Zoan Devil Fruits
One Piece is certainly one manga that will leave an indelible mark in the history of manga, anime, and fiction at large. It follows the story of a boy, Monkey D. Luffy, who sets out to sea at a young age to become a pirate. He journeys across the world to find the treasure that was left behind by the then king of pirates – the One Piece – and becomes the new king of pirates.
If you’re familiar with One Piece, then you are definitely familiar with one of its two power systems—Devil Fruits. The other one being Haki. Devil fruits are mysterious fruits that grant permanent abilities of all sorts.
However, it comes with the price that anyone who eats them loses their ability to swim for good, because “they are hated by the sea”. Oda-sensei, the author of One Piece, has shown a myriad of devil fruits in the 25-year run of the series, but not much is known about these mysterious fruits.
What Is A Zoan Type Devil Fruit?
Devil fruits are known to be in three categories: Paramecia, Logia, and Zoan. Here we are shining the spotlight on the Zoan-type devil fruits.
Zoan-type devil fruits grant anyone who eats them the ability to transform into specific animals or hybrids at will. Many Zoan-type devil fruits have been revealed, and a particular subclass of the Zoan-type devil fruits has been described as the rarest and strongest of the devil fruits. It’s been said in the series that devil fruits of the Zoan category have a will of their own in their unconsumed state.
Oda-sensei did a great job of shedding more light on the devil’s fruits in one of his four-part booklet series, Road to Laugh Tale Volume 3, which was released during his one-month break after releasing One Piece manga chapter 1053.
Awakening for Zoans is different from the Logia and Paramecia types. Unlike the Logia and Paramecia types, awakening for Zoans affects their bodies—as they undergo transformations. It does not affect their environment, although Monkey D. Luffy is an exception to this. The Zoan-type devil fruits are divided into four categories: Regular/Standard, Artificial, Ancient, and Mythical Zoans. This division is based on how common the animal species a Zoan devil fruit grants transformation into is, with the Mythical Zoans being the rarest of the subclasses.
Regular Zoans
This subclass of Zoans was first introduced through Dalton, the King of the Sakura Kingdom and user of the Ushi Ushi no Mi, Model: Bison, which allows him to fully or partially turn into a bison. This is the commonest subclass of Zoan-type devil fruits, making up 20 out of the 37 known canon Zoan-type devil fruits as seen in the Road to Laugh Tale, Volume 3:
One Piece characters who fall into this category and their respective devil fruits.
Artificial Zoans
How the artificial Zoans are created is still a mystery. All that is known about them is that they were failures of Dr. Vegapunk’s experiment to create his own devil fruit.
Caesar Clown would later come to achieve a little success with the development of the artificial devil fruits leading to the creation of SMILEs. One of the prominent users of this subclass of Zoan devil fruits is Kozuki Momonosuke.
Ancient Zoans
Have you ever heard of dinosaurs or mammoths? Well, everyone should have, but have you seen one in real life? Of course not, because they are animals of ancient times and are now extinct. That is exactly why the Ancient Zoans are so named.
Ancient Zoan-type devil fruits grant the user the ability to transform into an ancient animal as well as the unique characteristics that come with such an animal. These are the canon users of ancient Zoan devil fruits so far:
Mythical Zoan Devil Fruits
Mythical Zoans are the rarest of the subclasses and the strongest so far. The power of the Mythical Zoan beasts was stated by Admiral Kizaru to be scarier than that of a Logia-type devil fruit.
There are only about eight known users of the mythical Zoan fruit, and as a testament to Kizaru’s words, most of the mythical Zoan users are regarded as powerhouses in the factions they belong to.
As shocking as it may seem, the mythical Zoan-type devil fruit was the first devil fruit type to be shown in the series among all devil fruit types. It was introduced then as the Gomu Gomu no mi and used by Monkey D. Luffy. The mythical Zoan users known so far:
Let us know your favorite Zoan fruit.
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