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| Tuesday, December 05, 2006 |
| Roronoa Zoro |
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Roronoa Zoro (ロロノア・ゾロ, Roronoa Zoro?) , known in the 4Kids dub and VIZ manga as "Roronoa Zolo" is a fictional character in the anime and manga One Piece.
About Zoro
Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.
Being a member of the Straw Hat Pirates, he had a bounty of 60 million Belly after the Alabasta Arc, which was raised to 120 million after the events of Enies Lobby. According to Oda, Zoro resembles a shark.[1] Also, Oda uses the color green to represent Zoro, and he smells of steel. [2]
Originally, the American version of the manga(VIZ) spelled his name as "Roronoa Zoro", but it was changed to "Zolo" in chapter 50. His name was changed in the North American English versions possibly for trademark reasons, and to match up with the dub by 4Kids Entertainment.
His family name, Roronoa, comes from the real-life French pirate François l'Ollonais. This is because there is no differentiation between "R" and "L" in Japanese, so the name may also be said R'Orronais. His first name was made by his birth date. He was born on November 11th, and if the date is written it down in numbers it will appear as 11/11 which is a referred to a "Zorome" in Japan, which means palindrome (same sequence of numbers read forward or backward, like 1234321 or 1221) thus came the name Zoro. Although it has been mistaken many times, it wasn't inspired by the Masked-Swordsman Zorro.
Zoro is a mighty swordsman who fights with santōryū, three daito katana, and his own unique fighting style. Though not a samurai, he appears to maintain a certain degree of bushido, and is frequently mistaken for one. Unlike Luffy and most of the other Strawhats, Zoro has been known to kill his opponents if he has to, though never in cold blood.
In Japanese Fan Polls, Zoro is consistently the second most popular character. While in a poll recently done by 4Kids, Zoro is the most popular character by a landslide.
Eiichiro Oda stated that he made Zoro as a bodyguard of Buggy in earlier versions of the story. He scrapped that idea for the final version of One Piece. Also, an early short story by Oda called Monsters features a samurai character named Ryuma who bears strong physical resemblance to Zoro. Zoro's nemesis, Dracule "Hawkeye" Mihawk looks like a more stylized version of a character named Cyrano from that story.
Personality and relationships
Zoro has a stern, serious and distanced personality, but unlike Robin he often reacts in a goofy and exaggerated comic style due to his gruff, impatient attitude. When the crew sails from one island to another, he normally either trains with weights or just sleeps and is normally awakened in a rather violently comical way by either Nami or Sanji. He also likes sake, almost to the degree that Luffy likes meat, but like Nami, he never gets drunk due to his inhumanly-high tolerance for alcohol. It's interesting to know that both he and Luffy's preference reflects certain elements; for example, Luffy, who likes meat, when in battle, tends to get his own flesh beaten senseless by seemingly more powerful adversaries, while Zoro, who likes sake, tends to bleed profusely when in a similar situation. The Straw Hat's, especially Luffy, Sanji, and Nami like to make fun of Zoro for his lack of orientation. (Zoro often gets lost, even in small spaces or when he is led by someone). Even though his sense of direction is very poor, he has other strong senses and is often one of the first members of the crew to hear an enemy approaching or sense danger. Zoro likes to compete with Sanji and they often get into fights over petty matters, often at inopportune moments and with many childish, colorful words. However, when the two finally manage to put aside their differences in battle they make a devastating team, possibly in part of their wish to out-do each other.
Zoro is the swordsman of the crew, and therefore normally fights other swordsmen of enemy groups such as Cabaji the Acrobat in the Buggy the Clown arc or Mr. 1 in the Alabasta arc. All in all, he is not particularly picky when fighting his opponents (unlike Sanji, who prepares to fight male foes as he would rather die before directly harming a female adversary). Through this, he developed a few rivalries.. His goal is to become the world's best swordsman. To accomplish this, he has to defeat Dracule Mihawk who, as of now in the story, holds this title. He confronted Mihawk once during the Baratie arc but lost to a 6 inch knife and was left with the huge scar on the front of his torso, which was caused by Mihawk's Black Sword (Grosses messer). After his defeat Zoro vowed to never lose in terms of swordsmanship to anyone, and this was one of the very, very few scenes where Zoro cried.
Zoro has a unique relationship with Master Chief Petty Officer Tashigi of the Marines. Tashigi and Zoro met in Loguetown, where she helped him search for new katana. Tashigi says that she wants to confiscate all great swords from the pirates and headhunters who wield them, not realizing that Zoro is one of those pirates. Zoro defeated her once but refused to fight her again in later confrontations, due to her uncanny resemblance to his childhood friend, Kuina. Whenever he sees her, he runs away claiming that she is the one person he cannot fight.
Zoro can also be very vigorous and won't back down when he is determined to achieve a goal or defeat an enemy. On Little Garden, he attempted to slice off his feet to escape death and return to the battle, resulting in scars around both his ankles - this also shows his habit of not thinking things through. When Zoro has the intention to fight seriously, he normally ties his black bandana (which is usually tied around his left upper arm) over his head.
* Note: Zoro's bandana and pants are shown in dark green in the anime; however, it's always black in the manga color pages and book covers.
History
Zoro's vow
As a boy, Zoro trained in a dojo. Even as a child, Zoro was strong enough to defeat most adults. However, there was one person Zoro could not beat - the sensei's daughter, Kuina. After their 2000th fight (and Kuina's 2000th victory) Zoro challenged her in private for one more match - with real swords. He lost. Afterwards Zoro cried out of frustration, that he cannot fullfil his dream of becoming the world's best swordsman if he cannot beat Kuina. After Zoro said that was his dream, Kuina started to cry as well, explaining that she wants to be the best swordsman too, but her father says that girls can't be master swordsmen since they will mature into the physically weaker gender, and for her the process is already beginning. Zoro yelled at her and told her she shouldn't say such things because she can beat him, and the two make a promise - that either of them must become the worlds best swordsman. The next day, Kuina died falling down the stairs of her house.
* Note: In the English dub by 4Kids, this scene was censored and instead she was written to have been badly hurt by a group from a nearby town and was unable to fight anymore.
Zoro, remembering the promise, decided to fulfill the promise for both of them, and he asked the teacher for Kuina's sword, Wado Ichimonji (Wadō Ichimonji), and he started to develop a new fighting style - santōryū, a three-swords-style. Before her sudden death, Zoro fought with two swords but after her death, Zoro started using her sword as well, clenched in his mouth.
Life on the seas
Somehow he learned of Mihawk, nicknamed "Hawkeye", who is currently the greatest swordsman in the world. Eventually, Zoro went to sea looking to find and challenge Mihawk to a duel but somehow got lost and could not return to his home. Since fighting is more or less the only thing Zoro is really good at, he would usually take on a bounty hunter job in order to pay for sword repairs and meals. From then on, he quickly made a reputation as a "Pirate Hunter". Because of his reputation, Zoro was offered a position and a number in Baroque Works because of his bounty hunting skills, but declined when he was not allowed to "Be The Boss". Afterwards, he killed the person who offered, the late Mr. 6 of Baroque Works.
A moment of kindness landed Zoro in trouble with Helmeppo, the wimpy son of the Marine captain Axe-Hand Morgan. Zoro joined Monkey D. Luffy's crew after being saved from execution by the Marines, and is now one of Luffy's crew as the first mate. Holding on to his dream of becoming the greatest swordsman in the world he only joined Luffy to accomplish that goal, though Luffy doesn't mind - on the contrary, he only sees it natural that the greatest swordsman and the greatest pirate are on the same crew.
Abilities and powers
Zoro unleashing Nitō-ryū Iai: Rashōmon.
Enlarge
Zoro unleashing Nitō-ryū Iai: Rashōmon.
Zoro is a master swordsman, able to use one, two and three swords in varying attack styles, although he is most comfortable with his Santōryū (literally: three sword style). Lacking a third hand for a third sword, Zoro holds his third sword in his mouth.
Zoro is Luffy's first mate and is the second strongest member of the crew, with only Luffy surpassing him in strength. Zoro is arguably one of the strongest humans in One Piece; while most super powered heroes and villains (with the exception of Luffy as the Gomu Gomu no Mi does not contribute to his tremendous strength) gain power from eating one of the Devil Fruits, Zoro has gained his powers through hard work and training in his sword techniques, some of which can be used as projectiles - using the air itself to hurt the enemy. Even without his swords, he has monstrous strength (in one instance he lifted and tossed an entire building at an opponent) and he can use some sword techniques without his swords. Zoro has shown to pack powerful punches even developing the ability to pump his arms up with pure muscle, allowing him to break Tekkai with ease. Zoro's endurance is also near superhuman, probably as great or nearly as great as Luffy's. His endurance truly shows in the fact he has defeated incredibly strong opponents (like Hachi and Mr. 1) at their peak when he was greatly injured to the point of near death.
All of Zoro's attacks are puns and have multiple meanings. Some common techniques are Oni Giri (Demon Slash, if read as one word it sounds like "onigiri" which means "riceball"), a three-sword attack where all swords are slashed at the same time to form an asterisk, and 36/72/108 Pondo Hou (36/72/108 Pound Cannon / 36/72/108 Phoenixes of Passion and Desire), a projectile attack for which the power increases according to how many swords are used. See Santōryū for information on the sword technique, and the techniques of its sole practitioner.
His Pōndo Hō attacks are reference to the 36 passions of the Buddhism (Sight, Hearing, Speech, Smell, Touch, Thought and on to those desires, Good, Evil, Neutrality, and onto those desires, Purity, Corruption. Total number of combinations: 36)
It is also interesting to note that Zoro's newest power, Asura, actually takes its name from a Hindu cast of demons that were enemies to the gods, which was itself related to the word Ahura. In some sects of the Hindu religion, the belief that the Asura are supreme and that the devas are actually evil is known as Zoroastrian meaning that Zoro's name and technique names may have all come from the same place, though it is only speculation at this point.
Zoro's swords
Current swords
Currently Zoro uses the following swords:
* Wadō Ichimonji, (The One Road of Harmony). This is Zoro's most important sword. It was once Kuina's sword and is the sword he puts in his mouth when using santoryu. This appears to be his most prized possession. This sword is an excellent grade sword.
* Sandai Kitetsu (Third Generation Demon-Splitter, known as Kitetsu III in the Viz translation). Sandai Kitetsu is a Wazamono Zoro obtained for free from Ippon-Matsu in Roguetown. A fine grade sword.
Previous swords
* Zoro had two swords he used in his right and left hands since his first appearance. It's possible that these two swords were the ones he had used before Kuina's death. The two swords were destroyed by "Hawk eye" Mihawk during the Don Krieg Arc.
* Yosaku and Johnny's Sword. Zoro borrowed these swords to fight Hatchan during Arlong Park Arc.
* Yubashiri (Snow Run), an extremely light but strong sword, and is one of the world's 50 Ryō Wazamono, and a fine grade sword. This sword was destroyed in the battle against the Marine Captains on the Bridge of Hesitation (chapter 426). The broken sword is still kept by Zoro, as seen clearly at the beginning of chapter 431. It is possible that he kept the hilt in order to have it repaired.
* After the Yubashiri was destroyed by a Marine Captain, Zoro picked up a Marine cutlass and used it for a short time while fighting the Buster Call.
Miscellaneous information
It should be noted that the wazamono swords of One Piece are most likely based on actual swords shown in this list of wazamono swords.
Zoro often speaks with his sword held in his mouth, though it's unknown how he manages to do so. The creator of the series, Eiichiro Oda, has said that it is his heart that allows him to speak, though Oda is known for giving joke answers to fans' questions, as well as just making up answers on the spot to avoid leaving a fan's question unanswered. One possibility is that he learned ventriloquism on his own in order to communicate while fighting. |
posted by Fredz @ 11:52 PM  |
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