What is Killer's Devil Fruit in One Piece? Explained

Modified Aug 31, 2024 18:05 GMT

What is Killer's Devil Fruit in One Piece? Explained (Image via Toei Animation)

Within the world of author and illustrator Eiichiro Oda’s One Piece manga series, there are two main power systems that exist - Haki and Devil Fruits. While Haki was mainly introduced in the post-time-skip portion of the series, Devil Fruits have been around since the beginning and are integral to both the series’ action and story.

Likewise, there are many different Devil Fruits that play varied roles and purposes and are eaten by many people. One such person is Killer, with fans often asking “What is Killer’s Devil Fruit in One Piece” following his reintroduction in the Wano arc. While the answer is somewhat complex, there is an answer to this frequently asked question within the series’ fandom.

In reality, Killer’s Devil Fruit in One Piece isn’t truly a Devil Fruit at all and is instead, what’s known as a SMILE Fruit, with Killer being faulty and granting no powers. SMILE Fruits are synthetic Devil Fruits, engineered by Caesar Clown at the behest of ex-Shichibukai Donquixote Doflamingo and his ex-Yonko partner, Kaido.

Explaining Killer’s Devil Fruit in One Piece

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Some SMILE Fruits can grant Zoan-type-like powers that lead to them being called Artificial Zoan users. Thus, most SMILEs end up being total duds that grant no powers.

What Killer ate is one of these duds, with the side effects of the Fruit being that he’s no longer able to display negative emotions, and can likewise only laugh and smile. Hence, the artificial Devil Fruits are called SMILEs with this side effect in mind.

How SMILEs are made, explained

Caesar Clown plays a key role in the production of SMILEs in the world of One Piece (Image via Toei Animation)

The production of SMILEs in the world of One Piece is explicitly laid out, thanks to the introduction of the character of Caesar Clown. While the specifics of the process aren’t mentioned, fans have a general manufacturing timeline and steps which at least show the overall process to make these artificial Devil Fruits.

The foundational ingredient is a chemical named SAD which is produced by Caesar Clown. This is made by mixing the extracted Lineage Factors of numerous animals together. Lineage Factors are said to be the blueprint of life itself within the series’ world.

Once SAD was produced by Caesar Clown in Punk Hazard, it was then transferred to the SMILE Factory in Dressrosa - the country Donquixote Doflamingo ruled over.

The SMILE Factory is essentially an indoor orchard given light by luminescent sunflowers on the ceiling. This helps ordinary fruit trees grow, while SAD is poured into an indoor river which feeds into irrigation channels that run under the trees into their root structures. This feeds the trees the SAD chemical, modifying the ordinary fruits from these trees and turning them into SMILEs.

Can defective SMILEs be cured?

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Given the aforementioned answer to the question of what is Killer’s Devil Fruit, it’s understandable that fans would be curious as to whether or not they can be cured. After all, Killer is far from the only person in the series to eat a defective SMILE Fruit. An entire regiment of Kaido’s Beast Pirates is known as the Pleasures, cruelly named for their suffering from the effects of a defective SMILE Fruit.

There are also the residents of Ebisu Town in Wano, who are forced to eat leftover defective SMILE Fruits when faced with the reality of starvation. Like Killer and the Pleasures, they’re also known for their inability to show negative emotions. Unfortunately, there is no cure for the defective SMILE Fruits in the series as of this article’s writing.

However, Straw Hat doctor and central character Tony Tony Chopper has vowed to cure the SMILE Fruits one day. With his dream being to travel the world and cure any disease, it’s almost certain that he’ll find a cure for Killer and others suffering from the SMILE Fruit’s side effects by the time the series ends.