Rumble Ball

Rumble Ball Statistics Japanese Name: ランブルボール Romanized Name: Ranburu Bōru Official English Name: Rumble Ball First Appearance: Chapter 148, Episode 88 Item: Drug User: Tony Tony Chopper

The Rumble Ball is a special drug, developed by Tony Tony Chopper, meant to enhance Devil Fruit abilities.

The Rumble Ball condenses various chemicals into a spherical yellow pill, similar to a jawbreaker in appearance. It is easily crushed with a single bite.

Once ingested, the drug immediately "distorts the wavelength" of the user's Devil Fruit-enhanced biochemistry, creating a number of new abilities. In Chopper's case, nearly all of these entail special transformations that emphasize and combine different traits from his three "natural" Zoan forms.

(When consuming the drug, Chopper will frequently say "Rumble" (ランブル, Ranburu?), as if designating it a technique in itself.)

Chopper's original Rumble Ball formula—used throughout his life on Drum Island and the Straw Hat Pirates' Paradise adventures—enabled four additional forms that respectively augmented his fur (Guard Point), antlers (Horn Point), hindlimbs (Jumping Point), and forelimbs (Arm Point). It also granted a few augmentations to his "natural" forms, most notably the extra brainpower used in his Brain Point's Scope technique.

This version of the Rumble Ball was effective for only three minutes after ingestion,[1] and properly required six-hour breaks between uses. Disregarding this and ingesting more than one within six hours would inflict dangerous side-effects:

For these reasons, Chopper more often than not treated the Rumble Ball as a final resort in his early battles.

After two years of research and training within the Torino Kingdom, Chopper has mastered his physiology enough to access all four of his "standard" Rumble Ball forms (as well as new ones, e.g. Kung Fu Point) without actually taking the drug. As such, his only remaining use for it in the New World is his "Monster Point", which he can now utilize for three minutes without losing any conscious thought, and he only needs to take one Rumble Ball to access it.[4] Although, even with his new level of control, "Monster Point" does still leave him drained of energy and unable to move after he changes back.

The side effects of the Rumble Ball's newest formula.

The latest version of the Rumble Ball (developed with help from Caesar Clown) strengthens Chopper's abilities even further, allowing him to stay in his "Monster Point" transformation for thirty minutes'.[5] However, entering Monster Point still risks a severe disadvantage, as its expiration will leave Chopper in a shrunken version of Brain Point, largely powerless (and, for unknown reasons, prone to antiquated speech). Exactly how long this form lasts before Chopper turns back is unknown. It is also unknown how long Chopper has to wait before he can safely take another Rumble Ball.[6]

The following events are Non-Canon and therefore not considered part of the Canon story.

Chopper created the first Rumble Ball on Drum Island, by complete accident; in an attempt to hide the fact that he had "borrowed" many of Dr. Kureha's rare medicines to experiment with, he compounded them all together and swallowed the resulting product. Almost immediately, his arm muscles grew to massive size—his first experience with an additional form.[7]

Concludes non-canon section.

Properly developing the Rumble Ball (and mastering its additional transformations) took Chopper five years of research and experimentation, extending through almost his entire tutelage under Dr. Kureha. These experiments sometimes had severe consequences; Chopper's initial discovery of Monster Point, in particular, produced a rampage that nearly destroyed an entire village as well as his own body.

"Monster" Chopper emerges on Enies Lobby.

In any case, the Rumble Ball served Chopper well throughout his early battles—against Chessmarimo on Drum Island, Baroque Works on Arabasta, Gedatsu on Skypiea, and the Franky Family on Water 7. Its limitations became near-fatal on Enies Lobby, however, as Chopper was unable to defeat Kumadori within three minutes, forcing him to take a second and eventually a third Rumble Ball. The resulting transformation into Monster Point—Chopper's first-ever deliberate attempt—easily crushed Kumadori, but also threatened several of the other Straw Hats, forcing Franky to knock him into the ocean.[3]

Some time later, the Rumble Ball proved still more inadequate against the Straw Hats' Sabaody enemies, with even Monster Point failing to inflict any serious damage on Sentomaru; ultimately, Chopper survived only by the hand of Bartholomew Kuma, who "vanished" him[8] to the distant Torino Kingdom in the South Blue.[9] Here, Chopper committed himself to researching and training all his abilities—Rumble Ball included—for the next two years, anticipating the Straw Hats' reunion and journey for the New World.[10]

After the Straw Hats reunited, Chopper soon demonstrated his new expertise on Fish-Man Island, entering Monster Point with only one Rumble Ball—and all faculties intact.[4] New challenges arose on Punk Hazard, however, as Trafalgar Law's abilities (temporarily) transplanted Franky's mind into Chopper's body; Franky proved disastrous at using the Rumble Ball, immediately succumbing to Monster Point's rage and eventually forcing Luffy to beat him unconscious.[11]

Further improvements on the Rumble Ball came from an ironic source: Caesar Clown, reduced to a prisoner of the Straw Hats following their victories on Punk Hazard. While still unrepentantly cruel, he apparently took genuine interest in Chopper's research, and volunteered a formula to extend the Rumble Ball's duration tenfold.[5]

Apart from the aforementioned anime-only origin, the Rumble Ball's side-effects were—prior to the Enies Lobby Arc—unknown to the anime staff, resulting in Chopper's usage being somewhat more casual in anime-original stories. This was most noticeable during the Long Ring Long Land Arc, which featured Chopper (who took no active part in the manga) swallowing two Rumble Balls during the Davy Back Fight's "Hit and Dead Ball" game without any issue.[12]

The 4Kids anime has Wapol liken the Rumble Ball's appearance to a fruit rather than candy, possibly to deter connotations with illegal drugs (which often reference candy and other sweets in their street-names); however, it makes no attempt to change the overall steroid-esque effects.

In addition, the 4Kids dub of Episode 88 contains an original segment ("Deer Tales") reviewing all of Chopper's forms, as well as the Rumble Ball's capabilities.

A picture of Chopper eating four Rumble Balls