Roronoa Zolo

Roronoa Zolo, known in Japan and Singapore as Roronoa Zoro (ロロノア・ゾロ) is a fictional character in the anime and manga, One Piece. Originally, the English manga 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 for trademark reasons, and to match up with the dub of 4Kids Entertainment. Yet, the French version writes Zolo's name as "Zorro". Zolo's name comes from the real-life French pirate Francois L'Ollonois.

Zolo is a mighty swordsman who fights with santōryū, the three swords style (his own unique sword-style).

Zolo originally was a Pirate-hunter, with ambitions of becoming the greatest swordsman in the World. However a moment of kindness landed Zolo in trouble with Helmeppo, the wimpy son of the Marine captain Ax-Hand Morgan. Zolo joined Monkey D. Luffy's crew after being saved from execution by the marines (called the Navy in the English anime), and is now one of Luffy's "straw-hat pirates". His dream is to be the greatest swordsman in the world, and only joined Luffy to accomplish that goal, though Luffy doesn't mind. Zolo also occasionally gets into verbal fights with the ship's cook, Sanji.

Zolo is arguably (one of) the strongest human(s) in One Piece, where most super powered heroes and villains gain power from eating one of the Devil Fruits, Zolo has gained his powers through hard work and training in his sword techniques. Not only that, but he has stamina enough to survive wounds strong enough to kill most normal men instantly. With his "santōryū", he has created extremely deadly attacks. For instance, the "cutting wave" "Thirty-Six Pound Cannon", which cuts the very air to damage his opponents from afar.

His three swords fighting skill is unique as the last sword is held by teeth. Before the sudden death of his childhood rival Kuina (Kuina was injured in the English anime, while Kuina died in the manga and Japanese version of the anime), Zolo fought with two swords but after her death, Zolo started using her sword - Wadō Ichimonji - in addition to his other two, to fulfill his promise to Kuina that one of them would be the greatest of swordsmen. Though Zolo often speaks even when using the third sword, it's unknown how he manage to speak when his mouth is clenched holding a sword. The creator of the series, Eiichiro Oda, has said that it is his heart that allows him to speak. A better explanation is that he learned the ventriloquism on his own so he can communicate even when fighting. He is usually more lazy when the Straw Hat crew isn't fighting, spending almost all of his leisure time (as in, whenever he isn't fighting or training) sleeping soundly.

Presently, Zolo's greatest defeat was at the hands of another great swordsman, Dracule Mihawk, known as the "Hawk-Eye". Zolo vows to one day face that man again and defeat him in a duel. Until that day, he says firmly, not even Shinigami (the God of Death) can take his life away. Since his defeat he has done a lot of hard training all for the day he will face "Hawk-Eye" Mihawk again including, but not limited to: swimming in icy water; performing one-finger push-ups; and training with weights several feet tall in total.

It seems that, after every significant battle, Zolo is dripping with blood and heavily wounded. At one point, while he was trapped, he attempted to sever his own legs to escape and fight his enemies.

Throughout most of the series, Zolo is unable to cut steel with his sword, while his sword is able to go through rock. In combat against one of the soldiers of Crocodile, Daz Bohness - a man who had eaten the Supa Supa Fruit, which turned his body into a living steel weapon - that weakness came back to haunt him in excess. Without being able to cut the steel that Bohness was forged of, none of Zolo's attacks were successful, and he was savagely defeated. But his Oath, given in Volume 6 of the manga, absolutely forbid him to give up. So he rose up once more, bloodied from the vicious attacks he'd sustained; death was close upon him. It was in that state of near-death that he awoke - everything, from the softest feather to the toughest steel, had a "breath". This breath was the key to his victory. Sheathing the Wadou Ichimonji, the symbol of his oath, he readied himself and sought the breath of Bohness' steel. His foe charged and, in that instant, Zolo struck him down with a single blow, showing that he became a stronger swordsman. Once more he sheathed the sword, and gave his thanks to his enemy.

Eiichiro Oda stated that he made Zolo as a bodyguard of Buggy in earlier versions of the story; he scrapped that idea for the final version of One Piece.

(Information is only current up to episode 119 of the anime)

Voice Actors (Seiyu)

In the original Japanese version, he is normally voiced by Kazuya Nakai; though in childhood flashbacks (only in a couple of episodes), he is voiced by Megumi Urawa. In the US version Zolo is voiced by Marc Diraison, with the kid flashback voice done by Andrew Rannels.es:Rolonoa Zoro fr:Zorro Roronoa zh:羅羅亞·索隆