forgotten that he’s also the one who first created an artificial Devil Fruit. It’s unknown if he made more after this failed prototype that Monosuke ate, but this one fruit is the basis of Caesar Clown's research into both SAD and SMILE.
9 The SMILE Devil Fruits Only Mimic Zoan-Type Ability Users
The weirdest thing about SMILEs is that they only seem to mimic Zoan Devil Fruits. Honestly, this was probably due to demands from Kaido, but it also implies that there are inherent differences in the makeup between Paramecia, Zoan, and Logia Devil Fruits. After all, ff there wasn’t, Caesar Clown wouldn’t have been able to create his own DF that only grants Zoan-like powers. But, at the end of the day, who can blame Kaido for his bias towards Zoan fruits, animal hybrids are just so powerful and stylish! Just take a look at any of the hidden gems on Netflix like Brand New Animal or Beastars and you'll see we're not alone in thinking that.
8 SMILE Fruits Ripen And Grow On Trees
From what author Eiichiro Oda has said during Q&a's and from what we’ve seen in the manga/anime, Devil Fruits don’t really grow from trees. Rather, they seem to suddenly “take over” an already existing fruit when their previous user perishes. We’ve seen this process in motion when Caesar Clown “killed” his poisonous slime creation, Smiley, and a random apple on a nearby sled turned into the Sara Sara no Mi, Model: Axolotl, that Smiley previously held. But, unlike normal Devil Fruits, SMILEs fruits grow on trees. But, what's even weirder is that they grow as normal apples and the SMILE pattern steadily starts appearing as they ripen.
7 Unlike Devil Fruits, The Artificial Ones Taste Good
This is a small aspect for sure, but one that clearly defines just how different SMILEs are from regular Devil Fruits. Whenever you see someone in One Piece take a bite of a DF, they always recoil at how awful it tastes.
Luffy did it, the CP9 agents did it, even Buggy the Clown did it. But, it’s been confirmed by the people in Ebisu Town and also by Oda himself in one of his many Q&As that SMILE fruits actually taste good. Again, this is a very minuscule detail that's easy to miss, especially if you're catching up on all the other anime coming out this season. But, it's still a factoid that's helpful to know.
6 It's A One In Ten Chance For Power
There seems to be a subtle 1-in-10 rule with SMILEs, considering that the Tontotta could only successfully grow one for every ten, and one out of every ten people to eat this fake fruit manages to get a supernatural ability. But, comparing those two situations really paints a clear picture of just how many fruits Kaido had to have made to create his current army.
5 Those Who Have Gained Zoan Powers From SMILE Fruits Are "Technically" Animals
O-Tama, a girl from Wano and a friend of Ace has an unnamed dango-related Paramecia DF, which allows her to “pull” dango (which is a type of dumpling) off of her cheek infinitely. When animals, in particular, eat these treats, they become subservient to Tama, no matter their previous alliances. And, oddly enough, Gifters from Kaido’s army are also able to be turned with this Dango, meaning that the world itself literally considers these people to be “animals” by definition. Now that we're thinking about it, O-Tama is basically just a Pokemon Trainer with infinite Masterballs isn't she? That actually makes sense too, considering author Eiichiro Oda has a soft spot for the Pokemon franchise, seen by him hiding Pokemon-based Easter Eggs in the manga and allowing a One Piece x Pokemon Go collaboration event.
4 SMILE Fruits Create Chimera Humans
SMILE Fruits are so obviously imperfect products. After all, they grant people the traits or appendages of different animals without giving them the option to transform back and forth themselves. But, the craziest part is, a lot of these SMILE users have literally been forced to share their body with a sentient lifeform. For example, Holdem has a fully-living lion as part of his stomach, Hamlet has 90% of a functioning Giraffe connected to his back, and Mizerka literally turns her arms into a Gorilla. Do these Animals think for themselves? Are they truly alive? Are the Gifters more Chimeras than they are DF users? So many unanswered questions.
3 The Appendages Don't Always Have To Line Up
The Gifters are just so weird. Normal Zoans tend to look pretty cool, almost like animal mascots in a way (similar to those in the Persona series). But, the way SMILE Devil Fruits work changes from person to person, and two people can get gifted with the same class of animal abilities, yet have completely separate powers. For example, take Babanuki, he has the elephant SMILE ability.
By normal standards that would mean is that if it changed his head then he’d have an elephant head as his head, but what it actually means is that his stomach is an elephant. Or, take Sheepshead, who can’t seem to turn any part of his body into a Sheep, but his hands are now permanently sheep horns? Why is his name Sheepshead then and not Sheepshands? SMILEs just don't follow any sort of common sense.
2 The Laughing Side Effect Remains After The Fruit Has Been Bitten
Moving back to regular Devil Fruits for a minute and how they’re eaten. Basically, once someone takes a bite of the Devil Fruit, thats it, no more swimming in the ocean for them. But, from what we can tell, the Devil Fruit that was bitten can no longer grant any powers and loses all "magic" it once held. Yet, SMILEs still curse people with their side-effects, even if the fruit has already been bitten. This side effect had a 90% chance of happening before, with the 10% being the beastial gift, but, now that it's been bitten, that side effect becomes 100%. This is how all the people in Ebisu Town got cursed by laughter, after all.
1 SMILE-Type Zoans Can Actually Do Stuff Normal Zoans Can't
And lastly, the weirdest thing about SMILE users is that they can actually do a lot of things normal Zoans can, though it's mostly unintentional. For example, standard Zoans have three forms, human form, hybrid form, and full animal form. Think of Dalton from Chopper’s Drum Island, since he uses all three forms decently well. But, SMILE users (other than the Tobiroppo) have one form, which is whatever form they suddenly changed into after eating the SMILE fruit. But, being able to transform only a limb or a part of your body into an animal's limb is actually an intermediate or advanced ability for Zoan users. In fact, Marco of the Whitebeard Pirates is really the only one who has shown such mastery, but even he can't mismatch his limbs and his Zoan limbs like Gifters can.