Summary
In the world ofOne Piece, people can eatmysterious fruitscalledDevil Fruits, which grant them fascinating supernatural abilities, like being able to generate and/or manipulate a specific substance, being able to transform into a deadly animal, etc. Naturally, some of these powers are quite versatile and, after enough practice and training, have allowed their users to become some of the most powerful characters in the series.
But, naturally, not every Devil Fruit is so complex, seeing as many of them are quite simple. Of course, this isn’t necessarily a bad thing; it just means that their powers and applications are much more straightforward, especially when compared to others.One Piecehas introduced audiences to many simple Devil Fruits throughout its extensive run, but the following are the most notorious examples of this phenomenon so far.
8Mera Mera No Mi
Eaten By Ace And Sabo
Most Logia Devil Fruits are relatively simple to both understand and use, seeing as they grant their users the ability to create, manipulate, and turn their bodies into a specific element, like ice, lava, light, etc. While most of them could easily be labeled as simple,theMera Mera no Miis the most straightforward one so far, which makes sense considering it was one of the first Logia Devil Fruits introduced in the story.
Fire manipulation is one of the most common and popular superpowers in fictional media, so whoever has eaten this Devil Fruit is immediately granted a very simple, but very effective, ability. Its first known user,Portgas D. Ace, used it more conventionally since he mostly unleashed powerful burning attacks from a safe distance. On the other hand, its second user,Sabo, prefers to combine his fire-based powers with his Haki to practice a unique martial art called Ryusoken.
7Inu Inu No Mi, Model: Dachshund
Eaten By Lassoo
Zoan Devil Fruits are also quite simplistic by nature, since their users are just able to transform into an animal, and their levels of complexity and versatility depend mostly on both the specific species and the skills of the person who ate them.In the case of theInu Inu no Mi, Model: Dachshund, it allows anyone who eats it the bizarre ability to turn into a dachshund, also known as a sausage dog.
When compared to other models of dog Zoan Devil Fruits in the series (Wolf or Jackal), this one is quite simple and unimpressive. Its only application wasn’t especially convoluted either, as it was “eaten” by a cannon calledLassoo, thus allowing its owner, Mr. 4, to launch powerful baseballs at his targets without having to manually activate his weapon. A simple and straightforward use for a simple and straightforward Devil Fruit.
6Uma Uma No Mi
Eaten By Pierre
Horses are beautiful, strong, and fast creatures, so the ability to turn into one would undoubtedly be a blessing foranyone who eats theUma Uma no Mi,regardless of how simple it can be. However, this doesn’t seem to be the case forPierre, because he’s a gag character on whom this simple Devil Fruit has been completely wasted.
Pierre is a giant bird who can already fly on his own and carry his master, Gan Fall, on his back. When he uses his power to transform into a horse, he turns into a creature similar to a Pegasus… who can still do the same thing without any significant changes. Curiously enough, there’s another model of horse Devil Fruit in the series, called the Uma Uma no Mi, Model: Pegasus. This one also seems quite simple at first glance, since it only gave its user, Stronger, the ability to grow wings, but it’s important to remember that he was already a horse before eating it. This Mythical Zoan would arguably be more effective if it were eaten by a human.
5Oshi Oshi No Mi
Eaten By Morley
Paramecia Devil Fruits are most likely to give their users mind-blowing and complex abilities with many powerful and/or practical uses. However, there are some noteworthy exceptions, and theOshi Oshi no Miis one of them, since its main ability can be simply described as “being able to push the ground.”
Like most Devil Fruits with straightforward powers, this sounds quite unimpressive at first,but its only confirmed user,Morleyof the Revolutionary Army, has been able to put it to very good use. Not only can she move any type of ground in battle to create obstacles for her opponents, but she’s also able to build entire structures with her Devil Fruit, since she was the person who created the underground tunnels at Impel Down that Emporio Ivankov later turned into Level 5.5.
4Kira Kira No Mi
Eaten By Jozu
Devil Fruits that allow their users to cover parts of their bodies in a specific material are often quite useful and versatile,but theKira Kira no Miis an obvious and unfortunate exception. With it,Jozucan turn any part of his body into diamond, which naturally gives him incredible levels of strength and durability. However, that’s the only thing it can apparently do: its user can’t generate diamonds outside his body nor manipulate pre-existing diamonds in the environment, meaning that everything else depends on how exactly he decides to use his new hardened body.
This may not seem like a big deal at first - and Jozu was able to use this ability to turn into an efficient pirate and fighter - but the Kira Kira no Mi also has one big disadvantage: he can’t move any body part that is covered by diamond, so he needs to leave some parts uncovered to keep moving around. Unfortunately for Jozu, this reduces the value of this Devil Fruit, since other capable fighters inOne Piecehave been able to achieve similar things by using Armament Haki instead.
3Wapu Wapu No Mi
Eaten By Van Augur
The Blackbeard Pirates spent most of the story gathering powerful Devil Fruits and when the newfound abilities of some of their members were finally revealed during the Egghead Arc, their apparent simplicity was quite shocking to most readers.One notorious example of this was the crew’s sniper,Van Augur, who ate theWapu Wapu no Mi, a Paramecia Devil Fruit that gave him the ability to quickly teleport.
That’s it, that’s the only thing the powers of the Wapu Wapu no Mi can do, and yet, they are incredibly useful and impressive, especially for a sniper like Van Augur, who can use his teleportation to ambush his opponents and catch them by surprise or to quickly avoid powerful attacks. Overall, it seems that the Blackbeard Pirates’ long quest for strong Devil Fruits was worth it.
2Bari Bari No Mi
Eaten By Kurozumi Semimaru And Bartolomeo
TheBari Bari no Miis the definition of “simple, but effective,” seeing as it allows anyone who eats it to generate durable barriers out of nothing, just by crossing their fingers. Its first known user (in chronological order) wasKurozumi Semimaru, who gave these powers a very straightforward use, mainly by creating barriers that could protect Orochi from Kouzuki Oden’s powerful physical attacks.
The second user of the Bari Bari no Mi,Bartolomeothe Cannibal, was much more impressive with his application of this seemingly mundane power. At first, he mainly used his barriers to protect himself during the Corrida Colosseum tournament, and he was even able to protect himself from strong attacks from skilled fighters, like Hack or King Elizabello II. However, he eventually came up with a few new interesting uses for his simple barriers, like creating stairs or covering his hand with a small circular barrier to punch an opponent, a technique that was inspired by his idol’s signature move, Monkey D. Luffy’s Gomu Gomu no Pistol.
1Riki Riki No Mi
Eaten By Jesus Burgess
There’s no doubt that Eiichiro Oda is one of the most creative mangakas out there, seeing as he has always been able to come up with some of the most bizarre and distinctive superpowers in the entire anime and manga industry. Nevertheless, not all of them have been particularly unique, andJesus Burgess’recently acquired Devil Fruit is one of the most egregious examples of this oddity.
In the Egghead Arc,it was revealed that he ate theRiki Riki no Mi, which gave him immense levels of physical strength… and that’s it. Of course, this is really useful - especially for a character like Burgess, who specializes in physical combat - but it’s still a surprisingly simple, generic, and mundane power for a series as creative asOne Piece. However, considering that Van Augur’s Wapu Wapu no Mi was introduced in the very same chapter, it’s highly likely that Oda is trying to intentionally convey a “simple but effective” theme with the Blackbeard Pirates' new Devil Fruits.
