Editor’s Note: The following contains full spoilers for Netflix’s ‘One Piece’ Season 1.
The Big Picture
- Devil Fruits are a significant part of Netflix’s live-action One Piece series, granting unique and powerful abilities to their users.
- The Gum-Gum Fruit is the first and most prevalent Devil Fruit in One Piece, giving Luffy the power to stretch his body like rubber.
- Other Devil Fruits showcased in Season 1 include the Chop-Chop Fruit, which allows Buggy to separate and levitate his body parts, and the Smoke-Smoke Fruit, granting Smoker the ability to transform into smoke.
When it comes to the wacky and vast world of One Piece, you’ll be hard-pressed to find items of more value and power than the mysterious Devil Fruits. In an adaptation as refreshingly faithful as Netflix’s live-action One Piece series, which is already making a strong positive impression on critics and audiences, it should come as no surprise that the fruits are a significant part of the show.
Season 1 of One Piece covers the bulk of the long-running anime’s “East Blue” arc, showcasing how Monkey D. Luffy (Iñaki Godoy) assembled his pirate crew before venturing out into the Grand Line. There, using the Devil Fruit powers he acquired when he was a boy, he hopes to find the long-lost treasure known only as the One Piece. On their journey, Luffy and his crew meet at least one character who also has abilities granted to them by a Devil Fruit. Even more, the show teases some other characters who may be exerting similar powers in a future season.
What Are the Devil Fruit in Netflix’s ‘One Piece’?
The origins of the all-powerful Devil Fruits are as mysterious as the many other fantastic things in the world of One Piece. You wouldn’t know just by looking at one, but these seemingly ordinary fruits contain some vast and unimaginable power. As explained in the series, each of these fruits are unique and grant an individual a completely different set of superpowers and abilities. The exact types of fruits haven’t been fully chronicled, but there have been well over 200 of them featured in the anime and manga.
The powers the Devil Fruits grant are vast and extremely powerful, essentially turning its users into nearly invincible gods among ordinary humans. However, “nearly invincible” is the key phrase here, as there is a significant side effect that creates a major weakness. Anyone who eats a Devil Fruit loses their ability to swim, making the ocean a place to avoid. For pirates of the high seas such as Luffy, this is obviously a pretty massive speed hindrance.
What Is the Gum-Gum Fruit?
The first and most prevalent Devil Fruit to be featured in One Piece is the Gum-Gum Fruit, which is what the protagonist Luffy eats when he’s a young boy. When Captain Red Hair Shanks (Peter Gadiot) picks up the fruit while on a journey, his hope is that he’ll be able to sell it to the highest bidder. Little did he know that the mischievous Luffy would get his teeth into the fruit, officially starting the unsuspecting hero on his journey.
The Gum-Gum Fruit essentially turns Luffy into a being of pure rubber, being capable of stretching his body and skin into near-impossible lengths. As with most Devil Fruit-users, this makes Luffy very hard to kill, as bullets and most blades will just bounce right off of him on impact. Luffy certainly got lucky as the Gum-Gum Fruit is easily one of the most versatile and powerful in the entire One Piece universe.
The Chop-Chop Fruit Is Just What You Think It Might Be
Luffy quickly discovers that he’s not the only person to have ingested a Devil Fruit when he, Roronoa Zoro (Mackenyu), and Nami (Emily Rudd) are abducted by the fearsome pirate captain, Buggy the Clown (Jeff Ward). Named after his large and seemingly real red nose (though he’s clearly a bit self-conscious about it), Buggy is one of the most feared pirates in the whole East Blue, even if he still pales in comparison to the likes of Arlong (McKinley Belcher III). When Luffy punches Buggy’s head off, it becomes abundantly clear that there is a lot more to this clown privateer.
Miraculously, Buggy’s disembodied head comes off without any blood or guts and is still hopping around and talking. As a matter of fact, all of Buggy’s body parts are able to be separated and levitated at will. This is all due to Buggy eating the Chop-Chop Fruit, which grants these terrifying and unsettling powers. As powerful as Buggy is, his powers still have their drawbacks, and Luffy and his crew are able to beat the clown by locking his body parts separately in crates.
The Smoke-Smoke Fruit Makes Its Appearance in the Finale
As the main title flies over the horizon during One Piece Season 1’s final episode, the show has one more surprise up its sleeve. In an apparent tease for the all-but-confirmed second season, we see who is unmistakably a classic character from One Piece lore. The smoke-filled room, two lit cigars, and the wanted poster for Luffy prove beyond any doubt that this mysterious figure is none other than Smoker — a ruthless marine commander who later pursues Luffy across the Grand Line.
The name of Smoker and his Smoke-Smoker Fruit are all pretty self-explanatory. The Fruit he consumed allows him to turn into clouds of smoke at will. Not only does this make Smoker incredibly versatile and hard to hit, but he’s also able to use his smoke powers to grapple and strangle his enemies, making him one of the toughest foes the Straw Hat Crew have ever faced.
Did We See the Smooth-Smooth Fruit in the Finale?
So those are all three fruits that we definitely see in Netflix’s One Piece Season 1, but there may be a fourth fruit presence that is hiding under the surface. In the final montage where the heroes and villains of the season are observing Luffy’s new wanted poster, we see that Buggy is in a bar, recuperating from the humiliating loss to the Straw Hat Pirates. Lucky for him, Buggy isn’t the only one there with a grudge against Luffy, as Episode 1’s pirate villain Alvida (Ilia Isorelýs Paulino) is also looking for revenge.
In the anime, after Alvida is defeated by Luffy, she comes into contact with the Smooth-Smooth Fruit. This Devil Fruit drastically alters Alvida’s appearance, but that’s only the half of it. It also makes the pirate captain’s skin smoother than anything, causing bullets and other weapons to slide off of her with ease. It’s certainly possible that Alvida could have eaten the fruit prior to meeting up with Buggy, but any indication of that has yet to be seen and will likely be revealed in Season 2.
