The Horu Horu no Mi is a Paramecia-type Devil Fruit that grants the user the ability to create a variety of special hormones that can alter the recipient's body in any way the user desires, making the user a Hormone Controlling Human (ホルモン自在人間,Horumon Jizai Ningen?). It was eaten by Emporio Ivankov sometime after the God Valley Incident.[3]
"Horu" is short for horumon (ホルモン?), the Japanese way of pronouncing the word "hormone".
In the VIZ manga and Funimation adaptations, it is called the Horm-Horm Fruit, a shortening the word "hormone".
Strengths and Weaknesses[]
The major strength of the fruit, as demonstrated by Ivankov, is that the user can create special hormones that can quickly and drastically alter the body of any person they are injected into in any way the user desires,[3] effectively allowing the user to "remodel a human from the inside out" on a genetic level. The user can also turn their fingers into syringe-like needles, which they use to inject the hormones into a target's body, including their own body if they desire to do so.[4] These hormones can be used to freely alter any of the target's physical aspects, such as gender, body temperature, skin pigmentation, growth, stamina, even their emotional state, and many other things as well. This power is what led to Ivankov being known as the "Miracle Person."
By using the hormones on someone, the user can grant them physical characteristics that are advantageous in combat; the user can give someone a burst of adrenaline to increase their stamina, allowing them to continue fighting even if they are exhausted, enlarge certain body parts to make specific attacks strong, as Ivankov does with his head size, making it gigantic to increase the power of his signature Hell Wink technique, and even change a person's gender so that they can take advantage of the beneficial attributes of the opposite sex. By turning a man into a woman, his body becomes lean and agile, as well as soft and flexible, making him/her resistant to blunt force.
The user can also create hormones that enhance the recipient's natural immune system, allowing them to boost a person's chances of survival from conditions that would otherwise mean certain death, such as disease and poisoning. However, this does not mean that the hormones created by this power have unlimited capabilities; in fact, they can have potentially-deadly side effects if they are over-used.
While the user can provide a person with healing hormones, the chance of survival is only slightly increased, as the healing hormone cure is extremely painful, and the process can take many hours, or even days to complete, so only those with strong enough willpower can recover. Also, the process shortens a person's potential lifespan, by years even, if the condition was serious enough.
Other than that, the fruit suffers from the standard Devil Fruit weakness.[5]
Usage[]
The fruit's bestowed hormone powers, as used by Iva, have been used for a variety of reasons. Iva seems to enjoy playing around with the concept of "gender" as he and his ally Inazuma are seen switching in and out their male and female forms. In addition, supposedly all the Newkamas of level 5.5 have switched sexes. Though Iva enjoys playing around with his powers, they can also make him a powerful and persistent opponent in battle. Iva has clashed with the likes of Prison Warden Magellan and MarineAdmiralAkainu[6] and has come out of these battles with little harm, despite the deadlyabilities of both opponents. Iva's quick recoveries are due to his ability to greatly heal and energize his body through hormones.[7][8]
The fruit's powers are the source of Ivankov's "miraculous" reputation, which, aside from gender changing, allow Iva to perform other miracles on people besides himself, such as extremely fast super healing, via his using the hormones to allow for a person's body to adjust from a fatal-condition to having a chance of survival. However, while he can make the adjustment within the body to heal from these conditions, the miracle is also dependent on the person hit by the hormones, whereas only those with a strong enough will can survive and use their survival instincts via the hormones to their advantage. Depending on what the condition the patient is in, as well as the hormones used, the receiver may suffer a shortening of lifespan in exchange for the "cure".[9]
Techniques[]
Emporio Onna Hormone (エンポリオ・女ホルモン,Enporio Onna Horumon?, literally meaning "Emporio Female Hormone"): By injecting a male with special female hormones, Iva is able to completely transform them into a female. He can also use this on himself, doing so when he fights Sadi.[10] When a male is turned into a female, their body becomes soft, allowing them to withstand serious blunt force. It appears that this technique does not affect the clothes of the person who is transformed, as every time someone is hit with this technique their physical appearance changes, but their clothes become too small or big for them.[2] This was first seen being used on Bellett, who was trying to get revenge on Iva.[2] In the VIZ manga, this is called Emporio Estrogen, and in the Funimation dub it is called Emporio Female Hormone.
Unnamed Male Hormone: By injecting a female with special male hormones, Iva is able to completely transform them into a male.[11] Like the Female Hormone, it appears that this technique does not affect the clothes of the person who is transformed, as every time someone is hit with this technique their physical appearance changes, but their clothes may become too small or big for them.[2] This usage for his ability is not a named technique.
Emporio Chiyu Hormone (エンポリオ・治癒ホルモン,Enporio Chiyu Horumon?, literally meaning "Emporio Healing Hormone"): By injecting special hormones meant to stimulate the body's immune system's full potential into a sick person, Iva is able to cure them of serious disease and poisoning. This is the secret to his "miracle" healing. Since the hormones only unlock the immune system's potential, the chance of survival is mostly based upon the individual's will to live. In order to use this technique, a certain amount of the target's life-span must be sacrificed in order to compensate for the energy used to heal the damage. In the case of Luffy being exposed to various deadly poisons and having only 24 hours to live, it took 10 years of his life-span. In the case of things like poison, it seems to make them immune to the very ailment that plagued them. This was first seen being used on Luffy to counteract Magellan's poison.[12] In the VIZ manga and Funimation dub, this move is called Emporio Healing Hormone.
For the chapter titled "Emporio Tension Hormones", see Chapter 539.
Emporio Tension Hormone (エンポリオ・テンションホルモン,Enporio Tenshon Horumon?): By injecting special adrenaline affecting hormones, Ivankov can provide a tired person with a supply of adrenaline that can relieve tension and allow for easier movement for an entire day. There is an aftereffect after being injected with this hormone, which causes the user to feel nauseaous and tired. There is a limit to how much fatigue the hormones can relieve, as Ivankov warned Luffy that he would not be getting up again after receiving a second dose. This was first seen being used on an exhausted Luffy.[13] Ivankov has also used this together with Emporio Healing Hormones to recover quickly from fatal poisoning.[7] This is called Emporio Energy Hormone in the VIZ manga and Funimation dub.
Emporio Ganmen Seicho Hormone (エンポリオ・顔面成長ホルモン,Enporio Ganmen Seichō Horumon?, literally meaning "Emporio Face Growth Hormone"): By injecting special growth hormones into one's face, Ivankov can make a person's head expand to enormous proportions that surpass even giants. This was first seen used by Ivankov on himself during the escape from Impel Downlevel 4[4] to make his Death Wink technique into a more powerful version called Hell Wink.[14] While his head is in this state, it allows his hair to hold up to at least 235 people inside it.[15] This is called Emporio Face Growth Synthesis in the VIZ manga and Funimation adaptations.
Anime and Manga Differences[]
In the manga, Ivankov forced a guard to show him where Ace's cell was. In the anime, he used his Emporio Onna Hormones to turn the guard into a woman and persuaded her to tell him where the cell was.[16]
In the anime version of his confrontation with Akainu, Ivankov used his syringe needles as slashing weapons in conjunction with his Newkama Kenpo.[17]
Translation and Dub Issues[]
The Devil Fruit's gender changing hormones were first seen being used on a male prisoner. In the magazine serialization of the VIZ manga, when the guy was changed into a girl, a top was added to her for censorship reasons despite the guy appearing shirtless earlier.
Trivia[]
The Straw Hats' genderswapped.
The Worst Generation' genderswapped.
The Seven Warlords' genderswapped.
Admirals' genderswapped.
In an SBS, a fan asked Oda if he would draw the Straw Hats as they would if they were gender-swapped by Iva's hormones. In response, Oda provided the following drawings. For the male crewmembers turned female, they would use a typical Japanese feminine style of talking. The opposite is also said for the female crew members with them using a typical Japanese masculine style of talking. Female Luffy is apparently a vegetarian. Female Zoro apparently does not like putting a sword in her mouth as it would chip her teeth. Female Sanji's specialty would be sweets. For most of the Straw Hats, the gender-swap is very apparent. Brook, however, is not so apparent since he has no flesh to help identify whether he was injected with Iva's gender changing hormones or not.[18]
This and the Soru Soru no Mi are the only known Devil Fruits that shave off another person's lifespan. In this case, it sacrifices potential lifespan to enhance recuperative abilities rather than to inflict harm.
This power is an exaggeration, but not complete fabrication, of what hormones actually can do. Hormones really do control many biological functions in the body, including (but not limited to) growth, behavior, energy, and secondary sex characteristics.
↑ 7.07.1One Piece Manga and Anime — Vol. 56Chapter 549 (p. 4) and Episode 452, Ivankov states that he recovered from Magellan's poison using a combination of healing and tension hormones.
↑One Piece Manga and Anime — Vol. 59Chapter 581 (p. 10-11) and Episode 490, Ivankov has recovered from his fight with Akainu.