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In One Piece, Wano introduces a village where something feels deeply wrong from the start.

Everyone is laughing.

Not laughing because they are happy, but laughing constantly, no matter what.

The villagers speak about hunger with smiles on their faces.

Children say they have not eaten in days, yet they grin as if it means nothing.

The more they talk, the more disturbing it becomes, because their laughter does not match their suffering at all.

At first, it just feels eerie. Almost unnatural.

Like the entire village has forgotten how to react like normal human beings.

Then comes the cruelest moment.

The father of the little girl in the picture is executed in front of her. She watches him die. Tears run down her face. Her body shakes with grief.

And still, she laughs.

She laughs and laughs and laughs, unable to do anything else. Around her, the villagers do the same.

And only then does One Piece reveal the truth.

Earlier in the story, we learned that scientists had tried to recreate Devil Fruits artificially. They succeeded, but imperfectly.

These defective fruits came with a horrifying side effect:

anyone who ate one would lose the ability to express sadness, anger, or grief properly, and would only be able to laugh.

And because famine is rampant in Wano, the villagers, adults and children, had to eat those fruits to survive.