Summary
Warning: This contains spoilers for the One Piece Manga, available to read on theViz Mangaapp.
The power system inOne Pieceis unique, using devil fruits and haki. Devil fruits grant mystical powers in exchange for the ability to swim. These fruits are grouped into Zoan, Logia, and Paramecia. Zoan fruits allow animal transformation, while Logia fruits allow control and transformation into natural elements.
Paramecia fruits, on the other hand, offer a wide variety of abilities that do not fit into any of the aforementioned categories. InOne Piece, as devil fruits are incredibly scarce, many have sought to create more artificially. Pirates like Kaido and Doflamingo soughtthe creation of artificial devil fruitsto strengthen their forces, thus birthing artificial devil fruit users.
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Artificial Devil Fruits: Origins And Creation
As natural devil fruits are rare and scarce, artificial ones were created to give the same effects even though they are manufactured. The creation ofartificial devil fruitswas championed by the scientists Vegapunk and Caesar Clown duringtheir time in MADS. After MADS’s dissolution, Vegapunk furthered his research and eventually created an artificial Zoan fruit using Kaido’s lineage factor. Meanwhile, Caesar created artificial SMILE fruits. However, as Caesar used the lineage factor of ordinary animals, he could only create Zoan artificial fruits of inferior quality.
Moreover, Caesar’s SMILE fruits have a high failure rate, with only ten percent of consumers getting abilities. The other 90% tend to fail, and the failures often result in the person being incapable of swimming and showing emotions other than a smile despite not receiving an ability. This is what earned his artificial fruits the name SMILE. In terms of artificial Logia fruits, no one has been able to create them, as Vegapunk dubbed them too hard to recreate even with his best efforts.
Paramecia Artificial Devil Fruits Are Different From Their Zoan Counterparts
Due to the production of SMILE fruits, Zoan artificial devil fruit users number in the hundreds. However, users of Paramecia artificial devil fruits are much less in number. As Vegapunk created them, they are strictly regulated bythe World Government.
Unlike artificial Zoan fruits, artificial Paramecia fruits are more copies than re-creations. To confer the power of natural Paramecia devil fruits unto others, Vegapunk created Green Blood, a substance synthesized from the lineage factor of devil fruit users. It mimics the fruit’s power as the substance serves as a base medium and a blood substitute with the original fruit’s power flowing through it.
Artificial Devil Fruit Users (Zoan)
The best example of a known artificial devil fruit user is undoubtedly Kozuki Momonosuke. At first, when Momonosuke consumed the artificial devil fruit made from Kaido’s lineage factor, he could not do many things that Kaido could do. However, that was a result of his age and inexperience. After being made to age 20 years by Shinobu’s ability, Momonosuke could use many of Kaido’s devil fruit-related abilities with training. However, whether or not he will be able to transform into a human-dragon hybrid like Kaido is yet to be seen.
The other known artificial devil fruit users are SMILE fruit users. The consumers of failed SMILE fruits are Killer, a member of the Kid Pirates, Toko, the daughter of Shimotsuki Yasuie, and the Pleasures. The Pleasures are the Beast Pirates' mid-level foot soldiers who failed to gain an ability upon consuming a SMILE fruit.
As opposed to consumers of failed SMILE fruits, consumers of successful SMILE fruits are much fewer in number. Most are part of the Gifters, the elite soldiers of the Beast Pirates, and they are around 500 in number. Some known consumers of successful SMILE fruits are Gazelleman, Babanuki, Hamlet, Alpacaman, and Batman. Each of them hasan ability or feature of the animal they are associated with.
Known Artificial Devil Fruit Users (Paramecia)
Whether or not Green Blood can be infused in normal humans to grant them artificial Paramecia powers is unknown; however, the current users of the known artificial Paramecia devil fruits arethe Seraphim. They are clones of the former Warlords, built to replace the Warlords as living weapons that obey the commands of the World Government. All currently known artificial Paramecia devil fruit users include S-Shark, S-Snake, S-Hawk, and S-Bear.
S-Shark is a clone of Jinbe, the current helmsman of the Straw Hat Pirates. His artificial Paramecia devil fruit is from the Swim Swim fruit, which allows him to swim in the ground or walls. S-Snake is the clone of Boa Hancock, the Pirate Empress. She (S-Snake) possesses the artificial fruit of the Love Love fruit that can turn people into stone using emotions of love, lust, or adoration. S-Hawk is a clone of Dracule Mihawk, the strongest swordsman in the world. His artificial devil fruit is from the Dice Dice fruit that allows the user to turn any part of their body into blades. S-Bear is a clone of Bartholomew Kuma. His artificial devil fruit is from the Paw Paw fruit.
Abilities And Limitations Of Artificial Devil Fruit Users
Unlike Momonosuke’s artificial devil fruit that allows him to change into a dragon completely, successful SMILE fruits only grant their user body parts of animals or sentient animals growing out of their bodies. They cannot transform into whole animals, and their abilities are generally weaker. Momonosuke’s devil fruit was cloned from Kaido’s, and so far, he has demonstrated many of Kaido’s abilities, like forming flame clouds and spitting fire. However, whether or not Momonosuke can turn into a human-dragon hybrid like Kaido is unknown. It is also unknown whether or not artificial devil fruit users will gain the ability to awaken their devil fruits.
Users of artificial Paramecia devil fruits have displayed the same abilities as their natural users, without any additional side effects apart from being unable to swim in water. Whether or not they will be able to awaken their fruits is also unknown.
