One of the biggest mysteries of One Piece‘s Wano Country arc has been how the people of Ebisu Town are always laughing, and the newest episode ended with a cliffhanger revealing why they are forced to do this. The newest episode of the anime series has reached a new climax of the second act of the series as Shogun Orochi had sentenced Tonoyasu to execution. Things got even bleaker when this execution came to pass, and the people of Wano began to recognize Tonoyasu as someone very important to the region 20 years ago when the Kozuki Clan was in power.
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But unfortunately even with the knowledge that he was going to be executed, no one manages to make it to him in time to save him. Thus Tonoyasu is executed, and the people around start to…laugh. They don’t cry at such a bleak experience, but instead laugh because they can no longer show any kind of emotion.
Episode 940 of the series sees Tonoyasu brutally executed in front of his daughter and the other people of Ebisu Town that had run to his side. Zoro, Brook, and Hiyori are there as well and Zoro starts getting enraged as he sees the people around him break into senseless laughter after Tonoyasu’s body falls to the ground.
Thinking they were all just keeping a smile on their face like Tonoyasu, Zoro wants to know what the deal is but Hiyori gives him the bleak truth. Through tears she reveals that the people of Ebisu Town have essentially had all of their emotions stolen from them due to the SMILE Fruit that Kaido and Orochi have brought to the region.
After seeing the SMILE factories in the past, Zoro automatically knows what kind of trouble these fruits have cause the people. This also most likely explains why some of Kaido’s forces have gotten their powers while someone like O-Tama could have a Devil Fruit ability without being anywhere near one of those fruits.
But what do you think? Surprised to see the SMILE fruit come back in such a heartbreaking way? Curious to see how much damage this fruit has done to the region? Surprised to see this explained as the reason behind Tonoyasu and O-Toko’s laughs? 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!
