One Piece introduced devil fruits at the beginning of the story with Luffy’s iconic discovery of the Gomu Gomu no Mi. While those powers were rare in East Blue, the Grand Line, and New World have countless powerful devil fruit users. A select few can even awaken those powers and unlock new potential they never thought was possible. However, even after all these years, much about these fruits remains a mystery. The story has countless mysteries, and because of its length, some minor things are often left unexplained. Lucky for fans, each One Piece volume contains SBS columns spread throughout the volume. For the unfamiliar fans, SBS, in this case, stands for Shitsumon o Boshลซ Suru, meaning, “I’m Taking Questions.”
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In this Q&A session, One Piece creator Eiichiro Oda answers questions from fans in an often humorous way. Sometimes, he also clears up confusion regarding a scene, a character, or anything related to the story. One Piece Volume 111 was released on March 4th, 2025, including Chapters 1122 to 1133. While the volume hasn’t been released globally yet, One Piece translators and theorists shared the translated version of the Q&A session. One of Oda’s answers finally solves one question fans have been wondering since the Impel Down Arc.
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One Piece Creator Explained That Jailed Beasts are Failed Zoan Awakenings
One of the questions reads, “Shaka said that Zoan-type devil fruit users often end up having their very personalities overtaken when they awaken. So, does that mean the Impel Down jailer beasts were people whose personalities were overtaken by their fruits?” Oda confirms the confusion and even says it was a close call for Lucci. Hence, if Lucci hadn’t been able to control his powers well, he might have lost his personality and succumbed to this power.
Zoan awakenings are quite different from Paracemia, and there’s an underlying risk factor. Paramecia awakenings grant the user the power to affect the surroundings, like they do with their bodies. Fans already figured out that Zoan awakenings can fail if the user loses themselves during the transformation. If such a case happens, they will stay in that form forever. Nothing has been specified yet what triggers the transformation.
Jailer Beasts were introduced in Chapter 525 of the Impel Down Arc, and the mystery around them has been around since then. While fans did figure this out, a confirmation from the author cements this fact. The question refers to Chapter 1069 from the manga. The Egghead Arc was the first step on uncovering the secrets behind devil fruits. While we may not have all the details, in Chapter 1069, Vegapunk reveals that all things in the world, even the devil fruits, manifest from people’s hopes and desires.
Every devil fruit is a possibility for human evolution that someone desired. Each power represents the many branches of humanity’s future, but since it’s unnatural, the sea hates this power. While there is no confirmation for this, Vegapunk believes in his theory. In the same chapter, Shaka witnessed Lucci’s awakened form and commented on how he maintained his personality. The anime has only shown Zoan and Paramecia-type awakenings, while it’s unclear what Logia awakening is capable of.
Who are the Jailer Beasts in One Piece?
Jailer Beasts are powerful creatures under the command of Sadi, a chief guard of Impel Down. Five of them appeared during the Impel Down Great Escape Incident, and they all have varying appearances: Minotaurus, Minorhinoceros, Minokoala, Minozebra, and Minochihuahua. All of these are bipedal animals, but they show no signs of intelligence. Their particular Zoan’s innate nature overtook their personality, and they have completely lost their former selves. Now, they serve as mindless beasts whose only task is to brutalize the prisoners.
Despite their comical appearances, they all are ruthless creatures who easily crush the prisoners of Impel Down. Their raw strength makes them some of the most feared creatures within the walls of Impel Down. All of them carry some sort of weapon, and, paired with their gigantic size, they easily crush the prisoners. They are also the first devil fruit users who showcased awakening powers, and their true form is still unknown. People have always mistaken them to be regular beasts, but Crocodile pointed out they are devil fruit users.
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