Chapters · Four Emperors (Yonko) › Wano Country
Chapter 943: SMILE
This chapter's foreshadowing ledger — what it plants, what it pays off, and what debuts here. Locked seeds pay off beyond your ⚓ progress; tap one to reveal it anyway.
- Firsts
- SMILE fruits have only a 10% success rate; the 9-in-10 failures gain no power but permanently lose the ability to swim AND the ability to express any emotion but laughter
- Kaido's Animal Kingdom Pirates' rank-and-file are tiered by SMILE outcome: Waiters (not yet eaten), Pleasures (ate, failed — eternal laughter), Gifters (the lucky 1-in-10 who gained an animal power)
- The masterminds named the fruit 'SMILE' in mockery of the failures' forced grin
- Orochi deliberately seeded failed (bitten) SMILE fruits into the food trickling out of the Flower Capital, creating Ebisu Town — a town whose starving residents can only laugh and cannot mourn
- Tonoyasu's real identity: he is 'Yasuie,' the former daimyo of Hakumai
- Toko is Yasuie/Tonoyasu's daughter
- Yasuie is publicly executed (crucified, then shot) at Rasetsu, Flower Capital
Arc: Wano Country · Saga: Four Emperors (Yonko) · Released: 2019-05-20
Summary
At Rasetsu in the Flower Capital, the former daimyo of Hakumai — the beggar known as Tonoyasu, real name Yasuie — is publicly executed while the crowd, against all reason, howls with laughter. A flashback shows the young, dignified Yasuie buying off Oden’s unruly vassals, certain that Oden will one day be Shogun of all Wano. In the present, the laughter has a horrifying source: across intercut scenes (Hyogoro to Luffy at Udon; an elder to Kin’emon and Dogstorm at Bakura Town; Okiku to Robin and Franky), the truth of the SMILE fruit is laid out — a 10% success rate, with the failures left unable to swim or to feel anything but mirth, sorted into Kaido’s Waiters / Pleasures / Gifters ranks. Orochi, holding particular contempt for the leftover town outside the capital, slipped failed SMILE fruits into its food: that is how Ebisu Town’s grief-proof grin was born, and why its people laugh at their own daimyo’s death. Yasuie’s last words beg the world not to blame them for laughing. When his daughter Toko breaks past the gate to “revive” him, Orochi — realizing she is Yasuie’s child and the girl who mocked him — opens fire to execute her too; Zoro (“Zorojuro,” the Magistrate Slasher) and Sanji (“Sangoro,” the soba cook) burst in and deflect the bullets.
New reveals
- SMILE mechanics. Only 1 in 10 who eat a SMILE actually gains the animal power; the other nine “receive only the downsides” — no power, can no longer swim, and the imperfect chemical mixture wipes out the ability to express sorrow or anger, leaving them able only to laugh (p. 10).
- Animal Kingdom Pirates rank tiers for basic fighters: Waiters (haven’t eaten a fruit yet, still waiting for a power), Pleasures (ate, failed, left with “nothing but eternal laughter”), Gifters (the lucky 1-in-10 who gained animal strength) (pp. 10–11).
- The masterminds named the concoction “SMILE” in mockery of the failures’ permanent grin (p. 11).
- Orochi’s Ebisu Town scheme: he had failed, already-bitten SMILE fruits slipped in among the food scraps (“apples”) that trickle out of the Flower Capital to the leftover town — the starving poor ate them and lost everything but laughter. That is the origin of Ebisu Town (pp. 12–13).
- Tonoyasu = Yasuie, the former daimyo of Hakumai (flashback pp. 2–3; named “Yasuie” repeatedly during the execution).
- Toko is Yasuie/Tonoyasu’s daughter (pp. 15–16).
- Yasuie is executed by crucifixion and gunfire at Rasetsu, Flower Capital (pp. 4–6, 14).
- The SMILE supply chain’s masterminds are shown grinning together — Kaido, Orochi, and Doflamingo (the off-Wano supplier) (p. 11).
Foreshadowing seeds planted
Payoffs (seeds from earlier chapters that resolve here)
Mentions / appearances
Tonoyasu · Toko · Orochi · Kozuki Oden · Kaido · Luffy · Hyogoro · Zoro · Sanji · Nico Robin · Franky · Okiku · Kin’emon · Inuarashi · Doflamingo · Oiran (top courtesan of Wano) · Animal Kingdom Pirates · SMILE · S.A.D. · Hakumai · Flower Capital · Rasetsu Town · Udon · Onigashima · Bakura Town · Ebisu Town · Kuri
Notable panels
- p. 1 — Chapter splash (request art, B&W): “Robin knitting with tarantula thread,” requested by Noda Skywalker. Decorative request-series page, not a cover-story B-plot.
- pp. 2–3 — Hakumai flashback: the young Yasuie hands Hakumai’s funds to Oden’s would-be thieving vassals and tells them to better themselves and become “the greatest samurai of the land,” because Oden “will be Shogun of Wano!” — he loves Oden and believes in his future.
- pp. 4–5 — The crucified Yasuie executed at Rasetsu while the crowd laughs uncontrollably; Toko crying “Daddyyy!!” amid the forced laughter.
- pp. 9–11 — The SMILE exposition spread: the 10% success rate, the swim-loss and emotion-loss defect, and the Waiters / Pleasures / Gifters tier chart.
- pp. 12–13 — Orochi’s scheme: failed SMILE fruits hidden in the “apples” handed to the starving leftover town; flashback of Ebisu Town’s residents eating them and laughing.
- p. 14 — Yasuie’s last words: “Don’t blame them for laughing!! Please, I beg of you…”
- pp. 16–17 — Orochi shoots at Toko (“Another execution!!!”); Zoro (Zorojuro / the Magistrate Slasher) and Sanji (Sangoro / the soba cook) leap in and deflect the bullets — cliffhanger.
Open questions raised
- What is the full history between Orochi and Yasuie’s family that makes it a “two generations” grudge — and how did Komurasaki come to die shielding Toko?
- How will Zoro and Sanji extract Toko from the heart of the Flower Capital execution ground?
- Now that the Straw Hats know the truth of the SMILE defect, does it change how they fight the Gifters/Pleasures?