The epic and irreverent anime One Piece is currently celebrating its 20th year of serialization, and what better way to do so than to take a look back at some of its most interesting characters? I’ve been a fan of One Piece for many years now and one thing that stands out to me that always makes me laugh is how over-the-top silly Oda’s characters are. It’s understandable that not every power or ability can be as heroic as Luffy’s, but One Piece has some of the most ridiculous ones you’ll ever come across. Here’s a list of the top 10 most absurd abilities in the series:
Buggy: The Chop Chop Fruit
I’ll start with one of my favorite characters who—despite all the bad luck in the world—somehow manages to always survive. A lot of it has to do with his ridiculous power from the Chop Chop Fruit that allows him to dismember himself in cartoon fashion and control his levitating limbs as long as they are within a certain range (and at least one foot is on the ground). Not complicated at all right? The only really cool part is that Buggy can’t be cut by anything, because he’ll just section off like his normal dismemberment. He literally fights with cartoon logic applying to his body. Weird right?
Bellamy: The Boing Boing Fruit
Bellamy might come across as a badass hunk of muscle who gets what he wants, but when you see his power in action it’s just hard not to laugh. The Boing Boing Fruit gives him the ability to turn his limbs into springs so he can bounce off of things. Yep. Mr. Badass over here. Bouncing around on his spring legs like a cheap McDonald’s Happy Meal toy. It’s hard to take him seriously, but Bellamy eventually grows on readers in the series as he drops the macho act and learns some humility. I guess you’d have to with a power as lame as spring legs. Though, it seems to be working for Nintendo’s ARMS game…
Kaku: Giraffe Devil Fruit
This one kills me, because it’s just so freakin’ funny. Kaku is a swordsman of renowned skill that strikes fear in to all those that oppose him. Sure, his square Pinocchio nose is weird, but when he puts the hurt on the Straw Hats with ease it’s clear that he’s no joke. That is, until he takes a chance on a Devil Fruit to increase his power by gaining an unknown and random ability. His lucky draw? HE TURNS INTO A GIRAFFE! In a world where people can have lava powers and can turn people to stone, one of the most threatening villains in all of One Piece gets the power to turn into a giraffe! HA! Even his own teammates can’t help but laugh at him and his only defense is to stare menacingly at his opponent and say, “I like being a giraffe. I love giraffes.” BWAHAHA!
Califa: Bubble Bubble Fruit
This is another part of Kaku’s joke power, where Califa and Kaku are both given random fruit with hopes of gaining awesome abilities. Hers ends up not being as funny as Kaku’s, but it definitely goes in the crazy weird and random category. Califa can emit bubbles that turn people in to squeaky clean mannequins. It cleans dirt and power away, but its weakness is terribly obvious—water. Even weirder, her main attack covers herself with soap suds so that she looks like a soap-sheep. Yes, you just read the words “soap-sheep”. With both Califa and Kaku being such serious straight-man characters, it’s just too funny to see them both get stuck with lifelong silly powers.
Buffalo: Spin Spin Fruit
Some of the Devil Fruit names are self-explanatory and this one is right on the nose. Buffalo has the ability to spin and his fruit ability is described as turning him into a Rotation Human. Imagine that one on a resume. He spins his body in odd, unnatural ways to become a propeller that even lets him fly. He basically looks like a plane. Could he have just had a flight power that didn’t require rotating? Or maybe just a pair of wings? Sure. But where’s the fun in that?
Ivankov: Hormone Fruit
Emperio Ivankov is one of my favorite characters in One Piece for many reasons, but mostly because he’s a champion for drag queens and trans characters depicted in a visual medium, based on the legendary icon Dr. Frank N. Furter (played by Tim Curry) from The Rocky Horror Picture Show. His power is a strange one, but given the basis of his character, well, it just had to be. Ivankov can inject hormones of any kind through his nails into anyone, including himself, and alter their physical features any way he wants. He can fill them with growth hormones to make them giant or he can swap their genders at will. Mostly, he just makes his head really huge and winks at them so hard it blows them away. Literally.
Perona: Hollow Hollow Fruit
One of the funniest moments in all of One Piece comes from an encounter with Perona, the user of the Hollow Hollow fruit. With it, Perona can create ghosts that can move things and explode on command, but the strangest and most common use is to pass through people and make them super negative. That’s right. Perona’s ghosts pass right through you and all you can do is think about negative stuff until it wears off. Sure it’s a debilitating attack and the fact that they can’t be hurt physically is cool, but making people feel bad about themselves is just cruel and unusual. Unless you’re Usopp, that is, and then you’re so negative all the time that they just don’t have any effect at all.
Bentham/Bon Clay: Clone Clone Fruit
Bon Clay is another one of my favorites for his heroic nature as a non-binary drag queen, but also for his crazy ability. He’s over-dramatic and silly for sure, but his power is what really makes him weird. Bon has the remarkable ability to copy anyone’s appearance even down to their voice. But it’s how he has to do it that makes it weird. Bon has to physically touch the person he wants to copy with his right hand and when he wants to undo it he has to touch his face with this left hand. Not exactly Mystique levels of usefulness when it comes to stealth. Oh, and his appearance is based on Jim Carey from Dumb and Dumber so that’s a little odd, too.
Galdino/Mr. 3: Wax Wax Fruit
Like a lot of the Devil Fruit abilities, this one is exactly what it sounds like. Mr. 3 has the ability to control wax. Candle wax. That’s it. He can make wax from his body and then make it do what he wants. Now that’s a guy you want around when your power goes out. Wax can be useful in some defensive maneuvers and maybe even some capturing ones, but let’s be honest here—wax is hardly threatening and the weakness to fire doesn’t help. His hair is lame too.
Sengoku:Â Human Great Buddha Fruit
This one sure is strange and I’m honestly still not sure how I feel about it in the series. Sengoku of the Marines can literally transform into a giant golden Buddha and attack people with increased power. He doesn’t turn into an animal or gain a cool elemental power like the majority of the characters in the series, but instead just turns into a giant deity. Huh. There are a lot of things in One Piece that make me scratch my head, but this one has me really struggling. But then again, why not? Luffy’s made of rubber and I guess I’m alright with that.
One Piece is currently simulcasting on Crunchyroll and is available on Hulu. The English manga is available in local bookstores.
Images + GIFs: Toei Animation
Alex Tisdale is a writer and illustrator who runs on coffee and pop culture. You can find him covered in ink and rambling on his website or on Twitter.
