- [Narrator] Hello and welcome
to the Grand Line Review your source
for everything "One Piece"
and most specifically welcome to "One Piece" 101.
The series that breaks down everyone
and everything in the "One Piece" world.
And today we are moving
on to the iconic green-haired,
three-sworded demonic powerhouse
of the Straw Hat Pirates, Roronoa Zoro.
Roronoa Zoro is a stoic outwardly cold,
yet profoundly driven personality
who was first introduced all the way back in chapter three
as part of the "Romance Dawn Arc."
Zoro is the swordsman of the Straw Hat Pirates,
and quite notably one of the more quiet members
of our protagonistic band, and really he spends a fair chunk
of time in the series doing one of two things,
either training or sleeping,
actually one more thing, drinking,
Zoro loves himself a good old drink,
and in that respect he serves
as a very classic alcoholic pirate.
So classic that one day he got wildly intoxicated
and found himself pressing the subscribe button
for the Grand Line Review
which I must say was a fantastic move,
granting Zoro regular "One Piece" content uploaded straight
into his YouTube feed,
something which you dear listener could do right now,
completely sober
and still receive the same wondrous effect.
Go on, treat yourself.
However when Zoro does kick into gear,
he makes his presence well and truly known in a grand
and sometimes rather terrifying way.
Positioning himself as an unwavering warrior full
of untapped done for all intents
and purposes infinite potential.
He's very similar to his Captain Luffy in that regard,
which makes of sense,
because both of these figures have a singular goal
to achieve that drives the very core of their being.
And in Zoro's case, his ultimate dream is
to become the world's greatest swordsman.
And if you're not familiar with "One Piece"
that might seem a bit arbitrary
and kind of standard shonen
but Zoro has a pretty profound force,
pushing him towards his title,
which to flesh out we need traveled back
in time to acquaint little location
in East Blue known as Shimotsuki Village.
Now currently we have no idea
how Zoro ended up here as a child,
the anime though rather notably did add to his backstory,
making Zoro a bit of a rogue agent who had a hobby
of making his way around somehow
and defeating powerful dojos in order to claim their signs.
This is not kinda known
and the earliest known information we have regarding Zoro,
is that he was already studying at the Isshin Dojo.
Even as a child, Zoro had already achieved
an exceptional level of power and skill,
and he was touted by his fellow students
as being the strongest member of the dojo,
he even when compared to the adults,
and that may very well be true.
It is entirely possible that Zoro was the strongest
of the students, however he was far from the most skilled,
that titled would belong to Kuina,
the daughter of the dojo Master Koushirou.
And we're not talking a minimal difference in skill here,
either Kuina was on a completely different level to Zoro,
in fact in their 2000 matches together,
Zoro was never once able to defeat her,
but being the ever relentless existence he is,
Zoro would challenge Kuina to yet another match,
this time using real swords.
Not that it would turn out any differently though,
with Kuina rather swiftly achieving her 2001st victory,
against a young Zoro.
After this though the two kids would have something
of a heart to heart where Kuina revealed her dream
to become the world's greatest swordsman
as well as her frustration at the fact that
it would never happen because she was a girl,
or at least that's what her father had taught her.
Mean while Zoro far from prepared to accept such reasoning,
encouraged Kuina and the two made a promise
that someday one
of them would become the world's greatest swordsman.
And of course this would be where a sudden tragedy
would occur as the very next day after
this promise was made Kuina
would pass away after accidentally falling down some stairs.
And I honestly don't know how to say
that without making it funny ever,
because it is one of the strangest
and most questionable events that has ever occurred
in "One Piece."
Personally I still don't buy it,
but whatever case Kuina's departure
from this world would only leave Zoro
to fulfill their promise.
And as such Zoro asked the dojo master,
if he could take Kuina's blade, the Wado Ichimonji
and use it to achieve their shared dream.
And very interestingly
this would mark a big change for Zoro.
As up until now he had been a practitioner Nitoryu,
also known as two sword style,
and in fact, he was even known as Two-swords Zoro
by the other students.
However after inheriting the Wado Ichimonji,
Zoro would innovate his own form known as Santoryu
or three sword style.
And after reaching a certain age,
Zoro equipped with three swords
and his formidable yet unpredictable skill,
would embark on his journey
to become the world's greatest swordsman.
However there was some problems with this.
One major problem in particular,
being the Zoro's greatest flaw is
that he has no internal compass all sense
of direction whatsoever.
And as such he very quickly became lost in East Blue
and accidentally fell into the career of bounty hunting
in order to pay for his very existence.
An occupation that he was very well suited to mind you,
and he became a very infamous name of East Blue,
very quickly even being given his current epithet
of Pirate Hunters Zoro
and he actually became so well known
that Zoro caught the attention of Baroque,
at a very early stage and was even invited
to join their ranks.
Although Zoro refused to do so unless he became their boss
and proceeded to kill the agent who approached him
because sometimes "One Piece" can be kind of dark like that.
And speaking of more killings,
Zoro would eventually find himself in Shells Town,
where he killed a wolf after
it attacked a young girl named Rika.
Unfortunately this wolf just so happened to be the pet
of the Helmeppo and even more unfortunately said brick,
happened to be the pet, I mean son of a Marine captain
in charge of the Island.
And as punishment for this Zoro it would be tied
to a bit of wood for a month
which would lead to an encounter
that would forever change his life,
where on the ninth day of Zoro's punishment,
he would be approached by one Monkey D.Luffy
who was looking for individuals to become part
of his pirate crew an offer that Zoro obviously refused
at first being a well known Pirate Hunter and all.
However when it became clear
that the Marines had no intention of releasing Zoro,
instead rather sneakily planning to execute him,
Luffy struck a bargain returning Zoro's sword
in exchange for him becoming the first member
of the Straw Hat Pirates.
And together this fearsome dual would defeat the Marines
of Shells Town as well as their corrupt captain
thus beginning one of the most awful partnerships
this world has ever known.
And despite being so outwardly different Luffy
and Zoro are scarily identical in many ways,
quite specifically in that night then one of them tends
to favor conventional logic or sometimes even logic at all,
and due to this, they have a sort of compound effect
on one another continuously pushing the other
to be stronger and more ambitious,
leaving nothing short of complete chaos
wherever the two set foot.
But you know something we have not discussed
yet is Zoro's dream itself.
How exactly does one become the world's greatest swordsman?
Well it's surprisingly simple,
all you really need
to do is defeat the currently
accepted world's greatest swordsman,
and so it's much more straightforward
than most dreams in the series.
But that would make Zoro's target a man by the name
of Dracule Mihawk and Zoro would receive
an unprecedented opportunity
to achieve his dream very very early on in the series
during the Baratie Arc,
when Mihawk made his presence known,
Zoro challenged him immediately,
although what followed was less of a fight
and more of a complete and auto slaughter,
quite similarly to his bouts against Kuina,
Zoro was outclassed by several orders of magnitude,
unable to even push Mihawk into using his primary weapon,
with that said Zoro did manage to impress Mr. Mihawk
during the battle, by displaying the core honor
and tenants of a swordsman,
as such Mihawk then issued Zoro challenged
to become stronger and stated that he would be waiting
for Zoro at the top,
at which points are tearfully renewed his desire
and vowed never to lose again
and to his achievements since that day very much back
this statement up going forward
with the Straw Hat Pirate Zoro demonstrated nothing less
than a primal drive to be the best,
dispatching any opponent who dared stand in his path,
and to this day, one of the best examples
of this determination would occur during the Alabasta Arc.
When Zoro was matched against Daz Bones,
a man whose devil fruit ability allowed him
to turn his body into steel blades
which made it impossible for Zoro to cut him.
And despite inflicting no damage whatsoever for 99%
of the fight, Zoro kept striving forward
as his body was cut, sliced, drilled,
whatever you name it, Zoro suffered it.
This was suddenly not a pleasant encounter
for the swordsman,
however at the very apex of the bout Zoro on the verge
of unconsciousness, finally hood what he was looking for,
the fabled breadth of all things
that his sensei had once told him about.
And in this moment of I guess what we could describe
as enlightenment, Zoro had a new found mastery of the world.
And amongst other things was able
to quite literally, he had the breadth of the steely body
of Daz Bones, using the sensation to end the fight
in a single strick whereby Daz Bones was finally cut
and immediately defeated.
And this encounter is a pretty great summary
of all that is Zoro,
he actually has a pretty brilliant quote earlier
on in "One Piece," where he stated
that "He forfeit his life the moment he decided
to become the world's greatest swordsman."
And due to this belief, Zoro doesn't particularly fear death
and he will keep pushing any encounter until one
of two conclusions is reached.
Either he finds a way to claim victory or he dies.
And thankfully that second one hasn't quite happened
as of yet hopefully never,
although there have certainly been some very close calls,
with that said that would come a time was Zoro would realize
that was only so far he could go on his own
and as it would turn out the world
of "One Piece" was much larger
and significantly more dangerous than any
of the Straw Hats could have anticipated.
A message which was crushingly delivered
to them on Sabaody Archipelago,
where the crew as a whole was defeated
and forcibly separated by the powers of Bartholomew Kuma.
And in Zoro's case, he would be sent
to Kuraigana Island
where he would encounter the old two familiar face
of his ultimate obstacle Dracule Mihawk. Although
this time around Zoro had been significantly humbled
since their first meeting
and on this occasion understanding his shocking weakness
in comparison to the world at large, Zoro begged Mihawk
to train him, very importantly though Zoro was not doing
this simply for sake of his dream,
rather this action was taken for Luffy's sake,
Zoro needed to become more powerful
in order to ensure that Luffy could become a pirate King,
a feeling that came to trump even his personal desire
and inherited will
and sensing this Mihawk quite surprisingly agreed,
thus leading to Zoro spending the better part
of the next two years, studying directly under the man
that he would one day ultimately need to do feet.
But after reuniting with the crew two you later,
Zoro now held a completely new aura surrounding him.
Like if he could be described as demonic bree time skip,
then this Zoro was now hell itself.
And in the post time-skip era,
every figure who has met Zoro
in serious combat has suffered the consequences
of that foolish act.
And currently at the time of this recording we are unaware
of the true extent of Zoro's newfound power.
Even after a decade of publication in the new world,
there has not been an opponent who has managed to push Zoro
to the edge that we so consistently saw him arrive at
during the pre-time skip events.
Now whether one who looks quite poised to change that,
and here is where am going to put up a brief spoiler warning
for the events of laid act two,
and you know what let's say early acts three of Wano.
If you're an anime only watcher and all caught up
with the manga then please do skip to this time here,
I promise I won't belong,
there is a fairly significant development cover,
but for everyone else, here we go.
During the Wano Arc Zoro has now inherited another
particularly special blade known as Enma.
This was one of the dual swords used
by the now legendary Kozuki Oden
and is even the weapon responsible
for delivering Kaido's trademarks scar.
However, Enma is quite an unruly force,
holding the innate trait of involuntarily drawing out bursts
of Busoshoku Haki thus making it nigh on impossible
for even some of the greatest sword masters
to wield, a challenge that Zoro took up immediately
of course, and one that I am quite anxious
to see the results of. Some more fun facts about Zoro.
Following the time skip Zoro has become a user
of both observation and arm and talky.
Although quite notably, he is a much more proficient user
of the latter and speaking of Haki
in retrospect it has been heavily implied
that Zoro's ability to cut steel as well as the breadth
of all things is also an application of Haki
that Zoro found very very early
on in the grand scheme of things.
Zoro is one of two people in this world
to be considered a member of the West generation
and not be the captain of his own crew.
The only other figure who can claim this would be Killer,
who serves under Eustass kid.
Although just on this topic, Zoro was more often
in the not mistaken as the captain
of the Straw Hat Pirates due to the sheer force of will
and dominance he displays in everyday encounters,
which also leads many people to wondering just
how terrifying Luffy must be
to have a man like Zoro serving under him.
Zoro first received a bounty after defeating Daz Bones
on Alabasta toteling, 60 million berries,
which highest Staunton bounty held by anyone
who originates from East blue.
Although currently Zoro is worth a much more bigger,
320 million berries after gaining global notorieties,
Zoro's trademarks Santoryu style would gain quite a bit
of popularity with an entire legion of students
of the Isshin Dojo choosing to imitate Zoro,
not only by studying his form,
but also by taping the left eye shut to mimic his scar.
All of which is to the ton of frustration
of the dojo Master Koushirou.
And finally, a truly useless fact as one
of the most consistently popular characters
in the entire series,
Zoro is a prime target for cosplay
with one of the more interesting figures
to do so being Homer Simpson
who has seen he and daunting the outfit
of a post time skip Zoro during the
"Treehouse of Horror XXV."
But that pretty much does it for Roronoa Zoro,
and what do you guys think,
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but for now this has been the Ground Line Review,
and I'll see you next time.