Roronoa Zoro (ロロノア・ゾロ)

• Group: Straw Hat Pirates

• Position: first mate / swordsman

• Age: 19

• Birthday: November 11th (A Zorome, a.k.a. Palindrome)

• Sign: Scorpio

• Height: 178 cm

• First Appeared: Chapter 3, Episode 1

• Bounty: 0 (chapters 3 - 212); 60.000.000 (since chapter 213)

• Skills: Swordsmanship (san-tou-ryuu style), so calm that he can fall asleep at any time, and a very bad sense of direction.

• Dream: to become the world's greatest swordsman

• Seiyuu (Voice Actor): Kazuya Nakai (中井和哉)

• English VA (1st): Marc Diraison

• English VA (2nd): Christopher Sabat

• Character Traits:

  • Strength ..............■■■■■■

  • Adventurousness .......■■■□□□

  • Curiosity .............■■■□□□

  • Style .................■■□□□□

  • Dexterity .............■■■■□□

  • Intelligence ..........■■□□□□

The first mate and swordsman of the Straw Hat Pirates, Roronoa Zoro was the first person to join Luffy's crew. Zoro uses a Three-Sword-Style during combat, although he is a formidible opponent even when unarmed. Before Zoro joined Luffy's crew, he was a bounty hunter who specialized in hunting pirates. His sword skills are second only to the legendary Dracule Mihawk, and his dream is to surpass Mihawk to become the world's greatest swordsman.

Zoro's promise to his childhood friend Kuina is the defining characteristic of his early years. Everything he's done, is doing, and will do is in pursuit of the title 'strongest' for both himself and Kuina. In general, he does one of three things on-stage: sleep, fight, or eat/drink. Zoro is a very focused sort, often providing keen insight into matters he doesn't know much about. Comically, his sense of direction is terrible, and his fellow crewmembers frequently find themselves without his aid as he wanders around unable to find his way to the fight. One of the most notable examples of this was in the Alabasta arc when he managed to leave Alubarna itself far behind him. Wise beyond his years, he's grown tremendously in skill and power during the manga, and will likely continue to forge on with friendship and insight.

In battle, Zoro's Three-Sword-Style, or "Santouryuu," is devastating to almost every opponent. He has been seen to use One-Sword-Style ("Ittouryuu") and Two-Sword-Style ("Nitouryuu") moves from time-to-time, with two-swords being his style of choice before Kuina's death. At one point, he has even used No-Sword-Style (Mutou-Ryuu) to great effect, but this was a unique circumstance where he could not use his swords. All of Zoro's moves have an off-beat pun in them, often meaning something silly in addition to the attack's more menacing meaning. It is unclear whether Zoro does this on purpose, but it would not be out of character for these puns to be accidental. What doesn't change from technique to technique is the raw power behind them: Zoro has been seen to lift a tremendous building with his bare hands.

Even before the story began, Zoro was acclaimed as the "Pirate Hunter" of East Blue, so from day one (or Chapter 3) onward, in East Blue, he was almost always recognized. That name changed after he defeated Mr. 1 ("Daz Bones") at Arabasta when he became an official World Government target with a bounty of sixty million Beli. He often taunts Sanji about the 60,000,000 gap between them and the general lack of recognition that Sanji recieves to the cook's great annoyance.

Zoro's Past

As a boy, Zoro was trained at a dojo which specialized in the art of swordsmanship. As he grew in skill, Zoro was among the best in the dojo and was capable of defeating both boys and adults even at an early age. But there was one person who he simply could not defeat -- his rival, an older girl named Kuina. Suffering his 2000th consectutive defeat by her hands, Zoro lamented that his two-sword-style could not best her one-sword style. Kuina was amused by this, which prompted speculation by the other boys that Koshiro, the dojo Sensei and Kuina's father, had been giving her secret training.

Angrily throwing his two shinai down, Zoro claimed that he'd become the world's greatest swordsman, and that he would never lose to anyone again.

Training at night, Kuina turned to see Zoro, who was equipped with two real katana, challenging her to another duel. Kuina, wielding her Wadou Ichimonji, charged towards Zoro's two blades. After a flurry of sword attacks, Zoro's two katana get knocked out of his hands, allowing Kuina to thrust her blade down beside Zoro's head, thus enjoying her 2001st victory.

Crying with a hand over his face, Zoro couldn't believe his loss. With a sorrowful look, Kuina said that she should be the one feeling upset because of the great strength difference between males and females as they grow up. Zoro listened in silence as Kuina told him about her father's statements about how women could never be the the world's greatest. With tears flowing down her cheeks, she told Zoro that she wanted to be the world's best, too. "If only I were a boy..." she said.

Zoro finally rages at Kuina and demanded to know why she told him this after his defeat. Hearing Kuina's words were just unfair as his ambition was to become like her. Continuing to shout, Zoro asked Kuina if it meant that the day he defeats her was not because of his strength, but because of what she believed about the differences between the genders. Zoro thought that it'd make him look like a fool after having trained day in and day out just to defeat her. He decided that they should make a promise that one day, one of them must become the greatest swordsman of the world. Under the moonlight, the promise between them was made.

The next day, Zoro was told of a tragic accident: Kuina had fallen down a flight of stairs and died. Restrained by the boys, he was furious at Kuina for what happened because they had made a promise the night before. Thinking that she ran away by dying, Zoro was quickly silenced by Koshiro. He told him that human beings are very fragile. Zoro listened to his words and bowed to his Sensei, asking to be gifted with Kuina's katana. After a few seconds of thought, Koshiro decided to entrust Zoro with Kuina's dream. With Kuina's katana in both hands, Zoro vowed that he'd become the world's greatest swordsman and would be so great that the heavens would know his name.

When Zoro reached adulthood, he left the dojo and began to sail the seas on a journey to fulfill his oath. Eventually getting lost at sea and unable to find his way home again, he had no choice but to hunt pirates for their bounties in order to have money for food. It was because of this, he gained the title "Pirate Hunter" and was known to be a demon to all who knew his name.

Shortly after stopping at Orange Town, Zoro was arrested for killing Helmeppo's pet wolf to protect Rika. Zoro agreed to be taken prisoner for one month to atone for this deed. Three days before Helmeppo planned to doublecross Zoro and hold an unexpected public execution, Luffy and Coby arrive at Orange Town to meet the infamous Pirate Hunter Zoro in hopes of adding a second person to Luffy's pirate crew.

Aliases

• Kaizoku-Gari - "Pirate Hunter"

Nicknames

• Mr. Bushido - "Samurai Code of Chivalry", given by Vivi.

• Marimo - "Moss Balls", given by Sanji.

• Marimo-Head - Given by Sanji.

• National Treasure - Given by Sanji.

• Kenshi-san - "Mr. Swordsman", given by Robin.

• Saboten-kun - "Cactus", given by Sanji.

Information from the SBS

• SBS 4: Oda got the name Roronoa Zoro from Frances L'ollonais, who was the cruelest of all the "Caribbean Pirates".

• SBS 4: Zoro wears a haramaki (stomachband) because, according to Oda, the haramaki is the high-fashion-nice-fit battle garb of the proudest of Nippon's warriors.

• SBS 5: Zoro can hold a sword in his mouth and still speak normally not because it's ventriloquism, but rather, it's his heart speaking!!

• SBS 6: To get a haircut like Zoro's, you're supposed to ask for a cut of a "man's heart and spirit".

• SBS 8: If you're a girl and you want to become as cool as Zoro, you're supposed to squat, and then in order to become courageous as Zoro, eat some sardines.

• SBS 20: Zoro most resembles a shark.

• SBS 37: Zoro (as well as Luffy and Chopper) has no fashion sense and can't dress up on his own, so if he does, it's usually because Sanji, Usopp, Nami or Robin is with him.

• SBS 38: Zoro's favorite island would be a nice autumn on an Autumn Island for good exercise.

• SBS 39: San-zen-se-kai was ranked #2 with 3635 votes.

• SBS 40: According to Chopper, Zoro smells like steel. Zoro is associated with the color green and the number 2, because he's the second person to join the crew.

• SBS 40: One-Sword School "Iai" Shishi-Sonson was ranked #10 with 410 votes.

• SBS 40: Oni-giri was ranked #11 with 385 votes.

• SBS 40: Three-Sword School 108 Pound Cannon was ranked #15 with 219 votes.

• SBS 40: Three-Sword School Tourou Nagashi was ranked #28 with 68 votes.

• SBS 40: Yaki Oni-giri was ranked #30 with 60 votes.

• SBS 45: Zoro's favorite foods are white rice, sea monster meat, and stuff that goes with ale.

Other Facts

• Zoro's VA, Kazuya Nakai, voices Pierre and is credited as Sokotsuya-san (Mr. Thoughtless).

Battles

• Zoro vs. Buggy
• Zoro vs. Cabaji
• Zoro vs. Butchie and Siam
• Zoro vs. Mihawk
• Zoro vs. Hatchan
• Zoro vs. Arlong
• Zoro vs. Luffy
• Zoro vs. Bounty Hunters of Whiskey Peak
• Zoro vs. Mr. 5
• Zoro vs. Daz Bones (Mr. 1)
• Zoro vs. Braham
• Zoro vs. Ohm
• Zoro vs. Enel

• Zoro and Sanji vs. Groggy Monsters

• Zoro vs. Franky Family
• Zoro vs. T-Bone
• Zoro vs. Kaku
• Zoro vs. Marine Captains of Enies Lobby
• Zoro vs. Ryuma

Attacks

Characters/Zoro (last edited 2007-09-28 02:17:43 by Cinder)