after my similarly titled mihawk post took off I decided to make a zoro post, since he’s my second favorite character and also arguably the most ridiculous character in all of One Piece. here we go
– I know what you’re all thinking. i’m gonna open this list with how he wields three swords, right? no. no, Zoro has done so much ridiculous bullshit, this doesn’t even seem weird anymore. i don’t even bat my eye at this. this is nothing. now that i’ve got that out of the way, let’s begin
– this dude has like, an obsession with cutting off his own limbs? and MAYBE i can understand trying to cut his feet off when they were stuck in wax—you’re trying to save your friends, i get it—but what about when he was sword shopping in loguetown? who’s first response when buying a cursed sword and testing if it’s really cursed is “i’ll toss it in the air n see if I get amputated lol.” plus there’s that old filler where luffy gets his finger stuck in a bottle and, when he asks zoro for help getting it out, zoro tries to CUT IT OFF. im convinced he lost that left eye of his bc he got dust or something in it and then tried to stab it out
– there’s like, several occasions where Zoro has been directed to head up a staircase and gone some other direction. it happened in enies lobby and in dressrosa? like, what’s the dude got against stai—… oh, wait
– his reintroduction post timeskip. get on the wrong boat? just cut it in half! who even cares! how’d you even end up on the wrong boat? you had to walk towards that boat, which means looking at the boat. that boat looked nothing like the sunny, wouldn’t zoro have noticed that? he also has to make an effort to climb on, which means, you guessed it, looking at the boat! he probably sees the crew members, maybe even gets helped up by one or a few. how did he not at any point in time notice that wasn’t his boat?
– also when they landed on sabaody the first time and zoro was like “i’m gonna go take a walk!” and both Sanji and Usopp tried to stop him, talking to him like concerned parents of a troublemaking toddler, like “Zoro you can’t go out there you’ll get lost!” to which Zoro replies “yeah but the grottos are numbered, I can find my way back if I just remember the number!” and Sanji and Usopp are like “okay, solid logic, even YOURE not dumb enough to mess that up” and what does Zoro do? what does he fucking do?
– I want to emphasize he messes it up because a bubble covers the 4 in “Grotto 41” so he thinks it’s grotto 1. BUBBLES. ARE. TRANSPARENT
– “sorry, I don’t pray to god” fuckin edgelord
– Zoro’s epithet is “Pirate Hunter” and it’s super lame. he could’ve been “Demon of the East Blue” but they went with pirate hunter, even though he became a pirate. even Chopper’s is better than his lbr
– THERES A SCENE WHERE SANJI THREATENS TO PUT RAZOR BLADES IN ZOROS FOOD N ZOROS LIKE “do it u won’t” SO SANJI DOES AND ZORO JUST EATS THEM? ODA EVEN GOT ASKED ABOUT IT IN AN SBS AND CONFIRMED YES, ZORO DID IN FACT EAT RAZOR BLADES. THIS 2EDGY4U BITCH JUST. STRAIGHT UP. ATE RAZOR BLADES
– in film gold he wears that black jacket under the white one. mind you he had no way of knowing he would be trapped in gold by tesoro or that they’d all have a dramatic coordinated outfit change once he was free so what the fuck was he doing? why did he wear that? who wears two jackets for no reason?
– “if i’m gonna be a statue I want it to be in this pose” “i’m glad I struck a pose”
– remember when zoro fought mr. 1 in alabasta and mr. 1 dropped a stone building on him and he was just like “this is a rocky day” or smth equally awful? i hate him
– the tarzan yell in skypiea
– actually, the goggles too.
– didn’t he try to convince someone he was fighting they were sunglasses bc they had some blinding light-based attack? I feel like he did but I don’t remember skypiea well enough to be sure
– Zoro vs the bird in skypiea. spent a fair amount of the damn arc running around skypiea getting messed w by a bird (which, according to Luffy, was more evolved than Zoro bc it had developed a sense of direction. burned by ur own captain)
– when asked why Zoro was able to speak with a sword in his mouth, oda said “IT’S HIS HEART SPEAKING”
– that colorspread Zoro where he reads a book about weightlifting while balancing a weight on top
– when Zoro fights that masochist guy in film gold (I think his name was dice?) and said some cocky ass one liner after the guy fell unconscious that went something like “What’s wrong? Didn’t it feel good? Aren’t you gonna scream in pleasure?“ awful
– Zoro almost gets murdered by Mihawk and then, later that day, tries to take on fishmen underwater. others r like “you cannot handle this, you will literally die” and Zoro doesn’t even care bc Luffy is in trouble
– he was sailing bc he left home to find mihawk and then couldn’t figure out how to get back
– remember that filler where Zoro taught Luffy how to skate but then forgot to teach him how to turn. I love both that this happened and the implication that Zoro is a person who knows how to roller skate and therefore has spent time roller skating. Zoro roller skating backstory when?
– when Zoro was fighting oz, a 500 year old corpse, he licked his sword. now, on top of licking his sword being ridiculous as hell because, listen, there’s NOTHING cool about licking your sword. you just look like a loser. but a sword that just came out of a 500 year old corpse? really? i know it was preserved by the cold and all but there’s no way it didn’t rot at all. that’s a rotted, frozen corpse. Zoro what in the HELL were you thinking. I hope you get sick
– i’m sure it probably wasn’t even the first time he licked his sword in a fight but I will say with absolute confidence he looked like a loser every single time
– I feel like he licked his sword while facing mr 1 but I can’t remember. if he did, that’s honestly iconic. stare down a dude that’s made of swords while licking yours? power move. only decent time to kick your sword
– Zoro, joining Luffy: “if you stand in the way of my dream i’ll kill you!” Zoro, a day later: “of course i’ll carry my captain in this heavy cage on my back to safety. oh this gaping wound in my side? nothing. who cares about bleeding to death, my captain needs me!”
– all those big weights he’s got. all of them.
– especially that time he was lifting weights post thriller bark after barely surviving kuma, still heavily injuries, complaining about how weak he is. buddy…
– that time in drum island where he decided to train by going swimming in the freezing ice-country water, then when he got out he got lost in the snowy mountains until he wandered into a random battle and took out some guy just to steal his coat
– this isn’t the only time he steals some random dude’s coat
– the chimney.
– that filler in smiles lobby where he gets, like, abducted by a bunch of children for a day and integrated into their family?
– Roronoa Zoro went fursuiting in dressrosa and that’s a canon fact you all must acknowledge
– speaking of being a furry anyone remember mugiwara theater?
– THE FUCKING MUGIWARA THEATER NAMES. mugiwara theater is a gift, alright? here’s some: nakamura hanzorou. zobear. ZOROMILK
– I FORGOT TO MENTION. THAT TIME ZORO N USOPP WERE HANDCUFFED TOGETHER AND ZORO TRIED TO CONVINCE USOPP TO PLAY ROCK PAPER SCISSORS WITH HIM TO SEE WHICH ONE OF THEM WOULD HAVE TO CUT THEIR HAND OFF
– also the fact that his logic was “it’ll be fine cuz chopper can just sew it back on”
– can we also talk abt how later that fight he uses Usopp as a sword because holy shit Zoro
– this isn’t technically zoro’s fault but the guy who sold him his sword to him in loguetown has a giant version of bounty image up above his bath, which……..
– barto asked for zoro’s autograph and Zoro just wrote “sword”
– the grave of the rumbar pirates was finished right around when Zoro woke up from his coma post thriller bark and Zoro decided to walk over while Brook is sitting there mourning almost everyone he ever loved and just. plops his sword—an inanimate object—in the dirt by the grave of BROOKS ENTIRE CREW like “hey i’m gonna bury this here u don’t mind tho right? cool”
– he’s lucky Brook is such a cool dude cuz if I was mourning the death of MY crew and some fuck decided to plant a rusty sword there i’d just fuckin kill em
– in Zou they were talking abt whatever and Luffy mentioned how Sanji was as strong as one thousand men and Zoro, clearly jealous that Sanji got praised by Luffy, butt in with a stuttery objection on how HE was stronger than Sanji and worth TWO THOUSAND men, which luffy ignored, and Nami had to reassure him that yes, Zoro, we know you’re strong. toddler
– this is also not technically zoro’s fault but one time someone asked oda in an sbs which strawhats would eat ice in their drink and oda answered who would n wouldn’t (Luffy, Chopper, Brook, Usopp, and Robin would, if ur wondering). Zoro was on the wouldn’t list, and some fan sent oda a letter informing him of a panel where Zoro was shown eating ice to disprove this. someone pulled zoro ice eating receipts on oda and that’s a fact we all have to live with
– the first time Zoro meets mihawk—the strongest man in the world, the man he wants to defeat someday, and incredibly powerful and impressive dude—he cries like a baby
– zoro’s been crucified like 4 times now. once in his introduction than in three movies (6, gold, nebulandia). idk why this keeps happening but honestly? keep it up
– when Brook joined the crew, Zoro said he was sorry for Brooks bad luck as if one of the first things Brook ever saw Zoro do wasn’t to try and die for the crew via Giant Paw Ball of Pain
– speaking of, i’m pretty sure half the reason zoro DIDNT die in thriller bark is because if he died via smth as silly as a giant paw ball his injured pride would kill him again
– I was going to make fun of Zoro for wearing only a suit and a fake mustache in dressrosa as a disguise but then I realized, like, given how absolutely shredded Zoro was in Punk Hazard and how that suit somehow managed to squish it all down without zoro ripping the sleeves off? solid disguise
– when merry was burning and everyone’s bawling and remembering great memories on the ship and Zoro was standing there, 100% stoic, remembering a nap
– Zoro saw marines (Garp) coming to Water 7 while Luffy was still unconscious and ran off to warn the others but couldn’t find his way back to the hotel
– that G8 filler where he falls off a cliff in pursuit of his swords
– speaking of fillers, remember that amnesia one? (ha). highlights include Zoro trying to physically fight a small sea horse (plus Usopp doing a bad lip-syncing) and Zoro swimming through the Grand Line with his swords tied to his head by his bandana
– meets a dragon, eats the dragon
– it got mentioned once that Sanji and Nami canonly help Zoro and the other guys get dressed. so every time Zoro wears something absolutely ridiculous (which is often), it’s probably Sanjis doing
– “I can’t believe I cut a freaking booger!!”
– speaking of, remember that time Luffy flicked a booger into Zoro’s drink at the Baratie and Zoro tried to force him to drink it?? remember that?? I hate them both
– that time Zoro was trying to find the Right Eye in Skypiea, said that (though the path to get there was STRAIGHT AHEAD) all he had to do to find the right eye was just keep going right (even though that would just lead him in circles!). and then after that do you know what direction he went?? do you know?? he fucking went left
– the time Zoro got lost walking on a straight path in a filler.
– Zoro lost to a guy in a fight and just fucking let the dude cut him in half. like, yes, the baratie scene was all cool as all hell and I love it but Zoro did in fact basically invite a dude to cut him in half
– when they were hit by negative hollows and everyone else said stuff that was kinda funny but Zoro went straight up “I don’t deserve to exist” please honey talk to someone
– he was fighting Kaku and kept engaging in Kaku’s devil fruit bs and then berating himself for being uncool as if he wasn’t already fighting a giant giraffe
– to end this list, I want to get to Zoro’s absolute worst offense. remember when Zoro fought Kaku and he did that asura form thing? where he straight up grew four extra arms and two extra heads, all wielding swords? what the FUCK was that? and don’t tell me “fighting spirit” alright. that’s bull. people don’t just GROW EXTRA SWORD-WIELDING BODY PARTS because they’re just REALLY INTO a FIGHT. like I know this is One Piece and shit’s ridiculous all this time but this? this is too much. even for One Piece this is too much. this is so ridiculous. there has to be a line, even in One Piece, with what these guys are allowed to get away with. I can accept haki so good you can see the future. I can accept spinning so fast you set your leg on fire. I can accept being made of springs. I can accept booger bombs. I can accept all that and more, but this? this is where i take my stand. Roronoa Zoro cannot keep getting away with this! fighting spirit is just not an explanation. and the worst part? the absolute worst part?
– Zoro makes four extra limbs and two extra heads, all armed with swords, MATERIALIZE out of THIN AIR with absolutely NO REAL EXPLANATION and then pretty much NEVER DOES IT AGAIN! he did it once in sabaody (and once in strong world) and then hasn’t done it since! everyone else uses the power ups they got in enies lobby all the time but Zoro, somewhere out there, knows how fuckin sick this attack is (bc yeah it’s ridiculous as hell but like I still enjoy it) and he just won’t do it again. not once post timeskip has he used it at all. Roronoa Zoro knows what he’s doing and he is out there, right now, laughing
– roronoa zoro is one of my top three favorite one piece characters and I make this list entirely out of love. (feel free to add on more moments I may have missed and i’ll add them)
(Here’s part.1, part 3 + the tag is sillu loves op/op meta)
Did y’all think I got tired of praising how subtly wonderful One Piece looks? The precise compositons and the genius paneling? That how anyone saying that it’s “”ugly”” probably either read it in Braille or just got fucked by Toei in general?
Well the evidence speaks for itself:
Exhibiton A:
There is just so much joy in this picture! You don’t even have to know the context to feel how happy Luffy and Ace are to be able to finally stand side by side, because it makes you feel that too. The way Oda draws fire is amazing. It’s so fun and kind-looking, it totally fits for the moment and the whole manga. (It’s a cleaned up version, the og panel looks like this, but this gets the point better across.)
Exhibiton B:
It’s such a simple, classic staredown that it has no right looking this cool, but maybe that’s it. It’s simple, the lines are clear, only black and white without any grey tones, it’s no-bullshit, it’s good.
The divider in this case doesn’t mark the time, as it’d in most panels, like the next one, it just shows the same moment from a different angle. Like the Doflamingo-Luffy-Law scene in part. 1. You just know that it’s not “first Crocodile is staring at Luffy, THEN Luffy is staring back at Crocodile” no, they are looking at each other at the same moment here. It’s funny that how same technique can be used different ways.
There’s so many variations to it. Like this one, it’s just some 3rd rate small, unimportant pre-fight panel, right?
For one, yes, but look at how brilliant even a panel like this is! It’s Law at Punk Hazard, about to slice shit up, activating his power.
It’s the same picture, which would usually make it just one still scene, but here, his abilities are not active on the first half, but active on the second. His SWORD literally acts like a panel divider, that makes it separate in time.
!!! Literally a part of the picture!!! How fucking cool is that, utilizing the drawing itself in the paneling??
It’d be waaay less smooth if it was just two pictures drawn separetely, one with inactive then active Room. It’s amazing, but it’s such a little subtle thing that you barely even notice it.
Or look how he sometimes just straigt up draws two movements in one panel:
It’s so nice an quick, isn’t it? It’s like in real life, when a sudden movement is already over before you even notice it.
Look how it would look drawn separetely:
Not bad, sure, the movements are still nice with those lines, but it just doesn’t give the same vibe. It’s just slower, more deliberate, instead of a quick smack on the head.
But sometimes no actual movemnet is drawn while you, the reader still feel and see it
Look at this! It’s round three of Crocodile vs. Luffy, and Crocodile is just starting to realise that whatever he does to Luffy, he just won’t stay down.
Even out of context and without movement lines, you see how he just practically rose from the dead, and that how impossible it should be. How Crocodile stops and starts to turn, unbelieveing.
It’s a simple division by the 3rds, very balaced. The shading is marvelous, all these delicate little cross hatches. Usually the more of these used, the more powerful a panel looks like, the more ragged, the more raw. It’s beautiful, and it’s so rare to see them on bigger parts, instead of just a little shading around the eyes.
Look at Crocodile’s expression! How he can’t believe his eyes as he turns back! And you can basically hear Luffy’s breathing, his chets moving up and down, see his effort! How Crocodile’s face slowly becomes distorted mid-movement as he realises that whatever he does, it just doesn’t seem to work on this kid. The way Oda draws expressions is just amazing.
You know sloppy-reading, right? When you read mang so fast that you don’t let yourself read and look it sloowly, panel by panel, in the right order, you just kinda look at it? Well, it totally works with this one, you can view these as one, and you still get the vibe. But if you just slow it down a bit:
You can pinpoint the moment he truly realises that Luffy’s standing yet again, how he rethinks the decisions in his life that got him to this point.
It’s almost like you don’t even see, but rather hear and feel this picture. His chest rising up and down, his deep, ragged breathing, how he’s practically beyond thinking, he’s just moving.
AKA. the classic “The Moment the Enemy Isn’t Even Suprised at Luffy’s Inability to Die Aymore and Is Just Mad About It at This Point™.” Awh. A classic that never gets old. RIP in pieces, idiot.
Reading it panel by panel is awesome, isn’t?
Look at the blood vessels he’s about to pop, poor guy’s about to have the Luffy-only experience, you almost feel sorry for him. Also, you have any idea how much time it takes to do so many little lines in the shading? Real MVP, Oda.
Anways I’ll be doing a full post on expressions at some point because the way Oda draw them is just freaking insane. Amazing. Unparalleled. Etc. Probs on impact fight panels too.
Visual storytelling, however, is not just about the movements the charaters make, sometimes it’s the question of a close-up or a wider shot. Using empty space instead of a detalied background can change the context and the meaning of something.
The best example I can suddenly think of is Luffy in ch 901:
Just a beaten up, soaked wet kid wapped in a blanket, on the run from a whole fleet, right? Having an argument with his helmsman.
But then.
Jinbei decides to stay behind, to join them later again.
And this panel happens:
He’s suddenly isn’t a soaked wet kid wrapped in a blanket anymore.
We are looking at the future Pirate King now, giving an order.
What happened? It’s the same kid, it’s the same blanket, but the composition, the pose, the lack of background, the shading gives weight to him. It makes the kid a man. It makes the blanket look something glorious, a cape or an elaborate pirate-stlye overcoat, fittng for the man in the crown.
Also, it’s much larger than the other two panels, it takes up a full 3rd of a page.
We all remember how he said “I’m your captain now” to Jinbei here, right?
Well, we are wrong, and not.
When I was looking for the cape panel, I was 100% sure that he said this on that one, but turns out, he says that on the PAGE before, on the close up of that one.
This is how this part starts:
We star off with a wilder shot, when Luffy looks like he just stood now – but he didn’t. He was already standing. Yet, metaforically, as far as the conversation goes, this is the moment he really takes charge, and it’s supported visually too. Also, the blanket already looks like a cape on him.
He says these lines here, while we’re looking at them from the distance. This is a good way to establish volume – if it was a closer shot, in their face, like the next one, you might think that he only says it so loud that only Jinbei can hear it. And while he’s the one adressed, that’s not true here – he says it before the whole crew. It’s something that concernes them too.
Look at the colors! Usually Luffy’s colorless while Jinbei sometimes gets a neutral grey tone due to his skin being blue. Here however, Luffy gets some minor shadowing, so the whites of eyes pop more, making his stare even more piercing.
Especially compered to Jinbei, who’s drawn without that here.
(This is literally the reason us humans have such a large white part in our eyes, something that is unheard of in the animel kingdom, so that we know what the other members of our species are looking at.)
That’s true to all panels, usually the darker it is, the more dynamic and striking it looks.
Also, in this case the divider also doesn’t mark the passage of time, it’s just so that we can see both their faces upfront, something that’d be impossible in real life.
So, this is where he says those lines, after these and before the cape panel.
Yet the reader connets this and the cape panel together, and no wonder. The words here and the visuality of this one hold the same meaning, even if they are technically seperate. That he’s in charge, and Jinbei better save his sorry ass if his captain orders him to.
This is how Oda tricks your brain.
Remember Zoro’s vow?
He’s pratcically cut in half, barely fished out of the water, and we’re prepeared to ignore him for the next few chapters to come, because he’ll be out for a while, right?
But then!
What is this moron doing with his sword, after getting cut practically in half?? Just try on to die!!!
We’re just like Yosaku and Johnny.
It’s the only vertical panel amongst the horizontal ones on the page, the background is empty, makes the sword pop even more.
Then there is, of course, a close up of him, so that we can actually see his expression, even if Mihawk and Luffy probably can’t:
And then we see Mihawk’s and Luffy’s reaction, those who really matter here, the ones adressed:
How both are grinning, how his sword’s still up in the air.
But these in itself woudn’t make that much of an impact now, would it? Sure, it’s superb, but they could just talk it out at a normal volume so far.
THIS is what makes it feel like it rings through the world, that it’s more than just a promise between friends:
WOW, It’s a wild perspective, and it’s not the point of view of any of the other charaters either, a plan view. It’s like looking right down from the sky, as if we are watching from the heavens! Even as if we were Kuina, the whole world, looking at him!
The impact lines make this effect even stronger – you feel how important this declaration is, the power behind it, the sheer volume. That he’s not afraid to be held accountable for his words before the whole world.
And, he finishes off with this:
How fucking NUTS this perspective and pose is??? Holy shit. The way his dark legs frame Mihawk, his oringial aim since day one, and Luffy, his new aim together!!! How he still wants to be the best in the world, but now it’s also connected to his vow to his captain!! How Luffy’ll be Pirate King, and how he better be! While the bounty hunters, his past, are literally behind him. Just wow.
Who even thinks of drawing a crazy angle like this? This is just freaking insane. (Also, ironically this wierdass postion Zoro’s in is the medically correct first aid position to put someone in with a huge bloodloss.)
With pulling back the perspective like this to Zoro’s POV at the end, he grounds the whole scene, doesn’t just let it “fly away”, as if everything would have been a wild shot.
Tldr: One Piece is gorgeous as FUCK. Can’t change my mind.
Special thanks to @vvanpiss and @zorobae for pointing me at a manga site with HQ old chapters and their stuff giving me ideas for examples.
the Barto club is the most hardcore crew in the New World bc they. literally don’t have a navigator. in the freaking New World!!! and just call one of their grandmas every time shit hits the fan, who then proceedes to give shitty unrelated folk advice, like how to remove gum from the deck or how rubbing sugar into a wound helps. Icons. 100% deserving to take Luffy’s name.
Bonus: I’m pretty sure grandma actually wants them dead
creatures of Thriller Bark: the Humming Swordsman, the terror himself is here!!! you don’t ever see him coming!! we can never forget the damage he caused years ago!!! if you ever hear him humming in the distance you’re already dead!!!
Brook: *is literally so scared of zombies that he sings to himself to calm down*
chococum 