One Piece Explains the Meaning Behind the Smile Fruit’s Name

One Piece‘s Smile Fruit has been a thorn in the Straw Hat crew’s side since the Punk Hazard arc, and now the newest episode of the series explained the cruel meaning behind the fruit’s name. The anime left fans off on a cliffhanger where Zoro found out that the people of Wano could no longer show any emotion because of a permanent smile on their face left by the artificial Devil Fruit, the Smile fruit. But as Shinobu explained to Nami and the others, there is a cruel origin story behind this name that ridiculed the people of Wano.

Episode 941 of the series sees Shinobu explain that while the Straw Hats managed to destroy the factory that was making these artificial Devil Fruits, these fruits still managed to make their way into Wano Country. And because of the side effects making people permanently laugh, Kaido had cruelly named it “Smile” as one final salt rubbing in the wound to the people of Wano.

Shinobu revealed that Kaido began to import these artificial fruits in exchange for weapons in the hopes of making his crew full of fierce and powerful fighters. She mentioned that Kaido did not care about the impact the side effects had on crew. Not only did these cause the Devil Fruit side effects like taking away their ability to swim, the SAD chemical in them were far more damaging.

The success of the Smile fruit is ten percent, meaning that one in every ten eaters would gain that power. This led to a ranking system in Kaido’s crew between the successes, failures, and those waiting for their chance to test them out. But the real cruelty came from Orochi, who grew tired of the people of Wano crying about their hunger.

Noticing that some of these fruits only had a single bite out of them, Orochi mixed them into the leftovers he dumped in Leftovers Town. The people of Wano were too hungry to turn down such a fruit even knowing the terrible side-effects. As if a way to mock those who could not stop laughing, Kaido, Doflamingo, and Caesar called it the “Smile Fruit.”

What did you think of this explanation behind the Smile Fruit? Surprised to see it come back in such a huge way during the Wano Country arc? How do you think the Wano Country arc will end? Let us know your thoughts in the comments or you can even reach out to me directly about all things animated and other cool stuff @Valdezology on Twitter!